T'UNG-KUAN

Pinyin Tongguan, town in the extreme east of Shensi sheng (province), China. Situated on the south bank of the Huang Ho (Yellow River), just below its confluence with the Wei River where the Huang bends to the east, it is opposite the town of Feng-ling-tu in Shansi Province. It is located in an extremely narrow and precipitous pass. T'ung-kuan (T'ung Pass) has always stood at the eastern gateway into the Wei River Valley and Shensi Province, known to the people of the North China Plain to the east as Kuan-chung, or Kuan-nei (Within the Pass). T'ung-kuan town was originally some 1 1/4 miles (2 km) southeast and was moved to its present site in 611. Under the T'ang dynasty (618907) it was known as Lung-chin hsien (county) and was the key to the defenses of the T'ang capital, Ch'ang-an. With the transfer after 907 of the capital to the eastern plains, T'ung-kuan lost its major defensive role; it remained an important strategic place, however, and was the site of a wei (guard) under the Ming dynasty (13681644). It became T'ung-kuan hsien under the Ch'ing dynasty (16441911). After 1949, under Communist rule, it was merged with Wei-nan Prefecture to the west. T'ung-kuan is connected by a spur line to the Lunghai Railway at Hsien-yang. Pop. (mid-1970s est.) less than 10,000.