When it comes to mummies, people naturally think of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs, who after their deaths, were almost all mummified, also known as dry corpses, in order to preserve them for a thousand years without decaying. In modern times, Chinese archaeologists have found the beautiful mummy of Guloulan in Lop Nur as a special case. But in china's Liao Dynasty, there was an emperor who was also mummified after his death, and he was The Liao Taizong Yelü Deguang.
In 927, at the age of twenty-five, Yelü Deguang became the second monarch of the Khitan state. At that time, the Central Plains region was in a period of extreme chaos and turmoil in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and all the powerful and nobles wanted to compete for the position of emperor, resulting in years of war, wars and chaos, and the people's livelihood. Yelü Deguang of the Great Liao State was an ambitious man, and after he succeeded to the throne, he was recuperating, painstakingly managing, and fiercely fighting horses, bent on one day annexing the vast and rich Central Plains.
About nine years later, Shi Jingyao, the son-in-law of the Later Tang Emperor Li Siyuan, established himself as king in order to replace the Later Tang, and braved the great disobedience of the world to willingly give up the Youyun Sixteen Prefectures in the Central Plains, provide 300,000 silk silks per year free of charge, and recognize Yelü Deguang, who was ten years younger than himself, as his father, in exchange for Liao Taizong Yelü Deguang sent Khitan troops to help him destroy the Later Tang regime and establish the Later Jin Dynasty led by him.
After Shi Jingyao's death, his nephew Shi Chonggui took the throne. Because he was unwilling to pay tribute to the Khitan state with a steady stream of later Jin wealth, Shi Chonggui made a request to Yelü Deguang to "only call Sun and not a subject". Emperor Taizong of Liao was furious and used this as an excuse to invade the Central Plains in the south, and the Liao state was strong and strong at that time, and soon destroyed Shi Chonggui's Later Jin.
Yelü Deguang established the Great Liao in Kaifeng and established himself as emperor. However, the vast number of people in the Central Plains did not submit to his rule, and the rebel army that rebelled against the Liao rose up to resist the Khitan invaders, and the Liao soldiers were killed by the rebel army and suffered heavy casualties. As Yerushalayim became increasingly difficult to gain a foothold in Kaifeng, he soon had to order the withdrawal of his base camp.
In 947, the forty-five-year-old Yelü Deguang was unfortunately infected with a fever on the way to evacuate the Central Plains. After the doctor diagnosed him, he advised him to stay away from female sex and restrain his desires. But Yelü Deguang not only did not accept it with a humble heart, but also scolded the tai doctor fiercely: You are all quacks who do not learn and have no skills! I have a fever, I should use a woman to put out the fire, why do you still let me stay away from women?
Yerushalayim was obstinate, did not heed the advice of the doctor, but continued to indulge in indulgence and pleasure as always. When he marched to Luancheng to kill Hu Lin, he suddenly spat out blood, and before he could rescue him, he cried out for his life.
The news of Yelü Deguang's sudden violent death soon reached Shangjing in the Liao Kingdom, and Empress Shulu immediately sent a message: "Yelü Deguang, born to see people, death to see corpses!" "It was a hot summer day, the temperature was very high, and there were no cooling facilities at that time, so how easy was it to keep the flesh and body for several days without decaying?" This is not a pity for the ministers who accompany the king.
Just when the ministers of culture and military affairs were helpless, a royal cook came up with an idea: to make the emperor a "羓". So what exactly is It? It turns out that most of the northern nomads like to eat beef and mutton, sometimes after killing a cow or sheep, they can't finish eating for a while, if it happens to a hot summer, the herders will hollow out the internal organs of the beef and mutton, and then use salt to marinate, so that the processed meat can be preserved for a certain period of time without rotting quickly. This salt-treated beef and mutton is called "羓". It is equivalent to the "bacon" of the Central Plains or Sichuan.
After hearing this, although the ministers of culture and martial arts felt that it was not appropriate to treat Emperor Yelü Deguang as a cow and sheep, but there was no better way at present, in desperation, they agreed that the Taiyi would adopt the method of imperial cooking, and made Yelü Deguang into a "羓" and transported it back to Shangjing in the Liao Kingdom.
Therefore, poor Liao Taizong Yelü Deguang became the only emperor in Chinese history to be made into a "mummy" or "mummy" after his death.