Jìnyuán

Jinyuan was the county at the seat of Chongqing Department in western Sichuan, within the administrative world centred on Chengdu. Yuan geographical records placed Chongqing Department under Chengdu and listed Jinyuan as its seat, alongside Xinjin within the department's jurisdiction.

In the early Ming, Jinyuan County was absorbed into Chongqing Department, so the disappearance of the county name did not mean the disappearance of its administrative centre. Local educational institutions give a more tangible view of the succeeding centuries. The departmental Confucian school was founded early in the Hongwu reign, repaired in 1516 and destroyed during the late Ming upheaval. It was rebuilt in 1667 and enlarged in 1682. These changes tie the older Jinyuan landscape to the survival, destruction and restoration of a particular public institution under Ming and Qing government.