This edited collection examines historical changes in the borderlands of East Asia through the lens of contact zones.

This volume utilizes the concept of contact zones to reconceptualize the time and space around East Asian borders as meeting zones where multiple races, nations, and cultures interacted through the processes of exchange, coexistence, and acculturation. Focusing especially on the borderlands of China and Korea, the contributors document the shifts and repositioning of the contact zones of East Asia as well as the encounters and conflicts that transpired in these spaces, with historical materials spanning the period from the first to the early twentieth centuries and geographical regions from the Tibetan Plateau to Manchuria to the Korean Peninsula. What emerges is a rich account of how the historical changes in the contact zones significantly shaped the history of East Asia as a whole.

Part I: Historical Changes in the Contact Zones of Korean Peninsula

Chapter 1: Goguryeo and Chinese Dynasties’ Spatial Perception of the Manchu Region

Chapter 2: Liaoxi: The Contact Zone Between the Chinese Dynasty, the Nomadic Tribes, and Goguryeo in Sixth and Seventh Century East Asia

Chapter 3: Goryeo’s Relations with the Northern Peoples and the Change in the North-Western Contact Zone of the Goryeo Dynasty

Chapter 4: The Temporal Aspects of Change in the Contact Zone during the Joseon Dynasty: Focusing on the Yalu River and Tumen River Basins

Chapter 5: Joseon’s Status as the Frontier of the Empire: From the Qing’s Dependent State to Japan’s Occupied Territory

Part II: Historical Changes in the Contact Zones of China

Chapter 6: The Boundaries of the Han Dynasty Famine Relief Policy: Focusing on the Division of the Inner and Frontier Commanderies

Chapter 7: A Study on the Changes of the Frontier Prefectures as Contact Zones in the Tang Dynasty: Expansion and Reduction of the Tang-Tibetan Bianzhou

Chapter 8: Formation and Change of the Liaodong Contact Zone During the Ming Dynasty: Focusing on the Nature of Liaodongpalcham and Jurchen Weisuo