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Henan is a province in Central China. Henan is China's third-most populous province and the most populous among inland provinces, with a population of over 99 million as of 2020. The area around Henan was historically known as the Central Plains (Zhongyuan) and is considered the core region of Chinese cultural history.Four of the historical capitals of China, Luoyang, Anyang, Kaifeng and Zhengzhou, are in Henan. People from Henan sometimes underwent discrimination within China.

Henan has the 5th-largest provincial economy in China, the largest in Central China and among inland provinces, with a nominal GDP of CN¥5.88 trillion (US$926 billion) in 2021, surpassing that of Turkey (US$815 billion). If it were a country, it would be the 18th-largest economy by nominal GDP as of 2021.

Name

"Henan" literally translates to "South of the River" in English. In this context, "He" (河) specifically refers to the Yellow River, and "Nan" (南) means south. However, due to the changing course of the Yellow River and administrative redivisions, about one-quarter of Henan Province's territory is now located north of the river.

"Yu"(豫) is the administrative abbreviation for Henan Province. Historically, during the ancient "Nine countries" (九州) system in China, this region was known as Yuzhou (豫州). The character "Yu" (豫) originally meant "comfort". In archaic China, this region was still home to elephants, which is why it was given this name.

History

Regarded as the cradle of ancient Chinese culture, Henan is known for its historical prosperity and periodic downturns. The economic prosperity resulted from its somewhat fertile plains and its location at the heart of the country. Its strategic location also means that it has undergone more wars compared to certain other regions in China. The floods of the Yellow River have caused damage from time to time.

Ancient states and dynasties

Archaeological sites reveal that prehistoric cultures such as the Yangshao Culture and Longshan Culture were active in what later is northern Henan since the Neolithic Era. The later Erlitou culture has been controversially identified with the Xia dynasty, the first and mostly legendary Chinese dynasty.

The Shang dynasty (c. 1600 – c. 1046 BC) overthrew the Xia, with their capitals centered in Henan. The discovery of oracle bone scripts at the Yinxu site in Anyang provided invaluable insight into their writing, rituals, and social structure.

In the 11th century BC, the Zhou people arrived from the west and overthrew the Shang dynasty in the Battle of Muye. During the Western Zhou period (c. 1046 – 771 BC), the capital and political and economical center was moved away from Henan for the first time. The Spring and Autumn period, a period of warfare and rivalry, began in 721 BC. What later is Henan and all of China was several kingdoms, which are at war for control of the central plain. (逐鹿中原) While regarded formally as the ruler of China, the control that Zhou king in Luoyang exerted over the feudal kingdoms had virtually disappeared. Laozi, the founder of Taoism, was born in northern Chu, part of what later is Henan.

Imperial Era

Qin Shi Huang conquered six kingdoms and unified China proper in 221 BC, and the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) made Henan Commandery.The empire made Luoyang its political and cultural heart.

Following the Han's fall, Henan entered a period of prolonged turmoil during the Three Kingdoms, Jin, and the Northern and Southern Dynasties (220–589 AD). The region changed hands repeatedly among rival regimes. Despite the destruction, Henan continued to serve as a vital agricultural base and a melting pot of diverse ethnic groups and cultures in northern China.

The Sui dynasty reunified China in 589. Emperor Yang of Sui had the Grand Canal extended to Luoyang, but the massive expenditure of manpower and resources exhausted the populace, which ultimately led to the fall of the Sui empire.

The Tang dynasty lasted for three centuries before it eventually succumbed to internal strife. In the Period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907–960) that followed, Kaifeng in eastern Henan became the capital of four dynasties. The Song dynasty that reunified China in 982 also had its capital at Kaifeng. Under Song rule, Kaifeng overtook Luoyang and Chang'an as the largest city in China and in the world.

Conquests by Northern Peoples

In 1127, the Jurchens, a people from the northeast, captured Kaifeng and took the Song emperor prisoner. In 1194, the Yellow River changed its course, flowing southward into the Huai River through what is now northern Jiangsu, displacing millions of people. In the early 13th century, Mongols destroyed the Jin dynasty and conquered this region, establishing the Henan Jiangbei Branch Secretariat (河南江北行省).

Due to heavy casualties and mass migration caused by warfare and flooding, the Ming court under the Hongwu reign organized large-scale, compulsory resettlement from Shanxi to Henan. In 1368, the prefectures of Weihui (衛輝), Zhangde (彰德), and Huaiqing (懷慶)—areas north of the Yellow River—were placed under Henan's government. In 1641, the peasant rebel leader Li Zicheng captured Luoyang. The following year, Li's forces besieged Kaifeng three times. During the third siege, troops of Ming court breached the Yellow River dikes at Zhujiazhai and Majiakou north of the city in an attempt to flood the rebels. The waters inundated Kaifeng, submerging the entire city under several zhang of water. Of the city's 378,000 residents, only 30,000 survived.

The wars of the late Ming and early Qing (circa 1630–1662) once again devastated Henan. During the Kangxi reign, the province's agricultural economy recovered, and it gradually regained its status as a major population center and grain-producing region.

On September 30, 1887, a major Yellow River dike breach occurred at Xiayun Shibao in Zhengzhou (present-day Shiqiao Village, Huayuankou Town, Huiji District). The disaster claimed over two million lives (with estimates ranging from 930,000 to as high as 7 million). Xia Mingfang, a scholar of Qing history, called it "the most severe flood disaster in terms of population loss in modern Chinese history," while Peter Hough, professor of international relations at Middlesex University, described it as "one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history."

Modern time

The Qing dynasty was overthrown by the 1911 Revolution and then the Republic of China was established in 1912, during which a man from Henan, Yuan Shikai, played a role and thus became the first president of Republic of China.

In 1938, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, when the Imperial Japanese Army captured Kaifeng, the government led by Chiang Kai-shek bombed the Huayuankou dam in Zhengzhou in order to prevent Japanese forces from advancing further. This caused flooding in Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths. In 1942 Henan was hit by the Chinese famine of 1942-43 resulting from a mix of drought, locusts and destruction caused by the war.

In 1954, the government of the People's Republic of China moved the capital of Henan from Kaifeng to Zhengzhou, as a result of its railway transportation importance. The PRC had earlier established a Pingyuan Province consisting of what later is northern Henan and western Shandong with Xinxiang as its capital. This province was abolished in 1952.

In 1958, Yashan in Suiping County, Henan, became the first people's commune of China, heralding the beginning of the "Great Leap Forward". In the subsequent famines of the 1960s, which are attributed to the Great Leap Forward, millions of people died in Henan. Suffering under famine and economic chaos caused by the Great Leap, locals in Henan offered resistance mostly through banditry. In 1959, a peasant uprising erupted and was defeated after twenty days of fighting.

A destructive flooding of the Huai River in the summer of 1950 prompted construction of dams on its…