Jiangxi

path in the Lu Mountains

Jiangxi province

Jiangxi, Wade-Giles romanization Chiang-hsi, conventional Kiangsi, sheng (province) of southeast-central China. It is bounded by the provinces of Hubei and Anhui to the north, Zhejiang and Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, and Hunan to the west. On the map its shape resembles an inverted pear. The port of Jiujiang, some 430 miles (690 km) upstream from Shanghai and 135 miles (220 km) downstream from Wuhan (Hubei), is the province’s principal outlet on the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang). The provincial capital is Nanchang.

The name Jiangxi literally means “West of the [Yangtze] River,” although the entire province lies south of it. This seeming paradox is caused by changes made in administrative divisions throughout China’s history. In 733, under the Tang dynasty, a superprefecture named Jiangnan Xi (“Western part of South of the Yangtze”) Dao was set up, with its seat at the city of Hongzhou (now Nanchang). The present provincial name is a contraction of that name.

Lying in the midst of a longitudinal depression between China’s western highlands and the coastal ranges of Fujian province, Jiangxi constitutes a corridor linking the province of Guangdong, in the south, with the province of Anhui and the Grand Canal, in the north. Throughout China’s history, Jiangxi has played a pivotal role in national affairs because of its position astride the main route of armies, commerce and trade, and large population migrations. Area 63,600 square miles (164,800 square km). Pop. (2020) 4,517,878.