As early as 3,000 to 4,000 years ago, the She people thrived along the Tingjiang river, which originates in the north and runs through the county toward the south, and enters the South China Sea in Shantou, Guangdong province. Since early history, the Tingjiang river has been serving as an important water path for travel and, more importantly, the shipping of goods between coastal areas and mountainous terrain. It was said that the early Hakka ancestors traveled from north through the same path to Guangdong and the other parts of China and overseas, so Tingjiang river also gained its name as "Hakka's Mother River".
Imperial
During the Han Dynasty, county-level administration was established where Changting county is currently seated. To take on immigrating northerners, the Tingzhou fu prefecture administration was set up in the 24th reign-year of the Tang emperorKaiyuan, i.e. 736 CE. Since then and until the end of Qing Dynasty, Changting had been where Zhou, Jun, Lu and Fu were located, and economic and political center of western Fujian. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Tingzhou Fu encompassed eight counties including Changting, Ninghua, Qingliu, Guihua, Liancheng, Shanghang, Wuping and Yongding. Being the first such territory set up by administration for migrant resettlement and one of the main concentration places for Hakka people, Tingzhou is also referred to as "Capital of Hakkas". Many Hakkas can trace their origins back to Tingzhou. One of the most renowned Hakkas is Dr.Sun Yat-sen, the Father of Modern China, whose family migration path represents that of most Hakka people. According to the book by former Professor Luo Xianglin,Origins of Father of the Nation's Family, Dr. Sun's ancestors migrated as early as the Tang Dynasty from Chenliu, Kaifeng County, in central China's Henan Province to Ningdu County, Jiangxi. After staying in Ningdu for five generations, the family migrated in the Song Dynasty over to Tingzhou. After three generations the family migrated in the Ming Dynasty down to Guangdong, whence many family members scattered overseas.
Revolution Era
Tingzhou was renamed "Changting" in the 2nd year of the Republic of China, i.e. 1913. During Chinese Civil War, the prefecture was the economic and financial centre of the Chinese Soviet Republic. Tens of thousands of people from "Changting" joined the Chinese Red Army - but not many survived the Long March. With the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Prefecture was renamed again and—minus several counties—its political center was relocated to Xinluo. The former prefecture seat --"Tingzhou Town" —now only a shiretown, commemorates the imperial-era prefecture. The name of its reduced purview --Changting —recalls the prefecture in its ROC years. Real reorganisation only came in the early years of the People's Republic, which established a Diqu --since upgraded to the Diji Shi -- called Longyan. Two counties of the Imperial- and Republican eras, Ninghua and Qingliu, were detached. The remaining seven have henceforth been administered from a new centre, Xinluo, which is more accessible to the province's heavily populated coast.
Note on Usage
By Chinese convention the prefectural name would also refer, depending on context, to the city which was the seat of its government. Thus Mao Zedong's Red Army column is said to have taken Changting in 1929, meaning that his column exercised real control over what is now Tingzhou town.
