Historical tales Of Xinjiang| Yelü Dashi and Xiliao The Records of the Western Chamber are in the Western Regions

"History of Xinjiang" series of micro-videos no. 43

The Great Stone of Jerusalem and the Western Liao

Northwest of the Urkhashire Mountains, on the southeast bank of the Emin River, about 4 kilometers east of the city of Emin County in Xinjiang, there is a high-slope earthen beam about 2 kilometers long and about 1.8 kilometers wide, with undulating hills and barren grass, which is the site of the "Yemili City" that is repeatedly mentioned in the classics.

Historically, when the Liao Dynasty was on the verge of extinction, yelü Dashi, who led the people to move west, first settled in the City of Yemili after arriving in the Xinjiang region. It was also here that Yelü Dashi officially declared himself Emperor Jieyuan in 1132 AD, established the Western Liao, and in the following ten years, successively brought the Uighur Kingdom of Gaochang and the Qarakhanid Dynasty under his rule, and finally achieved partial unification in the Western Regions.

The Western Liao was a historical regime established by the Khitans in the Xinjiang region of the mainland and Central Asia, and was a continuation of the rule of the Liao Dynasty. This is not only because the founder of the Western Liao, Yelü Dashi, was the eighth grandson of the Liao Taizu, but also because the Western Liao inherited the canonical system of the Liao Dynasty.

In 916, Yelü Abaoji established himself as emperor with the name of Khitan and later renamed Daliao. According to the "History of Liao and Hundred Officials", the Liao Dynasty "used the Tang system to restore the officials of the three provinces, six ministries, and eastern palaces in the south", and "ruled the Khitan with the state system and treated the Han people with the Han system". After the establishment of the Western Liao, the officials were divided into north and south, "the north governs the palace, the tribes, and the government of the subordinate state; the south governs the affairs of han prefectures, rents, and military horses", which is exactly the inheritance of the northern and southern official system implemented by the Liao Dynasty.

Historically, the Khitan people were deeply influenced by Han culture, and Yelü Abaoji sacrificed Confucius, built Buddhist temples and Taoist temples at the beginning of the founding of the country, and Liao Shengzong was "good at reading the Tang "Zhenguan Shijiao", and to The Taizong and Ming Emperor Shilu were Qinfu" . By the end of the Liao Dynasty, the Khitan and the Central Plains had been highly integrated, and the ordinary people in the Khitan territory were "commonly Hanfu".

The Western Liao were also deeply influenced by the culture of the Central Plains. According to the History of Liao, Yelü Dashi "weighed heavily on virtue ... Tongliao, Chinese characters... Deng Tianqing five years into the priesthood, promoted to Hanlin should be enshrined", from his experience in participating in the imperial examination to obtain a jinshi, it can be seen that he is familiar with Confucian culture. Yelü Chucai, a famous minister of the Yuan Dynasty, once praised him for his "ten thousand miles of mighty sound, a century-old famous religion" and "quite a cultural religion, and the Western Regions still think about it."

After the establishment of the Western Liao, Yelü Dashi, while entering the countryside and commonly known as "Gerhan" (meaning the King of the Great Khans or the King of the Khans), "restored the Han Zun title of Emperor Tianyou and changed to Yuan Yanqing", using the traditional imperial and era names of the Central Plains Emperors, and "the five lords of the Western Liao, all eighty-eight years, all have Hanwen year numbers", and when the princess married, insisted on grooming "according to the habits of Han women".

The Western Liao took Khitan and Han chinese as the official languages, manufactured coins in accordance with the form of the Central Plains, named after the Western Liao era name "Kang Guo Tongbao" and "Gantian Yuanbao", and the inscriptions printed on the coins were all Chinese characters, which reflected the identification of the Western Liao rulers with Chinese culture.

The Western Liao not only brought the political culture of the Central Plains to the Western Regions and Central Asia, but also the Khitan and Han craftsmen who migrated west with the Great Stone of Yelü, and also brought the architectural technology and statue art of the Central Plains to the Western Regions and the Western Regions. The temples built by the Western Liao people are decorated with Paintings of the Central Plains; the stone Buddha statues found on Barasagun (the site of Brana in present-day Chuhe Oblast, Kyrgyzstan, called Balasagun by the Qarakhanid Dynasty, and the capital city of The Western Liao, renamed "Tiger Si Hui Ear"), whether it is the appearance of the stone Buddha statues, or the shapes of the sacred beasts, toads, and lotus flowers that guard the Buddha around them, indicate that they were influenced by Central Plains art.

The Western Liao brought the profound Chinese culture to the western region and the vast region of Central Asia, leaving a glorious page in the history of human civilization.

"History of Xinjiang" series of micro-videos no. 44

The Tale of the West Chamber is in the Western Regions

On the southeastern edge of the Tarim Basin, on the north bank of the Chelchen River, near the site of the Lower Tatijan Beacon in Xinjiang's Jimo County, there is a site known as Suberskan. In 1986, a herdsman inadvertently found some worn-out pieces of paper here, and a batch of documents from the early Yuan Dynasty were presented to the world.

These documents are all single pages, and only 4 of them are relatively intact on paper, but the ink color is leaky and the handwriting is slightly blurred. After identification by experts, it was found that the contents of the documents included letters, submissions, lists, notices, miscellaneous dramas, donkey accounts, and xizi.

This is one of the documents excavated at the Suberskan site, the fragment page is 21.8 centimeters long and 27 centimeters wide, and there are 9 columns of Chinese characters remaining. If the wrongdoers fail the covenant, tonight will be difficult to survive. Zhang Xiucai, who was sullen and amorous, overheard the door open dumbly and hurriedly scratched his eyes. See the red lady and send a message to xie yuan cough. Mo was haunted and paused, and took a moment to stay in the book. Teach Mr. Hugh Strange, wait for the lady to burn the night incense", judging from the text content, this is a fragment of the manuscript part of the "Xianlu Tune and Flower Viewing Time" part of the famous folk legend love story "Dong Xie Yuan Xi Xiang Ji".

Two of the documents unearthed at the same time as this fragment have a definite chronology, one written in December of the 20th year of the 20th century (1283) and one in the 21st year of the 21st century (1284). Zhiyuan is the era name of Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, and experts deduce that these documents were written in the Yuan Dynasty, and this fragment of miscellaneous drama has become the only kind of "West Chamber Record" found so far that was copied by hand by the Yuan Dynasty.

During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, there was an unprecedented situation of political unification and ethnic migration and integration. After the Yuan Dynasty established the Central Plains, in addition to setting up military and political management organs and officials in the Xinjiang region, it also adopted a series of necessary measures, such as stationing troops and establishing post stations, to strengthen the management of the Xinjiang region. The Yuan Dynasty set up a wide range of post stations in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, forming a situation of "scattered stars and well-connected veins...", which effectively promoted the development of transportation in Xinjiang.

According to the Yuan Shi Shi Shi Ji, "By September of the nineteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty, Ding Wei ... Don't take it quickly to ask Yu Lob and Jian LiHui to follow it", Jalli Hui is where the site of today's Suberskan is located, and the fragments of documents unearthed here are supported by the record of the names of the soldiers. Judging from the surviving texts of the letters such as "Tuoshu to the Residence of Su Bailing in the Eastern City of Yan'an Province" and "Tan Baihu in Yanchang County", most of the soldiers of the post were requisitioned from Yan'an Province, Yanchang County and other places in the Central Plains, and the owner of the fragments of the manuscript of "Dong Xieyuan Xixiang" is one of them.

The "Tale of the West Chamber" originated from the Tang Dynasty Yuan Shu's "Biography of Yingying", and later generations of literati based on the "Tale of yingying" and re-created many creators, Dong Xieyuan of the Jin Dynasty is one of them, and his "Notes on the Palaces of the West Chamber" was probably written during the reign of Jin Zhangzong (1190-1208), only more than 80 years before the manuscript excavated from this Suberskan site.

The miscellaneous dramas from the Central Plains, which spread to the Tarim Basin across time and space, illustrate the interaction and fusion of the cultures of the Central Plains and Xinjiang regions, and highlight the important influence of the Central Plains culture in Xinjiang during the Yuan Dynasty; and the establishment of the post stations and the activities of the officers and men stationed at the stations all witnessed the central government of the Yuan Dynasty for the governance of the Xinjiang region.

History Xinjiang | Episode 1 - Episode 18

Source: Propaganda Department of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Committee of the Communist Party of China

Kuitun Rong Media Center

Editor: Hao Wanlin

Editor-in-charge: Chen Shijian, Wang Qian

Editor-in-Chief: Xu Zhong

Director system: Zhang Daiwei