The Khitan is a nomadic people, the Liao Dynasty they established, once occupied most of China, in the twenty-four histories that are considered to be historical orthodoxy, the Liao history is also listed separately, which is enough to witness its status, but surprisingly, today's 56 ethnic groups, do not see the Khitan figure.
Recalling the history of the Khitan can be traced back to the 6th century, the Khitan was in the tribal stage, and in the Tang Dynasty, the Khitan people gradually became an alliance, submitting to the Turkic Khaganate in the north of the desert, during the Tang Taizong period, the Khitan tribe submitted to the Tang Dynasty, and gradually rose during this period.
Like other East Asian peoples, the Khitan people were naturally also influenced by Han culture, they established their own script on the Chinese script, in 907, Liao Taizu Yelü Abaoji became the leader of the Khitan tribal alliance, in 916, Yelü Abaoji led the people to establish a country, the country name Khitan "Khitan", the capital of Shangjing, his son Liao Taizong Yelü Deguang took the throne, and then modified the name of the country "Great Liao", the main ethnic group of the Liao Dynasty is the Khitan people, but the Liao State is also the most Sinicized ethnic group, they "rule the Khitan with the state system, Treat the Han people with the Han system", and at the same time imitate the Han Dynasty to carry out the imperial examination and formulate a written legal code.
And this also allowed the Liao Dynasty to exude a huge potential, in its heyday, the Border of the Liao Dynasty stretched east to the present-day Selenge River and the Shileka River; northeast to the Waixing'an Mountains and the Sea of Okhotsk; south to today's Tianjin City, Hebei Province, Baxian County, Shanxi Province, Yanmen Pass, and confronted the Northern Song Dynasty, but the Liao nobles in a long period of rule, or because of arrogance caused the entire country to fall into chaos and poverty, in 1125, the Liao State perished under the attack of the Jin Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, it is worth mentioning, The Khitans disappeared from the Chinese history books, and when the Liao state fell, there were still millions of Khitans, so where did they go?
Experts from the Institute of Ethnic Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences have finally had an answer based on state-of-the-art DNA sequencing studies. Nowadays, there are two main places in The country about the descendants of the Khitan people, the first is the Daur ethnic group living at the confluence of the Daxing'anling Mountains and the Hulunbuir Grassland, and the "I" in Shidian County, Yunnan, which are exactly the same ethnicity as the Khitans, and the production, life, customs, religion and Khitan civilization are also relatively close.
In a ancestral hall in Yuwang Township, Shidian County, a plaque inscribed with the word "Yelü" was also found, and the local "I" said that this was to commemorate their ancestor Asura and to indicate the identity of their Khitan descendants.
In addition to these two places, a part of the Khitan people into the Mongols, Goryeo and other ethnic minorities, the rest into Hebei and Shanxi, during this period, the characteristics of their ethnic group gradually faded, after the fall of the Liao Dynasty, the Khitan royal yelü Dashi did not give up resistance, but led the army into the northern desert region, conquered the vast area of today's Central Asia, and followed the Liao Dynasty state as the emperor, known as the "Western Liao", became a regional power at that time, and then continued the inheritance of khitan culture, but some analysts pointed out that Yelü Dashi left the Liao state, Only more than two hundred cavalry followed, but later his army grew to more than 10,000 people, which shows that the soldiers are not all Khitans.
Eventually, the Western Liao was destroyed by the Mongols in 1218, so by the time of the Yuan Dynasty, the Khitan as a complete nation no longer existed.