Guanting (Chinese: 官亭; pinyin: Guāntíng) is a town in eastern Qinghai province, China.[1] It is located in the southeast of Minhe County and, together with Guanting, Zhongchuan, Xiakou, Gangou and Xin'er townships, is referred to as the Guanting Area (官亭地区).
It is the home to the most densely populated Monguor settlement in China, who refer to the area as "Sanchuan" (三川).
The official Chinese name for the area is Guanting (Chinese: 官亭). Local legends accounted that the name came from the famous general, Guan Yu, who stopped by in the area on his way to look for his sworn brother, Liu Bei, the founder of the Shu Han Kingdom (221-263) in the southwest, after having left Cao Cao of the Cao Wei Kingdom (220-265) in China proper. The Chinese name "Guan" in Guanting came from the last name of Guan Yu, whereas "Ting" came from the Chinese character for "stop" (Chinese: 停) or "pavilion" (Chinese: 亭).
The informal reference by the local residents of the Monguor is "Sanchuan" (Chinese: 三川), which literally means "Three Plains" and applies to the Upper, Middle, and Lower plains according to the geographic features marked by two seasonable rivers that flow from the north to the south into the Yellow River and divides the area. The Upper Plain, or Shangchuan, refers to the Zhaomuchuan Village of Guanting Township. The Middle Plain, or Zhongchuan, encloses Zhongchuan Township, which is separated from the Upper Plain by the Zhaomuchuan River. The Lower Plain refers to the Xiakou Township on the exit of the Yellow River that flows out of Qinghai into Gansu.
The town is home to the archeological site of Lajia, located in Lajia Village, which belong to the Qijia Culture, as well as the Majiayao Culture and the Xindian Culture.[2] The site's artefacts date back to approximately 2000 BCE, and contain pottery, stone tools, bone tools, jade, a moat, human houses, and human skeletons.[2]
Up until recently,[clarification needed] the area has very much existed as an independent kingdom, where everyone spoke their native Monguor language and which enabled the preservation of their culture, characterized by Nadun,[3][4] elaborate wedding[5][6] and funeral ceremonies,[7] and rich religious lives.[8][9]
Archaeological discoveries[10] and historical research hypothesized that the area is the homeland of the legendary Emperor Yü the Great, who established the Xia dynasty (2070 BC – 1600 BC), the first ever recorded dynasty in the ancient Chinese history.[11][12][13][14]
The area is the homeland of the most densely populated Monguor settlement.[citation needed] About three hundred of their villages are densely distributed on the north bank of the Yellow River, which have been administered into about one hundred executive political villages by the Chinese Government.[citation needed]
^Stuart, Kevin and Jun Hu (1993). "That all may prosper: the Monguor Nadun of the Guanting/Sanchuan Region, Qinghai, China." Anthropos 88: 15-27.
^Zhu Yongzhong and Kevin Stuart (1996). "Minhe Monguor Nadun Texts." CHIME9:Autumn, 89-105.
^Ma, Guangxing (1990). "Wedding, Etiquette, and Traditional Songs of the Minhe Region Tu (translated by Jun Hu and Kevin Stuart)." Asian Folklore Studies 49 (2): 197-222.
^Hu, Jun and Kevin Stuart (1992). "The Guanting Tu (Monguor) wedding ceremonies and songs." Anthropos 87: 109-132.
^Stuart, Kevin and Jun Hu (1991). "The Tu Fala: trance mediums of northwest China." Shaman's Drum 23: 28-35.
^Hu, Jun and Kevin Stuart (1992). "Illness among the Minhe Monguor, Qinghai province, PR China: prevention and etiology." Mongolian Studies XV: 111-135.
^Lu, Houyuan, Xiaoyan Yang, Maolin Ye, Kam-Biu Liu, Zhengkai Xia, Xiaoyan Ren, Linhai Cai, Naiqin Wu and Tung-Sheng Liu (2005). "Culinary archaeology: Millet noodles in Late Neolithic China." Nature 437(7061): 967-968.
^Bao, Yizhi [鲍义志] (2006). La jia yi zhi yu da yu zhi shui [The Lajia Site and flood management by Yü the Great] 喇家遗址与大禹治水. Qinghai ri bao [Qinghai Daily] 青海日报. September 15. Xining.
^Bao, Yizhi [鲍义志] (2007).『Zai shuo da yu gu li [More discussions on the homeland of Yü the Great] 再说大禹故里.』Zhongguo tu zu [China's Tu Nationality] 中国土族 34(2): 13.
^Xie, Zuo [谢佐] (2006).『Lue lun he huang wen hua de shi qian wen ming [On the prehistorical civilization of the Hehuang Culture] 略论河湟文化的史前文明.』Zhongguo tu zu [China's Tu Nationality] 中国土族 32(4): 4-6.
^Zhang, Zhongxiao [张忠孝] (2007).『Minhe guan ting shi da yu gu li [Guanting of Minhe is the homeland of Yü the Great] 民和官亭是大禹故里.』Zhongguo tu zu [China's Tu Nationality] 中国土族 34(2): 14-16.
