Which eight cities are the "eight ancient capitals" of China?

Xi'an, Nanjing, Beijing, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Hangzhou, Anyang and Zhengzhou are known as China's "eight ancient capitals".

There have been 217 capital cities that we really understand historically as having entered the state during this period. These include both the traditional capitals of the hinterland of the great unified empire and the capitals of some of the local regimes in the neighboring regions.

Early Zhou Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty had two capitals, which later spread deeper through the Two Capitals Fugue and Two Capitals Fugue, namely, the eastern capital of Luoyang and the western capital of Chang'an. The two capitals in the north and south of the Ming Dynasty were Nanjing Yingtianfu and Beijing Shuntianfu.

Traditional historiography according to the duration of the capital only Xi'an, Nanjing, Luoyang, Beijing, China's four major ancient capitals, in the 1920s academics said "China's five major ancient capitals", they are: Xi'an, Nanjing, Luoyang, Beijing, Kaifeng.

In the 1930s, Hangzhou was added to the list of "six ancient capitals", but it was not accepted by the public. 1983 Chen Qiaoyi in the book "six ancient capitals of China" will be included in Hangzhou in the great ancient capitals, and since then six ancient capitals are accepted by the public: Xi'an, Nanjing, Beijing, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Hangzhou.

In 1982, Tan Qichang published an article entitled "The Seven Great Capitals in Chinese History," arguing that "in the thousands of years of China's history, there have been many cities that have been the capitals of unitary regimes or larger regional regimes, and the most important of these are the seven great capitals of Chang'an, Luoyang, Ye, Kaifeng, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Beijing. "These seven capitals can be further divided into three categories: Chang'an, Luoyang and Beijing, which were the capitals of unification regimes for a long time during several consecutive dynasties; Kaifeng and Nanjing, which were the capitals of unification regimes for a shorter period of time; and Yéi and Hangzhou, which were the capitals of larger regional regimes only". The "seven capitals" proposed by Tan Qichang here is another expression of the "seven ancient capitals" mentioned later.

In 1988, geographer Tan Qichang proposed Anyang as the ancient capital, and Anyang was recognized as the seventh largest ancient capital, so there are seven ancient capitals: Xi'an, Nanjing, Beijing, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Hangzhou and Anyang.

In November 2004, the Chinese Society of Ancient Capitals, recognized Zhengzhou as the eighth largest ancient capital, so there are eight ancient capitals: Xi'an, Nanjing, Beijing, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Hangzhou, Anyang, Zhengzhou.