Xiāngyīn

Xiangyin stands on the Xiang River near the southern reaches of Lake Dongting. Its county seat was moved to the riverside at Wasuitan in 1130, after several earlier changes of location. The county had originally been established in the fifth century to accommodate refugees from the Ba and Xia regions upstream.

Raised to a prefecture under the Yuan, Xiangyin became a county again in 1369 and belonged to Changsha Prefecture throughout the Ming and Qing. Its Confucian temple, founded in the Song, was repeatedly repaired. In 1747 the magistrate Xu Liangdong added a pool and bridge; further rebuilding followed in 1773 and 1825, with local gentry taking part in the latter work.