Chúzhōu

The Chúzhōu culture covers the mountainous southwest of Zhejiang, including Longquan and Qingtian in Lishui prefecture, and reaches across the Fujian border to Pucheng. The Sui first set up Chuzhou Prefecture in 589; after centuries under other names, the Yuan made it Chuzhou Route in 1276, and it became Chuzhou Prefecture under the Ming.

Nearly nine-tenths of the land is mountains, and its isolated valleys made the Chuzhou division of Southern Wu one of the most fragmented groups of Wu speech, while the Ou River carried its goods downstream to the port of Wenzhou.

Longquan was one of China's greatest ceramic centers: its green celadon, in large-scale production from the Northern Song, boomed after the Southern Song court moved to nearby Hangzhou, kept high quality through the Yuan and early Ming, and was exported across the eastern seas for five centuries before Jingdezhen blue-and-white displaced it. The same county kept the ancient Longquan craft of sword-making, while Qingtian became known for its carved soapstone.