Yanmen Commandery
| Yanmen Commandery | |||||||||
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| Literal meaning | Wild Goose Gate Commandery | ||||||||
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Yanmen Commandery was an administrative subdivision (jùn) of the state of Zhao established c. 300 BC and of northern imperial Chinese dynasties until AD 758. It occupied lands in what is now Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. Its first seat was at Shanwu (near present-day Youyu, Shanxi); its later seats moved southeast to the more defensible sites at Yinguan (within present-day Shuozhou, Shanxi) and Guangwu (near present-day Daixian, Shanxi).
The name derives from Yanmen Pass in Shanxi's Dai County. Yanmen, meaning "Wild Goose Pass" or "Wildgoose Gate", takes its name from the wild geese that migrate through the area.
Yanmen Commandery was first established around 300 BC during China's Warring States Period by the state of Zhao's King Yong, posthumously known as the Wuling ("Martial-&-Numinous") King. It covered territory in what is now northern Shanxi and southern Inner Mongolia. He created Yanmen Commandery along with its companion commanderies of Dai and Yunzhong to consolidate his conquests from invasions of the Loufan (t , s , Lóufán) and "forest nomads" or "barbarians" (, Línhú) in 306 and 304 BC. He protected these new lands by raising earthen walls along their northern border, close to what is now Hohhot in Inner Mongolia. Garrisons and forts were also placed at strategic spots within the new territory, such as Yanmen Pass between the northern plains and the Hutuo Valley. In the mid-3rd century BC, the Yanmen governor Li Mu used these interior defenses to good effect when he lured more than 100,000 Xiongnu horsemen into the heart of the commandery before defeating them with 160,000 chariots, cavalry, and archers.
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