Nine Provinces

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This article is about the geographic division in ancient China. For the place in Japan also called "九州", see Kyushu.
"Jiuzhou" redirects here. For the area in Guangdong, see
Qiongshan District
.
Part of a series on
Names of China

The term Nine Provinces or Nine Regions

administrative regions
.

Different interpretations of the Nine Provinces

Conjectural map of the Nine Provinces

The

bamboo slips from the Chu state has the earliest interpretation of the Nine Provinces, but these early descriptions differ widely from the currently recognized Nine Provinces. The Nine Provinces, according to the Rongcheng Shi, are Tu (涂), Jia (夾), Zhang (竞), Ju (莒), Ou (藕), Jing (荊), Yang (陽), Xu (敘) and Cuo (虘).[2][3]

The most prevalent account of the Nine Provinces comes from the

Bing but not Xu and Liang. The Lüshi Chunqiu
"Initial Survey" (有始覽) section mentions You but not Liang.

Traditionally, the Book of Documents is thought to depict the divisions during the Xia dynasty, the Erya those of the Shang dynasty; the Rituals of Zhou the Zhou dynasty and the Lüshi Chunqiu the concept and actual territorial distribution of the Nine Provinces during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. The Lüshi Chunqiu contains the following passage on the location of the nine provinces and their general correspondence with the states of the time:

Yu province, i.e., Zhou, lies between the He River and Han River. Jin in Ji Province is between the two rivers. Yan Province is between the He River and Ji River, and is Wei. Qing Province, ie. Qi is in the east. Lu is at Xu Province, on the Si River. Yang Province, or Yue, is to the southwest. Jin Province is in the south and forms Chu. Yong Province, that is Qin, is to the west. Yan occupies You Province in the north.

The words "Nine Provinces" do not appear in any ancient oracle bone inscriptions,[4] such that many scholars do not think Yu the Great created the Nine Provinces as was traditionally thought.[5] Some suggest the name "Jiuzhou", which came to mean "Nine Provinces", was actually a place,[6] or the divisions were within Shandong.[7]

Later on,

Sinocentric point of view that was prevalent at the time. Geographic knowledge from increasing contact between the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) and its neighbours proved the theory false and it lost popularity.[citation needed
]

Provinces of the Eastern Han dynasty in 189 CE.

By the time of the Three Kingdoms period (220–280 CE) the Nine Provinces had expanded into thirteen provinces together with a central administrative region.[10][11]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-90-04-16835-0
    .
  2. ^ (in Chinese) 上博简《容成氏》九州柬释 Archived 2012-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ (in Chinese) 禹画九州论 Archived 2012-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ (in Chinese) 中国古称"九州"，九州指哪九州？ Archived 2008-02-21 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ (in Chinese) 是禹划定九州的吗？ Archived 2008-12-04 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ (in Chinese) "九洲同乐"的"九洲"是指什么？
  7. ^ (in Chinese) 温玉春：古九州方位在泰沂山系一带——九州考 Archived 2012-02-22 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ (in Chinese) 九州是指哪九个州？
  9. ^ (in Chinese) 请问四海、九州、八荒、六合、六国是指哪些？
  10. ^ (in Chinese) What were the Nine Provinces? (九州是哪九州) Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ (in Chinese) New Research on the Han State System (两汉州制新考) Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine
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