Ānxǐ

Ānxǐ was the seat county of Dingzhou in the Hebei plain, halfway between Baoding and Shijiazhuang, on the old road along the foot of the Taihang. Early imperial records knew the place as Lunu. A princely tomb southwest of the city, dating from 55 to 8 BC, held fragments of the Analects, the Wenzi and the Six Secret Teachings; its owner belonged to the Han kingdom of Zhongshan. Around 400 the town became the seat of Dingzhou under the Northern Wei, and in the 6th century the Northern Qi merged Lunu into Anxi County, seated in the old Lunu city.

Under the Yuan, Zhongshan Prefecture stood here, and in 1337 Anxi was still its seat county. The early Ming reduced the prefecture to Dingzhou and folded Anxi County into it. Through all these changes rose the Liaodi Pagoda, begun under the Song in 1001 and finished in 1055, an 84-metre brick tower from which Song watchmen looked out for the Liao.