Yanshan Is Not a Border Wall but an Engine of Ancient Chinese History
The difference between farming and nomadic life was placed on opposite sides of the Yanshan range, while the mountain passes connected wealth with the strongest cavalry, making the region not just a frontier but a historical engine that continually reshaped the empire.
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In the era of a starry sky, the Central Plains were dim
Prehistoric China was not 'Central Plains-centric' but a 'starry sky' of many cultures: Hongshan, Liangzhu, Shijiahe—all major sites lay in transitional zones between mountains and water. Shi Zhan explains that early peoples could not sustain complex divisions of labor; in such zones, diverse resources allowed nature to feed a complex society, while the North China Plain, with its relatively monotonous produce, remained dim. But the plain had an advantage no one else had—all major civilizations had to pass through it to interact, making it the crossroads of several prehistoric cultures. How the starry sky became the later 'bright moon' was due to a climatic catastrophe.
— Shi ZhanA little ice age cleared the field, and the Central Plains shone
A little ice age between 4300 and 4000 BCE changed the course of Chinese civilization: surrounding prehistoric cultures that relied on biodiversity could not withstand the abrupt climate shift and were destroyed in batches; meanwhile, the Central Plains turned from a 'crossroads of several civilizations' into a center of new institutional construction. The Great Yu's flood control and the Xia dynasty both emerged after this climatic shock. Shi Zhan says the well-known reversal from 'stars' to 'moon' came from this catastrophe. Looking further afield, early civilizations in Mesopotamia, India, and Persia also arose in zones of a few hundred kilometers that combined mountains, river valleys, and deserts—diverse ecologies were the first driver of civilization.
— Shi ZhanYanshan held wealth and two kinds of supreme cavalry
Yanshan is often read as the farming–nomad divide, but Shi Zhan stresses it is both a mountain range and a corridor: heavy cavalry came from hunting–fishing zones, with thick armor and unstoppable charges but poor mobility; light cavalry came from the steppe, extremely mobile; together they were nearly invincible in ancient times, provided there was enough wealth to support them. The North China Plain happened to be the greatest concentration of farming wealth in antiquity—south of Yanshan lay wealth, north lay the strongest military force. More importantly, when the capital moved from Guanzhong to Beijing, this mountain range became vital to the empire, and its political nature fully emerged. Mountains create difference, water cuts passages, so Yanshan became an engine of ancient Chinese history, not a barrier.
— Shi ZhanThe Northern Wei lacked originality, but the Liao consciously practiced dual governance
Both the Xianbei and the Khitan ruled farming and nomadic populations, so why did only the Liao sustain a 'one country, two systems' for the long term? Shi Zhan's answer is cultural confidence. The Xianbei had no script of their own; even Buddhism had to be received through Chinese characters, and facing Confucianism they had no indigenous spiritual content to rely on. The result was either total sinicization or a return to tribal ways, with the two factions pulling back and forth at court, sowing the seeds of the Northern Wei's split. The Liao were different: after the Tang fell, refined Buddhist schools like Huayan and Esoteric Buddhism were squeezed out by Confucianism in the Central Plains; the Liao absorbed these intellectual resources and developed their own script to write Buddhist scriptures. With a spiritual world sufficient to look the Central Plains in the eye, they had no need for cultural self-diminishment. Compared with the Northern Wei, the Liao had an extra autonomous cultural subjectivity.
— Shi ZhanIn steppe cognition, south lies 45 degrees to the southeast
The palace city of the Liao upper capital does not face south but west–east, slightly south. Shi Zhan relays a reminder from a friend in Mongol history: in Mongol texts, 'south' is not due south but the direction of the rising sun—it deviates by 45 degrees from due south, pointing southeast. The Greater Khingan Range is not east–west but a southwest–northeast arc, so the area south of the range is called 'mountain's sunny side,' and the orientation of the Liao palace city exactly fits the arc of this mountain road. This spatial perception also externalized into politics: Genghis Khan enfeoffed his brothers in the eastern appanages on the sunny side of the mountains and placed his sons in the west; the same left–right wing skeleton can be recognized later in the fiefs of Shandong and Shanxi after the Mongol conquest of northern China.
— Shi ZhanZhu Di took Mongols to capture Nanjing
'Which Mongol led Han people into Karakorum? Kublai. Which Han led Mongols into Nanjing? Zhu Di.' Shi Zhan uses this quip to dismantle the 'us vs. them' narrative: Zhu Yuanzhang's northern expedition proclamation claimed to inherit the Yuan mandate; Xu Da deliberately slowed his march before besieging Dadu to allow Emperor Shun of Yuan to retreat north; before the mid-Ming, the imperial temple of past emperors enshrined Genghis Khan and Kublai, and only in the Jiajing reign were the Yuan emperors removed due to northern frontier pressure. During the War of Resistance, when Genghis Khan's coffin was moved west and passed through Yan'an and Xi'an, both the Nationalists and Communists honored it with the title 'Our Great Yuan's Grand Progenitor.' These political operations are incomprehensible in a narrow ethnic view, yet they show that steppe dynasties had a continuity of legitimacy with the Central Plains.
— Shi ZhanTemples worked better than the Great Wall: tethering the nomadic radius
The Kangxi emperor's famous saying was, 'Our dynasty does not repair the Great Wall; it uses the Mongols as a screen.' How was the screen built? One means was Tibetan Buddhism. Believers must follow a living master, and the master cannot leave the temple; the obligation to return periodically for rituals thus limited the nomadic radius—herders remained herders, but they were transformed from a mobile force that could raid at any time into a 'quasi-sedentarized' population, yet the court could still mobilize these cavalry when needed. Even more powerful were the lama banners: by inserting the three great monasteries of Kulun, which were not under Mongol princes, among the Jasagh banners of Khorchin, the temples of Mongol princes had to pledge allegiance to higher lama banners, and cross-banner financial and spiritual networks bypassed the princes and reached the emperor directly. The core of this system is simply: separate people's hearts from resources to balance them.
— Shi ZhanIn their own words · checked verbatim
South of the Yanshan range lay the greatest farming wealth of antiquity; north lay the most powerful military force of antiquity.
燕山南边有古代最大的农耕财富 北边有古代最强大的这种军事力量
Shi Zhan33:16
So when facing the Confucianism of the Central Plains, I can at least look you in the eye—I have enough cultural confidence.
于是他面对中原的儒教的时候 我至少是可以平视你的 我就有了足够的文化自信
Shi Zhan39:25
You are still nomadic, but your nomadic radius is limited; you are quasi-sedentarized in a certain way, deprived of your mobility.
你仍然是游牧的 但是你的游牧半径被限定了 你就以某种方式被准定居化 剥夺了你的机动性
Shi Zhan55:40
Figures
| Area of Chifeng + Tongliao | about 150,000 square kilometers, slightly larger than Liaoning Province | 1:00 |
| Hongshan culture date | at least 6,000 years ago | 17:10 |
| Chahai site date | more than 8,000 years ago | 17:10 |
| Prehistoric cooling period | between 4300 and 4000 BCE | 21:17 |
| Orientation of Liao upper capital palace city | west–east, slightly south, consistent with the southern route of the Greater Khingan | 41:27 |
| 'South' in Mongol texts | deviates 45 degrees from due south, actually pointing southeast | 42:27 |
Glossary
- starry sky of cultures
- An archaeological description of Neolithic China: no single center, but multiple origins and simultaneous regional cultures.
- Jasagh banner
- A Qing administrative unit in which Mongol princes were enfeoffed; princes held hereditary rule but were checked by borders and the league-banner system.
- lama banner
- A Qing special unit headed by a reincarnate lama, cutting off Mongol princes' control, directly administered by monasteries with separate finances.
How to listen
Researchers of Northeast history or frontier governance, and curious travelers who want to visit the Liao upper capital and Hongshan sites but fear seeing only mounds of earth.
The first 9 minutes of travelogue about Chifeng and Tongliao can be fast-forwarded; from 16:11 onward, the Hongshan culture and the main historical thread are worth listening to.