CH'ANG-SHA

Pinyin Changsha city and capital of Hunan sheng (province), China. Ch'ang-sha is on the Hsiang River 30 miles (50 km) south of Tung-t'ing Lake and has excellent water communications to southern and southwestern Hunan. Neolithic sites have been discovered in the district since 1955. During the 1st millennium BC, it was the centre of the southern part of the Yangtze River valley state of Ch'u. In 193536 some Ch'u graves excavated nearby produced important evidences of Ch'u culture. The city's most ancient name was Ch'ing-yang. Under the Ch'in dynasty (221206 BC) it became a staging post for Ch'in expeditions into Kwangtung province. From Han times (206 BCAD 220) it was named Lin-hsiang county and was the seat of the Ch'ang-sha commandery. The county was renamed Ch'ang-sha in 589, when it became the administrative seat of T'an prefecture. It lost some importance at this period, however, because traffic from Kwangtung was mostly diverted up the Kan River valley in Kiangsi. After the fall of the T'ang dynasty (618907), it became the capital of the independent Ch'u state and later fell to the Later T'ang dynasty (923937). Between 750 and 1100, as Ch'ang-sha became an important commercial city, the population of the area increased tenfold. Under the Ming (13681644) and Ch'ing (16441911/12) dynasties it was made a superior prefecture and from 1664 onward was the capital of Hunan and prospered as one of China's chief rice markets. During the Taiping Rebellion the city was besieged by the rebels (1854) but never fell; it then became the principal base for the suppression of the rebellion. Ch'ang-sha was opened to foreign trade in 1904. It also became the seat of some Western schools, including a missionary medical college. Further development followed the opening of the railway to Han-k'ou in Hupeh province in 1918, which was extended to Canton in Kwangtung province in 1936. Although Ch'ang-sha's population grew, the city remained primarily commercial in character and before 1937 had little industry, apart from some small cotton-textile, glass, and nonferrous-metal plants and handicraft enterprises. During the Sino-Japanese War (193745), Ch'ang-sha was the site of three major battles. The city itself was virtually destroyed by fire in 193839, and it was captured by the Japanese in 1944. Rebuilt since 1949, its population nearly tripled between the late 1940s and the early 1980s. The city is now a major port, handling rice, cotton, timber, and livestock, and is also a collection and distribution point on the railway from Han-k'ou to Canton. It is a centre of rice milling and also has oil-extraction, tea- and tobacco-curing, and meat-processing plants. Its textile industry produces cotton yarn and fabrics and engages in dyeing and printing. Agricultural chemicals and fertilizers, farm implements, and pumping machinery are also produced. Ch'ang-sha has a large thermal generating station linked by a power grid with the nearby industrial centres of Chu-chou and Hsiang-t'an; the three cities were designated in the 1970s as the nucleus of a major industrial complex. In the 1960s there was some development of heavy industry. The manufacture of machinery, especially machine tools and precision tools, became important, and Ch'ang-sha became a centre of China's aluminum industry. The city also has cement, rubber, ceramic, and papermaking plants and is a centre for many types of traditional handicrafts, producing hsiang embroidery, leather goods, umbrellas, and buttons. Coal is mined in the vicinity. Ch'ang-sha was the seat of many ancient schools and academies. It is the site of Hunan Medical University (1914) and has several colleges and institutes of higher learning. Pop. (1990 est.) 1,113,212.