Willow Palisade

Willow Palisade (Chinese: 柳條邊; pinyin: Liǔtiáo Biān; Manchu: ᠪᡳᡵᡝᡤᡝᠨ ᠵᠠᠰᡝ, Möllendorff: Biregen Jase) was a system of ditches and embankments that was planted with willows, was intended to restrict movement into Manchuria (including Northeast China and Outer Manchuria), and was built by the Qing dynasty of China during the late 17th century.

From this junction point the eastern section of the Inner Palisade went eastward, toward the Korean border, and eventually southward, ending near the mouth of the Yalu River.

[6] The palisades system gradually deteriorated with time, so that by the late Qing it was mostly composed of only one levee with willows on top and a moat on the outer side of it.

[7] Construction of the western section of the system (separating Liaoning from the Mongol lands in the west) is thought to have started in 1648, just four years after the fall of Beijing to the Manchus, and to have been completed before the end of the Shunzhi era (1644–1662).

[2] The construction of the eastern section of the system (the "Inner Willow Palisade" between Liaoning and the Manchus' Jilin) is thought to have started even before the fall of the Ming dynasty in 1644, possibly as early as 1638, and was probably completed by 1672.

Qing authorities resettled Han farmers from northern China to the area along the Liao River in order to restore the land to cultivation.

[11] The Qianlong Emperor allowed Han peasants suffering from drought to move into Manchuria despite him issuing edicts in favor of banning them from 1740 to 1776.

In 1745, for example, a government censor (御史; yushi) named He Qizhong reported his concern that illegal migrants and ginseng smugglers may be crossing the palisade all too easily.

[16] By the late 18th and early 19th century the migration-control function of the palisade further diminished because of the introduction of legal migration schemes enabling Han civilian peasants to settle on certain Manchu or Mongol lands beyond both the western and eastern sections of the palisade, some of which were sponsored by Manchu and Mongol landlords interested in attracting Han tenant farmers on their properties.

[16] Between 1820 and 1860, the strip of present-day Liaoning province between the easternmost section of the Palisade and the Yalu River was populated with Han settlers as well, eliminating the unpopulated area between the Chinese Empire and the Joseon dynasty.