Bǎo'ān

Bǎo'ān lies west of Yán'ān in the loess hills along the upper Luò River, where the Song set up the Bǎo'ān military district to guard the frontier against Western Xia. The Jin made it a county in 1172 and raised it to a zhou ten years later; in 1269 the Yuan lowered it to a county again under Yan'an Route, and the Ming and Qing kept it under Yan'an Prefecture. Beyond the forts of the border wars, local records note old Buddhist carvings and inscriptions in the district, traces of a community whose life stretched beyond its soldiers.