Yàncì

Yàncì is the Han-era name of the old county seat on the north bank of the Yellow River in northern Shandong, where the Tuhai River crosses a flat, salty plain that successive dynasties made a seat of departments and prefectures. The Tang and Song knew the surrounding department as Dizhou. The early Ming abolished both the department and the county, restored the department in 1373 under the name Le'an, and later renamed it Wuding.

In the Yongle reign the Ming emperor moved his turbulent second son Zhu Gaoxu, Prince of Han, to Le'an. After the emperor's death Zhu Gaoxu plotted against his nephew, and in 1426 he raised a revolt there. The Xuande emperor marched north in person, surrounded the town with his army, and the prince surrendered within days. The Qing raised Wuding to a department under the provincial government in 1724 and then to a prefecture in 1734, with its seat on the old Yanci site, where the county of Huimin was set up.