The word "Northeast" originated earlier. In Li Zhouzhi's Local Records, "Youzhou is famous in the northeast, and its town is a famous doctor and witch". The three northeastern provinces are located in the northeast of China. Since ancient times, it has been generally called "Northeast", and later it was generally called "Kanto", and it has also been called the three northeastern provinces since the Qing Dynasty. In China, the three northeastern provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang are generally called Northeast or Northeast Provinces. Later, the western part of the three northeastern provinces was included in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, so the eastern part of Inner Mongolia (East Fifth League) also belonged to the Northeast.

Northeast China, Liaodong, Kanto, Guanwai and Northeast China have successively relations, but the specific geographical scope is very different. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Yan established Liaodong County and Liaoxi County in the northeast. After Qin Shihuang unified China, Liaodong County was established in the native land of Yan State, covering today's Liaoning Province and southeastern Jilin, with Liaodong as the eastern starting point of Qin Changcheng. In the 14th year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (A.D. 138 1), General Xu Da built Shanhaiguan, and from then on, the territory of Northeast China was called Kanto and Guanwai. From a historical point of view, the Northeast has a broad sense and a narrow sense. The northeast in a broad sense refers to all the territory of the Qing Dynasty in the northeast direction before the Sino-Russian Nebuchadnezzar Chu Treaty 1689. Generally speaking, it reaches Lake Baikal, Yenisei River and Lena River in the west, Shanhaiguan in the south, the Pacific Ocean in the east and the Arctic Ocean in the north, covering the entire coastline of Northeast Asia, including Chukchi Peninsula, kamchatka peninsula, Sakhalin Island and Thousand Islands. Liaodong is a geographical concept in the southeast of Northeast China, which was once used to refer to the vast Northeast China. In history, Liaodong once included Hansi County (most of the area north of the Hanjiang River Basin on the Korean Peninsula). In a narrow sense, Northeast refers to three northeastern provinces such as Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang, or four northeastern provinces (including eastern Inner Mongolia).