Sir Eric Teichman, the British diplomat and orientalist, described the territory in 1916 before its modern development:
...the path [from Tianshui] crosses the Tsin-ling Shan, and passes from the basin of the Huang Ho into that of the Yang-tse by an easy pass. The south-eastern corner of Kan-su, south of the Tsin-ling Shan range, differs greatly from the rest of the province. The bare loess hills of Central Kan-su with their waterless valleys give way to jungle-covered mountains with abundance of water, and coolie transport takes the place of camels, carts, and mules. The people are in close touch with Sechuan.[2]
The Liba gold deposit (李坝金矿区) lies within the county limits.[3]
Climate
Climate data for Lixian, elevation 1,384 m (4,541 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1981–2010)
Huaniu apples are a speciality agricultural product of the region.[6]
History
Scientists from Lanzhou University have established that widespread agriculture began in Li County around 6,400 years ago as part of the Banpo phase of the Yangshao culture of the Wei River valley. The warm, humid climate of the mid-Holocene made the area productive for millet prior to the drier conditions which began about 2000 BC.[7]
By the time of ancient China, Lixian was part of the territory of Xichui (lit. "the Western March").[8] During the Shang dynasty, Zhongjue[10] and his son Feilian(蜚廉) controlled Xichui from the midst of the area's Rong tribes. Feilian's son Elai served KingZhou as his bodyguard and was killed when King Wu overthrew him and founded the Zhou dynasty.[11]
Under the Zhou, however, Elai's family—the House of Ying—continued to control the area. His great-great-grandson was Daluo(大骆), who had two sons by different mothers in the early 9th century BC.[11] Cheng, his son by the daughter of the Marquis of Shen, inherited Xichui and the other son, Feizi, initially went without and served as his brother's horse breeder.[12] His reputation grew to the point that King Xiao charged him with breeding and providing the imperial cavalry. He proved so successful that, when the Marquis of Shen blocked his inheritance of Daluo's estate, King Xiao created him lord of nearby Qin (present-day Zhangjiachuan, Gansu).[8] During the 842 BC Compatriots Rebellion, the Zhou king Li was overthrown at Hao and forced into a prolonged exile;[14] the Rong took the occasion to attack and massacre Cheng's clan at Xichui. King Xuan named Feizi's great-grandson Qin Zhong commander over the Zhou expeditions against the Rong around 827 BC[11] but the Rong killed him at Qin in 822. His son Zhuang and his four younger brothers successfully invaded the Rong lands with 7,000 Zhou soldiers and recovered both Qin and Xichui.[8]
At some point during Spring and Autumn period, barley and wheat were introduced into the area in addition to its traditional millet.[7] Created a duke over Xichui, Zhuang moved his family's capital to the site,[11][12] establishing the city of Quanqiu.[8] When Zhuang died in 778 BC, his eldest son Shifu (世父) refused to inherit official duties but chose instead to live a life on his chariot, fighting the Rong in revenge for his grandfather's death.[11][12] His younger brother Xiang opted to marry his sister Mu Ying to King Feng of the Rong (豐王) and, the next year in 776 BC, he moved his capital from Quanqiu to Qian (汧, present-day Longxian in Shaanxi).[12] Shifu led the defense of Quanqiu against the Rong who subsequently invaded. Overcome, he was captured and lived among the Rong for a year before being released.[11] When the Quanrong overcame Hao in 771 and ended the Western period of the Zhou, Xiang was granted a promotion by King Ping and no longer suffered subordinate status.[12]
Li County's loess is prone to erosion and landslides. Amid the increasing collectivization of agriculture from 1964 to 1978, just seven flows damaged 22,000 hectares (85 sq mi) of farmland, destroyed 17,544 homes, and killed 1,142 people.[16]
During the Cultural Revolution, the area received a bit of local notoriety for its flagging grain production. The "experiences of Li County" were used by regional officials to caution against implementation of Tachai-style collectivism in the mid-1970s. The collective farms in the area saw decreasing year-on-year yields of grain until, by 1976, all 29 of the county's communes were consuming more grain than they produced. This provoked official action, which denounced the complaints as "sabotage" and "poison", in the period between the fall of the Gang of Four and the rise of Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms.[17]
Lixian is known as the home of rhubarb in China. According to Qianlong era writings, rhubarb has been cultivated in the area for thousands of years.[20] Other local produce includes apples, walnuts and peppers.[21][22]
^ abAn C.B. & al. "Lanzhou University: Evolution of prehistoric agriculture in central Gansu Province, China: A case study in Qin'an and Li County", Chinese Science Bulletin, Vol. 55, No. 18, pp. 1925 ff. (2010), excerpted in Issues in General Science and Scientific Theory and Method, 2011 ed., p. 641.
^ abcdLi Feng. Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou, 1045–771 BC, pp. 264 ff. Cambridge University Press (Cambridge), 2006. Accessed 3 December 2013.
^Sima Qian. Records of the Grand Historian translated by William Nienhauser Jr. as The Grand Scribe's Records: The Basic Annals of Pre-Han China, p. 88. Indiana University Press, 1994. Accessed 4 December 2013.
^Traditional accounts made this rebellion a spontaneous reäction of the oppressed people of Hao, but it seems more likely to have been the result of a royal defeat in a power struggle with aristocrats in the Wei valley.[13]
^ abDudbridge, Glen. A Portrait of Five Dynasties China: From the Memoirs of Wang Renyu (880–956), pp. 8 ff. Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Accessed 14 Dec 2013.
^Derbyshire, Edward. Loess Letter: The Skin of the Earth and the Way of the World, No. 21 (Supplement), p. 17. Center for Loess Research and Documentation (Leicester), 1989.
^The Monitoring Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Summary of World Broadcasts: Far East, Vol. 3. "A Grain-deficient County in Kansu". BBC, 1977.