Datian County

Imagine a county whose territory was carved up repeatedly over centuries, leaving it with less than one-third of its original size. That is Youxi. In the 29th year of Kaiyuan of the Tang Dynasty (741 AD), it entered history with a vast territory of 3,424.64 square kilometers. Five hundred years later, this land had been split into three pieces, giving birth to two new counties: Yongan and Datian. I opened the Youxi County Gazetteer, and between its yellowed pages lay the story of a “mother county” torn apart. ...

Did you know that some counties in Fujian were literally “pieced together” from scraps of their neighbors? Not just one. In the mountains of central Fujian during the Ming Dynasty, at least three counties were carved out—cut from the flesh of a “mother county,” stitched together at the borders, and stamped with a new name. The deepest cut went into Youxi County. Established in 741 AD during the Tang Dynasty, Youxi covered over 3,400 square kilometers in the early Ming—more than twice the size of modern-day Xiamen. But in 1452 and 1535, the imperial court took a knife to it: first slicing off four districts (Du) to create Yongan, then carving out another twelve to create Datian. ...