Níngpǔ

Níngpǔ was the county town of Héngzhōu on the Yù River in southern Guangxi, a long-settled seat whose name goes back to the Níngpǔ Commandery founded under the Jin in 286. Boats on the river carried rice and timber down toward Nánníng and the Xī River; the Tang gave the district the name Héngzhōu in 634, and the Yuan raised it briefly to a route in 1279, then in 1295 reduced it again to a zhou governing Níngpǔ and Yǒngchún counties.

Hengzhou also received exiles. The Song poet Qín Guān, sent here under supervision in 1097 during the purge of Su Shi's circle, wrote a group of poems on his life at Níngpǔ before he was moved on to Léizhōu the next year. In 1369 the Ming abolished Níngpǔ County and absorbed it into the zhou, which in 1377 was cut down to a county and restored in 1380. Under the Qing it was a minor zhou of Nánníng Prefecture.