Fangshan District in Beijing was fangshan county before February 1987, and the origin of the name "Fangshan" comes from Dafangshan in the territory. Dafang Mountain was originally located in Liangxiang County, and according to the Geographical Records of the Book of Tang, there was Dafang Mountain in the west of Liangxiang, and the Taiping Huanyu Record also recorded that Dafang Mountain was thirty-five miles northwest of Liangxiang. Liangxiang County was a princely state established by the Western Han Dynasty, after which Liangxiang County was divided, and since then, with the different ways of setting up administrative divisions in various dynasties, Liangxiang County has been in different administrative areas. Until the Jin Dynasty, today's Fangshan area is a good township.
The map of Fangshan County during the Republic of China can be seen in Dafangshan and Jinling
After the Jin Dynasty occupied the land north of the Yellow River, this situation changed, according to the "Fangshan County Chronicle" of the Republic of China:
In the 29th year of Jin Dading, Wanning County was established after the mountain mausoleum, and in the second year of Mingchang, it was renamed Fengxian County, and in the 27th year of the Yuan Dynasty, it was renamed Fangshan County with DafangShan In the northwest of Yi.
In the 29th year of Dading (1189), the Jin Dynasty chose Fangshan as the location of the imperial tomb, and set up Wanning County in the three counties of Liangxiang, Fanyang, and Wanping, so that the deceased emperor could get long-term peace. Soon considering this place to worship its ancestors, it was renamed Fengxian County in the second year of Ming Chang (1191). After the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, because Jiangshan changed its owners, it was no longer appropriate to call this county "Fengxian", so it was necessary to modify the name of the county and place it as "Fangshan County" in the name of the famous DafangShan in the territory.
In fact, the name of the mountain is extremely common in ancient China, and even before Fangshan in Beijing, there was a place with the name of "Fangshan County" in its territory. This county is today's Pingshan County, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province.
Map of Pingshan County
The "Fangshan" of Pingshan County is now called "Queen Mother Mountain", according to the Qing Dynasty's "Records of Pingshan County":
Fangshan, sixty miles northwest of the county, Han Zhang Emperor Xing Zhao Qifang Mountain, Yuan and Zhiyun: the mountain in the northwest of the county a Queen Mother Mountain, Emperor Wu of han on the mountain to set up a shrine, now the Queen Mother Temple is also. The Sui Kai Emperor named the mountain name county, Yining Chu also named the mountain county, and Tang Wude still named the county. Hanshu Geographical Chronicle, Puwu County has iron mountains, that is, Fangshan also. Also known as West Mountain. In the fifth generation of Liang Zhenming, Wang Rongsheng played the role of guan Yu in Xishan, and every time he traveled through the tenth month, he was here.
Records of Fangshan in the Qing Dynasty's Chronicle of Pingshan County
This Fangshan mountain is also extremely famous in history, it is a historical and cultural mountain that integrates Taoism and Buddhism into one mountain, and it is said to be the dojo of the Queen Mother Niangniang. On the mountain there is the Temple of the Queen Mother built by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and the third emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Zhang of Han, once came to Fangshan to sacrifice. In the sixteenth year of the Sui Kai Emperor (596 AD), when the county was established here, the name of the county was named after this "Fangshan" in the northwest of the county.
Fangshan Mountain in the northwest of Fangshan County in the Tang Dynasty
The last emperor of the Sui Dynasty, Yang You, the last emperor of the Sui Dynasty, who reigned for only seven months, established Fangshan County in Fangshan County in 617, and according to the administrative divisions of the Sui and Tang dynasties, the county level was equivalent to today's prefecture-level city. However, this Fangshan County was only short-lived, 618 was the first year of the Tang Dynasty Wude, the dynasty changed the administrative division settings also changed, Sui Fangshan County was changed to Yue Prefecture, in the name of Hengyue in the north of the county, the seat of governance is still in Fangshan County. In the fourth year of Wude (621), Yue Prefecture was abolished, and Fangshan County was transferred to Jing Prefecture.
Fangshan in a map of the Tang Dynasty
In the first year of Emperor Suzong of Tang 's reign (756), "Fangshan County" was changed to "Pingshan County", from the establishment of Fangshan County during the Sui Kai Emperor's reign to the renaming of Pingshan County during the Reign of Tang Wude, and the Fangshan County that once existed in Pingshan County, Hebei Province, existed for 160 years.
As for why "Fangshan County" was changed to "Pingshan County" in a good manner, there are as many as three reasons for sorting out, and there are two types recorded in the Qing Dynasty's "Records of Pingshan County":
The first is named after the change of administrative divisions: Yining was initially placed in Fangshan County, and Then Puwu County was subordinated to it. Tang Wude was initially changed to Yue Prefecture (岳州), which was passed down as Xiping Prefecture (西平州). After four years of abolition, Fangshan County still belonged to Jingzhou, and then belonged to Hengzhou, until the first year of de's reign, and the names of Xiping and Fangshan were changed to Pingshan County, which belonged to Zhenzhou, and was the result of five generations.
This means that fangshan county was set up here at the end of the Sui Dynasty and the beginning of Yining, which was also Yuezhou during the Tang Dynasty, and it is said that Yuezhou was also called Xiping Prefecture, and when the name of the county was changed in the first year of De, xiping and Fangshan were named "Pingshan" county.
The second is named after the trend of the mountain range: or it is also known as the Five Terraces of the Jin Dynasty, Daxing, and xishan, and the ten thousand mountains are at this point and the trend begins to be flat, so it is called Pingshan.
It means that after the majestic Wutai Mountain, Taihang Mountain, and Xishan Mountain, which extend from Shanxi, arrive here, the terrain begins to become gentle, hence the name "Pingshan".
In addition, there is a theory that is not recorded in the county chronicle: it was named after the quelling of the An LuShan Rebellion.
The map of Pingshan County in the Qing Dynasty's "Records of Pingshan County" has the red circle of the Queen Mother Pass, which is suspected to be a miswritten by the View of the Queen Mother
Based on the above situation, it was found that only the name "Hirayama" was derived, and the reason for changing to Hirayama Prefecture was still not seen. I think it may be to commemorate the quelling of the An Lushan Rebellion. However, Pingshan County was set up in the first year of Zhide (756), and the Anshi Rebellion was finally put down in the early Tang Dynasty (763), even if An Lushan was assassinated by his son An Qingxu in the second year of Tang Suzong (757), when these two events occurred, Fangshan County had already been renamed Pingshan County, and the time was not right. Therefore, the reason for the change of the name of Pingshan County is still unknown.
Map of Pingshan County in the Qing Dynasty
However, although the reason for the change of the county name is unknown, the frequent change of county name and the change of prefecture and county had a serious impact on the county at that time, and the Qing Dynasty "Pingshan County Chronicle" recorded this change:
Pingshan mountain dwelling is secluded, the people are simple, respect the king and the king, abide by the old seal, and cover the legacy of the Tao Tang clan. Since the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty, Pu Wu li changshan county has not been reformed for 400 years, so it is thick for those who nourish the people's vitality. After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there were many reforms in the world's divisions, and the people's hearts were uncertain, and even the Sui Dynasty was only three generations, between more than twenty, and the three times the mountains were changed, and the people were even worse, so why bother? For more than 480 years, my dynasty has been fixed in Pingshan for more than 480 years, and it has not changed, so the people's hearts are single-minded and unswerving, straight to the two Han Bilong.
To the effect that Pingshan County, due to its remoteness and simple folk customs, has not changed in the 400 years since the Western Han Dynasty set up its administrative region, and the folk customs have also been extremely thickly cultivated. However, since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, especially to the Sui Dynasty, they have undergone several administrative division changes in a short period of time, making the people extremely tired and no longer simple. Later, after changing its name to Pingshan County, when the county chronicle was compiled and revised, the administrative divisions had not changed for more than 480 years, so the folk customs were cultivated in a simple and dedicated manner, comparable to those of the two Han Dynasties.
Of course, this passage has the meaning of praising the administrators at that time, but it can also be seen from it how important a stable and stable development environment is for a county. Today's Wangmu Mountain in Pingshan County is only famous for tourism, and many people no longer know that another name of this mountain is the source of its county name "Fangshan County" and "Pingshan County".
Do you know that this is the case, welcome to discuss at the bottom of the article.