Dongbei

I

Introduction

Dongbei (also formerly known as Manchuria), historical region of north-eastern China, comprising the provinces of Heilongjiang (Heilungkiang), Jilin (Kirin), and Liaoning. Traditionally the region included a much larger area extending west to what is now the Republic of Mongolia. The name Manchuria was derived from that of the Manchus, a Mongoloid people similar, ethnologically, to the Tungus, and was applied by the Japanese to the region, but is regarded as offensive by Chinese people today. In 1949 a part of western Dongbei was incorporated into the Nei Monggol Autonomous Region (Inner Mongolia). The principal cities of Dongbei are Shenyang (Mukden), Harbin (Ha-erh-pin), Dalian, Fushun, and Anshan. The area of the region is about 777,000 sq km (300,000 sq mi), and its population (1986 estimate) 92,950,000.

II

Geography

Topographically, the region is a great central plain surrounded on the north, east, and west by high, heavily forested mountain ranges. The Dongbei Pingyuan (Manchurian Plain), drained by the Liao Ho and Songhua rivers, is fertile, but cultivation is limited because of a short growing season. The leading crops are sorghum, millet, soya beans, corn, and wheat. Mineral resources include deposits of coal, lead, zinc, copper, iron, bauxite, and molybdenum. Large coal mines are near Fushun, and major Chinese iron and steel works are located at Anshan.

III

History

A

Han Dynasty to Mongol Rule

The Dongbei Pingyuan (Manchurian Plain) was historically host to numerous warlike nomads. The Chinese Han dynasty (206 bc-ad 220) maintained a military presence and colonies in much of the region, but after its collapse succeeding dynasties had only limited control over southern Dongbei. By 712 native Tungus peoples had established the Kingdom of Pohai, which at its peak controlled nearly all of Dongbei and northern Korea. Pohai was overthrown in 926 by a Mongol sub-group called the Khitans, who amalgamated it with parts of Mongolia and northern China into their own empire under the Liao dynasty. The Jurchen, Tungus tributaries of the Liao, proclaimed their own Jin dynasty in 1115 and, in alliance with China's Song dynasty, destroyed the Khitan empire before turning on their allies, overrunning northern China (1126) and forcing the Song into a southern rump state, the Southern Song dynasty. The Jin dynasty was in turn destroyed in 1234 by the Mongols who incorporated Dongbei and China into their own vast possessions.

B

Ming and Qing Dynasties

The Ming dynasty, which threw off Mongol rule in 1368, re-established Chinese control of Dongbei. But as the Ming weakened, the Jurchen consolidated and unified. Taking a new name, the Manchu, these peoples became an aggressive power that in 1644 invaded China and established the Manchu, or Qing, dynasty, which ruled China until 1912. The Manchu rulers at first refused to permit development of Dongbei and even forbade Chinese immigration into the region until the late 18th century, but eventually Chinese colonists began flooding in to take advantage of its natural wealth. Continual Russian encroachments on the northern frontier resulted in agreements between China and Russia in 1689, 1858, and 1860, fixing the Sino-Russian frontier along the Amur River to the Ussuri River.