Dai County

Present-day Dai County lies to north of the historic heartland of ancient Chinese civilization in the Fen, Wei, and Yellow River valleys. The Chinese knew their northern neighbors as the Di or "Northern Barbarians". The "White Di" (Baidi) are recorded originating in north Shaanxi west of the Yellow River but had settled in the Hutuo Valley by the 6th century BC.[18]

The Zhou state of Jin pushed sporadically northward through both invasions and bribery of the Di's ruling class[18] until its disintegration at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period. King Yong (posthumously known as the "Wuling" or "Martial-&-Numinous King") of the Jin successor state of Zhao adopted nomad-style clothing, equipment, and cavalry tactics in 307 BC; in campaigns in 306 and 304 BC overran the Loufan (t 樓煩, s 楼烦, Lóufán) and "forest nomads" (林胡, Línhú) of the Hutuo Valley and the lands to the northwest of the Yanmen Pass, opening up to the Eurasian steppe. He organized these conquests together with Zhao-held Dai as the three commanderies of Yunzhong, Yanmen, and Dai. He protected them by erecting long earthen barricades along what is now considered the Outer Great Wall, as well as a fortress overlooking Yanmen Pass in present-day Dai County. The town of Guangwu, southwest of present-day Shangguan, was established under the Zhao as well.[14]

After Qin's conquest of Zhao in 228 BC, its Prince Jia tried to reëstablish his family's kingdom in its northern commanderies; this "Kingdom of Dai" was quickly overrun by the Qin general Wang Ben in 222 BC, just prior to the reunification of China.[2]

Commanderies of the Qin Empire, with Dai in the north. The territory of present-day Dai County, however, was not located within it but the adjacent commanderies of Yanmen and Taiyuan.

Under the First Emperor's rule, an administrative overhaul abolished China's former states and provinces, making the relatively small commanderies the highest level of regional government. Zhao's former holdings in northern Shanxi west of Mount Heng formed Qin's Yanmen Commandery, with its seat at Shanwu in present-day Youyu County.[19] The frontier walls of the former states, including Zhao's, were merged into the first form of the Great Wall of China. Guangwu was promoted to the seat of its own county, overseeing the parts of present-day Dai County in the Hutuo Valley. This was part of the Taiyuan Commandery under the Qin[lower-alpha 2] and Western Han, when it was part of the province of Bingzhou.[2] Under the Eastern Han and Wei, the area was part of Yanmen Commandery,[2] whose seat was at Mayi (present-day Shuozhou).

Ayuwang Pagoda

The county seat of Guangwu moved to what is now Shangguan under the Northern Wei.[12] An earthen wall 8 li in circumference was raised to protect the town.[21] It became the seat of Dai Prefecture in 585 during the Sui,[3] eventually taking its name as Daizhou. The prefecture covered parts of the present-day counties of Dai, Fanshi, Wutai, and Yuanping.[3] The Ayuwang Pagoda was also first constructed under the Sui, but suffered repeated fires; the present Tibetan-style dagoba dates to the Yuan. The town was also known as Yanmen during this period, as it was the seat of the Yanmen Commandery.[22] On 11 September 615,[23][24] the Sui emperor Yang Guang (posthumously known as the Yang or Lazy Emperor) was besieged there by the Eastern Turkish (Tujue) leader Shibi Khan, who was angry about Chinese efforts to weaken and divide his realm. In his distress, Yang Guang promised promotions and rewards to the garrison and those who might rescue him. Credit became muddled, however, when the khan's Chinese wife Princess Yicheng responded to his pleas by sending a false report to her husband about an attack on the Turkish homeland. After the Turks withdrew, the emperor chose to renege on most of his promises; the event built animosity in the Chinese army ahead of the collapse of the Sui.[22]

Dai Prefecture was reëstablished under the Tang,[3] who made it part of their Hedong Circuit. In the spring of 623, the Eastern Turkish Jiali Khan and the Chinese rebels Gao Kaidao and Yuan Junzhang (苑君璋, Yuan Jūnzhāng) jointly besieged the Tang fortress there but were unable to take it. Chinese censuses recorded the district had 36,234 people living in 9,259 households in AD 639 and 100,350 living in 21,280 households in 742.[3]

From 1369 until about 1375, under the early Ming, Dai Prefecture was briefly reorganized as a county.[2] It was during this time that the present fortifications at Yanmen Pass were constructed, and the earthen walls at Shangguan were given a brick façade.[21] Dai Prefecture was administered under the Ming and early Qing as part of the circuits of Yanmen (t 雁門道 or 鴈門道, s 雁门道, Yànmén Dào) or Yanping (雁平道, Yànpíng Dào), but it was directly administered by the provincial government after 1724 until near the end of the dynasty, when it was returned to Yanping Circuit.[2] During the early 20th century, the Ming wall still surrounded the city, with four gates and a 20-foot (6 m) deep moat.[21] Daizhou was the site of a Protestant mission[4] run by the Baptist Missionary Society.[25] The nascent Christian community was, however, devastated in 1900 by the Boxer Rebellion and subsequently by the memory of its powerlessness to defend itself.[26]

Following the Xinhai Revolution, the Republic of China reorganized Dai Prefecture as a county in 1912.[2] This was originally under Yanmen Circuit; in 1921, it was placed directly under Shanxi's provincial government.[2] During the Second Sino-Japanese War (WWII), various locations in Dai County saw action during the 1937 Battle of Xinkou. This ended in a Japanese victory but guerrilla actions continued. Following the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, Dai County was placed under Xinzhou Prefecture.[2] In 1958, it was merged with Fanshi County, but this arrangement was ended in 1961.[2] In 2001, the county seat Chengguan (t 城關鎮, s 城关镇, Chéngguānzhèn) changed its name to Shangguan and some of Dai County's smaller townships were merged to form larger units. Shangtian and Baicaokou merged to form Yanmenguan; Bata joined Tanshang; Xijiao joined Nieying; Jiaokou joined Xingao; Fenshuiling joined Huyu; and Hujiatan joined Shangmofang.[2]

• "Dai Ancient Town", Official site, CNCN Travel, 2010, archived from the original on 6 October 2011CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link).
• "The Origin of the Names of the Counties in Shanxi Province", Official site, Taiyuan: Shanxi Tourism Bureau, 2016, archived from the original on 6 April 2016.
• "Yanmenguan Great Wall", Travel China Guide, Xi'an.
• Baxter, William Hubbard III; et al. (2014), Old Chinese: A Reconstruction, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Chavannes, Édouard (1912), "Tai-chou Route", A Handbook for Travellers in Northern China, the Valley of the Blue River, and Korea, Madrolle's Guide Books, London: Hachette & Co.
• Gu Yanwu (1994), "Five Terraces Mountain", in Strassberg, Richard E. (ed.), Inscribed Landscapes: Travel Writing from Imperial China, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 357–360, ISBN 9780520914865.
• Gu Yanwu (2017), Johnston, Ian (ed.), Record of Daily Knowledge and Collected Poems and Essays, Translations from the Asian Classics, New York: Columbia University Press, ISBN 9780231542678.
• Hou Xiaorong (2009), 《秦代政区地理》 [Qíndài Zhèngqū Dìlǐ, An Atlas of Qin-Era Administrative Divisions], Beijing: Social Science Academic Press. (in Chinese)
• Kaiser, Andrew T. (2016), The Rushing On of the Purposes of God: Christian Missions in Shanxi since 1876, Studies in Chinese Christianity, Eugene: Pickwick Publications, ISBN 9781498236973.
• Li Shizhen (2017), Hua Linfu; et al. (eds.), Ben Cao Gang Mu Dictionary, Vol. II: Geographical and Administrative Designations, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 9780520291966.
• Stanford, Edward (1917), Complete Atlas of China, 2nd ed., London: China Inland Mission.
• Wu Xiaolong (2017), Material Culture, Power, and Identity in Ancient China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9781107134027.
• Xiong, Victor Cunrui (2006), Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty: His Life, Times, and Legacy, Albany: State University of New York Press, ISBN 9780791482681.
• Xiong, Victor Cunrui (2009), Historical Dictionary of Medieval China, Historical Dictionaries of Ancient Civilizations and Historical Eras, No. 19, Lanham: Scarecrow Press, ISBN 9780810860537.