Zhili (traditional Chinese: 直隸; simplified Chinese: 直隶; pinyin: Zhílì; Wade-Giles: Chih-li) was a northern province in China from the Ming Dynasty until the province was dissolved during the Republic of China in 1928.

[edit] History

The name Zhili means "directly ruled" and indicates regions directly ruled by the government of China. Zhili province was first constituted Ming Dynasty. At the beginning of the Dynasty the capital of China was located at Nanjing along the Yangtze River. In 1403, Ming emperor Yongle Emperor relocated the capital to Beiping, which was then renamed Beijing, or northern capital.^[1] The region known as Northern Zhili was composed of parts of the modern provinces of Hebei, Henan, Shandong, and the administrative districts of Beijing and Tianjin. Conversely there was a region located around Nanjing known as Southern Zhili that included parts of what is today the provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, and the administrative district of Shanghai. During the Qing Dynasty Southern Zhili was reconstituted as Jiangnan, while Northern Zhili was renamed as Zhili province. In the 18th century the borders of Zhili province were redrawn and spread over what is today the provinces of Hebei, Liaoning and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In 1928 the government of the Republic of China assigned portions of northern Zhili province to its neighbors in the north and renamed the remainder Hebei Province.

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