Shanhai Pass - History

History

Throughout Chinese history, it served as a frontier of defense against tribes from Manchuria (e.g. the Khitan, Jurchen and the Manchus).

Shanhaiguan is located south of Yan Mountain, and north of the Bohai Sea. For centuries, the pass guarded the narrow passage between Northeast and Central East China. Both the Northern Qi Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty constructed passes here. In 1381, Ming general Xu Da constructed Shanhaiguan, named due to its position between mountain and the sea.

Later, Ming general Qi Jiguang began fortification and construction of a military city around Shanhaiguan, building cities and forts to the east, south and north of the pass. Shanhaiguan became one of the most heavily fortified pass in China, and to this day, it is also one of the best preserved passes in the Great Wall.

There are two accounts regarding the battle of Shanhaiguan at the end of the Ming Dynasty. The more popular, romanticised version states: during the Ming Dynasty, general Wu Sangui was about to surrender and join the rebel forces of Li Zicheng when he heard that his concubine Chen Yuanyuan had been taken by Li. Enraged, and convinced the Ming were doomed, he decided to cast his lot with the invading Manchu. He contacted the Manchu leader Dorgon and as a result threw open the gates of Shanhaiguan to Manchu soldiers. Together Wu and the Manchus fought what has become known as the Battle of Shanhai Pass against Li Zicheng. The victory by the Manchus hastened the end of not only of rebel Li but also of the Ming dynasty and firmly established the Manchus as the dominant power in China. The Manchus created China's last dynasty, the Qing dynasty.

The second account of these events holds that Wu Sangui surrendered to Li, but on his way to Peking (Beijing), he learned of the disorderly state of the capital and of the massacres perpetrated by Li's forces, as well as the murder of his own father. Enraged, he returned to Shanhaiguan and surrendered to the Manchu leaders. Wu's forces then fought in the front lines against Li's forces, deceiving them into believing the Manchus had not broken through. As a result, Manchu forces decimated Li's forces, using a cloth attached to the uniforms of Sangui's troops as a way to differentiate friend from foe.

During the Qing era, Shanhaiguan, situated between Shenyang and Beijing, was referred to as the Key to the Capitals. During the Republic, as well as during the Eight-Nation Alliance and World War II, Shanhaiguan was the site of many conflicts.

The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica noted:

SHANHAI-KWAN, a garrison town in the extreme east of the province of Chih-li, China. Pop. about 30,000. It is situated at the point where the range of hills carrying the Great Wall of China dips to the sea, leaving a kwon or pass of limited extent between China proper and Manchuria. It is thus an important military station, and the thoroughfare of trade between Manchuria and the great plain of China. The Imperial Northern railway from Tientsin and Taku, 174 m. from the former, runs through the pass, and skirts the shore of the Gulf of Liao-tung as far as the treaty port of Niu-chwang, where it connects with the railways leading from Port Arthur to the Siberian main line. The pass formed the southern limit of the Russian sphere of influence as defined in the convention between Great Britain and Russia of the 28th of April 1899.

In July 1904, 15,000 Japanese troops landed at Shanhai Pass, prior to marching on Peking to relieve the siege of the legations by the Boxers. A pre-landing bombardment of the area was unnecessary as few Chinese troops were present (see Staris Times, 18 July 1900, p.2). Inter-allied relations were dealt a blow when a drunken fracas occurred at Shanhai Pass between Japanese and French troops. In the fighting three French and seven Japanese soldiers were killed, and five French and 12 Japanese were wounded (See Sydney Morning Herald, 19 July 1904 p.5).