Xuzhou
Xuzhou, also known as Pengcheng, is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Jiangsu province, China. Located at the junction of four provinces—Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan, and Anhui—it occupies a natural geographic gap between the Shandong Hills and the North China Plain. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of approximately 9.08 million.
Xuzhou is a designated important node city of Belt and Road Initiative, a provincial sub-center of Jiangsu, and the central city of the Huaihai Economic Zone. As a major national transport hub, it serves as the strategic intersection of the north–south Beijing–Shanghai axis and the east–west Land Bridge corridor.
The city is the ancestral home of the Han dynasty imperial family, and its history is defined by its rich Han archaeological heritage. Formerly a regional coal-mining base, Xuzhou has transitioned into a center for heavy machinery manufacturing and new energy industries, and was awarded the United Nations Habitat Scroll of Honour award for its ecological restoration of mining areas.
Romanization
Before the official adoption of Hanyu Pinyin, the city's name was typically romanized as Suchow or Süchow, though it also appeared as Siu Tcheou , Hsu-chou, Hsuchow, and Hsü-chow.History
Early history
Prehistoric remains in the Xuzhou region are associated with Dawenkou culture, represented by the Liulin , Dadunzi , and Liangwangcheng sites. The Huating site indicates an early integration of Dawenkou and Liangzhu cultural elements.During the Shang dynasty, Dapeng, a polity associated with the Dongyi, was the regional heartland. Archaeological evidence from the Qiuwan and Gaohuangmiao sites shows both Shang-style ritual remains and indigenous pottery, indicating cultural integration. The state was eventually subordinated following King Wu Ding's military campaigns.
Following the decline of the Shang, the state of Xu became a regional polity controlling the routes between the Central Plains and the southeast. King Yan of Xu is traditionally recorded as moving north to the area after conflict with the Zhou dynasty.
Pengcheng, named after the Dapeng, first appears in records in 573 BCE as a Song fortified city at the confluence of the ancient Bian and Si rivers. A strategic objective in the Chu–Jin rivalry, the city was briefly occupied by the official Yu Shi with Chu support before being recovered by a Jin-led coalition.
Around the 4th century BCE, Song had reportedly moved its capital to Pengcheng; however, the city's vulnerability was marked in 385 BCE when Duke Dao of Song was captured there by the State of Wei. Following Song's annexation by Qi in 286 BCE, Pengcheng served as a frontier stronghold until it fell to Chu and was eventually incorporated into the Qin Empire in 223 BCE.
Imperial China
Qin and Han dynasties
Following Qin unification, the region was organized as Sichuan commandery. During the Qin collapse, Pengcheng became a locus for Chu cultural revival: it was where Emperor Yi of Chu moved his seat in 208 BCE, and it was where Xiang Yu established the capital of Western Chu in 206 BCE, designating the area as his metropolitan base. Despite Xiang Yu's decisive victory at the Battle of Pengcheng, the city passed to Han control.In 202 BCE, it became the capital of the Chu Princedom under Liu Jiao. In 154 BCE, Prince Liu Wu joined the Rebellion of the Seven Princes. Despite his defeat and subsequent territorial reductions, his Shizishan tomb reveals a scale exceeding standard sumptuary limits, notably containing gold-threaded jade burial suits.
Following Prince Liu Yanshou's failed conspiracy in 69 BCE, the princedom was briefly abolished but restored in 51 BCE. During the Eastern Han, it alternated between a princedom and commandery under various princes, including Liu Ying and Liu Qing. During this period, Pengcheng emerged as the site of China's earliest recorded Buddhist community.
In the 190s, Cao Cao's campaigns against Tao Qian devastated Pengcheng, forcing a Buddhist community of ten thousand—led by figures such as Ze Rong—to flee toward the Yangtze valley. After Lü Bu's defeat in 198 CE, the seat of Xu Province moved from Tancheng to Xiapi, and was finally fixed at Pengcheng under the Western Jin, cementing its regional primacy.
Medieval Period
In the early 4th century, Pengcheng became a critical defense for the southern dynasties. While territorial control fluctuated—falling to the Later Zhao in 324 and being reclaimed in 384—much of the local population fled to the lower Yangtze. Among the Beifu Army, an elite force recruited from such northern émigrés, provided the military ascent for Liu Yu of the Liu clan of Pengcheng. He utilized these troops as a power base to eventually found the Liu Song dynasty.Administrative boundaries were frequently adjusted to reflect these military shifts. In 411, the Eastern Jin established North Xuzhou at Pengcheng, distinct from Xuzhou at Guangling, later Jingkou. By 421, the Liu Song dynasty restored the "Xuzhou" designation to Pengcheng and renamed its southern counterpart South Xuzhou. Although Pengcheng withstood a Northern Wei siege in 450–451, its capture by the Northern Wei in 466 ended southern dynastic rule over the Huaibei region.
Located at the junction of the Si and Bian rivers, Xuzhou was a critical transport hub, though navigation was hindered by the "Two Rapids"—the Xuzhou Rapids and the Lüliang Rapids . Due to these rocky obstructions, the Sui dynasty's Tongji Canal adopted a circuitous route to bypass the city.
During the early Tang dynasty, the region experienced significant demographic growth. The registered population of Pengcheng, Feng, and Pei counties rose from 21,768 individuals in 639 to 205,286 by 742.
Following the An Lushan Rebellion, Xuzhou served as a bulwark for the Bian Canal—the primary Jianghuai–Guanzhong logistics route. In 781, during the Rebellion of the Four Garrisons, the rebel Li Na seized the city to sever imperial logistics until the prefect Li Wei restored Tang control. In 788, the region was reorganized as a military circuit under Zhang Jianfeng, and was formally designated as the Wuning 'circuit in 805.
Subsequently, the circuit underwent a process of localization, evolving into a hereditary military interest group centered on the "Silver Sword" corps. Driven by their own strategic interests, this elite unit frequently prevented imperial governors from effectively exercising their mandates.
In response, the Tang court implemented a radical crackdown in 862, when Governor Wang Shi disbanded the garrison. This measure drove many displaced soldiers into banditry or long-term border service in Lingnan. In 868, citing grievances over delayed rotations, 800 Wuning soldiers mutinied in Guilin under Pang Xun. Exacerbated by regional famine, the rebellion swelled into a composite force—supposedly numbering 200,000—that seized Xuzhou.
The court deployed Shatuo Turk cavalry under Li Guochang to suppress the insurgency. Following a year of intense combat, the circuit was symbolically renamed Ganhua', signaling a moral break from its rebellious past. Nevertheless, Xuzhou maintained a state of de facto autonomy through the final years of the Tang dynasty.
Song to Qing dynasties
During the Northern Song, the Liguo Industrial Prefecture, north of the city, emerged as a major metallurgical center; it operated 36 private smelters with thousands of laborers, reaching an estimated annual capacity of several thousand tonnes.Local hydrological instability following the 1077 Yellow River breach necessitated continuous fortification. Prefect Su Shi oversaw the construction of defensive "Su Embankment" on the city's western perimeter. As the Yellow River permanently captured the Huai River course, Xuzhou became a critical but flood-prone node for Grand Canal transit. In 1352, Yuan Chancellor Toqto suppressed the Red Turban forces led by "Sesame Li" in Xuzhou to secure imperial grain routes, briefly renaming the city Wu'an.
During the late imperial period, the city's historical significance rested on the intersection of Grand Canal logistics and the management of the volatile Yellow River.. Following the Ming capital's relocation to Beijing, the city hosted the major granary and one of the seven national customs barriers.
Yellow River management in the late 16th century prioritized imperial tribute and the Ming Ancestral Mausoleum over regional safety. The 1579 "flush silt with clear water" policy caused systemic riverbed elevation and culminated in the 1624 deluge that buried the walled city under four meters of water and sediment. To mitigate these navigational risks, the completion of the Jia Canal redirected the primary Grand Canal artery to the northeast, marginalizing Xuzhou's position within the imperial grain logistics system.During the Ming-Qing transition, Xuzhou was one of the Four Jiangbei Garrisons defending the southern bank of the Yellow River for the Nanjing-based Ming court.The city was taken by the Qing in mid-1645. Local gentry Yan Ermei and Wan Shouqi remained loyal to the Ming, refusing to hold office under the new dynasty.
The 1668 Tancheng Earthquake caused widespread destruction and heavy casualties throughout Xuzhou. In 1733, the Qing government restructured the administration of northern Jiangsu by converting the Independent Department of Xuzhou to Xuzhou Prefecture. Tongshan County—named after an island in the Nansi Lakes—was established as its seat-governing county, with jurisdiction over Xinyi, Pizhou, Suining, and Suqian.
In the 1850s, the Yellow River shifted northward, drastically changing the region. An 1851 breach flooded the western shores of the Nansi Lakes; when the river changed course again in 1855, the canal system was rendered defunct. As the water receded, the newly exposed land led to fierce competition between returning locals and Shandong migrants. These migrants organized paramilitary "Lakeside Communities", sparking long-term land disputes that still affect the Jiangsu-Shandong border today.
The economic collapse of the canal system and the devastation of the floods fueled large-scale rural insurgencies, most notably the Nian Rebellion, along with Big Swords Society later.