During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Jingzhou was originally under the jurisdiction of Nanyang County, Nanjun County, Jiangxia County, Lingling County, Guiyang County, Wuling County and Changsha County. Later, Cao Cao separated Xiangyang County and Nanxiang County from Nanjun County and Nanyang County, which were collectively called "Jingxiang Nine Counties".
"Jingxiang Nine Counties" is a well-known concept of historical geography, especially popular in the historical cognition of the masses who love the current affairs of the Three Kingdoms. However, this concept is not a contemporary language, but a vocabulary created by later generations in their artistic creation by tracing the situation at that time, which has always influenced people's historical cognition.
The word "Jingxiang Nine Counties" first appeared in the scripts of Yuan Zaju. Gao Wenxiu is a writer of Yuan Zaju, known as "Little Han Qing", who is good at writing Water Margin Opera and Three Kingdoms Opera. Among his scripts handed down from ancient times, there is a script called Xiangyang Society, and some fragments of it, such as "I want to send books to Jingzhou for grazing, and Liu Biao is my kinsman, guarding the nine counties of Jingxiang", and there is a saying of "nine counties of Jingxiang".
In addition, Gao Wenxiu used "Jingxiang Nine Counties" and similar expressions in more than one place in the script of Xiangyang Hui. These story fragments using "Jingxiang Nine Counties" can be roughly located in the period when Liu Biao was in charge of Jingzhou, and "Jingxiang Nine Counties" is actually synonymous with Jingzhou.
Popular works such as novels that appeared after Gao Wenxiu's zaju also used the word "Jingxiang Nine Counties" one after another. For example, the earliest extant Jiajing edition of Ming Dynasty, Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms, was created on the basis of Yuan dialect and inherited this usage:
Although there are three problems, (Fu) Xun has a strategy to make the name of Jingxiang Nine Counties as safe as Mount Tai ... The army of Jingxiang Nine Counties can be presented to Tsao Gong, who will pay more attention to the master ... [4]?
Other collected works and popular works that appeared in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, such as Meng Chengshun's Juanjiang Collection and an unknown person's Keeping the Military Strategy in the World, also use "Jingxiang Jiujun" when it comes to current affairs in the Three Kingdoms:
The next day, the congregation will gather the three armies, worship the wise men, and command the Marshal of the Ninth Army of Jingxiang County ...?
Guan Gongyu, whose name is Yunchang, is a native of Hedong, a general of the former Han Dynasty, a false festival, a satrap of nine counties in Jingxiang, and a strong Miao Hanshou Hou Ting.
In the Qing Dynasty, the novel "Little Wuyi" was not only limited to the current affairs of the Three Kingdoms, but also used the word "nine counties in Jingxiang" as the theme.
From this point of view, by the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the word "Jingxiang Nine Counties" had been widely circulated and gradually accepted by people, and it is still used as a seemingly reasonable concept of historical geography. However, this concept is unreasonable. At best, it is only "taking the present generation as the past", and the historical geography concept of later generations will describe the historical geography situation at that time.
The emergence of this concept is through popular scripts, novels and other historical deductive carriers. As far as I can see, it has never appeared in official history. If we really want to trace back to the establishment of administrative divisions in the Three Kingdoms period, we can easily find that the title of "Jingxiang Nine Counties" is difficult to establish.
Extended data
During the Three Kingdoms period, the owner of Jingzhou experienced the following eight stages of change:
1, first Liu Biao, basically occupied nine counties. Shortly before his death, Sun Quan defeated his subordinate Huang Zu and won Jiangxia County South.
2. After Liu Biao's death, Liu Cong, the son of Liu Biao, returned to the nine counties in Jingzhou.
3. Cao Cao invaded Jingzhou and occupied four counties in northern Jingzhou. Liu Cong then surrendered to Cao Cao with four counties in the south of Jingzhou, making eight counties in Jingzhou belong to Cao Cao, Liu Qi (and Liu Bei) occupied Jiangxia Xiakou, and Sun Quan occupied most Jiangxia counties in the south of the Yangtze River.
4. After Battle of Red Cliffs, Sun Quan and Liu Bei captured Nanjun, Changsha, Lingling, Guiyang and Wuling in the south of Jingzhou, while Cao Cao occupied Nanyang, Xiangyang and Nanxiang in the north of Jingzhou, and then extended a part of Jiangxia in the north of the Yangtze River. Chibi belonged to Sun Quan before.
At the suggestion of Lu Su, Liu Bei went to Wudong to see Sun Quan and asked Sun Quan to borrow the land in Jingzhou. This is the origin of "borrowing Jingzhou", so Liu Bei occupied five counties in the south of Jingzhou and Xiakou City in Jiangxia, Cao Cao occupied Nanyang County, Xiangyang County and Nanxiang County in the north of Jingzhou, plus part of Jiangxia, and Sun Quan occupied part of Jiangnan in Jiangxia.
6. After Liu Bei occupied Xichuan, Cao Cao occupied Hanzhong and threatened Xichuan, so Liu Bei made peace with Sun Quan. Jiangxia, Guiyang and Changsha belong to Sun Quan and Nanjun, Lingling and Wuling belong to Liu Bei. Nanyang County, Xiangyang County and Nanxiang County, plus a part of Jiangxia, all belong to Cao Cao.
7. Lv Meng attacked Jingzhou, Guan Yu was captured and killed, and Jiangxia, Guiyang, Changsha, Nanjun, Lingling and Wuling were returned to Wu Dong. Nanyang County, Xiangyang County and Nanxiang County, plus a part of Jiangxia, all belong to Cao Cao. Liu Bei's troops completely withdrew from Jingzhou.
8. At the end of the Three Kingdoms, Sima Yan established the Jin Dynasty, and then began the battle to destroy the State of Wu. Sun Hao, the Lord of Wu, surrendered and Jingzhou returned to Jin.
Jingzhou was a military strategic place during the Three Kingdoms period. After Cao Cao and Battle of Red Cliffs, the idea of unifying China could not be realized because Jingzhou fell. Liu Bei borrowed Jingzhou and got the land of West Shu, so he became three kingdoms with Wei and Wu. However, due to the ownership of Jingzhou, the alliance between Wu and Shu broke down, leading to a long-term confrontation with Wei, and finally the three countries returned to Jin.
Wu took advantage of Jingzhou to form an alliance with Liu Bei, and Chibi defeated Cao Cao, and finally got most of Jingzhou, which laid the foundation for the North-South struggle in the history of China for hundreds of years. In the end, the Three Kingdoms were destroyed by Sima. In this land of Jingzhou, it was staged again and again.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Jingxiang Jiujun