Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/25

Rh Department, called Yowchow, and the north of Tsing was called Yingchow, the site of which is placed both in Chihli and Liaosi; but all the best authorities agree that it was beyond Shanhaigwan, and consisted of the modem prefecture of Kingchow. Yowchow was, for many subsequent centuries, known as Liaosi Run, or Province of West Liao, and Yingchow as Liaotung Run, or Province of East Liao. In reading Chinese ancient history this has to be particularly noted, otherwise Liaosi and Liaotung may be taken to signify the same as now, when they apply to the west and the east of the Liao river.

It is not till the beginning of the Chow dynasty (12th century ) that we hear of a kingdom in the south of Liaotung proper. This was Chaosien, occupying the fine lands east of Kingchow to Datong gang, including the rivers Liao and Yaloo. It touched the sea on the south, and extended north to the borders of the modem Mukden. The people of Chaosien were, without doubt, the Sishun, who had gradually increased, and hived off to the south. At that same time there were over a hundred "kingdoms," or independent clans, east and south-east of the Bei shwi or Datong gang. These were also, most probably, various swarms of the savage Sishun. The northern portions of Chihli were then, as for two score centuries after, occupied by Mongolic nomads, or their house-dwelling descendants. In the 18th century, the name Sishun is known to have been changed to Sooshun; and, six centuries later, the lands to the north and north-east of Chaosien were, as they have been ever since, occupied by the Sooshim savages.

If, therefore, Chinese history gives us positively but scanty information regarding the early history of that extensive region between the Gulf of Liaotung and the Frozen Ocean, and between the Ural Mountains and the Pacific, we are able to infer that the people were savage nomads. Indeed, at a comparatively recent period, much of that land was occupied by people