Witness to the Khitan migration south to Yunnan
Gold and silver masks
Mao Qinxuan three palms
The picture above is a golden mask from the Yuan and Ming dynasties in Yunnan, and behind it is the history of the Khitan people coming to Yunnan, and it is also a witness to the great integration of Chinese nationalities in the Yuan Dynasty.
A portrait of Yelü Abaoji, the founding emperor of the Liao Dynasty
After the fall of the Liao State, the whereabouts of the Khitan people have always been a hot topic of discussion in historians, and many of them believe that ethnic minorities such as "I" in Shidian, Yunnan, are descendants of the Khitan people at that time.
In the war led by Genghis Han to unify the north with the Mongolian Iron Horse, some of the northern ethnic groups such as khitans and Dangxiang who surrendered to Mongolia were incorporated into the army, and followed the Mongol army to the south to fight in the northern war, and some were even appointed to official positions and stationed in local areas.
Genghis Khan
With the strength and expansion of the Mongol Empire, China entered a period of great ethnic integration. In 1252, Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, led a large army to cross the Jinsha River into Yunnan by Ge Nang, destroyed the Dali State, unified the various departments of Yunnan, and then established the "Yunnan Xingzhongshu Province" in Yunnan, including Yunnan in the territory of the Yuan Dynasty.
During the Mongol army's conquest of Yunnan, and later during the rule of the Yuan Empire, a large number of northern ethnic groups were stationed in Yunnan. With their arrival, the living habits of many northern ethnic groups have been imitated, absorbed and developed by the local ethnic groups in Yunnan. Among them are the mask burial customs that are familiar to people and were widely popular among the Khitan peoples of the Liao Dynasty.
Golden mask of Princess Chen Guo of the Liao Dynasty
According to the records of previous excavations, the mask burial customs in Yunnan appeared in dali, Pu'er and other ethnic minority areas in the Yuan and Ming dynasties, in addition to being mainly used by the original northern ethnic groups, they were also studied and used by some ethnic minorities such as dai and Jingpo in Yunnan, and the masks excavated from the Tao Toast Tomb of the Dai people in Jingdong are typical representatives.
Gold masks unearthed from Dow Toast Tombs
Compared with the northern masks of the Song and Liao dynasties, their main characteristics are: the early masks are basically the same as the northern masks (which should be used by the northern peoples who died or stationed in Yunnan); over time, the size of the masks gradually shrank, and the usage was changed from directly covering the face of the deceased to covering the facial position outside the silk wrapped in the body; after the end of the Ming Dynasty, the mask burial customs died out in Yunnan, and there is no record of rediscovery.
Silver masks unearthed in Yunnan
These typical Khitan-style burial masks unearthed in Yunnan let us know that after the fall of the Liao, the Khitan did not disappear because of war or plague. Instead, under the tide of the great integration of the nationalities of the Yuan Dynasty, they continued to move out, mixed with other fraternal nationalities, and eventually became one with them.
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This article has been published by the author with the permission of the Music Club
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Special thanks to Su Xun for the support of the original public account