Sichuan
is a province in western China with its capital in Chengdu.
The current name of the province, or "Four circuits
of rivers", which is itself abbreviated from (Chuanxiá
Sìlù), or "Four circuits of rivers and
gorges", named after the division of the existing circuit
into four during the Northern Song Dynasty.
The province and its vicinity were the cradle of unique
local civilizations, which can be dated back to at least
the fifteenth century BC (coinciding with the later years
of Shang Dynasty). Beginning from the ninth century BC,
Shu (today Chengdu) and Ba (today Chongqing City) emerged
as cultural and administrative centers where two rival kingdoms
were established.
Shu's
existence was unknown until an archaeological discovery
in 1986 at a small village named Sanxingdui (San Xing Dui)
in Guanghan County. It is believed to be an ancient city
of the Shu Kingdom, where excavations have yielded invaluable
archaeological information.
Although
the Qin Dynasty destroyed the civilizations of Shu and Ba,
their cultures were preserved and inherited by people in
Sichuan until today. The Qin government accelerated the
technological and agricultural advancements of Sichuan making
it comparable to that of the Huang He (Yellow River) Valley.
The Dujiangyan Irrigation System, built in the 3rd century
BC under the inspection of Li Bing, was the symbol of modernization
of that period. Composed of a series of dams, it redirected
the flow of the Min Jiang, a major tributary of the Yangtze
River, to fields, relieving the damage of seasonal floods.
The construction and various other projects greatly increased
the harvest of the area which thus became the main source
of provisions and men for Qin's unification of China.
Various
ores were abundant. Adding to its significance, the area
was also on the trade route from the Huang He Valley to
foreign countries of the southwest, especially India.
The
area's military importance matches its commercial and agricultural
significance. As a basin surrounded by the Himalayas to
the west, the Qinling Range to the north, and mountainous
areas of Yunnan to the south, Sichuan is prone to fog. Since
the Yangtze flows through the basin and is thus upstream
of eastern China, navies could be easily sailed downstream.
Therefore Sichuan was the base for numerous amphibious military
forces and also served as the refuge of Chinese governments
throughout history. A few independent regimes were founded;
the most famous was Shu Han of the Three Kingdoms. The Jin
Dynasty first conquered Shu Han on its path of unification.
During the Tang Dynasty, it was a battlefront against Tibet.
The
Southern Song Dynasty established coordinated defenses against
the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty in Sichuan and Xiangyang. The
line of defense was finally broken through after the first
use of firearms in history during the six-year siege of
Xiangyang, which ended in 1273. In the 20th century, the
foggy climate hindered the accuracy of Japanese bombing
of the basin and the city of Chongqing, where the capital
of the Republic of China had been relocated during World
War II.
The Leshan Giant Buddha of Mount Emei, built during the
latter half of the Tang Dynasty (618–907).During the
Ming Dynasty major architectural works were created in Sichuan.
Bao'en Temple is a well-preserved fifteenth century monastery
complex built between 1440 and 1446 during Emperor Yingzong's
reign (1427-64) in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Dabei Hall
enshrines a thousand-armed wooden image of Guanyin and Huayan
Hall is a repository with a revolving sutra cabinet. The
wall paintings, sculptures and other ornamental details
are masterpieces of the Ming period.
A landslide
dam on the Dadu River caused by an earthquake gave way on
10 June 1786. The resulting flood killed 100,000 people.
Sichuan's
borders have remained relatively constant for the past 500
years. This changed in 1997 when the city of Chongqing as
well as the surrounding towns of Fuling and Wanxian were
formed into the new Chongqing Municipality. The new municipality
was formed to spearhead China's effort to develop its western
regions as well as to coordinate the resettlement of residents
from the reservoir areas of the Three Gorges Dam project.
On Monday,
May 12, 2008 at 2:28:01 PM local time, an earthquake with
a magnitude of 7.9/8.0 hit just 72km northwest of the provincial
capital of Chengdu. As of May 14, the official Xinhua news
agency reported: 14,463 people were dead, another 14,051
were missing, 25,788 were buried in the debris and 64,746
had been injured, On May 31, the death toll was updated
to 68,467 in Sichuan with a further ~17,000 people missing,
and 354,045 injured.
