This province of China is shaped like a square with its southwest corner removed. The western third, and the fringes of the south and east are mountainous. The southern mountains, the Nan Ling, divide two of China's watersheds: the Yangtze(2) and the Pearl(3). The easily traversed eastern ranges separate the basins of two tributaries(4) of the Yangtze: the Xiang, which is within Hunan, from the Gan. Two other tributaries of the Yangtze drain the western mountains, while a third flows through the provincial center. The center is a hilly plateau with fertile valleys, and contains Heng Mountain, one of China's five sacred peaks. In the northeast is a set of lakes known collectively as Dongting Lake, which receive water from the Yangtze at high tide. Along the shore of East Dongting Lake is the famous Yueyang Pavillion.
Almost 70 million people live in Hunan, most of them speaking Xiang(5) Chinese, and most of the rest speaking Putonghua Chinese(6). Like most of China two generalizations about religion apply: those who are observant follow a syncretic mix of Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and local traditional beliefs; and some are willingly non-observant or aetheist, but their relative proportion cannot be determined due to government oppression of theists.
The provincial capital, Changsha, is one of the area's 13 cities (shi) with more than a million residents. It sits where the the Liuyang flows into the Xiang and along a main railroad line. Its Mawangdui Tombs of the Western Han Dynasty are of great archaeological importance.
Some linguists postulate an Austro-Tai language group: ancestral to the Austronesian and Kadai groups, and Miao and Yao. Some numbers of Dong(7), Miao(8) and Yao(9) speakers can be found in the west and south so perhaps their hypothetical Austro-Tai ancesters were the local predecessors to the Chinese. The Chinese settled the Hunanese heartlands during the first millenium B.C.E. and the remainder by the end of the next millenium.
The religious development of the Hunanese Chinese paralleled that of the rest of China: Confucianism and local beliefs, incorporation of Taoism after it became more than literature, reluctant accomodation of Buddhism and the recent retreat of the blend before the Marxian-Leninist government.north
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(1) Alternate transliterations are Zhongguo or Chung-hua. It can be translated as the Middle Kingdom or Middle Land.
(2) More properly called the Chiang. It is Asia's longest river.
(3) The Zhu in Chinese.
(4) The tributaries of the Yangtze within Hunan flow through Dongting Lake which connects to the Yangtze through several channels.
(5) Sometimes called Hunanese.
(6) Sometimes called Mandarin Chinese. Xiang and Putonghua share a written language.
(7) Dong is a Chinese term. The speakers call themselves Nin-kam and their language Kam.
(8) Miao is a Chinese term. The speakers call themselves Hmong.
(9) Yao is a Chinese term. The speakers call themselves Mien.