Jiāngyóu

Jiāngyóu lies on the upper Fú River in the north-west of the Sichuan basin, where the plain gives way to the mountain road toward Píngwǔ and the Yīnpíng pass. It takes its name from the clearness of the river, said to shine like oil, and its history reaches back to the Three Kingdoms, when Dèng Ài's army, coming down the Yinping road in 263, took the pass at Jiāngyóu before turning on Chéngdū. Under the Tang the neighbouring county of Chāngmíng, at Qīnglián, was reputed home to the poet Lǐ Bái.

The historical county seat was at Wǔdū, not the market town at Zhōngbà that grew up later. In the late Yuan the county was set up again at Xīngjiào, and the early Ming suspended it; it was restored in 1380 under Jiànzhōu, the sub-prefecture of Jiange, and in 1566 passed to Lóng'ān Prefecture. The early Qing abolished it again and merged it into Píngwǔ. A county was set up once more in 1662; in 1730 land from Pingwu was added, and in 1820 its supervisory circuit was changed.