Qichun County

Qichun County (simplified Chinese: 蕲春县; traditional Chinese: 蘄春縣; pinyin: Qíchūn Xiàn) is a county of eastern Hubei province, People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of Huanggang City.

Qichun County has been a major historical center of traditional Chinese medicine. It is known in China as the "Professor County" (Chinese: 教授县; pinyin: Jiàoshòu Xiàn), due to the high amount of professors and other academic experts hailing from the county.

Qichun County is named after the abundant qicai (Chinese: 蕲菜; pinyin: qí cài), a variety of Chinese celery, in the area.

The area of present-day Qichun County has been inhabited since the Neolithic age.

In 224 BCE, Qin forces pursued the beaten and retreating Chu forces to Qinan (蕲南; northwest of present-day Qichun in Hubei) and general Xiang Yan, grandfather of future hegemonic king Xiang Yu, was either killed in the action or committed suicide following his decisive defeat.^{[citation needed]}

Qichun County was first established during the Western Han, possibly as early as 201 BCE. Due to its strategic location, in history Qichun was referred to as “The Key Point of Jingchu” (Jingchu is another name of the ancient state of Chu and the region belonged to it).^{[citation needed]}

During the Three Kingdoms period, Qichun was made a commandery (Chinese: 郡; pinyin: Jùn). In the summer of 223 CE, Eastern Wu general He Qi attacked and eliminated an outpost of Cao Wei in the new commandery territory of Qichun, on the southern slopes of the Dabie Shan mountains.^{[citation needed]} But for the next twelve months the northern front remained quiet.^{[citation needed]} The Grand Administrator of Qichun was Jin Zong, a former officer of Sun Quan who had deserted and joined Cao Wei.^{[citation needed]} It appears he was given the commandery appointment at this time, in the hill country of the Dabie Shan on the border region between Lujiang and Jiangxia, so that he could disturb the communications routes along the Yangtze and across that river to the south.^{[citation needed]}

There is evidence that the Qichun commandery had been established a few years earlier, evidently on the basis of the county of that name in Jiangxia Commandery of Later Han, but the territory had been abandoned by Cao Cao at the time of his withdrawal in 213 CE.^{[citation needed]} From this time, after the defeat of Jin Zong's infiltration, the territory was held by Wu.^{[citation needed]} One of the subordinate commanders in He Qi's attack on Qichun was Mi Fang, the erstwhile officer of Guan Yu who had surrendered Jiangling to Lü Meng in 219 AD.^{[citation needed]} Qichun also was evidently a proving ground for renegades.^{[citation needed]}