Liaohai

Liaohai, 遼海, the Liao sea, is the eastern bound of the Göktürk realm in the Zhou Shu.^[1] After the wars of Mukan Khan the Zhou Shu describes the land that belonged to him. In the east it began west of the Liao sea. In the west it reached the Western Sea, ten thousand li away.^[1] In the north it ran from the desert to the Northern Sea.^[1] In the same passage Mukan drives the Khitan off to the east. This happens in the wars that precede the description.^[1]

The Bei Shi repeats the description. The Tongdian gives more than ten thousand li.^[2] The Zizhi tongjian enters the passage under 555.^[3]

The Zhou Shu uses the name once more, in the history of its own dynasty. In 557, at the first sacrifice of the Northern Zhou, an edict traced the ruling house to a first ancestor, the Marquis Xian. He had “opened the land at Liaohai”.^[4]

One translation identifies the Liao sea of the Göktürk passage with the gulf of Liaodong.^[5] The French translation of 1864 renders the name as the sea of Liao and does not locate it.^[6] The histories give the name and its direction. They say nothing more of its position.^[7]