Chengdu rs the capital of Sichuan Province and one of the major cultural，economic，and political centers in West China.It has a long history，During the Three Kingdoms period （220-280CE），it was the capital of the state of Shu，During the Tang Dynasty，Chengdu was one of the most prosperous cities in China.Much later a transition occurred from the late Ming governance to that of the early Qing (roughly the 1620s to 1680s），during which Sichuan experienced more than half a century of war that devastated the economy in the region and damaged the cities.Yet in the early Qing，the economy and culture were graduafly restored.
　　Thanks to its geographically isolated position，Chengdu was little affected by the Opium Wars (1839-1842 and 1856-1860），apart from missionary activities，and it also suffered little during the Taiping Uprising (1851-1864）.tn 1877，Chengdu became the site of the Sichuan Arsenal (Sichuarr Jiqi Ju），established as part of the self-strengthening movement.The arsenal was the first modern factory in Sichuan.After nearby Chongqing was，opened as a trade port in 1890，Chengdu became less isolated and began to experience the cultural contact and conflict apparent in cities closer to the coast.tn 1895，a large-scale anti-Christian movement broke out in Chengdu，and some churches were burned down，A few years later，a group of focal intellectuals participated in the reform movement by organizing the Society of Sichuan Learning (Shuxue Hui） and publishing the Joumal of Sichuan Leaming (Shuxue Bao），Many new schools were also established at this time，In the first half of the twentieth century，Chengdu was one of the largest cities in inland China，with a population of around 340，000 at the turn of the century，increasing to around 440，000 by the 1930s.By 1945，due to wartime migration，its population had reached 740，000，falling to 650，000 in 1949.As the capital of Sichuan Province，Chengdu experienced almost all of the political，economic，social，and cultural transformations that occurred from the late-Qing reform period to the Communist victory in 1949.In the 1900-1910 period，Chengdu，under the influence of the new policies and self-government movement，became a center and model of industrial，commercial，educational，and social reforms in the Upper Yangzi region.Local elites，supported by state power，enthusiastically participated in reforms that built their social reputation and expanded their influence over ordinary people.
　　The Sichuan Police Force was set up in 1902，symbolizing the establishment of an early form of urban administration.In 1910，the City Council of Chengdu and Huayang (Chenghua Cheng Yishihui） was formed as part of the self-government movement; the council's members were elected.Both the police and the council became the early foundation of the Chengdu municipal government，but the former played a much more important role.In 1911，many residents joined the railroad-protection movement，contributing to the climate of protest that led to the revolution in October of that year.In late November 1911，Sichuan declared independence and organized the Great Han Military Government (Dahan Sichuan Jun Zhengfu）.
　　Post revolution，Chengdu suffered from the chaos general to the warlord era.In 1917，two wars erupted in the city-the first between the Yunnan and Sichuan armies in May，and the second between the Guizhou and Sichuan armies in July.Thousands of people were killed，and thousands of houses were destroyed，leading to a mass of refugees.Despite social disorder，under the influence of Westernization，new publications and new forms of entertainment such as modern drama emerged in Chengdu during the May Fourth and New Culture movements.The city's most famous writer of this period was Ba Jin (1904-2005），whose autobiographical novel Jia (The Famdy），written in 1932，deals with intergenerational family conflict and its impact on political and social change during the 1920s.