In ancient China, before the Qin Dynasty, the central government's control over the localities was achieved through the "sub-feudal system", and the princes were divided by tianzi to guard the towns, and when the Qin Dynasty was extended to the county system by Qin Shi Huang to the whole country, this system continued in China for more than two thousand years, until the fall of the Qing Dynasty. During this period, there were also some changes in the county system, such as the provincial system that was derived during the Yuan Dynasty.
When the cavalry from the Mongolian plateau swept across the Eurasian continent like a hurricane, making Genghis Khan's descendants dominant, and also allowing the provincial system that was more convenient to rule the region spread throughout the world, the original small and chaotic local territory was divided into ten large provinces, including the famous Huguang Province. Because Huguang Province has a very good climatic environment and geographical environment, and people are also diligent and wise, they have been in the position of the world's granary for a long time, and are known as "the lake is ripe, the world is enough".
A big reason why the Yuan Dynasty established Huguangxing Province is because this area has been a family since ancient times, and it belonged to the Chu State in the Spring and Autumn Period, and later the Chu State was destroyed by the Qin State, and Xiang Yu was defeated by Liu Bang, so it is not very interesting in history, if Xiang Yu won the final victory, then today we are not Han but Chu people.
But history cannot assume that the Chu state was eventually lost in the tide of history, and the territory left behind at the beginning became the Huguang Province of the Yuan Dynasty, rich and powerful, and had an almost transcendent position in the whole world. Later, the Ming Dynasty also inherited this governance idea of the Yuan Dynasty, but changed the province of Huguangxing to Huguangcheng, which did not differ much in geographical scope.
However, after the Manchu Qing Entered the Customs, because they knew that they were unpopular, they were very afraid of local forces, and in order to facilitate their rule, the Kangxi Emperor split Huguang Province into two provinces in 1664, with Dongting Lake as the boundary, the northern area was called Hubei, and the southern area was called Hunan, so the originally rich and powerful Hunan Province became two provinces.
However, although nominally already two provinces, but because of this long-term historical origin, Hunan people and Hubei people still have a very natural sense of intimacy when they see each other, although they have been separated for many years, they will still recognize each other as family, everyone speaks with almost the same accent, and the eating habits are also very similar, Hubei people will naturally say when they arrive in Hunan: "This supper is just stinky tofu..." And Hunan people will naturally say when they arrive in Hubei: "And Hunan people will naturally say when they arrive in Hubei: It's hot dry noodles early in the morning..."