<Articles>The Border between Khitan and Song under the Chanyuan Treaty System (Special Issue : FRONTIERS, BOUNDARIES, BORDERS, AND LIMITS)

In the year 1004, Khitan and Song put an end to their antagonistic relationship and concluded the Chanyuan Treaty, exchanged written oaths stipulating those matters for which each side would be responsible in order to maintain the peace, and thereby established peaceful relations. The author proposes using the term "Chanyuan Treaty system" to describe both the structure of peaceful coexistence between the two countries as equal states established by the Chanyuan Treaty and the international order under which multiple states, including these two, were able to coexist in the eastern portion of the Eurasian continent by virtue of this structure. The Chanyuan Treaty system continued to govern the system of foreign relations in the eastern portion of the Eurasia for centuries thereafter. The geographical conditions to the east and west of the Taihang Range that formed the border between the Khitan and Song varied greatly, on the eastern side of the borderlands spread the Huaibei Plain. On its western side was an elevated plain, and on the east was the Jumabe River that served as the border. The route that linked the Song prefecture of Xiongzhou and the Khitan prefecture of Zhuozhou was a road that served as a vital artery for each country. The borderline ran across the bridge over the Jumahe River that separated the countries. The annual exchange of monetary awards, suibi, and the diplomatic ritual of crossing the border were conducted atop the bridge. In contrast to the east, the western side of the borderlands was mountainous. This section of the border had been newly demarcated in 1076 after two years of negotiations. At that time a moat was dug along the border, and thus the moat indicated the borderline. Stones or earthworks were also erected to indicate the border as well, and thus border was clearly marked in a visible fashion. In the process of the negotiations, it is worth noting that documents and maps were employed. In the written oaths of the Chanyuan Treaty were regulations that stipulated that officials and residents of each country were not to cross the border. On this basis, the country to which people and land belonged was clearly distinguished, and on paper governments of the two countries strictly controlled the movements of people in the borderland. However, the reality differed, and many people crossed the borderland between the countries and traveled back and forth. Legally recognized regular border crossings were permitted for official envoys, their deputies and their escorts, numbering about 100, which were exchanged several times a year at regular intervals, merchants who conducted trade at the quechang, the market officially sanctioned by the two countries, and householders who lived along the border in the Hebei Circuit on the Song side who paid tax and labor service to government offices of both Khitan and Song. In addition to these legal border crossers were merchants involved in smuggling and numerous other types of illegal border crossers. Moreover, as an important example of illegal border crossing the example of the many pilgrims from Song who thronged across the border seeking to receive the Bodhisattva precepts from eminent priests at temples in the western outskirts of the Khitan Yanjing can be cited. In this article, I make clear that in East Asia of the 11th century there had already existed the phenomenon of clearly distinguished boundaries separating the territory of two states, which is generally thought to have appeared only after the rise of the sovereign nation state in Europe.