Nanyang has a long history. As early as four or five hundred thousand years ago, \"Nanzhao Man\" thrived in the upper reaches of the White River. About five or six thousand years ago, there were villages and houses here, and there were handicrafts such as agriculture, animal husbandry and pottery making. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, Nanyang belonged to Jingzhou, and was called \"Zhou soil\" by Zhou people because it was in the south of Zhou.
Nanyang County was set up at the beginning of the 35th year of King Zhao of Qin (272 BC). During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Nanyang had become one of the eight major capitals in China. Build Chu tablets on the turbulent river to divert water to irrigate the fields. Already began to use iron, iron smelting, silk and other handicrafts and commerce. In particular, the casting copper industry is developing rapidly and the technological level is high.
After the unification of the six States, the Qin Dynasty moved the wicked people to Nanyang, so that the rich and good at business businessmen and craftsmen gathered in Nanyang, which promoted the development of the economy of Nanyang, especially the development of iron smelting industry, becoming one of the national iron smelting centers. Nanyang County was still established in the Western and Eastern Han dynasties, and its jurisdiction was equivalent to the south of Xiong 'er Mountain in Henan Province and the north of Lake Mountain in Hubei Province. The economic and cultural development of Nanyang reached its heyday in history.
In the Western Han Dynasty, Nanyang Water conservancy was as famous as Zhengguo Canal in Guanzhong and Dujiangyan in Chengdu, and was known as the three major irrigation areas in China. Due to the development of the southeast and the south, Wancheng has also become a north-south traffic, east-west channel, is one of the famous five capitals (Nanyang, Luoyang, Linzi, Handan, Chengdu), but also the country set up nine areas and 46 areas of iron officials.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu, Emperor Guangwu, set up a military campaign in Nanyang to achieve imperial success, and Nanyang was called \"Emperor Township\". When Du Shi, the emperor of the province, cultivated the slope pond, extended the soil, and irrigated 40,000 hectares of farmland in the county, the iron smelting water drainage and hydraulic blower blowing greatly improved the efficiency of iron smelting, especially the use of ductile iron, improved the level of iron smelting technology, the use of this technology was more than 1,000 years earlier than Europe.
At that time, Nanyang County had a population of 2.4 million, the highest of any county in the country. The city has a circumference of 36 kilometers, which is larger than the urban area in 1990. In the Han Dynasty, Nanyang was full of talented people. Not only did most of Liu Xiu's 28 founding fathers come from Nanyang, but also Zhang Heng and Zhang Zhongjing, the world famous great scientists and medical scientists, emerged.
After the death of officials in the Han Dynasty, a large number of stone and brick statues were unearthed in Nanyang. It is a \"history of the Han Dynasty\" and has become a colorful flower in the treasure house of Chinese culture and art. From the Tang Dynasty, Nanyang set up Deng and Tang two states. After the rule of Zhenguan and Kaiyuan, Nanyang's agriculture and industry prospered.
Li Bai said in \"Nanyang Walk\" : \"Qing song to stop the clouds, beautiful dance has leisure, invite you Sheng Wanluo, Guan Guan wind back.\" In the early Ming Dynasty, Nanyang was the fiefdom of King Zhu, the 22nd son of Zhu Yuanzhang. During the Yongle period, a large-scale Tang palace was built in Nanyang City. During the Chenghua period, nine prefectary palaces were built. In Nanyang City, the royal relatives and nobles were crowded with traffic. Nanyang (city, district), Xinye, Tanghe, Sheqi, Neixiang, Xichuan has become an important land and water transportation town.
Grain, cotton, raw silk, tobacco, silk, oil, fur, wood, medicinal materials, copper, iron and so on poured into the market, and sold throughout the country