Zhengding

Zhengding, town, western Hebei sheng (province), China. The town has been strategically important throughout history, being situated on the edge of the North China Plain at the foot of the Taihang Mountains and commanding the approaches to one of the principal routes from the plain into Shanxi province.

The area was a part of the state of Zhao during the Warring States period (475–221 bce), and a county town named Zhending was established there by the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce) in the 2nd century bce. It kept that name until 1723, when it was changed to Zhengding because the Chinese character zhen was tabooed for being part of the emperor’s name. From early Song times (960–1127) the town was the seat of the Zhending superior prefecture, and until the 20th century it was a major administrative centre for southwestern Hebei. It was also an important route centre and trading town, benefiting from river transport to the coastal area via the Hutuo River and being also on the main post road from Beijing through southwestern Hebei. In the 20th century, however, a minor market town to the south of the Hutuo River, Shijiazhuang, became an important rail junction and grew rapidly as a major trading centre and, from 1949, as a major industrial city. Thus, Zhengding, an important trading town since the Tang dynasty (618–907), was rapidly eclipsed, and eventually Shijiazhuang took over its administrative function as well, leaving it as a minor satellite city.

Zhengding, however, retains many reminders of its ancient importance. Notable are its numerous Buddhist monuments, built during Sui (581–618) and Tang times, when it was a centre of Buddhism. The town was the seat of one of the late Tang provincial governors who was a pious Buddhist, and in consequence the Buddhist foundations there were comparatively unscathed by the persecution of the religion in the mid-9th century. The Longxing Monastery, built in 581, is one of the best-preserved large-scale ancient Buddhist structures in China. The statue of Guanyin Buddha (Avalokitesvara) in the monastery, standing 72 feet (22 metres) high, is thought to be the tallest bronze Buddha statue in China. Pop. (2000) 91,299.