SHANTUNG

WadeGiles romanization Shan-tung, Pinyin Shandong north coastal sheng (province) of the People's Republic of China facing the Yellow Sea opposite Korea. The province consists of two distinct segments: the Shantung Peninsula and an inland zone bounded by the provinces of Hopeh to the north and west, Honan to the southwest, and Anhwei and Kiangsu to the south. The article that follows is a summary of significant detail about the Chinese province of Shantung; for additional detail about its geography, history, economy, and culture, see China: Shantung. A Neolithic culture existed on the peninsula as early as the 3rd millennium BC. By the Spring and Autumn period (770476 BC), Shantung had become a centre of political and military activity. One of the small southern Shantung states was Lu, the birthplace of Confucius and Mencius. Beginning in the Six Dynasties period (AD 220589) Shantung became North China's leading maritime centre and retained that position for centuries to come. In the 19th century erosion and flood problems in the province's agricultural areas were intensified by shifts in the course of the Huang Ho (river). In a series of devastating floods in 1855, hardships and food shortages increased, resulting in substantial emigration of Shantung peasants to Manchuria and Inner Mongolia. In the closing decade of the 19th century the province came under German, British, and Japanese influence. After World War I the Japanese compelled the Chinese to recognize their renewed occupation and maintained it until 1922. During the Sino-Japanese War (193745) the Japanese suffered one of their most serious defeats at Shantung in 1938. The province did not come under Chinese Communist control until 1948. The provincial capital is Tsinan. Shantung's inland zone covers roughly two-thirds of the province's total area and includes a hilly central region centred on the famous T'ai Shan mountain complex. A fertile and intensely cultivated area surrounds the central mountains on the north, west, and south and forms part of the Huang Ho Basin and the North China Plain. The Huang Ho flows from southwest to northeast through the province before emptying into the Gulf of Chihli. In contrast, the peninsula, with its indented coastline, is an entirely upland area, which has traditionally depended on fishing, mining, and port-related activities. Shantung is characterized by a continental climate with cold winters and hot, dry summers. However, there is variation between the peninsular and inland zones. The interior areas are subject to severe winter and spring dust storms, sometimes followed by droughts and frequent summer floods. It is also not unusual for rivers to freeze for extended periods during the winter months. The peninsula has a milder climate, although sea fog and high humidity are common. Shantung's population is predominantly Northern Mandarin-speaking and of Han Chinese origin. There are small concentrations of Chinese Muslims in various parts of the province. More than nine-tenths of the people live in a rural setting. The two largest cities are Tsingtao and Tsinan, followed by the Tzu-po conurbation, a leading mining and industrial zone. Shantung has a diversified agricultural and industrial economy. The leading food crops are wheat, soybeans, kaoliang (sorghum), spiked millet, corn (maize), and sweet potatoes. The major cash crops are cotton, tobacco, peanuts (groundnuts), and fruit. The large peanut grown in the province is well suited for pressing, making Shantung a leading manufacturer of peanut cooking oil. Common fruits grown include peaches, pears, apricots, apples, grapes, persimmons, and dates. Sericulture (silkworm raising) has been carried out in Shantung for hundreds of years. The province has a thriving ocean fishing industry, with trawlers and smaller fishing craft operating out of more than 70 ports around the peninsula and off the Huang Ho delta. Leading ports are Tsingtao, Chefoo, Wei-hai, Shih-tao, and Lung-k'ou. The catch consists mainly of eels, herring, gizzard-shad, fish roe, and several varieties of shrimp and crab. Shantung also conducts extensive mining activities. Coal, iron ore, bauxite, gold, and oil are all mined; salt is produced on both the north and south coasts of the peninsula. Tsingtao, the major manufacturing centre, has a large textile industry, a locomotive works, and industrial chemical, tire, and machine-tool factories, and has long been famous for its beer. Tsinanrenowned for its silks, precious stones, and handicraftsalso manufactures trucks, agricultural machinery, machine tools, precision instruments, industrial chemicals, paper, and textiles. Other industry is carried on in Tzu-po and Wei-fang. Railways are Shantung's chief means of transport. Highways, most unpaved, in every district serve as feeder routes to the railways. Inland water transport is limited. Area 59,300 sq mi (153,600 sq km). Pop. (1983 est.) 74,940,000. Chinese (Wade-Giles) Shan-tung, (Pinyin) Shandong, north coastal sheng (province) of China, lying across the Yellow Sea from Korea. It has an area of 59,200 square miles (153,300 square kilometres). Shantung is China's third most populous province, its population exceeded only by that of Szechwan and Honan. The name Shantung, which means Eastern Mountains, was first officially used during the Chin dynasty in the 12th century. The province consists of two distinct segments. The first is an inland zone bounded by the provinces of Hopeh to the north and west, Honan to the southwest, and Anhwei and Kiangsu to the south. The second is the Shantung Peninsula extending some 200 miles (320 kilometres) seaward from the Wei and Chiao-lai river plains, with the Po Hai (Gulf of Chihli) to the north and the Yellow Sea to the south, giving Shantung a coastline of 750 miles. The inland zone, covering roughly two-thirds of the province's total area, includes a hilly central region, centred on the famous Mount T'ai complex, and a fertile and intensively farmed agricultural area on the north, west, and south, which forms part of the Huang Ho Basin and the North China Plain. The provincial capital, Chi-nan, is situated just west of Mount T'ai and three miles south of the Huang Ho, which flows from southwest to northeast through the province before emptying into the Po Hai. The Shantung Peninsula, in contrast, is entirely an upland area and, with its seaward orientation and indented coastline, has traditionally depended on fishing, mining, and port-related activities. Long a focal area in the evolution of Chinese civilization and institutions, the province's natural inlandpeninsular division is paralleled by a dual orientation in its past and present political and economic configurations. The eastern peninsula historically has coveted autonomy, whereas the inland portion has been closely tied to the inward-facing empire. History A Neolithic cultureknown as the Lung-shan because of archaeological remains discovered near the township of that nameexisted on the Shantung Peninsula in the 3rd millennium BC; it played a key role in the establishment of a common rice-based cultural grouping that apparently spread along the Pacific seaboard from the peninsula to Taiwan and eastern Kwangtung. Western Shantung formed part of the Shang kingdom (18th12th century BC). By the Ch'un-ch'iu (Spring and Autumn) period (770476 BC) it had become the centre of political and military activity that resulted from the eastward expansion of the Chou, following their conquest of the Shang. One of the small southern Shantung states was Lu, the birthplace of Confucius and Mencius. Also in the Eastern Territoryan early name for Shantungwas Ch'i, extending over the major part of the peninsula; it became an important economic centre, exporting hemp clothing, silk, fish, salt, and a unique variety of purple cloth to all parts of China. Beginning in the Six Dynasties period (AD 220589), Shantung became North China's leading maritime centre, receiving commodities from the South China coastal area (now Fukien and Kwangtung) for transshipment to destinations north and south of the Huang Ho. Thus, Shantung has been a part of China from its very beginning as an organized state. In 1293 the Grand Canal, running generally north to south, was completed, making western Shantung a major inland trading route. Yet even after the completion of the canal, maritime trade still remained important to Shantung, and the peninsula retained its dominant economic position. In the great agricultural areas of the province, however, early deforestation and the long-established practice of clearing land for cultivation without providing for flood prevention and control measures led to serious and ultimately disastrous erosion and wastage of valuable agricultural land. In the 19th century these problems were worsened by shifts in the course of the Huang Ho. From 1194 until the early 1850s the Huang followed the original bed of the Huai along the ShantungKiangsu border before emptying into the Yellow Sea. After 1855, when a series of devastating floods was followed by extensive dike construction, the river changed to its present course some 250 miles to the north. Hardships and food shortages from floods and other natural calamities increased in intensity throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. This resulted in a substantial emigration of Shantung peasants to the Northeast (Manchuria) and to Inner Mongolia, with more than 4,000,000 people emigrating between 1923 and 1930. In the closing decade of the 19th century Shantung came under the influence of German, British, and Japanese interests. It was occupied briefly by Japanese troops after the Sino-Japanese War of 189495. In 1897 Germany landed troops, and in 1898 a treaty was signed by which China ceded to Germany, for 99 years, two entries to Chiao-chou Bay and the islands in the bay and granted the right to construct a naval base and port, Tsingtao. Germany used Tsingtao as a base to extend its commercial influence throughout the peninsula; it developed coal mines and constructed a railway (1905) from Tsingtao to Chi-nan. Similarly, in 1898 Great Britain obtained a lease for Wei-hai-wei (modern Wei-hai), another strategic port near the northern tip of the peninsula. This was in response to the Russian occupation of Port Arthur (now L-shun). With the advent of World War I, Japan took over German interests in the peninsula and in 1915, as one of its infamous 21 Demands, compelled the Chinese to give official recognition to the renewed occupation. Taking up the Shantung question, the imperialist powers decided in 1919 to grant Japanese occupation, which Japan maintained until 1922. In the Sino-Japanese War of 193745, even though the Japanese had gained control of most of Shantung by the end of 1937, they miscalculated Chinese strength and suffered a serious defeattheir first of the warat T'ai-erh-chuang, in southern Shantung, in 1938. In the postwar struggle between the Chinese Communists and Nationalists, Shantung came under Communist control by the end of 1948. Baruch Boxer The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica