This article is a series of 226 intensive reading of Chinese history, and the "History of the Five Dynasties" series 06 (click on the blue character to view the previous part), welcome to watch.
In the early years of the fifth dynasty, the outstanding leader of the Khitan tribe, Yelü Abaoji, established a powerful khanate in the steppes of the northeast.
The Khitan were a branch of the Xianbei tribe, which was recorded in the history books from the third year (388) of the reign of Emperor Daowu of Northern Wei. For hundreds of years, the Khitans lived a predominantly nomadic life in the West Lamulun River Valley. They also often hunt as an adjunct to earning a living.
The Khitans had frequent contact with the Han Chinese, and there was often economic exchanges. As early as the Northern Wei Dynasty, when the Khitans were starving, they received grain from the Central Plains, and the food of the herders included grain very early. As a result, the Khitans may have had a somewhat underdeveloped agriculture earlier.
These facts show that there is a clear difference between the rich and the poor and a class differentiation among the Khitan people. Those who were made governors and assassins, and who were promoted to chiefs and khans were obviously tribal nobles. The families that were qualified to produce khans were clearly the richest and most powerful groups, and they enjoyed a privileged political position with large numbers of tribes, slaves, and herds.
In the late 9th century, the Khitan developed rapidly, and by the beginning of the 10th century, they finally transitioned from tribal alliances to states.
Jeroboam is the hero who completed this change.
01. Apaoji unifies the Khitans
Jeroboam was born into the Dielabu family. The Dielabu was a powerful clan, and Apaoji's ancestors were repeatedly elected as the Yiliyan (Chieftain) of the Dielabu. In the second year of Tang Tianfu (902), Abaoji made YiliYan, and two years later, yu Yue, who served as the "general knowledge of military affairs" and grasped the military and political power of the tribal alliance.
In the year when Zhu Wen became emperor (907), The Eight Lords pushed Apaoji to replace the Khan of haruka as the leader of the tribal confederation. Apaochi was born in 872, according to traditional calculation methods, when he was 36 years old.
Apaoji was re-elected khan three times, attacked and plundered in four ways, and his strength became stronger and stronger. Fearing the loss of their power, the nobles in the remaining seven ministries forced Ah Baoji to step down in the first year of Later Liang's reign (915). Apaoji was forced to surrender his strength and at the same time made a request, saying that there were many Han Chinese under his command and hoped to become a self-contained one. The Seven Lords agreed.
The following year, Apaoji tricked the seven adults into going to a banquet and ambushed and killed them. From then on, Apaoji unified the Khitan tribes, that is, the throne, with the title of Emperor and King, the year name of the Divine Book, and the name of the great Khitan of the country. This was the beginning of the Liao Dynasty, which ruled northern China for more than two hundred years.
Judging from the history before and after the founding of the Apaoji, the influence of the Han nationality is very significant.
There were many Han Chinese under Apaoji's command, and some of these Han people were taken captive, and some of them defected to themselves. Liu Rengong and Liu Shouguang ruled Youzhou for 18 years (895-913), and were so brutal that many fled to Khitan territory.
The Khitan nobles plundered more people, and in the second year of Tianfu (902), Abaoji attacked Hedong, capturing more than 95,000 people and a large number of camels, horses, cattle and sheep. He did not use all his captives as slaves, but used them to build castles and develop agriculture, so that the Han people could live in peace. He also established an iron smelting industry, using salt ponds to produce table salt. These measures played a great role in the strength of the Dielabu.
The reason why Apaoji was able to do this was that on the one hand, he inherited and developed the tradition of his father and ancestors, and on the other hand, he accepted the suggestions of Han counselors.
The Diela Department was originally a strong department with rapid development. According to legend, Apaoji's grandfather, Yun Deshi, had advocated the cultivation of mulberry and linen, and learned to have a little foundation in weaving, agriculture and handicrafts.
Yelü Abaoji attached great importance to the Han scholars. Han Yanhui, a native of Anci (in present-day Hebei), was sent by Liu Shouguang to Khitan and was left behind by Abaoji as a strategist. He put forward ideas such as building a city and making the Han people cultivate.
Han Yanhui once fled back to the Central Plains, and because he could not find a way out, he decided to return to the Khitans. Friends were afraid that he would not be able to save his life after he went. He smiled and said, "Apaoji has lost me, as if he has lost his left and right hands, and it is too late to see me, how can he be killed!" ”
Han Yanhui's estimation was completely correct, and he later served as a government official and the prime minister of Nanfu in the Taizu, Taizong, and Sejong dynasties of liao, and became the founding father of a generation.
The Yutian people Han Zhigu and Han Kuangsi are also the red people around Apaoji. Originally a captive, Han Zhigu was promoted and reused to participate in the formulation of various systems.
These Han scholars passed on the experience of the Han feudal dynasty to Apaoji, making him quickly change from the leader of the tribal alliance to the ruler of the new dynasty.
02, Dingzu North, is still not the opponent of the Central Plains
Apaochi served as the leader of the tribal confederation for 9 years and the emperor for 11 years. During his reign, he controlled the nearby Murong Wei and Jurchen tribes, captured Yuguan (present-day Shanhaiguan), Yingzhou (in present-day Changli, Hebei), and Pingzhou (around present-day Lulong), and finally, in the fourth year of Yu Tianzan (925), attacked Bohai, and the following year (Tianxian yuan year, 926) broke the city of Kuhan (Shangjing Longquan Province in the Bohai Sea, southwest of present-day Ning'an, Heilongjiang), destroyed the Bohai state, renamed Dongdan, and ordered his eldest son to suddenly become the king of Dongdan.
During his reign, jiandu imperial capital (later changed to Shangjing, present-day Balin Zuoqinan, Inner Mongolia) formulated the Khitan characters in the fifth year of the Divine Book (920), and later formulated the Khitan small characters. The formulators of the large characters were mainly Tulu Bu, imitating the shape of Chinese characters and adding and subtracting them. The small characters were formulated by Apaoji's brother Diela, modeled after the Uighur script, but were also influenced by Chinese characters.
After Apaoji attacked the Bohai Sea, he died on the way back to the army at the age of 55. The state he established consisted of many nomadic tribes and a part of the city (there were 103 cities in the Bohai state).
The establishment of this new state is a major event in the history of the development of the Khitan people. It placed the northern ethnic groups under the rule of a dynasty, and formed a confrontation between the Northern Dynasty and the Southern Dynasty with the Five Dynasties of the Central Plains and the Northern Song Dynasty later, preparing the conditions for the Yuan Dynasty to unify all of China in the 13th century.
This is the positive side. But it is undeniable that for the chaotic Central Plains at that time, the emerging Khitan was a huge threat.
During the period when Liang and Jin were fighting for xiong, the Khitan often waged plundering wars against Hebei and Hedong. Especially after the Khitan captured Yuguan, Youzhou lost its geographical advantage and was often directly besieged by the Khitan army. In order to save Youzhou, Li Cunxun had to dispatch elite soldiers from the front line on the north bank of the Yellow River to the rescue.
When Later Liang was about to perish, the Khitan army penetrated deep into Hebei, broke zhuozhou, and forced Dingzhou, posing a serious threat to Li Cunxun's rear.
The Khitan soldiers plundered a large number of Han Chinese, tied them to wood with long ropes, and rushed to the grasslands in a bunch. This cannot but be said to be a catastrophe.
The threat of the Khitan nobility to the Central Plains was enormous, but judging from the facts mentioned above, the power of the Central Plains Dynasty was far above that of the Khitans.
Li Cun rescued Youzhou and encountered the Khitan cavalry on the plains. He ordered his infantry to cut down trees and make antlers (antler-like obstacles), each holding a branch in his hand. When the party stopped, it inserted its antlers into the ground, and there was a barrier to defend against the onslaught of cavalry. The Jin army fired arrows behind the antlers, and the Khitan soldiers fell one after another, and the corpses of the centaurs blocked the road.
The Battle of Wangdu in 922 was a hard battle fought on flat ground, and the Jin army also won. This time, Abaoji was defeated very badly, and after the defeat of the army, it encountered heavy snow, the men and horses lacked grain and grass, and countless people died of freezing and starvation.
03. The problem of Li Congke, the late Emperor of the Late Tang Dynasty
Later Jin Gaozu Shi Jingyao was a famous "child emperor" in history, and was the son of Li Ke's subordinate Shatuo warlord Quan Zhiji.
When Liang and Jin were fighting for the throne, Shi Jingyao had quite a battle merit and was heavily valued by Li Cunxun. Li Siyuan even married his daughter to him as a wife, and let him command the pro-soldiers with the title of "Left Shooting Army". Shi Jingyao has since become Li Siyuan's confidant.
Li Siyuan raised an army to compete for the throne, and at first he was a little hesitant, thinking of Luoyang to see Zhuangzong, indicating that he was supported by the mutineers and did not want to rebel, Shi Jingyao advised him to make a decision on the spot, saying: "Where there is a mutiny, the general will have no guilt." Moreover, hesitation is a big taboo for soldiers, so it is better to immediately enter the army and occupy Bian Prefecture. Then he volunteered and led 300 cavalry as the forward to seize Bian Prefecture.
After Li Siyuan ascended the throne, Shi Jingyao was also a hero as a donkey, and his status was greatly improved.
Shi Jingyao and Li Congke both had a reputation for bravery and fighting in their early years, and they did not obey each other. After Li Siyuan's death, Li Congke eventually became emperor through contention, and Shi Jingyao had to enter the capital to meet him. At that time, some people advocated not allowing him to return to Taiyuan, but Li Congke considered that Zhao Dejun was in Youzhou and Zhao Yanshou was close to Bian Prefecture, and detained Shi Jingyao, and they were bound to be angry.
At that time, the situation of the imperial court was very difficult, and the soldiers from Fengxiang and Li Congke who entered the capital were waiting for rewards. Li Congke originally made a wish to reward 100 taels per person, which cost a total of 500,000 taels. After entering Beijing, I found that the treasury was empty, and there was not so much money at all. The three envoys (the officials in charge of finance) tried everything to search for the people's wealth, and even took out the jewelry of the empress dowager and others in the palace to make up a number, and there were only 200,000 taels. The soldiers were each given 20 taels, and the original 10 taels were 10 taels per person in the Beijing Division. The sergeant was dissatisfied and complained a lot.
The imperial court under Li Congke did not dare to cause trouble with the town at all, so Li Congke not only let Shi Jingyao return to the town, but also promised never to transfer him.
Since then, the two sides have continued to compete. Shi Jingyao falsely reported the situation, asked for food for soldiers, and strengthened his strength; he used the left and right of his mother-in-law Empress Cao and his two sons who were officials in Luoyang to spy on the situation of the imperial court; he often told the guests that he was not in good health and was not a good commander, hoping to alleviate the suspicion of the imperial court.
For its part, the imperial court used Zhang Jingda to garrison Dai Prefecture (代州, in present-day Shanxi) and arrange a force north of Taiyuan to guard against Shi Jingyao in the name of defending against the Khitans.
At that time, the eldest son of khitan Abaoji, Tuyi, was taken by his brother Yao Bone (i.e., Emperor Taizong of Liao) because of the throne, and went into exile in the Central Plains, giving him the name Li Zanhua.
Later Tang ministers Li Song, Lü Qi, and Zhang Yanlang concluded that if Shi Jingyao had a conspiracy, he must have asked the Khitan for assistance. They proposed a plan to draw salaries from the bottom of the cauldron, taking advantage of the Khitan Shulu Empress Dowager's eagerness to repatriate sudden desires, and gave more than 100,000 taels of gifts every year, making peace with the Khitans, so that Shi Jingyao could not find a patron.
The "courtesy coin" was actually the later "year coin", but this plan did not have the content of humiliating and seeking peace, which could avoid the military struggle between the north and the south and play a role in preventing Shi Jingyao, which should be desirable. However, Li Congke listened to the advice of Xue Wenyu, a privy councillor, and believed that this was "to serve Yidi with the dignity of the Son of Heaven" and negated this plan.
Shi Jingyao summoned his staff and generals to discuss countermeasures. Liu Zhiyuan (劉知遠) and Sang Weihan, the secretary of the capital, both believed that they could not stand still and advocated a rebellion.
Sang Weihan proposed a strategy of begging the Khitan for support, which was right in the heart of Shi Jingyao.
Sang Weihan, a native of Henan (Luoyang), was born short and broad-faced, described as ugly, and in the later Tang Dynasty, he was a jinshi, good at words, and quite scheming. At the moment, he personally drafted a surrender table, asking Shi Jingyao to call himself a vassal to the Khitan Emperor Taizong Yelü Deguang, and also made a wish to cut off Lu Long and the states north of Yanmen Pass.
These conditions, especially the two articles of weighing sons and cutting land, Liu Zhiyuan felt that they were too excessive, saying that in the future, they would be a plague in the Central Plains. However, Shi Jingyao and Sang Weihan believed that otherwise they would not be able to win the favor of Yelü Deguang.
In June, a rebellion broke out. Shi Jingyao launched a political offensive, accusing Li Congke of being an adopted son and therefore illegal to take the throne, and demanded that he automatically step down.
Why didn't Shi Jingyao send troops to take Luoyang directly, but only sat in Jinyang City and provoked with pen and ink? The reason was simple, his military strength was not strong enough to achieve his goal at once, and he was counting on the other side's division and Khitan assistance.
Li Congke ordered Shi Jingyao to be removed from all official positions, and then ordered Zhang Jingda to lead an army to fight. Yelü Deguang, who was worried that he would not have the opportunity to go south, was overjoyed, and immediately led his troops down from Yanmen Pass south to rescue Shi Jingyao, and finally sneaked up on the Tang army after the great defeat, killing more than 10,000 people.
Although the siege of Jinyang was solved, Later Tang had not yet completely lost its advantage. Zhang Jingda camped in Jin'an Township, south of Jinyang, and he still had 50,000 soldiers and 10,000 horses, although surrounded by enemy troops, it was actually a stalemate situation. Soldiers and horses from various feudal towns also entered Hedong one after another, and the momentum was not weak.
Yelü Deguang saw that Jin'an Zhai was difficult to break for a while, and there were Hou Tang reinforcements on both the east and west sides, and he was afraid that the states north of Yanmen Pass would copy his back road, and he felt as if he had slipped into his pocket, and his heart was very worried.
The ones who really helped Yelü Deguang and Shi Jingyao were Li Congke and Zhao Dejun's father and son.
04. Emperor Shi Jingyao
What Li Congke should do is to go to the front line in person and boost morale. However, he was afraid of Shi Jingyao, so he just issued an edict and pretended to be like him. Bureaucrats who knew his psychology said that "Hu Bing cannot stay for a long time" and advised him not to go north himself. He "accepted" the advice and stayed in the rear.
There were also people who did not know how to persuade him to go north, but he said in despair: "Don't say anything about the Qing family, Shi Lang made my heart fall to the ground!" ”
The imperial court was close to collapse psychologically, how could this battle be won! Some people suggested taking advantage of the internal contradictions of the Khitan and sending troops to send Li Zanhua back from Youzhou to the Khitan to fight for the country, so that Yelü Deguang had internal worries, and the DPRK and The CHINESE could not decide. This is indeed something that Li Congke can use, and he also knows that he can use it, but he did not make a decision on the spot.
Zhao Dejun commanded Youzhou's army and was ordered to save Hedong. The imperial court ordered him to leave the Flying Fox Pass (飛狐口, southeast of present-day Weizhou, Hebei) and attack the rear of the Khitan army. This is exactly what Yerushalayim fears most. However, Zhao Dejun was unwilling to fight really, and took his army to Tuanbai Valley, nearly a hundred miles south of Jin'an Village, stayed still and proposed to the Khitan to establish himself as emperor, jointly overthrowing the Later Tang and retaining the territory east of shijiahe.
Yelü Deguang had no certainty of victory and was eager to accede to Zhao Dejun's request. Shi Jingyao panicked and hurriedly sent Sang Weihan to see Deguang. This ugly monster knelt in front of the tent, from morning to night, pleading bitterly, a handful of tears, a handful of snot, out of the ocean. Yelü Deguang had no choice but to point to the stone in front of the tent and say to Zhao Dejun's messenger, "I have promised Shi Lang, and the stone rots before it can be changed!" ”
What did Yerushalayim promise Shi Jingyao? He had already recognized Shi Jingyao as his son, and had already made Shi Jingyao the "Emperor of the Great Jin Dynasty".
These two ugly dramas were successively performed after the siege of Jinyang was lifted.
On the day of the siege, Shi Jingyao went out of the city to meet Yelü Deguang and determined the father-son relationship in person. This year, Shi Jingyao was 45 years old, Yelü Deguang was 34 years old, and Lao Tzu was 11 years younger than his son, which was really a strange thing that had never been heard of in ancient times.
On November 12, Yelü Deguang lied to Shi Jingyao as the "Emperor of the Great Jin Dynasty", personally took off his robe and hat, and put it on for Shi Jingyao. Dressed in a Khitan costume, the "emperor" performed a puppet comedy.
After Shi Jingyao ascended the throne, he changed his name to Yuan Tianfu. Before he could get his hands on it, he allowed 300,000 horses to be sacrificed every year, and the lands of 16 prefectures of Jieyou (present-day Beijing), Ji (present-day JinjiXian), Ying (present-day Hejian, Hebei), Mo (present-day Renqiu), Zhuo (present-day Zhuozhou), Tan (present-day Miyun, Beijing), Shun (present-day Shunyi), Xin (present-day Zhuolu, Hebei), Concubine (present-day Huailai), Ru (present-day Yanqing, Beijing), Wu (present-day Xuanhua, Hebei), Wei (present-day Weizhou), Yun (present-day Datong, Shanxi), Ying (present-day Ying County), Huan (northeast of present-day Shuo County), and Shuo (present-day Shuo County).
Li Congke saw that the trend had gone, and the whole family went upstairs and set fire to themselves. Two of them could have written a few words.
One is From Ke's son Lee Chung-mi. Empress Liu wanted to burn down the palace. Shigemi dissuaded, saying: "When the new emperor comes, he still needs to use it, how much people's effort will be spent to rebuild it after it is burned, and if he dies, he will cause people to complain. Empress Liu gave up on this idea.
Another was Empress Cao, who was Shi Jingyao's mother-in-law, so someone advised her not to die. But she said: "If the children and grandchildren get such a fate, why should I bear to have an only child!" ”
Zhao Dejun did not become an emperor, and he could not even do it. Shi Jingyao hated him for robbing him of becoming emperor, and when he saw him, he would never pay any attention to him. Yelü Deguang was also very rude to him, escorting his father and son back to the Khitans.
Zhao Dejun met with Empress Shulu and presented the list of treasures and youzhou field books he had brought, hoping to win the favor of the Empress Dowager. Unexpectedly, the empress dowager asked, "What did you do when you recently arrived in Taiyuan?" “
Dejun could only reply, "On the orders of Lord Tang." ”
The empress dowager was furious, raised her finger to the sky, and questioned: "Why don't you dare to tell the truth when you beg my son to be your emperor?" ”
The empress dowager pointed to her heart again and said, "You must have a conscience, this cannot be deceived!" ”
She then sternly reprimanded: "When my son sent troops, I told him: If King Zhao leads his troops to Yuguan, he should quickly retreat, and Taiyuan must not be saved." If you want to be emperor, why not first defeat my son and then plan to become emperor, it is not too late. You are a subject of man, you are a master, you cannot retreat from the enemy, and you want to touch the fish in muddy waters. ”
Zhao Dejun was scolded so much that he did not dare to look up. The empress dowager asked again, "Where is the treasure, but where is the field property?" ＂
Zhao Dejun replied, "In Youzhou." ”
The empress dowager said: "Youzhou belongs to our country, it is all our things, and why should you contribute!" ”
Zhao Dejun was ridiculed by this, depressed, and died after a year. His son Zhao Yanshou, however, disgraced the enemies of the state and the family, ignored them, and became a Khitan official with peace of mind.
After Shi Jingyao arrived in Luoyang, he soon moved the capital to Beizhou, and later promoted Beizhou to Kaifeng Prefecture in Tokyo. Since then, Kaifeng has had the name Tokyo.
Shi Jingyao corresponded with Emperor Taizong of the Khitans, and each time used a table to indicate that there was a difference between kings and subjects; he called Emperor Taizong of Liao as "Father Emperor" and called himself a subject and "Emperor Er". When the Khitan envoys came to Tokyo, he always met and received the edicts. Every year, in addition to contributing gold in accordance with the original agreement, precious gifts are given at any time of the year, or when there is a wedding or funeral celebration. In addition to Emperor Taizong of Liao, the empress dowager, the crown prince, and the chancellor all had property to obtain.
Shi Jingyao is really an uncompromising child emperor!
05, Yanyun sixteen states, not only 16 states!
Shi Jingyao's cutting off of Youyun Sixteen Prefectures was a major event for five generations, and had a major impact on the development of the Khitan and on the border defense of the Central Plains Dynasty from Shi Jin to the Northern Song Dynasty.
These 16 prefectures, centered on Youzhou and Yunzhou, roughly correspond to the current cities of Beijing and Tianjin and the northern part of Hebei and Shanxi provinces. Together with the Camp and Ping'er Prefectures that the Khitan had already captured before the founding of the Later Tang Dynasty, they actually occupied a total of 18 prefectures. The Khitan also divided Pingzhou into Luan Prefecture (present-day Hebei) and Ji prefectures into Zunhua Jingzhou, thus adding two more states to 20 states.
At the end of the Fifth Dynasty, Later Zhou Shizong Chai Rong captured the three prefectures of Ying, Mo, and Yi, which were outside the 20 prefectures and fell into the hands of the Khitan in the last year of the Shi Jin Dynasty.
In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were no more states, so the Song people wanted to talk about "the states after five generations", and there should be a total of 19 states.
However, the Song court did not seem to be very clear about this situation, and later negotiated with the Jin State, which was generally called "the fall of the states after five generations", which was a strong proof that it did not clearly include the division of land by Shi Jin and the occupation of various places by the Khitan before Shi Jin.
Youzhou was also called Yanjing in the Liao Dynasty, and at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty also established Yanshan Province, so Youyun was also called Yanyun. The History of song and Geography, written by the Yuan Dynasty, says that only The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun were not recovered in the early Song Dynasty. This statement is very inaccurate.
In the early years when You and Yun were divided into Khitans, the military and civilians in some places refused Shi Jin's false orders, rose up to resist, and showed a heroic and indomitable spirit.
For example, The military and civilians of Yunzhou, led by Judge Wu Luan, closed the city and refused to defend it, insisting on it for half a year.
After all, Wu Luan was only a ruling class member, and he refused to surrender to the Khitans, but he had illusions about Shi Jingyao and sent emissaries to him for help. As a result, Shi Jingyao sought the consent of the Khitan government and ended the resistance movement in Yunzhou by summoning Wu Luan back.
After the annexation of You and Yun to the Khitans, the Central Plains state lost its favorable terrain in defense.
On the eastern side of the river, there are major passes such as Yanmen Pass (equivalent to the existing Inner Great Wall line) south of Yun, Shuo and other prefectures, which is still dangerous to defend.
In Hebei, the Yanshan Mountains have always been a barrier for the Central Plains to defend agricultural areas and resist nomadic cavalry, and the existing Ming Great Wall is built on this. This method of using terrain to build a city for defense is not uncommon in the ancient history of Chinese and foreign countries, but the only defense line that is so long, so old and preserved to this day is the Great Wall of China.
Apaoji took Ying and Ping'er Prefectures, and already occupied the eastern end of this barrier, and the famous Pass Mountain Customs and Xifengkou of the Existing Great Wall are in this section.
After the Shijin cut off the land, the Yanshan Mountains were in the interior of the Khitan Mountains, and Youzhou became an important town of the Khitans, and the horses moved, not to the Yellow River, and no longer touched the insurmountable terrain.
This is a fact. But the old historians' overemphasis on the influence of topography on the central plains states is not entirely correct. From the Shi Jin Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty, there are many cases of soldiers and civilians in the Central Plains defeating the Khitan Iron Horse on the Hebei Plain. We shall speak of the facts in this regard later, and shall not dwell on them now.
At this stage, the biggest impact was the acceleration of the development of the Khitan people. This should be affirmed in the history of our country.
In the khitan territory, there are many tribes, and the level of social and economic development is very inconsistent. At the time of Abaoji, although some cities were established in the eastern part of present-day Inner Mongolia, using the labor force of the Han people, they developed a little agriculture, mainly relying on animal husbandry for a living.
Ah Baoji destroyed the Bohai Sea and only then did he get a number of towns, but the degree of its development was by no means comparable to that of Yanyun. Sixteen Prefectures is a highly developed area inhabited by Han Chinese with a highly developed feudal economy, and its belonging will not have a major impact on the development of the Khitan without a major impact.
When the Khitans gained access to the region, the first problem they encountered was how to rule.
The Khitan nobility had always been very fond of the politics and culture of the Han Chinese. Han Yanhui fled and returned, but he is still reused, which can also be said to be the reason for the lack of talent at the beginning of the founding of the country.
At the time of the Shi Jin Dynasty, there were already many Han Chinese in the Khitan court, but Yelü Deguang was still very tolerant of some outstanding people. There was a Zhang Li, who was captured by the Khitan after the defeat of the late Tang Dynasty, and Yelü Deguang saw that he was quite literate and used as a Hanlin scholar. Later, he escaped privately and was captured by the Khitans. Yerushalayim asked him why he was fleeing, and he said that he was too unaccustomed to eating and living.
Yelü Deguang scolded Gao Yanying, the interpreter, and said, "I often tell you to treat this person favorably, so why don't you pay attention?" If he is gone, where can he find such talents? So he beat Gao Yanying up, and instead apologized to Zhang Li for his sins and used them more heavily.
What does the Khitan Taizong Yelü Deguang's practice illustrate? In essence, it is nothing more than relying on Han scholars to rule the Han and other ethnic groups. But the politics and culture of the Han chinese were advanced at the time, and the Khitan aristocracy's use of "Han law" was an enlightened and progressive policy.
Of course, not all Khitan nobles favored this practice, and Yelü Deguang himself sometimes deviated from the policies he himself implemented, as we can see from what Deguang did when he entered the city at the end of the Jin Dynasty.
However, through the history of the Liao Dynasty, the use of "Han law" is the mainstream after all.
For the vast number of Han people, the Khitan government also imitated the ruling methods of the Central Plains countries, which is called "treating the Han people with the Han system." This is the principle of the Khitan government.
The Khitan government upgraded Youzhou to Nanjing, and organized a system of "southern court officials" so that it coexisted with the "northern court officials" who were responsible for the military and political affairs of the Khitan and other northern ethnic groups.
These two sets of official systems were gradually completed, and each set up a privy council, and set up officials such as the prime minister and the privy councillor respectively.
This set of divisions and divisions was formulated entirely to adapt to different economic life and modes of production.
Since the feudal economy of the Sixteen Prefectures was largely unspoiled, this area was clearly the most advanced part of the khitan territory. Its feudal economy will inevitably have an impact on the "military states under the head", making it gradually transform into a feudal system.
It was not difficult for those slaves who maintained small production and operation of each family to become serfs, so in some parts of the khitan area, the feudal economy gradually developed.
This country, which was originally dominated by slavery, was gradually transformed into a dynasty dominated by feudalism.
The influence of the Han and Chinese language also grew rapidly. Especially in Shangjing, Tokyo and other places, Han Chinese people flowed in large numbers, and in the exchanges of people of all ethnic groups, Chinese often became the common language. As for the education of the upper classes of the Khitan people, the content is mainly Han culture.
These changes began before the cession of the clouds, but after the cession of the clouds, it undoubtedly developed on a larger scale and faster. In the same year (938), Emperor Taizong Yelü Deguang accepted the sixteen prefectures presented by Shi Jin's emissaries, and made the decision to promote Youzhou to Nanjing, reform the official system, and announce the change of yuan, which were important measures to adapt to the new situation.
We can say that from this time on, the Central Plains Dynasty and the Khitan really formed a new situation of the Southern and Northern Dynasties.