Wǔgāng

Wugang stands in the hills of southwestern Hunan, near the Zi River and the wooded heights of Yunshan. Long a military and administrative centre, it was elevated to a prefecture under the Yuan and became a subprefecture of Baoqing under the Ming. Its walls and princely residence mark a turbulent history on the edge of the mountain country.

In 1346 the Yao leader Wu Tianbao rose against the Yuan and twice took Wugang. After another uprising in 1371, the Ming general Wu Liang rebuilt the town's earthen defences in stone. The Prince of Min moved his court here in the fifteenth century, and successive princes enlarged the fortified city. In 1647 the Southern Ming Yongli Emperor briefly made Wugang his capital before retreating westward in the face of Qing armies.