Sichuan is “Chuan” or “Shu” in short. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties there were two states in this place: the ancient Shu people dominated Shu State in western Sichuan and the ancient Ba people dominated Ba State in eastern Sichuan (including Chongqing). Therefore, this place in ancient times was called Ba Shu. In 316 BC, Ba State and Shu State were destroyed by Qin State and set up the Ba and Shu prefectures here. It belonged to the Yi State in the Han Dynasty, Jiannan Dao (name of a jurisdiction), Shannan East Dao and Shannan West Dao in the Tang Dynasty. The Sichuan-Shaanxi Lu (name of a jurisdiction) was constructed in the Song Dynasty, and later the Yi, Zi, Li and Kui four Lu, collectively the Sichuan Lu. Since then, the name of “Sichuan” had been used. In the Yuan Dynasty, Sichuan Xingzhongshu Province, Sichuan Xing Province in short was set up and in Ming Dynasty, the Sichuan Provincial Administrative Commission. The jurisdiction also covers Zunyi of Guizhou, northeast of Yunnan and Northwest of Guizhou. This place was approved to be Sichuan Province in the Qing Dynasty, with great adjustment made to the borders among Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou. As a result, the south provincial border of Sichuan was basically determined.
In the Republic of China, the current West Sichuan was the Xikang Province, which was included in Sichuan in 1955. In 1997, it was divided into Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality to be governed independent from each other. Presently, Sichuan affiliates 18 cities and 3 ethnical autonomous prefectures.
Reputation of “land of abundance”. Advantageous geographic and economic conditions let Sichuan be one of the earliest places of economic development in China. As proved by archaeology, there were already human beings in Sichuan in the Paleolithic period. Chengdu Plain was the center of birth of cultures of middle and upper reaches of Yangtze River 4,000-5,000 years ago. Among them, Sanxingdui Site of Guanghan and Jinsha Site of Chengdu is political, economic and cultural center of the ancient Shu State. Agricultural civilization and urban civilization started very early. Besides, agriculture, metallurgy, silk weaving and construction were all of some development in the past.
(The article is provided by Sichuan Yearbook Public House, the contents are from Sichuan Statistical Yearbook 2015)
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