Luótián

Luotian occupies the southern side of the Dabie Mountains in northeastern Hubei. Its mountainous setting gives a geographical frame to a county history marked by abolition, restoration and shifting prefectural supervision. The county was first founded under the Liang dynasty in 523, incorporated into Lan Xi during the Tang, and restored in 1093 under the Song as part of Qichun Prefecture. These successive arrangements preceded the political disruptions of the Mongol conquest.

Under the Yuan, the county was revoked and then re-established in 1275. Ming rule transferred its jurisdiction from Qichun to Huangzhou, an affiliation maintained under the Qing. Luotian is associated with Xu Shouhui, the late-Yuan rebel who proclaimed himself emperor, and with Wan Mizhai, a physician of the Ming period. Tiantangzhai rises in the northeastern part of the county, amid the mountains that mark its landscape.