Sixteen Prefectures
The Khitan-led Liao dynasty kept using Chinese administrative forms to administer the counties and prefectures they had captured. They named Datong (on the western end of the Sixteen Prefectures) their Western Capital, and in 938 built a new fortified city at Youzhou (near modern-day Beijing), which they turned into their Southern Capital. Under Liao rule, the Sixteen Prefectures thus represented two of the Liao dynasty's five divisions. Both sections were part of the Southern Chancellery, one of two broader divisions the Liao empire had been divided into. The Sixteen Prefectures had become the springboard from which the Liao dynasty would exert its influence on northern China.