SUCHOW

Chinese (Wade-Giles) Hs-chou, also called T'ung-shan, (Pinyin) Xuzhou, or Tongshan city in northwestern Kiangsu sheng (province), China. Its site marks the approximate geographic border between the North China Plain and the Lower Yangtze Plain, the meeting place of wheat and rice as staple crops, respectively. Schow is located in the gap in the Shantung Hills that forms a southwestern extension into the North China Plain. Through this gap flows the Fei-huang River, which joins the Ssu River and the Grand Canal, thus providing a water route southeastward to Ch'ing-chiang and the Yangtze River. The gap was utilized by a canal built in the 2nd century BC during the Han dynasty (206 BCAD 220) to connect Lo-yang (in what is now Honan province) with the lower Huai River valley. The route, known as the Old Pien Canal, was replaced after the construction of the New Pien Canal in 607, which took a route farther southward. Schow, nevertheless, remained a route centre and a major commercial city until the 12th century. In this early period it was sometimes known as P'eng-ch'engthe name of the county established there by the Ch'in dynasty (221206 BC) in 220 BC. Besides being a transportation centre, it was a city of strategic value. Throughout the T'ang dynasty (618907) it was a heavily garrisoned stronghold, protecting the vital supply line of the New Pien Canal from invasion by the semi-independent provincial governors of Shantung and Hopeh. During the Five Dynasties (907960), it was also a hotly contested strategic base in struggles between the dynasties of the northeast and the independent states farther south. During the 12th century, it declined somewhat until, in 1194, the Huang Ho abandoned its old course north of the Shantung Peninsula to flow through the gap at Schow and join the old course of the Huai River at Ch'ing-chiang on its way to the sea. This development placed Schow at the junction between the Huang Ho and the Grand Canal. A new canal, built in 1276 to supply the Mongol capital at Peking, also passed through Schow. As the Grand Canal and its grain traffic gained in importance from the 14th century onward, Schow regained its former prosperity. Under the Ch'ing dynasty (16441911/12) it was raised to the status of a superior prefecture, Hs-chou. In the last years of the Ch'ing, like other towns on the Grand Canal, it lost a certain degree of its importance. In the 1850s, moreover, the Huang Ho returned to its old course, removing Schow's westward waterway link. In 1912 Schow was joined by the railway to both Peking and the Yangtze (at Nan-ching ). With the completion of the Lunghai Railway, it also became a rail junction between major east-west and north-south trunk railways. Another rail line runs east to the Yellow Sea port of Lien-yn-kang. In the period before World War II Schow became a commercial and collecting centre for the agriculture of southwestern Shantung, southeastern Honan, northern Kiangsu, and Anhwei provinces. In 1938, during the Sino-Japanese War (193745), it was the site of a desperate battle, and, in the Communist Revolution of 194549, it was the site of the greatest and most decisive battle between the Communist and Nationalist armies, in which some 500,000 men were engaged on each side in bloody fighting (November 1948January 1949) that ended in a Communist victory. Since 1949 Schow has developed not only as a regional commercial centre but also as the chief city of a mining district. It is the centre of a rich coalfield, with mines in the immediate vicinity at Hsia-ch'iao, Hsin-ho, Chia-wang, and Han-ch'iao. Schow's chief industries are machine building, engineering, and cotton textiles. By the early 1970s it had also become the site of an important airport, with regular services to Peng, Shanghai, and Sian in Shensi. Pop. (1990 est.) 706,459.