Héngzhōu

Hengzhou denotes the Hengzhou branch of Xiang Chinese, centred on Hengyang on the middle Xiang River and spreading through places such as Hengshan and Chaling.

The city was the Tang prefecture of Hengzhou, a place of banishment for fallen chancellors; with the collapse of the Tang it became a power base of Ma Yin, king of Chu. Ming migrants from Jiangxi resettled the basin after the late-Yuan wars, and their Gan speech helped complete the devoicing of the old voiced initials, leaving a dialect close to New Xiang but marked by Southwestern Mandarin influence in the city.

In 1678 the rebel Wu Sangui was enthroned at Hengzhou, making it the capital of his short-lived Great Zhou dynasty; the Qing recovered it the following year.