Liáodōng

The Liáodōng are Chinese farming communities east of the Liao River and on the Liaodong Peninsula, a Han frontier between the Central Plain and Manchurian forests. Yan conquered the country from Gojoseon around 300 BC and established Liaodong Commandery at Xiangping. The Gongsun warlords ruled Liaodong until Cao Wei overran it in 238.

After the fourth century it passed through other hands before the Mongols took it in 1206. In 1337 its garrison towns and farms were part of the Yuan frontier. The Ming recovered Liaodong in 1371 and built the Liaodong Wall from 1442 against the Jianzhou Jurchens.

The region fell to Nurhaci's Later Jin in the early seventeenth century; Shenyang became the Manchu capital Shengjing in 1625. After 1653 the Qing resettled Liaodong with Shandong migrants behind the Willow Palisade; their descendants gave the coast its Jiaoliao speech.