Late Palaeozoic and Early Mesozoic Circum-Pacific Events and Their Global Correlation: Permian chronostratigraphic subdivisions and events in China

The Permian system is well developed in various fades over wide areas in China, and it has been intensively studied by Chinese geologists since the 1930s. In his study of the Permian of South China, involving marine as well as paralic fades, Huang Jiqing (T. K. Huang, 1932) adopted a tripartite subdivision, namely, the Lower Permian (Chuanshan), the Middle Permian (Yanghsin), and the Upper Permian (Loping). In the same year Li Siguang (J. S. Lee) and Zhu Sen (1932) were dividing the Permian in the Longtan district, Nanjing, into the Lower Permian Chuanshan Limestone, the Middle Permian Chihsia beds and Kufeng beds, and the Upper Permian Longtan coal series. The Lower Permian was then regarded as correlative to the Lower Permian of international usage. Sun Yunzhu (Y. C. Sun, 1939) subsequently suggested a bipartite subdivision for the Permian of South China: the Lower Permian Yanghsin Series and the Upper Permian Loping Series. He considered the Chuanshan Series to be Upper Carboniferous, based in part on the regional disconformity recognized between the Chuanshan and Yanghsin series, marking what is called the Qiang-Gui or Yunnan movement. For a long time, such a twofold division of the Permian system was followed by all workers in China, a usage endorsed by two national stratigraphic congresses in China, held in 1959 and 1979.