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Jiujiang

Prefecture-level city in Jiangxi, China

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Jiujiang Culture and Art Center
钉钉 · CC BY-SA 4.0

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Its population was 4,600,276 inhabitants at the 2020 census, 1,164,268 of whom resided in the built-up area (metro) made up of three urban districts (aka Xunyang, Lianxi, and Chaisang). In 2007, the city was named China's top ten livable cities by the Chinese Cities Brand Value Report, which was released at 2007 Beijing Summit of China Cities Forum. In 2022, the State Council of China granted Jiujiang the title of Famed National Historical and Cultural City for its rich history and multicultural background in the Republican era.

History

Ancient history

In ancient times, it was said that nine rivers converged near where Jiujiang sprang up to become Jiangxi's main water port today. From the Xia to the Shang dynasty, the capitals of several states were located in the area of Jiujiang. In the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BCE), Jiujiang bordered the states of Wu (downstream, to the east) and Chu (upstream, to the west).

Imperial history

Tao Yuanming (365–429 CE), a famous Chinese philosopher, recluse and poet, lived at the foot of Mount Lu. He was once appointed magistrate of nearby Pengze County and after 83 days resigned owing to the politics involved in administering justice. He retired back to his village to pen an essay called "Peach Blossom Spring". In 757, Li Bai (701–762 CE) was implicated in the An Lushan Rebellion and exiled at Jiujiang. Bai Juyi (772–846 CE) wrote a poem called "Lute Song", about his sadness and isolation during his forced exile as a middle rank official to reside in such a small and remote town. In the 13th century Zhu Xi was a Confucian philosopher who practiced at the White Deer Grotto Academy, on Mount Lu's eastern flanks.

Jiujiang has also been known as Jiangzhou (江州) and Xunyang (浔阳) in former times. During the Jin dynasty (266–420) it was known as Sin Yang, during the Liang dynasty (502–557) of the Southern and Northern Dynasties era, it was called Jiangzhou. After reunification, during the Sui dynasty it was called Jiujiang, and the Song dynasty (960–1127) called it Ting Jiang. The Ming dynasty (1368–1644), gave it Jiujiang which has retained its name to this day. It was a Taiping Rebellion stronghold for five years (1850–1864) after they devastated the town to only leave one street with buildings intact. The city served as the capital of Taiping's Jiangxi province during this time.

British concession and European settlement history

The arrival of the Europeans

A member of Lord Elgin's committee arriving in 1858 to survey Chinese ports for treaty status noted: "We found it to the last degree deplorable." A single dilapidated street, composed only of a few mean shops, was all that existed of this once thriving populous city. The remainder of the vast area composed within its massive walls 9–10 kilometers in circumference, contained nothing but ruins, weeds and kitchen gardens. After Jiujiang becoming an open treaty port in 1862, it was exporting Jiangxi's vast rice crop. In 1904, more than 160,000 kilos of opium were moved through its customs house. The New York Methodist Mission Society's superintendent, Virgil C. Hart, arrived in Kiukiang in 1866 and bought a piece of property just east of the city wall. This is where the city's first Methodist church and Western hospital was built, with the hospital renamed the No. 1 Hospital, and the oldest/continuous operating hospital in Jiangxi Province. In 1896 Drs. Mary Stone (Shi Meiyu) and Ida Kahn (Kahn Cheng) arrived back in Jiujiang, being China's first two native female Western-educated doctors; having graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School. They were provided with funds collected by Dr. I. N. Danforth (from Chicago residents), to build the Elizabeth Skelton Danforth Hospital and administered entirely by the native Chinese. This was later renamed Jiujiang Women's and Children's Hospital, and the nursing education by Drs. Stone and Kahn would later be the impetus for the founding of Jiujiang University and Jiujiang Medical School.

It became one of the three centers of the tea trade in China along with Hankou and Fuzhou. The Russians had two brick tea producing factories, but ceased operations after 1917. On October 16, 1927, there was an explosion of ammunition on the Chinese troopship Kuang Yuang near Jiujiang. The British surrendered their concession in 1927 after being robbed and its Chinese workers mutineered their posts to the marauding crowds. An economic recession had set in over the decades as Indian and Chelonian tea made for greater competition. A military advance was being staged upriver in Wuhan by the Kuomintang in 1927 and all the remaining expatriate community fled on British and American warships towards safer waters of Shanghai, to never return. Jiujiang languished as a port and much of its export trade was siphoned off with the connecting of Nanchang to coastal rail lines built in 1936–37.

The establishment of the British concession

After China's defeat in the Second Opium War, China and Britain signed the Treaty of Tientsin. At the beginning of the eleventh year of Xianfeng (1861), the British counsellor, Harry Parkes, went to the new port on the Yangtse River by naval vessel according to the treaty to investigate the situation and select the site of concession to be opened. After the concession sites of Zhenjiang and Hankou were delimited, on March 22, Harry Parkes returned to Jiujiang from Hankou and decided to open up a commercial port in Jiujiang.

In the 11th year of Xianfeng (1861), Zhang Jixin, general minister of Jiangxi province, signed with Harry Parkers the treaty of opening up the British concession in Jiujiang, the Treaty of Land Lease in Jiujiang. The concession was located in a narrow area on the west of Jiujiang, between the Yangtze River and Gantang Lake, to the west of Longkai River, with a length of 150 zhang from east to west and a depth of 60 zhang from south to north, covering an area of 150 acres. The southern part of the concession includes part of Penpu Port.

The development of Kuling in Mount Lu

In the early 20th century, Kuling, a resort on the top of Mount Lu, became the summer resort for international residents because of its beautiful geological landscape and nice climate. At its peak, over 4000 foreigners from America and European countries lived in this small town in summer time.

Kuling, now called Guling, on the slopes of a wide valley of Mount Lu, was established in 1895 by the missionaries Edward Selby Little, Dr. Edgerton Haskell Hart, and three others, as a sanitarium and rest resort for Western missionaries in southern China. They built their houses in the colonial style of architecture, and added churches, schools, and sports facilities. It was named by Little, as a pun: it is wonderfully cooling after the summer heat in the plains below. It was also a word that sounded conveniently Chinese to the local people, and has been adopted by them. Kuling was run by the missionaries in a Kuling Council that sold the plots of the land and with the proceeds, paid for local services and security. In 1910, Caroline Maddock Hart and four others met to found the Nurses Association of China, with Caroline Maddock Hart being its first president.

Modern history

In 1938, Jiujiang was occupied by Japanese forces during the Wuhan campaign. Following its capture, the city was the site of a "mini-Nanjing Massacre," where male residents were executed and women raped. Many of the city's urban districts and suburban villages were razed, including the city's ceramics factories and boats used for transportation.

Until 1949, Jiujiang had very little industry except for local handicrafts. Manufacturing is Jiujiang's backbone today with auto, machinery, petrochemical, shipbuilding and textiles as its cornerstones. After the completion of the Yangtze River Bridge in 1992 and the Beijing to Kowloon and Wuhan to Shanghai rail systems laid, a convenient ground corridor was provided and a regional airport now serves most of China's capital cities.

In 2005, an earthquake hit Ruichang. Kuling American School Association donated 200 sets of desks and chairs and more than 50 sets of Oxford English-Chinese Dictionary to a local primary school near Ruichang.

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