In the Ming Dynasty, the northeast was the territory of China, but why did some people say that the Qing Dynasty increased the territory of China?

To put it bluntly, the establishment of modern China was mainly due to the credit of the Qing Dynasty, because the historical scope of China was based on the territory of the Qing Dynasty before the Opium War. Mr. Tan Qixiang once demonstrated in the article Historical Territory of China and China:

How do we deal with the historical China issue? We take the territory of the Qing Dynasty after the reunification of the Qing Dynasty and before the imperialist invasion of China, specifically, the territory of China from 1950s to 40s before the 19 Opium War as the scope of China's historical period. The so-called historical period of China takes this as the scope. No matter for hundreds or thousands of years, we all think that the people living in this range are the people in the history of China; The regime established within this scope is regarded as the regime in the history of China. The short answer is this. Beyond this range, it is not the nation of China, nor is it the regime of China.

What's more, China was only a place name in the Ming Dynasty, and it didn't rise to the national level until the Qing Dynasty. In the Treaty of Nebuchadnezzar Chu, China rose to the national height, when China began to cover all the territories ruled by the empire. In addition, Wei Yuan mentioned Mongolia in the Collection of Three Wu, so Mongolia is China and Russia is a foreign country; Speaking of Tibet, Tibet is China, and India and Gurkha are foreign countries. Moreover, before the Qing Dynasty was completely sinicized, thanks to the indomitable martial arts and enterprising spirit of Manchu people, the Qing Dynasty expanded its territory in the northeast, northwest, southwest and southeast on a large scale, actively eliminated domestic disadvantages and improved productivity, which greatly improved the imperial power compared with the previous dynasty. Therefore, in the process of military conquest, the Qing dynasty could also link the frontier with the mainland through political and economic means, and try its best to link the mainland with the frontier. You can also understand it as homogenization.

In other words, the influence of the empire should penetrate into the border areas as much as possible while the customs manages the border areas. For example, in the Qing dynasty, administrative officials and troops at all levels were stationed in border areas to carry out administrative activities such as population verification, tax collection (sometimes it may also be tax in kind) and currency issuance in border areas. Moreover, all kinds of cases in border areas must be reported to the Ministry of Punishment for the record, and now they can also be found in the National Archives. Treasure silver coins issued in Tibet in the Qing Dynasty

As far as the northeast is concerned, many areas in the northeast were not in the territory before Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, and the farthest defense line in the northeast was in Ningguta area. After the signing of the Treaty of Nebuchadnezzar Chu, the Qing Dynasty actually controlled the Heilongjiang River Basin. In addition to Liaodong, which is still under the jurisdiction of General Shengjing, the newly opened territory was established together with General Heilongjiang and Jilin General to manage local military and political affairs. Moreover, in the Qing Dynasty, there were immigrants and garrisons in the northeast, but there were many local banners and soldiers, so the military and political affairs were under the jurisdiction of generals, similar to military management. Moreover, the Qing dynasty also included local aborigines in the Eight Banners, checked household registration and collected taxes (mostly in kind). In addition, the two generals' offices in Heilongjiang and Jilin also organized military patrols, and the patrols on Sakhalin Island are still kept in the archives of Jilin Province.

In addition, the Qing army expelled illegal hunters and gatherers who sneaked into Northeast China from North Korea, and forced korean king to apologize, behead criminals who crossed the border and punish North Korean officials. This move of the Qing dynasty seems to have a long history, but it stabilized the northeast border and made North Korea consciously and strictly restrain the border people to prevent them from crossing the border.

As for the so-called Ming Dynasty owning the Northeast, I would like to ask what the Ming Dynasty was. What the Ming Dynasty owned was only a corner of Liaodong, and it had little influence outside the side wall of Liaodong. It's just a title given to an indigenous chief. There are no garrisons, no administrative officials, and no administrative activities such as checking accounts, issuing currency, and collecting taxes. The same is true in other border areas. At best, the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and the frontier ethnic minorities was a tribute, not a rule at all. The territory of the Ming Dynasty was only over 3 million square kilometers within the Great Wall, less than one third of that of the Qing Dynasty.

Compared with the Yuan Dynasty, the border of Liaodong in the Ming Dynasty was greatly reduced, all the way west to the mouth of the Yalu River. The reason why the Ming Dynasty allowed North Korea to expand northward was to use North Korea to contain the Jianzhou Nuzhen who moved from Yilan to Tieling and Fushun.

So I'm curious about how a shrinking and introverted dynasty in the Ming Dynasty owned the northeast area outside Liaodong. The northeast area outside Liaodong was not included in the territory of the Chinese Empire until the Qing Dynasty, as Wei Yuan clearly pointed out in his book Wu Sheng: thousands of miles of barren land in the northeast was included in the territory.