Study On Spatial Distribution Of Military Fortresses And Defense Transformation Of Liaodong Zhen In Ming Dynasty

Located at the east end,Liaodong Zhen served as the beginning of the defense system in the nine important defense areas along the Great Wall during Ming Dynasty.Once known as the first important frontier fortress of Ming Dynasty and the righthand settlement of national capital,also as the core rigion of Chinese peripheries within Northeast Asia geopolitical layout,it is particularly important for its military location.Starting from early Hongwu Period of Ming Dynasty,the constructions of military fortresses and settelements in Liaodong District was attached great importance from the government,forming the most integrated military fortresses and defense system in history.This paper studied the strategic change of martial administrative organization,fortresses and settlements hiberarchy and the deep structure of military defensive system,with a focus on the polysemy of settlements hiberarchy developed under special geo-strategic and military-political background,as well as the distribution of over 200 fortresses and their transformation regulation.From a multidisciplinary perspective,the research aims to clarify the hiberarchy system,to verify the settlements distribution and map the fortresses distribution,and to reveal the characteristics of the whole structure of military fortresses in Liaodong Zhen.Taking the military fortresses along the Great Wall of Ming Dynasty in Liaodong Zhen as the object and defined in its special time and space,this paper combined the spatial distribution and its historical context,systematically built its overall structure,and analysed its root causes of development and their intrinsical connection from a holistic perspective.At first,through discussing geopolitical structure and political situation of Northeast Asia,a complete research on geographical concerns and military situation around Liaodong inside and outside the border land along the Great Wall had been considered explicitly;and then by trimming the military and politics background,fortresses system was established and emphasized with social connotation.The research started with simultaneous analysis of the spatial distribution and historic defense transformation.Based on logistic levels and spatial distribution regularities which were also summarized from the view of composition layout,spatial morphological evolution and transformation mechanisms were summed up into the “orderly belt of the Great Wall” theory.From the aspect of an orderly region for military fortresses along the Great Wall,the characteristics of orders on different settlement levels were analysed to reveal the multiple physical or nonphysical factors impacting the orders of the military fortresses in Liaodong Zhen.