Guanzhong in the context of "Predynastic Zhou"

Xi'an is the capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populous city in Northwestern China. Its total population was 12.95 million in the 2020 census, including an urban population of 9.28 million.

Xi'an is one of the oldest cities in China. Known as Chang'an throughout much of its history, Xi'an is one of China's Four Great Ancient Capitals, having held the position under several of the most important dynasties in Chinese history, including the Western Zhou, Qin, Western Han, Sui, Northern Zhou and Tang. Xi'an is now the second-most popular tourist destination in China. The city was one of the terminal points on the Silk Road during the ancient and medieval eras, as well as the home of the 3rd-century BC Terracotta Army commissioned by Emperor Qin Shi Huang—both of which are listed as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

Emperor Gaozu of Han (256 or 247 – 1 June 195 BC), personal name Liu Bang, was the founder and first emperor of the Han dynasty.

Liu Bang was among the few dynastic founders to have been born in a peasant family. He initially entered the Qin dynasty bureaucracy as a minor law enforcement officer in his hometown in Pei County, within the conquered state of Chu. During the political chaos following the death of Qin Shi Huang, who had been the first emperor in Chinese history, Liu Bang renounced his civil service position and became a rebel leader, taking up arms against the Qin dynasty. He outmanoeuvred rival rebel leader Xiang Yu to invade the Qin heartland and forced the surrender of the Qin ruler Ziying in 206 BC.

Shaanxi is a province in north Northwestern China bordering the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to the west. Shaanxi covers an area of over 205,000 km (79,000 sq mi) with about 37 million people, the 16th-largest in China. Xi'an, which includes the sites of the former capitals Fenghao and Chang'an – is the provincial capital and largest city in Northwest China and also one of the oldest cities in China. It is also the oldest of the Four Ancient Capitals, being the capital for the Western Zhou, Western Han, Jin, Sui and Tang dynasties. Xianyang, which served as the capital of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC), is just north across the Wei River. The other prefecture-level cities into which the province is divided are Ankang, Baoji, Hanzhong, Shangluo, Tongchuan, Weinan, Yan'an and Yulin.

The province is geographically divided into three parts, namely Northern (or "Shaanbei"), Central ("Shaanzhong") and Southern Shaanxi (or "Shaannan"). Northern Shaanxi makes up the southeastern portion of the Ordos Basin and mainly comprises the two prefectural cities of Yulin and Yan'an on the northern Loess Plateau, demarcated from the Ordos Desert and the grasslands of Inner Mongolia's Ordos City by the Ming Great Wall. Central Shaanxi is also known as the Guanzhong region, and comprises the drainage basin of lower Wei River east of Mount Liupan and north of the Qinling Mountains, where the majority of Shaanxi's population reside. Southern Shaanxi comprises the three prefectural cities in the edge of the historical Bashu region south of the Qinling Mountains and includes the three mountainous cities of Hanzhong, Ankang and Shangluo.

The Han–Xiongnu Wars or Sino-Xiongnu Wars, were a series of military conflicts fought from 133 BC to 89 AD between the agrarian Chinese Han Empire and the nomadic Xiongnu confederacy, although extended conflicts can be traced back as early as 200 BC and as late as 188 AD.

The Chinese civilization initially clashed with Inner Asian nomadic tribes (then collectively known as Di) that would later become the Xiongnu during the Warring States period, and various northern states built elongated fortifications (which later became the Great Wall) to defend against raids down from the Mongolian Plateau. The unified Qin dynasty, who conquered all other states under Emperor Qin Shi Huang, dispatched General Meng Tian in 215 BC in a successful campaign to expel the Xiongnu from the Ordos region (which was often used as a staging area to threaten Qin's Guanzhong heartland). However, the subsequent civil wars following the Qin dynasty's collapse gave the Xiongnu tribes, who were then unified into a large confederacy under Modu Chanyu, the opportunity to reinvade the Ordos region. After the Han dynasty was established in 202 BC, Emperor Gao tried to fight off Xiongnu invasions but had himself trapped in an ambush during the Battle of Baideng, and a truce was negotiated by bribing Modu's wife, thus ending first Han–Xiongnu War. Decades of de jure peace then followed with the Chinese gifting "harmony via marriage" to appease the Xiongnu, who still routinely raided Chinese borderlands.

Xia (Chinese: 夏; pinyin: Xià), known in historiography as Hu Xia (胡夏), Xiongnu Xia (匈奴夏), Helian Xia (赫連夏) or the Great Xia (大夏), was a dynastic state of China ruled by the Helian clan of Tiefu-Xiongnu ethnicity during the Sixteen Kingdoms period. Prior to establishing the Xia, the imperial clan existed as a tribal entity known as the Tiefu (simplified Chinese: 铁弗; traditional Chinese: 鐵弗; pinyin: Tiěfú).

All rulers of the Xia declared themselves "emperors". Both the Tiefu and Xia were based in the Ordos Desert, and during the reign of Helian Bobo, they constructed their capital of Tongwan, a heavily fortified and state-of-the-art city that served as a frontier garrison until the Song dynasty. Its ruins were discovered during the Qing dynasty and can still be seen in present-day Northern Shaanxi. At its peak, the Xia also controlled the Guanzhong region in modern-day central Shaanxi. Due to being a mix of the Xiongnu and Xianbei ethnicities, the Tiefu were initially known as a group of Wuhuan, which in the 4th century, was another term for "miscellaneous hu" or "zahu" (雜胡). It was not until Helian Bobo came to power that they fully affirm their Xiongnu lineage in a bid for legitimacy by claiming descent from the ancient Xia dynasty.

Weinan (Chinese: 渭南; pinyin: Wèinán) is a prefecture-level city in east-central Shaanxi province, northwest China. The city lies on the lower section of the Wei River confluence into the Yellow River, about 60 km (37 mi) east of the provincial capital Xi'an, and borders the provinces of Shanxi and Henan to the east.

The name "Weinan", literally meaning "south of the Wei River", describes the location of the city's urban districts being mostly south of the Wei River, although majority of its metropolitan area actually lies on the north side of the river.