South of the Yangtze evokes a mythical place in Chinese culture.
The Chinese call the area Jiangnan ( literally, south of the Yangtze) river. It is less a physical area than an economic way of life and a cultural identity.
To cross the Yangtze to the south is to see one of China’s wealthiest and beautiful regions. Cities like Suzhou and Hangzhou.
The book Teachers of the Inner Chambers (1994) is a study of the women who lived a higher cultured life in Jiangnan from the 1570s to 1720s.
The Kang Hsi Emperor made six famous Southern Tours from 1684 to 1707.
Jonathan D Spence, in his excellent book, Tsao Yin and the Kang Hsi Emperor, narrates these 6 tours in great detail.
These tours are called the Southern Tours, although the furthest south was only to Hangzhou. Canton and the south of China were never visited by Kang Hsi.
The literati then consider any place south of the Yangtze as southern China
His grandson Chien Lung imitated him by duplicating the six tours when he became Emperor.
Likewise, Deng Xiaoping also undertook his own southern inspection tours. But this time it was a real, proper southern tour to Guangdong province.
LWH, 4 Sep 2025