[1] The east and southeast areas included the Taihang Mountains on the borders of Hebei and Henan Provinces.
In the West there is Loufang Commandery (楼烦郡) and the Han/Qin border.” The earliest written record of Shangdang is towards the end of the Spring and Autumn period (771–426 BCE) in connection with the State of Jin.
[3] After the Partition of Jin by the states of Wei, Zhao and Han in 403 BCE, each one occupied a portion of Shangdang Prefecture with their respective capitals located in the territory.
A decade later in 349 BCE Zhao seized territory belonging to Jin in the area of modern-day Qinshui County, Shanxi showing that once more it had returned to Han ownership.
During the Western Han Dynasty (206 BCE–8 CE) Shangdang possessed 14 counties with a total population of 337,766 people divided between 73,798 households (户hù).
In the following Eastern Han dynasty the number of counties decreased to 13 whilst the population dropped to 127, 430 people split amongst 26,222 households.
During the Three Kingdoms Period (220–280 CE) the Shangdang seat of government moved to the north of modern-day Changzhi City.
By the time of the Western Jin (265–316) the area had been reduced to ten counties with a steep drop in the number of households to only 12,000.
In 578 CE, the first year of Emperor Xuan of Northern Zhou the Shangdang region became part of Lu Prefecture (潞州), an area to the south of modern-day Xiangyuan County.