Hédōng

Hédōng was the county seated beside Hezhong Prefecture, on the east bank of the Yellow River where the great bend carries the roads of Shanxi and Shaanxi together. The Song, Jin and Yuan all kept a county of this name at the prefectural seat, a busy crossing and market. The Yuan playwright Wang Shifu set his drama of the student and the maiden, the Xixiang ji, at the Pujiu Temple on the plain beside the town.

In 1369 the Ming abolished the county and merged it into Puzhou. On 23 January 1556 a catastrophic earthquake struck the Shaanxi and Shanxi border country, and Yongji was among the worst-hit districts. In 1724 the Qing made Puzhou an independent department and in 1728 a prefecture, with a new seat county named Yongji, after the Yongji canal.