One of the deadliest earthquakes in history struck Shaanxi, China, resulting in at least 100,000 direct deaths.

The 1556 Shaanxi earthquake, known in Chinese colloquially by its regnal year as the Jiajing Great Earthquake "嘉靖大地震" or officially by its epicenter as the Hua County Earthquake "华县地震", occurred in the early morning of 2 February 1556 in Huaxian, Shaanxi, during the Ming dynasty.

Shaanxi is a province in north Northwestern China. It borders 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 km² (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 and 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.