The Great Wall in Tang Song and Liao Dynasties

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The Great Walin the Tang Dynasty The Tang dynasty（618-907）was very strong and had vast territory，therefore it didn’t need the Great Wall to be its protective screen，but only a means to prevent the harassing of the tribes such as Xi and Qidan，consequently it only made use of or restored very few sections of the Great Wall.Bohai State and Koryo stood facing each other，which used to build a long wall similar to the Great Wall in the central plains.And with the formation of the confronting situation among Liao，the Northern Song and Western Xia，large part of the Great Wall was under the control of Qidan.

The Great Walinthe Song Dynasty According to the historical records，in order to defendagainst the invasion of Qidan and Western Xia，the Song dynasty（960-1279）constructed series of fortresses on theborder，but they didn’t form a right defense system after all. In this period, the construction of the Great Wall was almost in a stagnant state.

The GreatWalinthe Liao Dynasty The Liao dynasty (907-1125) was a regional dynasty built by the Qidan people in the north of China. The Liao Dynasty was known as the Qidan Kingdom when it was first established in 907 and renamed itself Liao in 947. It was overthrown by the Nuchen people in 1125, lasting a period of more than 210 years.

The Great Wall constructed in the Liao dynasty(907-1125) was rarely found in the historical literatures. Ac-cording to The History of the Liao Dynasty: Biography of Emperor Taiza, in the second year of Kaiping reign(in 908),”Liao constructed the Great Wall in Zhengdonghaik-ou”. In the present-day Nanguan Mountain in Jinzhou area in Dalian the wall vestige could still be seen, where therelics like iron arrowhead were found, therefore we could judge that the Zhengdonghaikou Great Wall of the Liao dynasty(907-1125) should be located here.