Bìyáng

Biyang lies in the hills and stream valleys of southern Henan, near the Tongbai range, where the Chu raised a long wall in the Warring States and left gates and ramparts that can still be traced. As Biyang it was a Han county, and from the Sui it was the seat of Tangzhou, a department that took in the neighbouring counties until the Jin.

The Yuan abolished Biyang County in 1266 and ran the district straight from Tangzhou. The Ming restored it in 1380 as Biyang County under Nanyang Prefecture, and the Qing kept the arrangement. The county gazetteer of later years records repairs to the City God temple in the county town, where the god who guarded the walls and the officials' oaths was worshipped.