Province of YouZhou（Introduction to Three Kingdoms Geographical Names 6）

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Youzhou幽州, a province with 11 commanderies at the late Eastern Han Dynasty, had its seat in Ji蓟 County, which is now the Daxing大兴 District of Beijing. Youzhou was a relatively large state, and its territory included present-day Beijing,TianJin, northern Hebei, most of Liaoning, and northwestern Korea (including present-day Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea).

Youzhou is the first province we tell about in this series that lies on the border of the Han Empire.

Youzhou is located in the northern foothills of the Yan Mountains燕山, with the Bohai Sea渤海 to the east, the Taihang Mountains太行山 to the west, and the vast North China Plain to the south. Surrounded by barriers on three sides, the only way to plunge straight into the hinterland of the Central Plains was to attack to the south. Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, Youzhou has played an important strategic role as the border between the Central Dynasty and the nomads in the north.

The northern area of Youzhou was mostly mountainous, which was very unfavorable for the rapid movement of cavalry. Therefore, it became a natural barrier against cavalry invasion and the first and most important line of defense for the Central Dynasty against the cavalry of the northern ethnic minorities.

At the same time, Youzhou is rich in material resources; it is located at the northern end of the North China Plain and was one of the important grain-producing areas in ancient China. And Youzhou was also a famous horse-producing area in ancient China, and the warhorses and cavalry produced in Youzhou were famous all over the country at that time.

Therefore, Youzhou was not only an important barrier to protect the Central Plains Empires, it was also the place where war horses, an important strategic resource, were born. If we lose Youzhou, we lose the protective barrier of the Yan Mountains Range, and the Central Empire will be left with no dangers to defend. Losing Youzhou, the Central Empire also lost the ability to form a strong cavalry force. That is why in the Northern Song Dynasty（960 - 1127AD）, the Song Empire lost the Youzhou and was often passive in the battle with the nomads in the north, and was eventually destroyed by the Jin Empire（金1115-1234AD） in a single battle.

During the Three Kingdoms period, nomadic tribes such as the Wuhuan乌桓, Xianbei鲜卑 and Goguryeo高句丽 were active in Youzhou. At the late years of the Eastern Han , GongSun Zan公孙瓒 was the one who stood out as a formidable force after his repeated successes in long battles against the nomads. Another warlord, Gongsun Du公孙度, occupied the eastern part of Youzhou, where he recruited talents, set up pavilions and schools, and recruited a wide range of stragglers, which enabled the eastern part of Youzhou to gain temporary peace and promoted the development of local production technology and feudal culture. After that, the Gongsun Du’s family occupied the Liaodong辽东 Peninsula for a long time during the Three Kingdoms period, and Gongsun Du's grandson, Gong Yuan公孙渊, even made himself King of Yan燕王, which became the fourth Kingdom outside of the Three Kingdoms, but it was soon destroyed by Sima Yi司马懿 of Wei Dynasty.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were 11 Commanderies in Youzhou, namely: Dai代, Shanggu上谷, Zhuo涿, Guangyang广阳, Yuyang渔阳, Right Beiping右北平, LiaoXi辽西, LiaoDong辽东, Xuantu玄菟,The Dependent State of Liaodong辽东属国, and Lelang乐浪.

Dai Commandery was first a vassal state that existed since the Shang Dynasty（商朝1600-1046BC）, and it lasted （475 BC）until the Warring States period（476-221 BC）, when it was destroyed by an ancestor of State of Zhao（403-222 BC）. During the Qin and Han dynasties, Dai became a commandery with its seat in Dai County, which is located in present-day Weixian County, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province.

During the Three Kingdoms period, Dai Commandery was located on the border of the Wei Empire, in which numerous Wuhuan乌桓 tribes were entrenched, which sometimes submitted to the central Wei state and sometimes rebelled, causing some trouble for Wei.

Shanggu Commandery was founded in the State of Yan（1044 - 222BC） during the Warring States period, north of today's capital, Beijing. As the starting point of the Northern Great Wall of Yan, Shanggu Commandery was an important stronghold for the ancient Central Dynasty to defend itself against the attacks of the nomads in the north. The area was bordered by the Yan Mountains to the north, the treacherous Juyong Pass（居庸关） to the east, and the Dai Commandery to the west.

Yuyang Commandery, whose jurisdiction included the present-day northern part of Hebei, the eastern part of Beijing, and Tianjin, was also one of the major military towns in the northeastern part of the Han Empire. At the late Qin Dynasty, the Second Emperor of Qin Dynasty（秦二世210 - 207BC） conscripted hundreds of thousands of men to go to Yuyang to guard the border, but due to heavy rainfall, the men were stranded on the road, thus delaying their arrival at Yuyang. Fearing the harsh laws of the Qin Dynasty, China's first peasant revolt broke out under the leadership of Chen Sheng陈胜 and Wu Guang吴广! The mighty Qin Empire then fell.

During the Three Kingdoms period, famous people from Yuyang Commandery included XianYu Fu鲜于辅 and Tian Yu田豫, who were mutual friends and were both generals of Wei guarding the northern border.

Guangyang Commandery , with its seat in Ji蓟 County, is today's downtown area of Beijing, the capital of China. When the Qin Dynasty was founded, Emperor Qin Shi Huang（the first emperor of China） established Guangyang Commandery , and when the Western Han Dynasty was founded, Liu Bang set it up as a feudal state for his vassal prince: another State of Yan. During the Eastern Han Dynasty it was changed back to Guangyang Commandery , and during the Three Kingdoms period it was called State of Yan again.

When it comes to Zhuo Commandery, those who know about the Three Kingdoms will not be unfamiliar with it because it is exactly the hometown of Liu Bei. The core area of Zhuo Commandery is located in the present-day Zhuozhou City of Hebei Province. The northern end point of the famous Grand Canal of Sui and Tang Dynastie is Zhuo Commandery .

Historically, Zhuo Commandery is the hometown of quite a few famous people besides Liu Bei. Zhang Fei张飞 and Jian Yong简雍, who followed Liu Bei at a young age, were both Liu Bei's fellow townsmen from Zhuo Commandery . Lu Zhi卢植, Liu Bei and Gongsun Zan's teacher, was a native of Fanyang范阳 County of Zhuo Commandery . In the following four hundred years, the Fanyang Lu Clan（范阳卢氏）, whose first ancestor was Lu Zhi, became one of the five most prestigious surname names in China during the Sui & Tang Dynasties. And the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty, Zhao KuangYin（赵匡胤,the Emperor TaiZu of Song）, was also from Zhuo Commandery.

During the Western Han Dynasty, Right Beiping Commandery was one of the important northern border commanderies for the defense of XiongNu匈奴. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to the intrusion of the Wuhuan乌桓 and Xianbei鲜卑, the area under the jurisdiction of Right Beiping Commandery was greatly reduced, and it only existed in the southwest part of the Commandery during the Western Han Dynasty, and the northern boundary was roughly to the north of the present Great Wall. At the late years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the power of the Wuhuan people became stronger and stronger, and Right Beiping Commandery basically belonged to the sphere of influence of the Wuhuan people. It was not until 207 A.D. that Cao Cao went on an expedition against the Wuhuan and crushed them in one fell swoop.

Interestingly, Cheng Pu程普, a fierce general of the Eastern Wu who followed the father and sons of Sun Jian, Sun Ce, and Sun Quan successively, was a native of Right Beiping. Another fierce general Han Dang韩当, who also had followed Suns family since the time of Sun Jian, was from LiaoXi Commandery, which was to the east of Right Beiping.

LiaoXi Commandery was mainly based on the narrow Liaoxi Corridor辽西走廊, and the entire county's jurisdiction ran along the Liaoxi Corridor in a southwestern to northeastern direction. In Chinese,“Xi” means the west, the word “LiaoXi" means to the west of Liao River辽河. LiaoXi commandery’s southwestern part was the eastern part of present-day Hebei Province, and its northeastern part was the cities of Chaoyang朝阳 and Fuxin阜新 Cities in Liaoning Province.

The southwest end of the Corridor started at the Shanhai Pass（山海关）, known as the “First Pass in the World”, and the northeast end was the military town of Jinzhou锦州, with Liaodong Bay辽东湾 to the east and the Songling Mountains松岭山脉 to the west, the Corridor was about 185 kilometers long and only 8 to 15 kilometers wide.

Since ancient times, this narrow corridor has been a necessary route for the central dynasties to attack the north, or for the nomads in the north to go south. In 207 AD, when Cao Cao went on a northern expedition against Wuhuan, he was supposed to pass through this section of the road, but there was continuous heavy rainfall at the time, and the roads along the corridor were so muddy that the troops were unable to pass through. Guided by a local hermit, Tian Chou田畴, Cao Cao led his troops several hundred kilometers around the vast mountain range northwest of Liaoxi Commandery to the Wuhuan stronghold of Liucheng柳城 in Northeastern Liaoxi Commandery . Cao Cao's troops are all cavalry, and the lack of food and water along the mountainous terrain means that they have to kill their horses to feed themselves, and by the time they reach the Wuhuan stronghold, they're no different than a bunch of beggars. Luckily, the Wuhuan people, who had the advantage of location and resources, didn't hold on to their city, but chose to go out into the wild, and under the inspiration and command of the mighty general Zhang Liao, Cao Cao scored a great victory.

During the Three Kingdoms period, in addition to the fierce general Han Dang of Eastern Wu, Liu Bei's senior brother and earliest lord - Gongsun Zan公孙瓒 -also came from LiaoXi Commandery, and in his early years he was also long active on the imperial borders of the Youzhou region, where he grew to become a formidable warlord force in battles against nomadic peoples such as the Wuhuan and Xianbei.

LiaoDong Commandery, whose jurisdiction included today's outheastern parts of Liaoning and Jilin Provinces. The Chinese word "dong" means the east, and LiaoDong means to the east of the Liao River, as well as LiaoXi means the west of Liao River. The seat of Liaodong Commandery was Xiangping襄平, today's Liaoyang City in Liaoning Province. From late Han to the middle of the Three Kingdoms, Liaodong was ruled by the Gongsun Du's family, who apparently obeyed the central government but in fact remained independent. Gongsun Yuan, the grandson of Gongsun Du, repeatedly jumped between States of Wu and Wei, even claiming to be the King of Yan, and was finally defeated by Sima Yi in 239 AD, thus making Liaodong Commandery officially a territory of Wei.

The Dependent State of Liaodong , a Commandery created during the reign of Emperor An of Han(汉安帝106-125 AD), which was divided from LiaoDong and LiaoXi commanderies, with a territory equivalent to the middle and lower reaches of the Daling River大凌河 in the western part of present-day Liaoning Province. It was mainly used to settle and manage the Wuhuan people who were internally attached to the Han court, and belonged to the legal territory of the Wuhuan people during the Eastern Han Dynasty. At the late Eastern Han it was incorporated into Liaodong Commandery, which was reinstated in 244 A.D., and soon after it was renamed as Changli昌黎 Commandery.

Xuantu Commandery玄菟郡, whose jurisdiction corresponded to the area from the east of present-day Liaoning to the east of Hamgyeong-do in North Korea. At the late Eastern Han period, due to the weakening of the control of the central court, the territory of Xuantu Commandery was continuously encroached upon by Goguryeo, and its seat was moved to the northeast of present-day Shenyang City. During the period of Gongsun Du's occupation of Liaodong, he defeated Goguryeo several times and made them submissive, and Xuantu Commandery also belonged to the rule of Gongsun family. Xu Rong徐荣, a famous general under Dong Zhuo at the late Han period and a close friend of Gongsun Du, was a native of Xuantu Commandery.

Both Lelang Commandery乐浪郡 and Xuantu Commandery were one of the four Commanderies established on the Korean Peninsula by Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty after he pacified the Korean Dynasty of the Wei Clan（卫氏朝鲜194-107 BC）. The whole Lelang Commandery covered the northern and central parts of present-day DPRK, and had a great influence on the neighbouring tribes. During the Three Kingdoms period, Lelang Commandery also belonged to the Gongsun family, and in 204 A.D., Gongsun Kang, the son of Gongsun Du, even carved out a territory from the southern part of Lelang Commandery and created a new DaiFang Commandery带方郡.