Land of peacefulness celebrates 800 years
Print Edition
JIADING will celebrate its 800th birthday next year. The town has a fascinating history. The piece of land, dating back thousands of years, harbored the ancestors of today’s residents who braved natural perils to survive generation after generation.
In January 1218 the county of Jiading was officially established.
Before that, the area belonged to the region of Yangzhou in Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BC), the kingdom of Wu in Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), the kingdom of Yue in early Warring States Period (475-221 BC) and later the kingdom of Chu.
It was then Louxian County of Kuaiji Province in the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC) and Western Han Dynasty (202 BC-AD 23). During the Eastern Han (AD 25-220), Louxian County belonged to the province of Wu.
In AD 507, a new county — Xinyi — separated from Louxian County and oversaw the land later known as Jiading.
In AD 536, Kunshan County was split from Xinyi County and governed the area of later Jiading until 1218.
As the parent of Jiading, the then Kunshan County covered an area of 3,000 square kilometers and had 14 townships. Five among them in the east side later became Jiading County.
There was motivation before 1214 to establish a new county on the ground of Kunshan’s east side but the central government at the time thought the idea would cost too much and planned to dispatch a chief police officer to enhance governance.
Pingjiang Prefecture, which oversaw Kunshan at the time, sent two officials on a feasibility study and concluded it was mission impossible.
Zhao Yansu, then director of Pingjiang, advised the establishment of a new county in September 1217. As a member of the then royal family, he also suggested the county be named after the title of the then emperor’s reign.
Emperor Ningzong (1168-1224) gave his approval.
The new Jiading County was rated as grade 5 since counties nationwide in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) were classified in seven grades. Jiading in Chinese literally means land of cleanness and peacefulness.
It initially had more than 30,000 households and occupied an area of 1,200 square kilometers.
Gao Yansun, then deputy magistrate of Kunshan, took office as Jiading’s first magistrate in June 1218. It was Gao who turned Jiading into a scaled town.
Gao decided to build a government office in the east of today’s Jiading Town. He petitioned to keep local taxes for 10 years as funds for the construction.
The government office covered as area of 1.8 hectares and had around 120 rooms. All the government agencies were installed in the building. Its general layout remained as originally scheduled for the next 700 years.
It was reduced to ruins during the Battle of Shanghai (August 13-October 26, 1937), the first major clash of forces of the Japanese and the Chinese armies during the Chinese People’s Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-1945).
Gao also built the earliest ramparts of Jiading which had four gates in four directions.
In the late Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), warlord Zhang Shicheng dispatched his subordinate to build a new brick wall around Jiading and installed three water gates to enhance defenses.
The wall was later consolidated in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and equipped with cannon to repel Japanese pirates.
It also played important role in local resistance against the Qing conquest (1618-1683).
Gao also established the Confucius Temple in Jiading. The temple was where people worshipped Confucius and where the school was located in ancient China.
Gao started building the temple during the second year of his tenure. The temple initially had 40 rooms. It was constantly expanded and rebuilt after that and once occupied 4 hectares of land.
Today, the temple is a key historical site under state protection.
Gao was far-sighted and proposed to enhance local education as one of his major policies. Since then, a total of 192 people from Jiading passed the highest Imperial Examinations and embarked on careers as imperial officials.
There were also more than 500 people who passed Imperial Examinations at provincial level which enabled them to take office at lower levels.
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