Guangyuan is an ancient city with a history of more than 4,000 years. It was governed by the state of Yin in the Xia Dynasty (c. 21st century-16th century BC) and the state of Ju in the Zhou Dynasty (1100 - 221 BC).

At that time, Ju state was famous for its "tripartite confrontation" with Ba state (Chongqing area) and Shu state (Chengdu area) in Sichuan. In 316 BC, Qin state conquered Ju and destroyed Ba and set up Jiameng county in Ju state.

During the Western Wei Dynasty (535-556), Jiameng county was changed into Lizhou. Then the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) changed Lizhou to Guangyuan. In 1266, the Yuan Dynasty moved the "Sichuan-Shaanxi Executive Secretariat" from Xianyang to Guangyuan. This name has been used ever since. 

Guangyuan has nurtured and attracted a group of famous historical figures due to its magnificent landscape and profound historical and cultural background. 

Empress Wu Zetian, the only woman emperor in China's history, was born in Guangyuan. Empress Wu was an outstanding politician who was called by the famous sociologist Chen Yinque to change the development direction of Chinese medieval history. 

Sima Guang, a historian, politician and statesman of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) famous for his Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government, lived in Guangyuan in his teens. He studied at the western hill behind Huangze Temple and left behind a large number of poems. 

Liu Bang, Zhuge Liang and other feudal figures once organized or stationed troops for political purposes in Guangyuan. There are still a large number of place names in the city to commemorate their activities. 

Since the Tang and Song dynasties, many scholars and celebrities, such as Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Li Shangyin, and Lu You have visited Guangyuan and left a large number of poems and inscriptions. 

Guangyuan is also a city with profound revolutionary tradition. During the Agrarian Revolutionary War from 1933 to 1935, 1,363 village-level, 295 township-level, 55 district-level and 10 county-level Soviet regimes were established in the city. 

After December 1934, the Fourth Red Army Front and the leading organs of the Party, government and army in the former Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Area also moved from Bazhong to Guangyuan's Wangcang county, making Guangyuan the political, military, economic and cultural center of the Sichuan-Shaanxi revolutionary base area and the departure place of the Long March of the Fourth Red Army Front. 

In February 1985, with the approval of the State Council, Guangyuan was re-designated from a county into a city.