WILLOW PALISADE

WadeGiles romanization Liu-t'iao Pien, Pinyin Liutiaobian, ditch and embankment planted with willows built across part of southeastern Manchuria during the early Ch'ing (16441911/12) dynasty. The Chinese (Han) in Manchuria, possibly from as early as 1,000 BC, were localized almost entirely in a triangular area in southern Manchuria centring about the alluvial basin of the lower Liao Ho (river) and the uplands of the Liaotung Peninsula. Willow walls or palisades were built along the western side of this area in southern Manchuria as early as the Ming (13681644) dynasty. The Willow Palisade of the Ch'ing dynasty was constructed as a 500-mi (800-km-) long northeastward extension of the Great Wall from Shan-hai-kuan to the Sungari River north of Ch'ang-ch'un, thereby separating the Chinese in southern Manchuria from the Mongol-occupied steppes to the west. The southeastern 300-mi-long portion of the palisade, built eastward from northwest of Shen-yang and then south to where the Yalu River meets Korea Bay, formed the frontier between the Chinese and the Koreans (east) and the Manchu (north). After 1688, Chinese under the Manchu-ruled Ch'ing dynasty were prohibited from crossing the palisade without authorization and from settling in the Manchu homeland.