[ref 1] Puning is geographically situated on the west rim of Chaoshan Plain, leaning against the stretching branch of the Lianhua Mountains at its southwest border, and 90 percent of its territory sits on the south of the Tropic of Cancer.

The cultures of the various clans formed the multilingual, multicultural landscape of Puning, where customs and traditions differ across the towns and villages.

According to Puning Xian Zhilue (A Brief Account of Puning County), Guangdong Tongzhi (Comprehensive Records of Guangdong), Ming Shi (History of Ming),[ref 11] and Chao Zhong Zaji (Miscellaneous Accounts of Chaozhou),[ref 12] the name 'Puning' was given in 1563, after the phrase pubian ningmi, meaning universally serene.

[1] The habitation of humans in the territory of Puning dates back to the New Stone Age, evident in archaeological findings, such as the Hutou Pu Old Kilns Site (虎头埔古窑址) in Mianyuan Village, Guangtai Town, discovered in 1982.

The tomb of a Sinicised Baiyue person, discovered in Songbaiwei Village, Lihu Town, illustrates that by the end of the Eastern Han period, Central Plains (Zhongyuan) culture had been introduced into Puning.

[ref 16] During the Pre-Qin era, the succeeding political regimes on Zhongyuan did not have any de facto administration of Puning and its surrounding regions.

In 1558, Zhang Lian started a rebellion in Raoping and Dabu of eastern Chaozhou (Teochew) Prefecture and subsequently declared himself Emperor of the Feilong Empire.

In October 1911, the National Revolution Army (NRA) started a rebellion in Wuchang, while Fang Cishi (1887-1915) of the Tongmenghui dispatched troops in Puning.

On 12 March 1925, Chiang Kai-shek, He Yingqin, and Zhou Enlai led the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) to defeat Chen's forces in Lihu of eastern Puning.

On the same year, the Government of the Republic of China in Guangzhou announced that the Chaozhou (Teochew) and Meizhou regions came under the rule of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang; KMT).

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s Puning branch joined forces with left-wing KMT members to stage an armed riot on 23 April, and subsequently set up the first county-level revolutionary regime led by the CCP through armed conflict three days later at the Chen (Tan) clan ancestral shrine in Jiujiang, Daba.