What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
Most people think that the origin of the name "Liaoning" is because of the ancient history of the Liao State, in fact, this concept is not completely accurate, the origin of the name Liaoning is long, the Liao State is only one of the more dazzling dynasties, does not mean that Liaoning originated from the history of the Liao State.
Liaoning was used as the name of the province in 1928 after the northeast changed flags and banners, from Fengtian Province to Liaoning Province, and after the founding of New China, it was finally named Liaoning.
According to the current official interpretation, the Liao character in the word "Liaoning" refers to the LiaoHe River, and the meaning of Liaoning is "taking the meaning of the Liaohe River Basin forever peaceful and getting its name".
This statement is the most authoritative, the convention of naming regional names with the Great River has a long history, and even now there are many place names named after geographical factors, such as Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Hunan, Hubei, etc., and Heilongjiang Province is simply named after Heilongjiang.
As the largest river in Liaoning Province, the Liaohe River covers most of Liaoning, so it is most well-founded to say that the name of Liaoning comes from the Liaohe River.
In fact, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period before the LiaoGuo, the Yan Kingdom, one of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States in Liaoning, set up two counties in Liaoning, Liaodong and Western Liaoning, and the geographical division of these two counties should also be divided by the Liaohe River.
After the Qin Dynasty unified the world, 36 counties were set up throughout the country, of which Liaodong County and Liaoxi County still existed, and during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, in addition to Liaodong and Liaoxi Counties, other counties were added.
After the fall of the Han Dynasty, the regime was turbulent, and the situation in the north was changeable, especially in the Liaoning region, where the administrative structure changed was very complicated.
In many cases, Liaodong and Liaoxi no longer become the names of official administrative divisions, but due to the existence of the Liaohe River, Liaodong and Liaoxi have become geographical categories, just like Guanzhong and Hexi, which cannot be replaced.
Some people think that the origin of the name Liao and Liaoning is related to the Liao River, but this is not the case.
Liaoning in the Liao period, although it is the jurisdiction of the Liao state, but can not be determined that Liaoning is the place where the Liao state originated, there has been controversy about where the Khitan origin, the mainstream of academic circles believe that the Liao state originated in the upper reaches of the Liao River, and there is no final decision.
According to historical data, it can be found that the Liao state mainly arose in the chifeng area of inner Mongolia, although in a certain historical period Chifeng was also a jurisdiction of Liaoning, but it was far away from the Liao River.
On the other hand, the Khitan people, the main ethnic group of the Liao State, are a typical nomadic people, while the Liao River Valley in ancient times was full of ravines and complex water systems, which was not suitable for large-scale nomadism, such as the later rise of the Houjin, which was strictly speaking a fishing and hunting nation.
If this is the case, why should the Liao people have a hard relationship with the LiaoHe?
In fact, although Liaoning means "the LiaoHe Valley is always peaceful", it is not the only authoritative official statement, and there is another statement that is also very convincing, that is, the "Tianliao Di Ning" statement.
The word "Liao" itself has a vast meaning, and if it is interpreted in this way, it seems to have some commonalities with the "Liao" of the Liao state.
The Liao state was founded by the Khitan people, in fact, not all of them were called Liao at all times, at the beginning they were all called Khitan to the outside world, in 907 A.D. Yelü Abaoji became the leader of the Khitan tribal alliance, and in 916 began to establish the state under the title of "Khitan", which was fixed in Linhuang Province ( today Chifeng , Inner Mongolia ) .
In 947, Emperor Taizong of Liao led an army south to defeat Later Tang and capture the later Tang capital Kaifeng, and Yelü Deguang ascended the throne as emperor in Kaifeng and changed the name of the country to "Great Liao".
If the origin of the name of the Liao State is the Liao River, when there is no southward movement, the name of the country should be called "Liao", rather than waiting until the time of entering the Central Plains, when it is far away from the Liao River, and then designating the name of the country as "Liao".
When someone once looked up the name of the Country about the Khitan Regime, he found a particularly interesting thing, that is, the Khitan Regime sometimes changed the name of the country to "Great Khitan" and sometimes changed back to "Liao", and the two country names were wavering.
I think this is related to the positioning of the Khitan regime, which was Khitan when it was in the steppe, and when it wanted to invade the Central Plains and establish a larger-scale political power, it was called Liao.
Khitan is the name of the national power of the Khitan people as the main body, while "Liao" is the name of the Khitan people as the main body of the regime, controlling more ethnic groups and occupying more plates.
From here, we can see that the "Liao State" is more of a vast meaning, and if you want to accommodate more territory and rule more people, it is naturally "vast".
It is impossible that the Khitan regime missed the LiaoHe when it entered the Central Plains, so it was named Liao, and when it retreated to the grassland, it was called Khitan who had nothing to do with the Liaohe.
Of course, there has always been much controversy about the name of the Liao state, because the Khitan language and the demise of the Khitan nation have left only more historical dust in this regime.
Regarding the origin of the name of the Liao State, in fact, the interpretation of the Jin State also has a certain authority.
When the founding emperor of the Jin Dynasty, Guanyan Akuta, explained in the sacred oracle why the Jurchens wanted to designate "Jin" as the name of the country, he wrote: Liao takes the name of the iron and takes its Jianye. Although the iron is strong, it will eventually become bad, but the gold will not be bad.
In this, Liao has a new meaning, that is, the meaning of iron, The complete Yan A boneta believes that the reason why khitan is called Liao, in fact, is the meaning of steel, which means that the Khitan people are indestructible, in order to defeat the Khitan people, the Jurchen state name is gold, although the iron is strong, but there will be a day of rust, only gold will not become bad.
Look at the people who finish yan ah bone to fight this ideological consciousness is still quite high!
In the Liao-Jin-Song Wars for Supremacy, iron seems to have become the key metal that determines the outcome of the war, and the higher the iron production, the more iron can be applied to the war.
At that time, in addition to a large number of iron used in weapon manufacturing, it occupied a great proportion in the creation of armor, and a large number of popular lock armor in the Tang and Song dynasties, the main material was iron.
Of course, the most frightening thing for the enemy is the Jinguo Tiefutu, the so-called Tiefutu is a heavy cavalry, arming people and horses through iron armor, which can break through most of the infantry defenses.
It can be said that the rise of the northern nomads during the Song Dynasty brought a great impact to the agricultural regime in the Central Plains, not only because there were cavalry, from the Warring States to the Song Dynasty, the northern nomads never lacked cavalry, why in the Song Dynasty, the nomads began to hang the Central Plains, and the heavily armored cavalry equipped with iron naturally played a very important role.
Looking at Liaoning, it has been an area rich in iron resources since ancient times, even now, Liaoning is still the province with the largest iron ore reserves in the country, and the extra-large iron ore discovered in Benxi, Liaoning in 2009 is the largest iron ore found in Asia.
In addition to Benxi, there are also many iron ore mines in other parts of Liaoning, so that during the Liao Dynasty, areas with abundant iron ore resources may have a certain connection with the Liao.
It can be said that the origin of the name of Liaoning has a long and far-reaching history, and there may also be a certain sense of connection with the historical Liao State, and it is hoped that with the excavation of more Liao Dynasty history, more valuable information will be found.