Before AD 4 1 1, Du Yan was ruled by a county, but there was no city. In the seventh year of Yixi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (4 1 1), Du Yan began to build earthen cities. Although it is only a tucheng, it is of great significance in the history of place names. In this year, Du Yan County was renamed Yancheng County, and the direct reason for the name change was the establishment of the city. Secondly, fortification brought another nickname to Yancheng-"Floating City". Tucheng, built in Yixi for seven years, has a very unique shape. Its shape is narrow in the west and wide in the east, resembling a ladle. On the one hand, the nickname of "Floating City" takes its shape as a ladle, on the other hand, city of hope can float in the water like a ladle without being submerged. Although the earthen city was later changed into a brick city, the city still maintained its original direction, not square. This strange shape was still visible until the wall was demolished in the late 1930s. There is a picture of Yancheng City in the twenty-first year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty in the old Records of Yancheng County. The plan of the city is really like a gourd ladle. The ancients had the poem "Salt blasphemy": "Salt blasphemy is hard to ask, and there is a rustling wind among the reeds. There is only water around the city, so there are no mountains by the sea. " It is also said that the water around Yancheng has the feeling of floating on water.
Since it was renamed Yancheng, the name of "Yancheng" has been in use ever since.
Yancheng "has clouds and scoops, and the city looks at scoops." The Contemporary History of Yancheng Construction records: "Yancheng was founded in 1 19 BC. Because it is located at the seaside, fishing and firewood are convenient. The first year of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 172) was changed to county governance. It began to build a tucheng narrow in the west and wide in the east. It is like a ladle, which floats in the water and is not submerged. " Unfortunately, this primitive tucheng was not flooded but suffered man-made disasters. When the Three Kingdoms gained a foothold, the people in Jianghuai were all scared away, Du Yan and its nearby ancient Sheyang and Hailing counties were all abandoned, and Du Yan Tucheng could not escape the doom of extinction. In the seventh year of Yixi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 4 1 1), Yancheng rebuilt a earthen city, which looked like a ladle. Since then, due to the bonfire of war, "Gone with the Wind" has become fashionable and outdated. After Emperor Taizong unified the whole country, the country and the people lived in peace for a while, and the "floating city" was finally restored. The ancient city of Yancheng was built by the sea. People built the city into the shape of a ladle, floating in the water with a ladle and never sinking. Now the urban construction of Yancheng is not what it used to be. However, Yancheng people often revisit this "floating city" and still affectionately call this ever-changing modern city "floating city".