Lúyáng

Luyang was the county seat of Yuanzhou on the edge of the Yunnan-Guizhou plateau, in the valley of the Wu River. The Song took the district from the Tian family, who held it as a native chiefdom called Yizhou, and in 1074 set up Luyang County and Yuanzhou in the new walled town. Under the Ming, Yuanzhou was demoted in 1376 and Luyang County abolished, the department town taking over its lands.

The Ming valued the place as the last stop in Huguang on the road from Chu through Guizhou to Yunnan. In 1548 the censor Zhang Yue, sent to put down a Miao uprising, set up the high command of four provinces at Yuanzhou and stayed until 1563. In 1600, during the campaign against the rebel Yang Yinglong, the court stationed the governor of Pianyuan here. The Qing made Yuanzhou a prefecture in 1736 and added Zhijiang as its county.