Jìngníng

Jingning grew out of a chain of Song frontier forts west of the Liupan Mountains. In 1011 the prefect of Weizhou, Cao Wei, built Longgan City on the Longgan plain to hold off the Western Xia, and in 1093 Longgan County was set up at the Waidi fort, the site of Jingning, with the Deshun military prefecture sharing the same walls. In 1304 the Yuan folded Longgan County into Deshun Prefecture and renamed it Jingning, keeping the first character of the old Jingbian stockade and expressing a wish for peace and tranquillity.

The Ming placed Jingning under Pingliang Prefecture, and it came to govern two counties, Longde and Zhuanglang. Longde passed directly to Pingliang in 1559 and Zhuanglang in 1648, leaving Jingning without dependent counties. It remained a department under the Qing.