After Qin Shihuang unified China, he abolished the enfeoffment system, set up the county system, and formally established three counties, namely Yin, Shaanxi and Huiji. It is said that many overseas people came to Ningbo to collect goods and trade, so they called the nearby mountain Zhishan (near today's Wang Yu Temple) and established Zhixian County here. Straight is the combination of the word "trade city", which means a place for trade. During the Han dynasty, the scope of these three counties was roughly as follows: Yinxian county included the present urban area, the southwest suburb of Fenghua and the southeast area, and the county was ruled by Fenghua Baidu; Yixian county includes the place east of jiangdong district and north of Shanshan, and the county is governed in Shanshan; The decree covers the area from Jiangbei to Cixi, and the county government is near Chengshandu, Zhashan Township, Jiangbei District. From the Han Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the architecture and scope changed little.
During the Sui Dynasty, both Yin and Zhi counties were compiled into chapters, and the county was located in Xiaoxi (now Yinjiang Bridge in Yin County). During the Wude period of Tang Dynasty, the sentence was changed to Yinzhou, and it was later renamed as the magistrate of a county. Until the establishment of the state government in the 26th year of Kaiyuan in the Tang Dynasty (AD 738). Because there is Siming Mountain nearby, it is called Mingzhou. Counties Fenzhi, Fenghua, Cixi and Wengshan (now Dinghai County) belong to Mingzhou. State governance began in Xixi and then moved to Sanjiangkou. During the Yuanhe period, Wanghai Town was set up in the east of Jixian County. During the Five Dynasties, the prefectures and counties were unified, and the magistrate of a county was renamed Yin County, Wanghai Town was renamed Wanghai County, and later Dinghai County (now Zhenhai County), and Xiangshan was also placed under Mingzhou. In the sixth year of Xining in the Northern Song Dynasty (AD 1073), Guochang County (now Dinghai County) was established. In this way, the scope of Mingzhou roughly includes Yin, Ci, Zhen, Feng, Xiang and Ding counties in Ningbo. Mingzhou was an important foreign trade port in China during the Tang and Song Dynasties. There is a record in Siming Zhi that "overseas countries are mixed, and Jia Bo handed it over". 1974 The exquisite Tang porcelain unearthed from He Yi Road was exported through Ningbo Port. In the Tang Dynasty, a special foreign trade management organization, the Municipal Shipping Department, was established in Mingzhou. At that time, Japan, North Korea and some Southeast Asian countries came ashore from Mingzhou to pay tribute and trade. In the Song Dynasty, Mingzhou, Quanzhou and Guangzhou were also called the three major foreign trade ports in China, and they were also important bases for China to build seagoing vessels, which could accommodate 500 to 600 people.
Mingzhou was changed to qingyuan prefecture in the Southern Song Dynasty and Qingyuan Road in the Yuan Dynasty. After Zhu Yuanzhang pacified Fang Guozhen, it was changed to the state capital of the Ming Dynasty, because "Qingyuan" means to celebrate the Yuan Dynasty. In the 14th year of Hongwu (A.D. 138 1), the word "Ming" in Mingzhou was the same as the name of the Ming Dynasty, so it was changed to Ningbo Prefecture. Since Zhenhai County was also called Dinghai County at that time, Mingzhou was very close to Zhenhai, meaning "Dinghai Boning". This is why "Ningbo" got its name.