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Zhejiang, on the margins of Jiangnan

Posted on by Razib Khan

Zhejiang is the province to the south of Jiangsu, and the heart of Jiangnan, the lower Yangzi river area. As noted in my previous post this region is notable for its economic productivity and wealth, which dates back more than 1,000 years, and persists down the present. Like Jiangsu, Zhejiang is outside of the core area of the rise of Han civilization, but by the 1st millennium A.D. became a redoubt of Chinese civilization in the face of non-Chinese incursions into the north.

Zhejiang is also the location for one of the major centers of Christianity in China, Wenzhou. On the order of ten percent of this city’s population is Christian.

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4 thoughts on “Zhejiang, on the margins of Jiangnan”

  1. I don’t think the title is accurate; the heart of Jiangnan is Suzhou. Hangzhou is nice and all but it’s a minor part of historical Jiangnan; and the south of the province is culturally quite different. Wenzhou dialect is completely impenetrable.

  2. “Zhejiang is also the location for one of the major centers of Christianity in China, Wenzhou.”

    When you get around to Henan, don’t forget to mention the Kaifeng Jews. 😉

  3. @spandrell

    The political center of the ancient Jiangnan was Jiankang, the present day Nanjing, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiankang

    Six Dynasties” as a mnemonic to mark the various regimes which had centred their power on the site:

    Eastern Wu (222–280 CE)
    Jin (317–420 CE)
    Liu Song dynasty (420–479 CE)
    Southern Qi (479–502 CE)
    Liang (502–557 CE)
    Chen (557–589 CE)

    In the 6th century, Jiankang became the largest city in the world, with a population of probably more than 1 million people. This was compared to contemporaneous Rome (less than 100,000 after a peak of nearly 1 million), Constantinople (500,000 at the beginning of the reign of Justinian I), Luoyang (over 500,000), and the devastated Chang’an.[2]

    When Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming dynasty as the Hongwu Emperor in 1368, he made Jiankang the capital of China, renaming it Nanjing “the Southern Capital”. (Hongwu Emperor’s successor Yongle Emperor moved the capital to Beijing).

  4. 1989 county data percent Christian.

    Pct|Sex|CCode|Town?|County|Province
    33.3|F|LC|1|Changle|Fujian
    20.0|F|LC|3|Changle|Fujian
    19.4|F|DC|1|Songxian|Henan
    17.2|F|IA|1|Shuyang|Jiangsu
    16.7|F|AB|1|Qingpu|Shanghai
    15.3|F|IA|3|Shuyang|Jiangsu
    13.3|M|LC|1|Changle|Fujian
    13.3|F|KC|1|Jiashan|Zhejiang
    13.3|F|IA|2|Shuyang|Jiangsu
    11.3|F|DC|3|Songxian|Henan
    10.0|M|AC|1|Songjiang|Shanghai
    10.0|F|KC|3|Jiashan|Zhejiang
    10.0|F|AB|3|Qingpu|Shanghai
    8.3|M|LC|3|Changle|Fujian

    Fujian is too close to southern Taiwan which has a resident Catholic cardinal and has the same dialect. Seems to be a mostly female affairs. Wont you go to church if the gender ratio was 3 to 1?

    1993 data, picked up extra 3.4% male.

    33.3|F|LC|1|Changle|Fujian
    16.7|M|LC|1|Changle|Fujian

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