Dingzhou was originally known as Lunu in early imperial China.[2] A tomb about 4 kilometers (2.5mi) southwest of Dingzhou from 55–8BCE was discovered and excavated in 1973. It contained several fragments of Han literature, including manuscripts of Confucius's Analects, the TaoistWenzi, and the Six Secret Teachings, a military treatise. Four further manuscripts remain unpublished. The identity of the tomb's occupant is unknown, but Chinese archaeologists have speculated that it belonged to one of two kings of the Zhongshan fiefdom under the Former Han dynasty: either Liu Xiu or Liu Xing.[3]
Dingzhou took its present name around 400CE when it became the seat of Ding Prefecture under the Northern Wei, displacing the earlier An Prefecture.[2] In the mid-6th century, its territory held 834,211 people living in 177,500 households.[2] Under the Sui, the seat of Boling Commandery at present-day Anping was renamed "Gaoyang". In 607, Dingzhou then became the eponymous seat of a new Bolingcommandery and retained that name and status under the Tang[4] until it returned to the name Dingzhou between 621 and 742 and again after 758.[2] Its territory held only 86,869 people in 25,637 households in 639 but recovered to 496,676 people in 78,090 households by 742.[2] As the seat of the often de facto independent jiedushi of Yiding Province, it was also known as Anxi and controlled three prefectures with only 27,401 households during the 813 census.[5]
In 1055, under the Song, the city became the home of the 84-meter-tall (276ft)Liaodi Pagoda, which is today China's tallest surviving pre-modern pagoda.
Gamble, Sidney D.; etal. (1954), Ting Hsien, a North China Rural Community, New York: International Secretariat Institute of Pacific Relations, reprinted by Stanford: Stanford University Press in 1968.
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