History

Bozhou, formerly known as “Bo” and also referred to as “Qiaocheng”, is an ancient city. The Chinese character “Bo” consists of two characters: “gao” at the top and “zhai” at the bottom, giving rise to the nickname “place of Gaozhai”. As far back as seven to eight thousand years ago, humans thrived in this area, making it one of the birthplaces of ancient Chinese culture. Shang Tang destroyed the Xia Dynasty and founded the Shang Dynasty, which was capitalized in Bozhou in 190, and he established Jifang Kingdom. In the second year of Emperor Wen’s reign in the Wei Dynasty (221), Qiao was designated as a “complementary capital”, and it was collectively referred to as one of the “Five Capitals” along with Xuchang, Chang’an, Luoyang, and Ye. In the first year of the Emperor Jing’s reign in the Northern Zhou Dynasty (579), South Yanzhou was renamed to Bozhou, marking the first appearance of the name “Bozhou”. In the fifteenth year of the Zhizheng era in the Yuan Dynasty (1355), Liu Futong rebelled against the Yuan Dynasty and declared Han Lin’er as emperor in Bozhou, establishing the Song regime, with Bozhou as its capital, which marked Bozhou’s significance as an ancient capital during three different dynasties. In 1912, Bozhou was changed to Bo County. In August 1948, Bozhou City was established. In February 1949, the city and county were merged, restoring the Bo County administration, which was then under the jurisdiction of the Fuyang Commissioner’s Office.