The Northern Song Dynasty, as one of the few dynasties in Chinese history that "emphasized literature over martial arts", was also the dynasty that most attracted the attention of the nomadic peoples on the northern border. Among them, the Liao state established by the Khitan people, which is the most familiar to people, even developed to the point of being able to compete with the Northern Song Dynasty, and was extremely powerful for a time.
Portrait of the Khitans
But for some reason, such a once glorious nation has disappeared unconsciously, and to this day, among the fifty-six ethnic groups in China, the title of Khitan is not seen. So, how did the Khitan gradually decline and disappear? Which nation has evolved into it now? - The daurs, which have long been a relatively low-existence and little-known ethnic minority, have come forward, and it is reported that they may be the only khitan descendants known in China.
Today's Daur people
Where did the Khitan come from?
According to historians' investigations, the Khitan originated from the distant Donghu tribe, and was a branch of the Yuwen department among the Xianbei branches of the Donghu tribe, and after becoming independent, they were divided into eight tribes that were independent of each other, and began to trade with the Northern Wei Dynasty at the same time, and slowly developed in poor living conditions. Until the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Khitan was only a small and inconspicuous barbarian state on the northern border, posing no threat to the Central Plains, and was even once recovered by the prosperous Tang Dynasty and belonged to the Tang Dynasty.
Kitan Images
With the advent of the Anshi Rebellion at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Huangchao Rebellion, and the chaotic great division of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Central Plains began to weaken. Another Khitan rival, the Turks, also declined during this period due to infighting. Seeing that the two great mountains that weighed on the khitan head had all collapsed, a generation of male lords, Yelü Abaoji, took the opportunity to lead the Khitan to the road to prosperity.
Yelü Abaoji first unified the eight Tribes of the Khitan with a strong hand, and then claimed the title of emperor in the northern border area, established an independent political state, and named the country Khitan and later Liao. The Khitan still followed the lifestyle and cultural habits of the nomadic peoples in the north, and lived by plundering the land resources of other countries, but this time, the Khitan, which had risen, was unstoppable, and had won many victories in every war.
Portrait of Jeroboam
Under the leadership of Apaoji, the Khitan continued to expand its territory and become stronger and stronger, and its sphere of influence reached its peak in the east to the Sea of Japan and the Altai Mountains, to the south to half of the Northern Song Dynasty, and to the north to the shores of Lake Baikal, with a population of as many as nine million people. In this way, the Khitan witnessed the demise of the Later Tang all the way and welcomed the arrival of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Sphere of influence during the heyday of the Liao
The Khitan with its ups and downs
Perhaps the comfort was excessive, under the "bicameral" political system, the internal struggle of the Khitan became more and more intense, triggering turmoil in the superstructure. Just as the so-called economic base determines the superstructure, the superstructure reacts to the economic base, and the Khitan upper echelon, which is bent on infighting, also makes the Khitan economic development stagnate for a time. Coupled with the fact that there were two generations of emperors in the middle, knowing that they were addicted to wine and appointing treacherous people, the whole Khitan seemed to be in danger.
Portrait of Liaojingzong
Fortunately, with the emergence of Liaojingzong, the general of the Building of The Great Building fell, reversing the downward slope of the Khitans. Under his rule, Emperor Jingzong of Liao was conscientious, diligent, benevolent and generous, and under his rule, the politics of the Liao Dynasty changed from dim to clear, and the superstructure gradually stabilized from turmoil. In the early period of his reign, diplomatic relations with the Northern Song Dynasty also tended to be peaceful, and the two countries often exchanged envoys.
It was not until after Zhao Guangyi unified Jiangnan, in order to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, the Imperial Expedition to the North, the crusade against the Khitans, and the defeat of the Song army, since then, the two countries have completely turned against each other. It has to be said that under the Song Dynasty's strategy of "emphasizing literature over force", the combat effectiveness of the Song soldiers can be called the five scum of war, and they have not won several battles, if they do not change the status quo of light force, taking the initiative to attack is undoubtedly to hit the stone with an egg.
Portrait of Empress Xiao
After the early death of Emperor Jingzong of Liao, the famous female politician Empress Xiao Wei, the regent of empress dowager Xiao Wei, implemented a series of effective reform strategies and exerted great efforts to govern, pushing the Liao state to another peak. In the relations with the Northern Song Dynasty, it also single-handedly promoted the diplomatic situation of the "Tanyuan Alliance", which enabled the Liao and Song dynasties to maintain a peace for 120 years and give each other room for recuperation.
It is worth mentioning that the "Tanyuan Alliance" seems to be peaceful, but in fact, the Northern Song Dynasty has made more efforts and concessions for this relationship. Even changing the main backbone of China's previous great power, it is necessary to pay tribute to the Liao state every year, and exchange money for peace.
Portrait of the Tanyuan Alliance
At the same time, the "Tanyuan Alliance" also made the Song Dynasty, which did not attach importance to military development, even more lightly, and the Forbidden Hebei Army and the Beijing Division Army both reached the point of "abolishing all weapons and equipment", and the combat effectiveness further declined, laying the foundation for the "shame of Jingkang" that later jin annihilated the Song Dynasty.
The decline and fall of the Khitans
As the saying goes, "If the country has no foreign enemies, the country will always perish." "The long-term peace not only gradually paralyzed the thinking of the Northern Song Dynasty, but also paralyzed the thinking of the Liao State. The Liao Kingdom, in the midst of a long period of peace, could not help but step into the eternal truth of prosperity and decline. And the bane of its demise is in the generation of The Liaoxing Sect.
Emperor Xingzong of Liao and Empress Dowager Fa
Empress Fatian, The birth mother of Emperor Xingzong of Liao, had a lifelong ideal of being an empress who controlled the government like Xiao Qi, but she was only ambitious and incompetent. Coupled with the fact that The relationship between Emperor Xingzong of Liao and Empress Dowager Fatian had always been discordant, so Emperor Xingzong of Liao spent almost all his energy on seizing power with Empress Dowager Fatian, and had little energy to govern the country, coupled with political corruption and economic decline, Emperor Xingzong of Liaoxingzong's many conquests of Western Xia were fruitless, but forced the people to suffer and complain.
On the side of seizing power, Empress Dowager Fa Tian was really too strong, and after the failure of the seizure of power, Emperor Xingzong of Liao was completely devastated, indulged in alcohol all day, and ignored the government. However, Empress Fatian's ability to govern the country was unremarkable, and she did not save the building like Xiao Qi, but accelerated the demise of the Liao state.
Map of the situation in Jinliao and Song Dynasties
At the same time, the Jin Dynasty established by the Jurchens was also quietly rising, eyeing the Song and Liao countries. Emperor Huizong of Song, who was then the emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty, saw that the Liao state was gradually declining, so he deliberately wanted to unite with the Jin state to destroy the Liao state and retake the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, which had been occupied by the Liao state for a long time, so as to make some great achievements.
In this way, the Northern Song Dynasty and the Jin State concluded a "Maritime Alliance" and used money to "hire" the Jin State to attack the Liao State. The weak Liao state was no longer an opponent of the Jin state, and it was soon destroyed, and the imperial family members also fled. The powerful Jin Kingdom did not return the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun to the Northern Song Dynasty as originally agreed with the Northern Song Dynasty, but went all the way south and destroyed the Northern Song Dynasty.
Song Huizong, who fantasized about the alliance on the sea
Today's Khitans
So, where did the Khitans end up? According to the custom, after the Jin State destroyed the Liao State, it would naturally exterminate the Khitan people. Forced to be helpless, the Khitans were forced to migrate to the Mongolian Plateau and eastern Xinjiang, as far away from the Jin Dynasty as possible. However, the Jin state did not let them go, and soon took control of the Mongolian plateau and eastern Xinjiang, forcing the Khitans to continue to flee to the northwest, and finally established the Western Liao in the distant Central Asian region.
However, the Western Liao did not last long, and it was once again scattered by the Jin army. At this point, the Khitan people who had struggled to survive along the way were drastically reduced, and they were reduced from the former Yangyang ethnic group to an ethnic minority. In order to survive, the tenacious Khitan even migrated to the Iranian region and gradually integrated into the local Islam, becoming the Kyrgyz people of iran today.
Kyrgyz photo
In addition to the Khitan people who "drifted north", there were also a small number of Khitan people who chose to "flee south", and this part of the Khitan people who fled south usually did not hold any hope of restoring the country, in order to save their lives, they completely integrated into the Central Plains, intermarried with the Han people, in order to constantly dilute their Khitan characteristics, and changed their surname to "Xiao" or "Liu", perfectly integrated with the Chinese nation, and escaped the suppression of the Jin people.
Of course, there were also some Khitans who chose to spoil it, accepted the rule and enslavement of the Jin State, and chose to intermarry with the Manchus who were closer to their own race and customs. However, they were also forced to change their surnames to Jurchen or Manchu surnames, and by the end of the Qing Dynasty, most of the Khitans who intermarried with the Manchus changed their surnames to "Shu". It is said that the writer Lao She, whose original name was Shu Qingchun, was a Manchu whose ancestors were Khitans.
Today's Daur people
In addition, there are also some Liao people, "vow not to eat golden millet", migrated to the northeast, lived in Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia region, survived, and always maintained intermarriage within the clan, the Khitan civilization and characteristics have been preserved to this day, and became a member of the fifty-six ethnic groups, now we usually call them the Daur ethnic group, in their ethnic groups, you can still see the inscriptions engraved in Khitan script.