Qin destroyed the Six Kingdoms and established China's first unified multi-ethnic state. The Jiangxi region was also incorporated into the territory of the State of Qin with the demise of the State of Chu. After the unification of China, Qin Shi Huang abolished the sub-feudal system and implemented the system of counties aimed at strengthening the centralization of power, setting up 36 counties (later increased to 48 counties) throughout the country. Most of the territory of present-day Jiangxi belonged to Jiujiang County.
However, the county seat of this "Jiujiang County" was not in today's Jiujiang, Jiangxi, but in Shou County, Anhui, which was called "Shouchun" at that time. Its jurisdiction covered the four provinces of present-day Anhui, Henan, Hubei, and Jiangxi, including present-day Anhui, south of the Huai River in Henan, east of Huanggang in Hubei, and almost all of Jiangxi except for the northeast and northwest. Anhui and Jiangxi are the main bodies of Jiujiang County, of which Jiangxi is the largest. However, The county rule of Jiujiang County, Shouchun, is far away in Huainan, which can be said to be "beyond the reach of the whip" for Jiangxi.
At that time, in Jiangxi, there were not only no counties, but also few counties, and only Fanyang and Luling counties were more certain. It can be seen that the Qin Dynasty, which has just unified the whole country, still has little understanding of the "Chu land" Jiangxi. At the same time, it also shows that this part of Jiangxi has a small population and is in a marginal area, so it is relatively "quiet".
The northeastern part of Jiangxi that was not included in Jiujiang County was supposed to belong to Huiji County at that time, while the northwestern part belonged to Changsha County.
This situation was partially changed when Qin marched on Baiyue. The so-called "Baiyue" is a general term for the ancient Yue people, and its range of activities is distributed in present-day Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and Jiangsu, Anhui South of the Yangtze River, and northern Vietnam. In order to conquer the "Baiyue", the Qin Dynasty organized a 500,000-strong army with soldiers and prisoners as the main members, with Jiangxi as one of the main assembly areas, advancing south along Poyang Lake and the Ganjiang River, reaching Liangguang through Wuling in the south, and entering Fujian in the east. In the years-long military operations, the original trade route for material exchanges between the north and the south was opened up into a north-south thoroughfare, and Jiangxi became an important passage for north-south transportation. The Ganjiang-Dagengling-Pearl River traffic artery began to play an important role in the historical development of China and Jiangxi.
It is no exaggeration to say that Qin Zhengbaiyue and the main north-south traffic artery opened up in Jiangxi were an important turning point in Jiangxi's historical development. It is precisely in view of this that Jiangxi was not only included in the unified central dynasty in the political territory, but also began to be valued by the central dynasty in terms of military and economic status. Because of the large scope, the Qin Dynasty divided Jiujiang County into three: Jiujiang County, Hengshan County, and Lujiang County. Jiangxi, which originally belonged to Jiujiang County, was part of Lujiang County, and the county was administered in fanyang (present-day Poyang County, Jiangxi) in present-day Jiangxi. This was the first county rule now known in Jiangxi, and it also laid the foundation for the establishment of Yuzhang County in the Western Han Dynasty.
The understanding of Jiangxi by the Central Dynasty of the Western Han Dynasty following the Qin Dynasty was not only the strategic position of Jiangxi "taking the three rivers and the five lakes, controlling the barbarians and leading Ouyue", but also because in the stormy storm of overthrowing the Qin Dynasty, a heroic figure in Jiangxi was born, his name was Wu Rui.
After the death of Qin Shi Huang, the uprisings of Chen Sheng and Wu Guangda broke out. The wave of the uprising spread throughout the country, and Wu Rui, who was then the county commander of Fanyang County, where Lujiang County was seated, judged the situation, organized the army and the people, and became the first Qin Dynasty county commander who took the initiative to participate in the anti-Qin war, disintegrating the Qin Dynasty's rule in Jiangxi. In the subsequent Chu-Han rivalry, Wu Rui helped the Han dynasty and helped Liu Bang unify the world and become the founding hero of the Western Han Dynasty. After the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Bang did not make Wu Rui the "King of Fanyang" or "King of Yuzhang", but transferred him away from Jiangxi and was named "King of Changsha". This incident has the same deep meaning as Liu Bang did not continue to make Han Xin the "King of Qi" but in vain as the "King of Chu", showing his wariness of the king with a different surname. However, in the process of later eradicating the king with different surnames, Wu Rui kept his actions low-key, especially the maintenance of the central government, avoided the tragic end of the Chu king Han Xin, the Liang king Peng Yue, the Jiujiang king Yingbu, and other foreign kings, and became the only foreign king in the Western Han Dynasty who was not liquidated, not only to keep himself and his family safe, but also to make the "Changsha State" a stable rear of the Western Han Dynasty.
In order to fill the gap in Wu Rui's emigration to Changsha, the Western Han government set up a historic local administrative division in the land of Jiangxi: Yuzhang County.
After the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty, large-scale adjustments were made to the administrative divisions of all parts of the country, and Yuzhang County, which was based on the former Lujiang County, came into being. Although the exact time of the establishment of the county is still difficult to determine, after the "Battle of Xiaxia", the Han general Washu was ordered to go south and enter Jiangxi in 202 BC, after which Yuzhang set up the county. The infants built a city in present-day Nanchang, taking the meaning of "Changda South", and named Nanchang as the county seat of Yuzhang County. Because this city was built by irrigation babies, the ancient city of Nanchang in the Han Dynasty was also known as "irrigation city" or "irrigation city", and the original site was in the area of Huangcheng Temple in Hufang Township, the southeast suburb of Nanchang City.
After the Western Han Dynasty established Yuzhang County, it successively set up 18 counties. According to the Book of Han. The 18 counties are: Nanchang (in present-day Nanchang), Luling (southwest of present-day Taihe County), Pengze (in present-day Hukou County), Poyang (in the east of present-day Poyang County), Liling (in present-day De'an County), Yu Khan (in present-day Yugan County), Chaisang (southwest of present-day Jiujiang City), Ai (in the west of present-day Xiushui County), Gan (southwest of present-day Ganzhou City), Xingan (in present-day Zhangshu City), Nancheng (in the east of present-day Nancheng County), Jiancheng (in present-day Gao'an City), Yichun (in present-day Yichun City), and Haixiao ( Zhi present-day Yongxiu County), Zhidu (治今于都县), 鄴阳 (治今都昌县 southeast), Nanmao (治今南康县), 安平 (治今安福县東).
The 18 counties to which Yuzhang County belongs have a blurred border, and there is a vast "flood land" in between. However, Yuzhang County and Huiji County in the east, Danyang County and Lujiang County in the north, Changshaguo and Guiyang County in the west, and Nanhai County in the south have borders. Where are the boundaries? From Huaiyu Mountain in the northeast, to Wuyi Mountain in the east, to Nanling in the south, to Luoxiao Mountain and Mufu Mountain in the west, to the Yangtze River in the north, between these mountains and the great river, from the south to the north of the Ganjiang River, as well as the Xushui (Fuhe), Yushui (Xinjiang), Poshui (Changjiang) in the east, shushui (Yuanshui) and Xiushui in the west, all enter Pengli (present-day Poyang Lake), and then enter the Yangtze River.
We cannot but admire the wisdom of the ancients, who, according to the situation of the landscape, demarcated this naturally unified area and delineated a Yuzhang County. This is the first first-level administrative division in the history of Jiangxi; More importantly, this regional division was "put in place" more than 2,000 years ago, delineating today's Jiangxi Province. This is unique in the history of China's political districts: 95% of today's Jiangxi Province overlaps with Yuzhang County, which was more than 2,000 years ago.
The establishment of Yuzhang County in the Western Han Dynasty was not only the result of the population reproduction and economic development of the Ganpo River Basin, but also an important symbol in the political, economic and cultural development of Jiangxi. Since then, "Jiangxi people," "Jiangxi culture," and "humanistic Jiangxi" have had a stable carrier. In the course of subsequent history, the administrative divisions of China and Jiangxi have changed many times.
With the development of the economy and the growth of the population, some of the flood areas were gradually reclaimed, and the government brought them into the scope of management, so new counties continued to be separated, and new counties began to be separated from Yuzhang County.
By the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were three counties in the territory of present-day Jiangxi, namely Yuzhang (治南南昌), Poyang (治 鄱阳), and Luling (治高昌, now part of Taihe), and the number of counties increased from 18 to 35. This shows that since the establishment of Yuzhang County, during the 400-year-long rule of the Two Han Dynasties, the population of various places has increased, and Jiangxi has gradually improved its economic and political status in addition to maintaining its important military status in the military.