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Timeline of Hangzhou

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The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province in eastern China.

Prehistory

A jade cong of the Liangzhu culture.
  • c. 5000–4000 bce – The period of maximal sea intrusion into Hangzhou Bay following the end of the last Ice Age.[1]
  • c. 3300–2300 bce – The highly stratified agricultural Liangzhu culture dominates the area of Hangzhou Municipality from its capital in present-day Yuhang District.
  • c. 1900–1200 bce – The Maqiao culture (zh:马桥文化) fills the area of the former Liangzhu and probably initiates bronze working.

Early history

The Qiantang River and its connections to the Jiangnan and Zhedong Canals at Hangzhou

Sui dynasty

A barge passing through the city wall's Fengshan Gate, which protected the link between the Grand Canal & the Qiantang.

Tang dynasty

Hangzhou's Phoenix Mosque, following numerous reconstructions
  • c. 630 – Establishment of the Phoenix Mosque,[3] one of China's Four Ancient Mosques.
  • 653 – The mystic rebel Chen Shuozhen declares herself emperor and overruns Zhejiang for a few months.
  • 781–784 – Li Bi's term as prefect of Hangzhou, during which he bores six wells to provide the city with water.[4]
  • 822–824 – Bai Juyi's term as prefect of Hangzhou,[5] during which he constructed the Baigong Causeway (白公堤, Báigōngdī) to improve irrigation around West Lake.
  • 881–886 – Dong Chang's term as prefect of Hangzhou, which he used as a springboard to power in the late Tang.
  • 887–907 – Qian Liu's term as prefect of Hangzhou, which he used to uphold imperial power & secure approval to serve as king of Wuyue.

Wuyue Kingdom

  • 907 – The Tang falls to the Later Liang and Wuyue becomes largely independent, taking Hangzhou as its capital under the name Xifu ("Western Prefecture").
  • 910 – Qian Liu expands the existing dikes along the Qiantang with his modular "bamboo cage" design.[1]
  • 936 – Faxi Temple (法喜寺), the Upper Tianzhu Temple (上天竺寺), established.
  • 941 – A major fire destroys most of the Wuyue palace and treasury in August, supposedly driving King Qian Yuanguan mad and mortally ill.
  • 954 – Huiri Yongming Temple built at West Lake.
  • 963 – Baochu Pagoda built at West Lake.
  • 970 – Liuhe Pagoda built.
  • 975 – Leifeng Pagoda built.

Song dynasty

Bridge over West Lake
Map of West Lake
Image and map of West Lake, including causeways ("levees")

Yuan dynasty

A surviving statue of Yang Lianzhenjia surrounded by acolytes on Feilaifeng, a surviving example after others were beheaded as revenge for his destruction of the Song Palace and Imperial Tombs
  • 1275 – Population: 1.75 million.[5][dubious – discuss]
  • 1276 – Mongols reach Hangzhou.[6]
  • 1277
    • The Song Imperial Palace destroyed by fire.[4]
    • Yang Lianzhenjia (Chinese: zh:楊璉真珈, Yáng Liǎnzhēnjiā; Tibetan: རིན་ཆེན་སྐྱབས་, Rin-chen-skyabs), a Tangut Tibetan Buddhist monk, begins his decades of work as Supervisor of Buddhist Teaching in Jiangnan;[7] he restores many Buddhist temples and shrines in the area but embezzles huge amounts of land and wealth[8]
    • Hangzhou Salt Distribution Commission established.[6]
  • 1285 – Yang Lianzhenjia begins replacing the Song palace complex on Phoenix Hill with five lavishly decorated Buddhist monasteries;[9] he greatly offends many in the region by sending monks to plunder and desecrate the Song imperial tombs near Shaoxing,[4] removing some of their corpses for placement with cattle under a dagoba at the new temples.[9]
  • 1290 – Zhou Mi's Antiquities of the Martial Forest (t 《武林舊事》, s 《武林旧事》, Wǔlín Jiùshì) completed, a 10-juan account of Hangzhou under the Southern Song
  • 1291 – Yang Lianzhenjia deposed for mismanagement, although he probably returned to office after he was pardoned by Kublai Khan later in the year.[9]
  • c. 1298 – Marco Polo allegedly relates his travels to Rustichello da Pisa in a Genovese jail, including a fabulous account of the wonders of Hangzhou ("Quinsai")[10] under the Yuan.
  • 1350s – Hangzhou replaced by Jiankang (Nanjing) as the world's most populous city.
  • 1366 – Zhu Yuanzhang, subsequently the Hongwu Emperor of the Ming, attacks and seizes Hangzhou.[4]

Ming dynasty

A map of Ming-era Hangzhou from Tian Rucheng's West Lake Gazetteer
  • 1442 – West Lake completely dries out during a drought.[4]
  • 1456 – West Lake again dries completely out during a drought.[4]
  • 1457 – Tian Rucheng (田汝成) publishes his West Lake Gazetteer (西湖游覽志, Xihu Youlan Zhi) and its supplement (西湖游覽志餘, Xihu Youlan Zhiyu).[11]
  • 1459 – Yu Qian buried with honor in Hangzhou, having been posthumously rehabilitated after his execution.[4]
  • 1553–1558 – Wokou pirates repeatedly attack Hangzhou Bay, getting as far as Hangzhou on occasion.[4]
  • 1621 – Huanduzhai publishing house in business.[12]
  • 1641 – West Lake again dries out during a drought, the lake bed itself described as cracking.[4]

Qing dynasty

A detail of Qing-era Hangzhou from the Map of the Route from Anlang Garden to Hangzhou's Temporary Palace (c. 1765)
  • 1645 – Hangzhou falls to the invading Qing in May.[4]
  • 1647 – The Hangzhou Weaving Bureau restored as one of the Qing's three centers of silk production, alongside Suzhou and Jiangning.[13]
  • 1648 – A huge area of central Hangzhou appropriated and walled off for use by Manchu residents and their banner garrison. Roughly 10,000 Han families formerly residing there evicted without compensation and obliged to continue paying taxes on the seized property for the next two decades.[14]
  • 1660 – A major fire destroys much of the city.[4]
  • 1661 – Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception built.
  • 1663 – A Hangzhou publisher's account of the Ming dynasty becomes the first literary persecution of the Han under the Manchu Qing.[4]
  • 1666 – Another major fire again destroys much of the city.[4]
  • 1689 – The Kangxi Emperor visits West Lake for the first time on his second southern tour.[4] A great deal of local rebuilding and public works accompanies this and subsequent imperial visits to the area. The imperial gardens around Beijing are also rebuilt or expanded to imitate the scenery and gardens of Hangzhou, Suzhou, and other parts of Jiangnan.
  • 1699
    • The Kangxi Emperor revisits West Lake on his third southern tour. He provides calligraphic plaques for each of the Ten Scenes of West Lake.[4]
    • West Lake overflows amid heavy rains, covering all its causeways.[4]
  • 1703 – The Kangxi Emperor's third visit to West Lake.[4]
  • 1705 – The Kangxi Emperor's fourth visit to West Lake.[4]
  • 1707 – The Kangxi Emperor's fifth and final visit to West Lake.[4]
  • 1722 – The Zhejiang governor Li Wei begins dredging West Lake and further improving its surroundings.[4]
  • 1729 – The Yongzheng Emperor orders local officials to protect and maintain memorials of the Kangxi Emperor's visits.[4]
  • 1731 – Li Wei establishes the Hushan Temple (湖山廟) to propitiate and honor the spirit of West Lake.[4]
  • 1751 – The Qianlong Emperor visits West Lake on the first of his southern tours. His poetry commemorating the tea fields around Longjing begin the modern popularity of its particular green tea.[4]
  • 1757 – The Qianlong Emperor's second visit to West Lake.[4]
  • 1762 – The Qianlong Emperor's third visit to West Lake.[4]
  • 1765 – The Qianlong Emperor's fourth visit to West Lake.[4]
  • 1780 – The Qianlong Emperor's fifth southern tour includes a viewing of the Qiantang tidal bore at Haining and, at West Lake, the establishment of a formal tomb honoring Su Xiaoxiao on the shore northwest of Gushan Island. Shen Fu subsequently complains that the construction work and increased visitors ruins the area for romantic poets.[4]
  • 1782 – Upon the completion of the Siku Quanshu encyclopedia, a copy is bestowed on the library at the Wenyuan Pavilion (文淵閣, Wényuāngé) east of the imperial palace on Gushan.
  • 1784 – The Qianlong Emperor's sixth and final visit to West Lake.[4]
  • 1797 – Ruan Yuan refurbishes West Lake, ultimately producing Ruangong Islet from the material built up during the lake's dredging.[4]
  • 1853 – Taiping rebels occupy enough of Jiangnan to block access to the Grand Canal, forcing Hangzhou's northern trade to reroute through British-occupied Shanghai.[14]
  • 1860 – Taiping forces continually raid the area, holding the city between March 19 and March 24[15] and assaulting the guards at Gushan in November.[16]
  • 1861
    • Refugees fleeing the Taipings at least double the city's population,[17] possibly swelling it from around 600,000 to as much as 2.3 million.[16]
    • Taiping rebels—many fleeing north from Zuo Zongtang's reconquest of Jiangxi—besiege Hangzhou from October to 28 December,[16] when the city's militia deserted. The Taipings were able to scale the wall, open the Huochao, Fengshan, and Qingbo Gates, and overrun the outer city the next day. Encircling, negotiating with, and storming the Manchu garrison required a further two days.[18] Around 600,000–800,000 died during the conquest, chiefly from starvation and suicide.[14][4][dubious – discuss] Hangzhou reportedly sold human flesh in the streets,[18] while nearby towns reported peddlers selling cups of blood to the starving.[17]
    • The Wenlan Pavilion is greatly damaged and its collection scattered.[15]
  • 1864 – Qing forces under Zuo Zongtang retake city on March 31, the population falling from between 800,000[4] and a million to less than 200,000,[14] possibly as low as 70,000, amid a frenzy of murder and looting.[4]
  • 1867 – Ningpo Boys' Boarding School moves from Ningbo (where its lease had expired) to Hangzhou, changing its name to Hangchow Presbyterian Boys' School.
  • 1871 – Kwang-Chi Hospital established.[19]
  • 1873 – The case of Yang Naiwu and Little Cabbage decided in Hangzhou's provincial court based on evidence from torture. After much publicity and the involvement of many Zhejiang scholar-officials, the verdict was overturned on appeal to Beijing in 1877.
  • 1874 – Hu Xueyan establishes the Hu Qing Yu Tang TCM clinic and pharmacy.
  • 1875 – Hu Xueyan's mansion completed.
  • 1878 – Hu Qing Yu Tang's TCM pharmacy opened to the public.
  • 1880–1881 – The Wenlan Pavilion is repaired and known parts of its collection restored, chiefly by the local bibliophile Ding Bing (丁丙).[15]
  • 1883 – Hangzhou telegraph established.[4]
  • 1885 – Kwang Chi Medical School established.
  • 1896
  • 1897
  • 1898 – Britain formally authorized to begin construction on a railway from Shanghai to Hangzhou, but construction never occurs owing to vehement local disagreement with the concession.
  • 1899 – Hangzhou High School established.[4]
  • 1900 – Hangzhou Library established as a private organization.
  • 1904 – Xiling Seal Art Society founded.[4]
  • 1905 – Hangzhou merchants begin a boycott of American products that spreads throughout China.[4][why?]
  • 1906 – Construction on the Shanghai–Hangzhou Railroad begins as a joint project between the provincial governments of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
  • 1907 – Qing Tai Men Station opens.
  • 1908
    • Establishment of the General Administration for Zhejiang Seawalls, introducing foreign designs into the dikes protecting against the Qiantang Bore.[1]
    • Zhejiang Official Secondary Normal School in operation.
    • Presbyterian Mission Girls' School opens.[21]
  • 1909 – Completion of the Shanghai–Hangzhou Railroad, shortening travel time from a three days' sail to a three-hour ride and strengthening the city's tourism.[14]

Republican era

Gateway to the former imperial palace on Gushan Island, repurposed by Republican China as Zhongshan Park (1919)
Gushan Island and the villas to its north (1920s)
Boat on West Lake (1931)
  • 1911
  • 1912 – The walls of the city's Manchu district dismantled,[23] including the section doubling as the city wall dividing West Lake from Hangzhou.[14]
  • 1913 – The former Manchu district begins being sold by the provincial government to commercial interests to become the city's New Business District (新市场). The space formerly occupied by its walls is repurposed for use as new roads including Lakeshore Road (湖濱路) and additional areas are set aside for parks, especially along West Lake (湖滨公园).[14]
  • 1918 – The Zhejiang Products Exhibition Hall (浙江商品陈列馆) constructed in the center of the New Business District to expand regional business .[14]
  • 1922
    • The Communist Party holds its Hangzhou Meeting (杭州會議), leading to its first collaboration with the Kuomintang. Hangzhou's own first Party cell begins operation in September.[4]
    • Sisters of Charity Hospital founded.[citation needed]
  • 1924 – Leifeng Pagoda collapses at 1 pm on September 25, prompting influential articles opposing traditional Chinese thought by Lu Xun.[4]
  • 1928
  • 1929
  • 1937
  • 1943 – Many sections of Hangzhou's seawall are destroyed during the autumn tidal bores.
  • 1945 – The Japanese occupation of Hangzhou ends, with the Imperial Japanese Army withdrawing from the city in October. People considered traitors for their aid to Japan during the war are arrested.[4]
  • 1947 – Hangzhou Buddhist Academy founded.
  • 1948 – West Lake freezes over on January 26.[4]

Communist era

Central Hangzhou and the northeastern corner of West Lake in 1969. The outline of the city's former Manchu Quarter and inner canal network are still clearly visible.
Richard Nixon and Zhou Enlai in Hangzhou, 1972

See also

References

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