Sichuan, referred to as Shu, is located in the inland of southwest China, connecting Chongqing, the only municipality directly under the central government in the west of China, with the Tibet Autonomous Region, and Yunnan, Guangxi and other provinces in the southeast. Surrounded by mountains and jungles on all sides, Sichuan is militarily a large rear area that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and at the same time, economically, because of the characteristics of fertile land, abundant water resources, and pleasant climate, Sichuan has been known as the "country of heaven" since ancient times. During the Three Kingdoms period of the Later Han Dynasty, Liu Bei relied on the natural advantages of Shu land being easy to defend and difficult to attack and high grain production to establish a state here, continuing the Han Dynasty, which was later known as the Shu Han regime, and liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty, also started from here.
According to records, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, this place was originally the State of Shu, a princely state under the jurisdiction of the Zhou Dynasty. In 316 BC, King Huiwen of the Qin Dynasty destroyed the Shu state and established Shu County here. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the whole country was divided into thirteen prefectures, of which Shu County was under the jurisdiction of Yi Prefecture, in addition to Shu County, Yi Prefecture also had jurisdiction over Hanzhong County, Nanzhong County and other eleven counties (states), a total of twelve counties (states), including most of the present Yunnan and parts of Shaanxi.
Nanzhong County is now Yunnan Province, and during the Han Dynasty, it, like Shu County, was under the jurisdiction of Yizhou.
During the Western Jin Dynasty, because of the development of the Shu Han regime in this area, the Nanzhong County under the jurisdiction of Yizhou was somewhat restless, and in ancient times, when transportation was not convenient, it was inconvenient for such a large area to be administered by a prefecture. The rulers of the Western Jin Dynasty, fearing changes in the southern central region, separated nanzhong county from Yizhou and set it up as Ningzhou, and from then on Sichuan and Yunnan were divided into two, and most of the rest of Yizhou became the later Sichuan.
Where did Sichuan's name come from?
The "chuan" in Sichuan's name does not mean river, but a road, and the road is not a road, it is an ancient political division, equivalent to the current province, that is, Sichuan once had four roads, or four provinces.
In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the newly established Song Dynasty established Xichuan Road and Xia Xi Road in the current Sichuan area, and collectively called them "Chuanxia Second Road" and later merged these two roads into Chuanxia Road. In the fourth year of the Xianping Dynasty of the Northern Song Dynasty, Emperor Zhenzong of Song divided the original Chuanxia Road into yizhou (present-day Chengdu), Zizhou (present-day Santai), Lizhou (present-day Guangyuan), and Kuizhou (present-day Fengjie, Chongqing), collectively known as the "Four Roads of Chuanxia".
During the Southern Song Dynasty, the Sichuan Gorge Four Roads were referred to as "Sichuan Road", which is the original origin of Sichuan place names. Because these four roads are geographically just in the east, west, south and north sides of the current Sichuan region, they are also called east, west, south and north Sichuan. After the Mongol Iron Horse entered the Central Plains, in order to effectively manage the vast territory, Kublai Khan divided the country according to "provinces". In the Sichuan region, a provincial-level administrative unit was formally established, with the full name of "Sichuan Province and other provinces", referred to as Sichuan Province for short. The word Sichuan, which was used as a provincial name, also began at that time and has continued to this day.
Why did only Chuandong and Chuanxi remain later?
However, at that time, because sichuan province was too large, there were many inconveniences in management, plus the dangerous terrain of the Hanzhong region, it has always been the gateway to Sichuan, and it is known as a husband and wife, and the Mongol army has suffered a big loss in Sichuan, so the Lizhou Road (Hanzhong) was assigned to Shaanxi Province, and since then the northern Sichuan has been separated from the eastern, western and southern three rivers and become part of Shaanxi Province.
Another one that has been carved out of Sichuan is the eastern Sichuan region, which is Chongqing. It is worth mentioning that from ancient times to the present, Sichuan and Chongqing have been a brotherly relationship with thicker blood than water, and they have been one most of the time in the long river of history, but they have not always been one. Chongqing is referred to as Yu, also known as Ba. This is because, during the Warring States period, Sichuan belonged to the Shu state under the Zhou Dynasty, while Chongqing was a Ba state, and the two countries were adjacent and closely related, but not one, but two neighboring princely states under the rule of the Great Zhou. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the country was divided into thirteen prefectures, and the two places of Bashu were jointly controlled by Yizhou, which was the two counties under its jurisdiction, which was also the first time that the two places were integrated and continued until the Tang Dynasty. During the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin set up Shudi as Jiannan Province, and the seat of governance was in Chengdu. The place of governance was set up as ShannanXi Province, and the seat of governance was in Yuzhou, which is now Chongqing, which is the origin of Chongqing's abbreviation "Chongqing".
Later, it entered the Sichuan Gorge Four Roads in the Song Dynasty, of which The Prefecture is now Chongqing Fengjie, the Yuan Dynasty officially merged the four roads into "Sichuan and other places in the Middle Book Province", referred to as Sichuan Province, Sichuan and Chongqing once again merged into one, the Ming and Qing Dynasties, in today's Chongqing Municipality, set up Chongqing Prefecture, under the jurisdiction of Sichuan Chengzheng Envoy Department and Sichuan Province, which is the official origin of Chongqing's place name.
That is, from the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty to the Republic of China period in 1937, chongqing was once again integrated with Sichuan and came under the jurisdiction of Sichuan.
Because Chongqing has been one of the two major gateways into Sichuan since ancient times, itself has the advantage of land and water transportation, and is the economic center of western China, so in 1937, with the full outbreak of the War of Resistance, Chongqing was upgraded by the Republic of China government to a municipality under the jurisdiction of the Republic of China, that is, a municipality directly under the central government, and became the capital of the Republic of China government and the rear of the National Revolutionary Army.
A large number of people and materials from the fallen provinces moved to Chongqing, which doubled the population of Chongqing at this time. But because it was China's rear area, it was also the area that suffered the most frequent Japanese air raids, and before liberation, the city was almost blown into ruins.
With the return of refugees from all over the country to their places of origin after liberation, Chongqing has returned to its former tranquility and has once again been reduced to a sub-provincial city, which belongs to Sichuan Province.
After the reform and opening up, the state needs to establish an economic center in the western region and promote the economic construction of the western provinces, so Chongqing, the economic center city of the western region since ancient times, has been upgraded to a municipality directly under the central government, as the economic lifeline of the entire western region. At this point, Chongqing is once again on the same side as Sichuan, and the original three remaining rivers in Sichuan are one less.
Compared with the Hanzhong region of Beichuan, chongqing and Sichuan have a closer relationship, throughout history, although the two places of Bashu and Shu are divided and combined, but most of the time they are still one, whether culture or language has long been consistent, which is why Sichuan people and Chongqing people have come from the "Sichuan-Chongqing family".