As a place name, "Kunming" appeared in AD 6 19, that is, the second year of Wude in the Tang Dynasty, just 1400 years after the establishment of Kunming County in the Tang Dynasty.
At that time, "Kunming County" was located in today's Yanyuan County, Sichuan Province, which means that the county was the place where the ancient "Kunming" ethnic group thrived, not the area under the jurisdiction of Kunming today.
Kunming, alias: Spring City, the capital of Yunnan Province, the gateway city of China to Southeast Asia and South Asia, a national historical and cultural city, and one of the important central cities in the western region. Kunming is located in the middle of Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, with famous scenic spots such as Shilin, Dianchi Lake, Cuihu Lake, Jin Dian, Yuantong Temple, Jinma Bijifang and so on.
As a place name, the word "Kunming" was difficult to research before the Tang Dynasty. There are different opinions about the origin of the word "Kunming". Most scholars believe that "Kunming" was originally the ethnic name of an ancient nation in southwest China.
"Kunming" was written as "Kun", "Kun Mi" or "Lin Kun" in China ancient literature. The early days were not the names of cities, but the names of an ancient people living in southwest China, that is, today's western Yunnan and southwestern Sichuan.
According to records, the appearance of the word "Kunming" can be traced back to the period of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. Sima Qian, a famous historian at that time, wrote in Historical Records Biography of Southwest Yi: "From the east of the same division (now Baoshan) in the west to Yu Ye in the north, the name _ Kun was allocated and migrated with livestock, so it was not in the usual place, but it could travel thousands of miles." Thus, the word "Kunming" is the ethnic name of a minority in ancient Yunnan.
"Kunming" appeared as a place name in the Tang Dynasty. "In the second year of Wude, Kunming County set up a town, and the land of Kunming was connected to the south, hence the name." Accordingly, Kunming County is not Kunming today, but Dingze Town (now Yanyuan County) in Sichuan. The reason why Dingze Town was named "Kunming" in the Tang Dynasty has been clearly written in the records, which is why it is close to Kunming. Kunming here still refers to the Kunming people. Before the Gai Han and Tang Dynasties, most ethnic groups in Kunming settled in western Yunnan. It was not until Nanzhao and Dali that Wuman and Baiman rose, and the place where Kunming people lived was occupied by Wuman and Baiman. Kunming talents moved eastward to central Yunnan and lived around Dianchi Lake. In the second year of Song Bao (1254), Dali was destroyed in the Yuan Dynasty, and a "Thousand Houses of Kunming" was established in the mountain. "Kunming" began to appear as a place name and continues to this day. As for the meaning of the word "Kunming", Jin Changju explained: "Most of the migrants grow Kunming in Japan, and a few species grow in Japan." This sentence can be interpreted as a large population of Kunming nationality.