Nánchāng

Nanchang stands on the Gan River plain southwest of Poyang Lake, where the rivers of Jiangxi meet the water road to the Yangtze. Under the Yuan it was the seat of the Jiangxi provincial government. The riverside Tengwang Pavilion, made famous by Wang Bo's Tang-dynasty preface, gave the city a literary name that outlasted many ruinings and rebuildings.

In 1363 Chen Youliang, rival of the future Ming founder Zhu Yuanzhang, besieged the city, then called Hongdu. Zhu's nephew held it until Zhu's main fleet arrived and broke Chen on Poyang Lake, and Zhu renamed the place Nanchang that year. Under the Ming the city housed both the provincial offices and the court of the Prince of Ning. In 1519 the prince rose in rebellion here and sailed downriver toward Anqing, but the scholar-official Wang Shouren seized his undefended base and defeated him. Jiangxi merchants grew into one of the empire's great trading networks, and in 1595 the Jesuit Matteo Ricci settled in Nanchang for three years among its officials and princes. In 1649 the Qing retook the city from a general who had rebelled against them, and sacked it.