NAN-CH'ANG


Meaning of NAN-CH'ANG in English

Pinyin Nanchang, city and provincial capital of Kiangsi sheng (province), China. The city is situated on the right bank of the Kan River just below its confluence with the Chin and some 25 miles (40 km) south of its discharge into P'o-yang Lake. The city was founded and first walled in 201 BC, when the county town was given the name Nan-ch'ang. It was also the administrative seat of a commandery, Y-chang. In 589 this commandery was changed into a prefecture named Hung-chou, and after 763 it became the provincial centre of Kiangsi, which was then beginning the rapid growth that by the 12th century made it the most populous province in China. In 959, under the Southern T'ang regime, it became Nan-ch'ang superior prefecture and also the southern capital. After the conquest by the Sung regime in 981 it reverted to the name Hung-chou. In 1164 it was renamed Lung-hsing superior prefecture, which name it retained until 1368. At the end of the Yan (Mongol) period (12791368), it became a battleground between Chu Yan-chang, the founder of the Ming dynasty (13681644), and the rival local warlord, Ch'en Yu-liang. At the beginning of the 16th century it was the power base from which Chu Ch'enhao, the prince of Ning, launched a rebellion against the Ming regime. In the 1850s it suffered considerably as a result of the Taiping Rebellion (185064), and its importance as a commercial centre declined as the overland routes to Canton were replaced by coastal steamship services in the latter half of the 19th century. Nan-ch'ang has, however, remained the undisputed regional metropolis of Kiangsi. On Aug. 1, 1927, it was the site of one of a series of insurrections organized by the Chinese Communist Party. The Nan-ch'ang Uprising, though it succeeded in holding the city for only a few days, provided a core of troops and a method of organization from which the People's Liberation Army later developed. In 1949 Nan-ch'ang was still essentially an old-style administrative and commercial city, with little industry apart from food processing; it had a population of about 275,000. Nan-ch'ang first acquired a rail connection in 1915, when the line to Chiu-chiang, a port on the Yangtze River, was opened. Several other rail links have since been opened. After World War II a line was completed to Lin-ch'uan and Kung-ch'i in the Ju River Valley to the south-southeast. Since 1949 Nan-ch'ang has been extensively industrialized. It is now a large-scale producer of cotton textiles and cotton yarn. Papermaking is also a large industry, as is food processing (especially rice milling). Heavy industry began to be important in the mid-1950s. A large thermal-power plant was installed and uses coal brought by rail from Feng-ch'eng, to the south. A machinery industry also grew up, at first mainly concentrating on the production of agricultural equipment and diesel engines. Nan-ch'ang then became a centre of the automotive industry, producing trucks and tractors and also such equipment as tires. An iron-smelting plant helping to supply local industry was installed in the later 1950s. There is also a large chemical industry, producing agricultural chemicals and insecticides as well as pharmaceuticals. Nan-ch'ang has a university. Pop. (1990) 1,086,124.

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