Yu Jo Byeon (Willow Tree Fence) - Forbidden Area to Chinese

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YiYi JeYi 이이제이以夷制夷 means to destroy an enemy, using another enemy. This strategy is what the Chinese have historically preferred to use. Chinese see that a battle can’t be won only with the valour of an army.

The Chinese had to win their surrounding nomadic tribes with a trick, when they couldn’t compel the tribes with the force of the army alone. That’s why, right up to this day, they see that the best tactic is to oppress an enemy with another enemy, and thus gain surrender without a battle.

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Although DongYiJok (JuShinJok) could shoot archery well and have a strong military army with an open mind, the Chinese seemed to understand that this very willingness to be open minded and consider many points of view also meant that they can be deceived. By taking a divide and conquer approach, the tribes’ humanity and cohesion could be negatively influenced.

The Chinese realize that DongYiJok (JuShinJok) can be in cooperation with them when they successfully coax and alienate DongYiJok (JuShinJok) from other DongYiJok. 

JeGal-ryang (諸葛亮)  (of 삼국지 三國志 History of three states: 181~234, a prime minister of one of Three Countries) also told that YiYi JeYi  was an essential strategy to win nomadic tribes like GoGuRyeo, and was used to collapse GoGuRyeo in 697, by an allied army of the Shilla dynasty in the Korean peninsula and TaeJong in Tang dynasty in China.   

He wrote about 동이 DongYi 東夷 (meaning eastern barbarian  -  a degraded name of Korean ancestors called by Chinese ancestor in the past) and said in his book that we can’t attack DongYi because they are socially well-associated with each other. So we should first create alienation among their royalty, officials and people, so that they are not socially well-associated with each other. And although we succeed in this operation, we will still need to make them feel safe, especially by sending our diplomats to their country frequently “to promote friendship with each other”. 

This ensures that they are unprepared against our sudden attack. After that, we can conquer them with our strong army through our unexpected invasion or sudden attack.    

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One of DaeJuShinJok  대쥬신족(Dae: big, JuShin: a name for Mongolian tribes in Northern East Asia, defined by the writer, Jok: tribes), the Qing dynasty had treated nomadic tribes not with YiYi JeYi  but with a concept of brotherhood which was quite different from how other dynasties built by Chinese had done.  

The Qing dynasty had made much effort to protect JuShinJok, who were a main ruling group of the Qing dynasty, from being assimilated in any way with the Chinese ('Han' race).  In the beginning of the Qing dynasty, a main group of power intended to return to their homeland, Manchuria, anytime if they would lose their power in China.

The most outstanding example was 유조변YuJoByeon (a willow tree fence or hedge – purple line on the below map ) that helps us understand the Qing dynasty’s approach to maintaining separate identities.  This willow fence ranged for about 975 km, beginning at 산해관 Shanhaiguan (山海關) passing  through HeungGyeong (Ssing Jing in Chinese) in the North East and reached the mouth of the 압록강ApRokGang river - in North Korea today. Afterwards, 345 km of willow fence was built again.  

YuJoByeon established in Qing dynasty. (footnote: Korean words in yellow on the above map says "Forbidden area to Chinese."  © pressian

The Qing dynasty used YuJoByeon (willow tree fencing) to protect JuShinJok  from becoming Chinese and to forbid Chinese from going to the farmland of YoDong 요동 (in Far East  Manchuria ) by designating nomadic areas for Mongolians.  Meanwhile the willow tree fence was also in case of the emergency of the Qing dynasty needing to evacuate or withdraw from China. Therefore, they prohibited Chinese from living in the Northern East area of Manchuria. 

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This kind of national policy of the Qing dynasty shows it was quite different from what the previous Chinese countries had enforced through 이이제이 YiYi JeYi.   While Chinese dynasties had used any methods and ways to disrupt nomadic tribes with YiYi JeYi policy, the Qing dynasty proceeded on enforcing their national homogeneity by a policy of intermarriage with Mongolia .  The Qing dynasty called Mongolia “the country of brother” (or brother's country) and showed off mutual union through hunting competitions. This shows that the Qing dynasty were not rooted on Chinese but  대쥬신DaeJuShin, who were nomadic tribes in Northern East, west of Altai.

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Source:  http://gicheon.org/articles/yujobyeon.htm

Original Source:  김운회의 '대쥬신을 찾아서' by 김운회 (Kim Woon Hoe, a historian and a professor at Dong-yang University)

http://www.pressian.com/news/article.html?no=47171