Editing Hunan (section)

== History ==
{{more citations needed section|date=February 2014}}
[[File:Fenghuang old town.JPG|thumb|Fenghuang, a traditional town of Hunan]]
[[Changjiang Plain evergreen forests|Hunan's primeval forests]] were first occupied by the ancestors of the modern [[Miao people|Miao]], [[Tujia people|Tujia]], [[Dong people|Dong]] and [[Yao people]]s. The province entered written [[history of China|Chinese history]] around 350 BC, when it became part of the [[Zhou dynasty]]. After [[Qin (state)|Qin]] conquered the Chu in 278 BC, the region came under the control of Qin, and then the [[Changsha Kingdom]] during the [[Han dynasty]]. At this time, and for hundreds of years thereafter, the province was a magnet for settlement of [[Han Chinese]] from the north, who displaced and assimilated the original indigenous inhabitants, cleared forests and began farming rice in the valleys and plains.<ref>Harold Wiens. Han Expansion in South China. (Shoe String Press, 1967).</ref> The agricultural colonization of the lowlands was carried out in part by the Han people, who managed river dikes to protect farmland from floods.<ref>Brian Lander. State Management of River Dikes in Early China: New Sources on the Environmental History of the Central Yangzi Region . T'oung Pao 100.4-5 (2014): 325–362</ref> To this day, many of Hunan's small villages are named after Han families who settled there. Migration from the north was especially prevalent during the [[Eastern Jin dynasty]], [[Sixteen Kingdoms]] and the [[Northern and Southern dynasties]] periods, when the north was mostly ruled by non-Han ethnic groups ([[Five Barbarians]]) and in perpetual disorder.

During the [[Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period]], Hunan was home to its own independent regime, [[Chu (Ten Kingdoms)|Ma Chu]].

Hunan and [[Hubei]] became a part of the province of [[Huguang]] until the [[Qing dynasty]]. Hunan province was created in 1664 from Huguang and renamed in 1723.

Hunan became an important communications center due to its position on the [[Yangzi River]]. It was an important centre of scholarly activity and [[Confucian]] thought, particularly in the [[Yuelu Academy]] in [[Changsha]]. It was also on the Imperial Highway between northern and southern China. The land produced grain so abundantly that it fed many parts of China with its surpluses. The population continued to climb until, by the 19th century, Hunan became overcrowded and prone to peasant uprisings. Some of the uprisings, such as the ten-year [[Miao Rebellion 1795-1806|Miao Rebellion of 1795–1806]], were caused by ethnic tensions. The [[Taiping Rebellion]] began in [[Guangxi]] Province in 1850, then spread into Hunan and further eastward along the Yangzi River valley. A Hunanese army ([[Xiang Army]]) under [[Zeng Guofan]] marched into [[Nanjing]] to put down the uprising in 1864. [[File:Type 92 Heavy Machine Gun2.jpg|thumb|Invading Japanese soldiers firing across the [[Miluo River]] during the [[Battle of Changsha (1939)|Battle of Changsha]] in World War II|222x222px]]

In 1920, a famine raged throughout Hunan and killed an estimated 2 million Hunanese civilians.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wGKZDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA134|title=Political Routes to Starvation: Why Does Famine Kill?|isbn=9781622735082|last1=Dianda|first1=Bas|date=15 March 2019|publisher=Vernon Press }}</ref> This sparked the [[Autumn Harvest Uprising]] of 1927. It was led by Hunanese native [[Mao Zedong]], and established a short-lived Hunan Soviet in 1927. The Communists maintained a guerrilla army in the mountains along the Hunan-[[Jiangxi]] border until 1934. Under pressure from the Nationalist [[Kuomintang]] (KMT) forces, they began the [[Long March]] to bases in [[Shaanxi]] Province. After the Communists departed, the KMT fought the Japanese in the [[second Sino-Japanese war]]. It defended Changsha until it fell in 1944. Japan launched [[Operation Ichigo]], a plan to control the railroad from [[Wuchang, Hubei|Wuchang]] to [[Guangzhou]] ([[Yuehan Railway]]). Hunan was relatively unscathed by the civil war that followed the Japanese defeat in 1945. In 1949, the Communists returned as the Nationalists retreated southward.

In the 1950s, [[Wang Zhen (general)|General Wang Zhen]] coerced thousands of Hunanese women into sexual servitude at PLA units in Xinjiang.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Turland |first1=Jesse |title=Op-Ed in China Draws Backlash for Advocating Women 'Warm Rural Bachelor's Beds' |url=https://thediplomat.com/2021/10/op-ed-in-china-draws-backlash-for-advocating-women-warm-rural-bachelors-beds/ |website=thediplomat.com |publisher=The Diplomat |access-date=20 October 2021}}</ref>

As Mao's home province, Hunan supported the [[Cultural Revolution]] of 1966–1976,{{Citation needed|reason= This is a fairly bold claim. It would be useful frame of reference establishing "support". Was it more supportive than other regions? How is that measured or established. "Support" seems vague. |date=July 2018}} but it was slower than most provinces to adopt the reforms [[Deng Xiaoping]] implemented in the years after Mao's death in 1976.

In addition to Mao, several other first-generation communist leaders were from Hunan: [[President of the People's Republic of China|Chinese President]] [[Liu Shaoqi]]; [[Secretary-general of the Chinese Communist Party|CCP Secretaries-General]] [[Ren Bishi]] and [[Hu Yaobang]]; Marshals [[Peng Dehuai]], [[He Long]], and [[Luo Ronghuan]]; [[Wang Zhen (general)|Wang Zhen]], one of the [[Eight Elders]]; [[Xiang Jingyu]], the first female member of the CCP's central committee; Senior General [[Huang Kecheng]]; and veteran diplomat [[Lin Boqu]]. A more recent leader from Hunan is former [[Premier of the People's Republic of China|Chinese Premier]] [[Zhu Rongji]].