History of Hunan

From 350 to 221 bce Hunan formed the southernmost extension of the state of Chu, which was nominally ruled by the Zhou dynasty. From 221 to 207 bce Hunan was ruled by the Qin dynasty, which subdued contending feudal states and joined them into the first unified state of China—of which Hunan formed part of the central area. Most of Hunan at that time was covered with dense primeval forest that was sparsely inhabited by peoples who engaged in hunting and fishing and practiced shifting cultivation (clearing land by burning or cutting for temporary cultivation). These peoples also mined the copper and tin that were used in the north for making bronze.

After the downfall of the Qin dynasty, the area became quickly incorporated into the Chinese empire ruled by the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce). During this period persistent waves of migrant Han (Chinese) from the North occupied the land, and the indigenous Miao (Hmong), Tujia, Dong, and Yao (Mien) were pushed west and southwest into the hills, which they still occupy. By the end of the Xi (Western) Jin dynasty in 316/317, the Dongting floodplain to the north and the Xiang River valley in the east were relatively well populated. Han migration from the North continued under subsequent dynasties, with migrants fleeing from the invasions first of the Yuan (Mongol) and then the Qing (Manchu) dynasties. Those who went farther south, crossing the Nan Mountains in the southern part of the province to enter Guangdong, have since considered themselves Tangren, or southern Chinese, but both they and the Hunanese have remained Han in both culture and speech.

Population pressures on the land increased markedly in the 19th century during the latter part of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911/12), leading to increased peasant unrest, particularly among the non-Chinese tribes. When the Taiping Rebellion broke out in Guangxi in 1850, it spread northward into Hunan. Hunan, together with other provinces in the lower Yangtze basin, was ravaged in the subsequent fighting, although the city of Changsha withstood a Taiping siege in the mid-1850s. It was a Hunanese, Zeng Guofan, who ultimately was responsible for crushing the rebellion by 1864.

Hunan was not opened to foreign trade until 1904, following the conclusion of the Treaty of Shanghai between China and Japan. A foreign settlement was established at Changsha, and British and Japanese firms built warehouses. Hunan became a centre of revolutionary activity: uprisings against Qing rule broke out in the province in 1910, presaging the more widespread Chinese Revolution the following year that finally overthrew the tottering dynasty and established the Republic of China. Thereafter, Hunan remained in a state of unrest from which it had little respite until 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was established. Many important Chinese Communist Party leaders—including Mao Zedong, who was born in Shaoshan, west of Xiangtan, and Liu Shaoqi, chairman of the People’s Republic (1959–68)—were from Hunan. Mao was largely responsible for encouraging the peasants and miners to make the abortive Autumn Harvest Uprising of 1927. He subsequently held the communist forces together in the Jinggang Mountains, where they withstood repeated attacks by the forces of Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi), the Chinese Nationalist leader. In 1934 Mao set out from the Hunan-Jiangxi border region, leading his forces westward in the difficult northward retreat that later came to be known as the Long March.

During the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45), Hunan was the scene of bitter fighting between 1939 and 1941. After the fall of Hunan to the Japanese, the Nationalist general Xue Yue continued to successfully defend Changsha against the Japanese invaders, until it too fell in 1944. In 1949, despite damage to bridges and communications, the province experienced comparatively little destruction when the Nationalist forces retreated rapidly southward before the advancing communist armies.

Provincial leaders from Hunan have played an important national role since 1949. Hunan’s provincial party leader was purged in 1958 for opposing the economic policies of the Great Leap Forward (1958–60) and was replaced by supporters of Mao Zedong’s more ambitious and radical policies. One of Mao’s rising provincial supporters, Hua Guofeng, was Communist Party chairman (1976–81) after Mao’s death.

Hunan supported many of the policies of Mao’s Cultural Revolution (1966–76), and it was slower than other provinces in implementing the economic and political reform programs instituted by the post-Mao leadership. Gradually, however, the provincial leadership has been replaced by more technically proficient and younger leaders, who are taking over from the revolutionary generation.