Ming Dynasty Eastern Liaoning - Shandong Geopolitical Research

As an important area of the north defense system in Ming Dynasty, the situation of Liaodong was directly related to the rise and fall of the Dynasty. This paper will study the relationship between Liaodong and Shandong and describe the special historical and geographical phenomena in that time. In the administrative system of past dynasties in China, why only the Ming Dynasty placed the Liaodong under the administration of Shandong? And what effect did it make?From the situation in Hongwu period, we can see the army reached Liaodong crossing bohai channel from the Dengzhou port. All supplies were dependent on the Shandong Peninsula by transporting across the channel. The close geographical relationship led to the policy of putting Liaodong under the administration of Shandong, which was the only phenomena in history of China, and made the link more strengthened.The institutional affiliation leads to another question. In Ming Dynasty, were all affairs of Liaodong fully put under the jurisdiction of Shandong? Facts have proved that it was only nominal. Though many Shandong officials worked in Liaodong offices to deal with local civilian and judicial affairs, the management style of Liaodong gradually changed. On one hand, it turned from a 'military controlling zone' to the 'civilian controlling zone'. On the other hand, as the initial administration was too large, there was a new civilian level added to the local administrative system.After Taizu's reign, the linkage between Shandong and Liaodong became more and more lax. This was primarily because of changes of traffic structure of the empire. As Chengzu moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, the land path through Shanhaiguan to Liaodong achieved a higher status, while the sea route from Dengzhou port was marginalized. At the same time, with the development of cultivation, the army in Liaodong could be self-sufficient and various administrative shortcomings appeared in the transportation process. Thus sea transportation was gradually abandoned. After the decline of official connection, the sea route fromDengzhou to Liaodong was completely cut off. But this policy hindered the development of local property and exacerbated people's living conditions in both peninsulas. When official communication was blocked, smuggling and escaping increased seriously.Breaking the linkage between the two sides made a far-reaching negative impact on Liaodong in the wars against Manchu in late Ming period. At the beginning of the war, the Ming government reopened the sea route between Liaodong and Shandong to supply army. However, because of the weak overall control capacity and the lack of local emergency response mechanisms, the newly-reopened sea route did not function well. Serious problem appeared: refugees and deserters from Liaodong brought heavy burden to Shandong, which made the people hostile to each other. Several years later, when a mutiny broke out in Dengzhou, the conflict between refugees from Liaodong and native Shandong people upgraded to a massacre.From this study, we can draw such conclusions: In the early period in Ming Dynasty, the policy on Liaodong-Shandong relationship was successful, but after the mid-Ming, serious mistakes appeared. When the two regions connected tightly, they both developed well. But when ties between two sides were cut off, the livelihood of both sides were hurt, and Liaodong was put into isolate, which made a negative impact on the situation of the war in the late Ming Dynasty.