Before reading this article, click "Follow" in the upper right corner, which is convenient for you to discuss and share, and can bring you a different sense of participation, thank you for your support!
"The transgression of asking for a man, though small and forgivable, is as heavy as Mount Tarzan; His own deeds are unrighteous, even if he commits great evil, is less than a feather. - Yelu Abaoji "Liao Shi Benji First Taizu Shang"
Yelu Abaoji was the founding emperor of the Liao Dynasty on the mainland. Influenced by his father since he was a child, he is very good at riding and shooting. In addition, he also had very excellent command skills, which laid a solid foundation for him to unify the Khitan ministries.
In order to make the Khitan develop better, many laws benefiting the people were also formulated at that time, customs and habits were reformed, and Khitan culture was created.
Statue of Yelua Poji
Later, in 916 AD, Yelu Abaoji was revered by ministers and princes as the Great Sage Emperor of the Great Ming Dynasty.
The Liao Dynasty can be said to be a period of considerable prosperity for the Khitans, but after that, the Khitans seem to have gradually disappeared, so do you know which ethnic group the Khitan people who used to be a headache in history are? Now it has "evolved"?
Khitan portrait
The origin of the Khitan people
The Khitan are a famous nomadic people in Chinese history. Due to the influence of the area in which they lived, the Khitan people could not obtain sufficient living resources through farming and other means.
Later, over time, the Khitans began to come into contact with the Han people living in the Central Plains and obtained certain trade contacts. For nomads, migrating with pastures is undoubtedly commonplace.
The Khitans were cavalry
And this unstable mode of survival and development also led to the division of the Khitan people from the beginning, and each tribe was independent. It is also worth mentioning that according to some records of the Khitans:
The Khitan people are a people born from the combination of immortals and mortals. They believed that their strong bodies were derived from the excellent immortal bloodline, and those who were more courageous were considered to be the descendants of the best bloodline inheritance.
Khitan warriors
As a northern nomadic people, the Khitan people followed their own customs and marriage system very strictly when they were not sinicized at the beginning.
And this insistence also made the Khitan people gradually stronger under the favorable time and place. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the divided Khitan tribes gradually formed the "Yamato Alliance", but at this time the Khitan did not have its own regime.
The situation around Liaochu
The Tang Dynasty was the most tolerant dynasty in Chinese history, and its early rulers had been quite tolerant of nomads such as the Khitans.
During the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang, the leader of the Khitan people was also appointed as the Governor of Songmodu, giving him the surname Li. Later, the Tang Dynasty declined, and the Central Plains entered the period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. At this time, the Central Plains no longer had enough energy to pay attention to the Khitan.
The Khitans were cavalry
It was at this time that the Khitan Diela chieftain Yelu Abaoji quickly unified the divided Khitan tribe and became a khan in 907, completely replacing the khan Dekin. After Yelu Abaoji became a khan, he was committed to making the Khitan people a better life. It was precisely from him that he led the development of the Khitan people that the Khitan people gradually moved towards prosperity and glory.
Statue of Yelua Poji
The prosperity of the Khitan
It is reported that in the days after Yelu Abaoji came to the throne, he successively suppressed the rebellion of the Khitan nobles and conquered the Fuxi, Murwei, Zubu and other tribes. In addition, he successfully mastered the salt-producing regions of Mongolia.
All these have made Yelu Abaoji more and more loved by the Khitan people, and at the same time, the entire Khitan people have become more and more powerful. In 915, Yelu Abao set out for Swedesheng's victory and returned home, but for some reason he was forced to surrender the throne.
Vladimir Yeluabao - an arrow to Beijing
This blow did not discourage Yeluabaoji. On March 17 of the following year, he directly announced the establishment of the "Khitan State" and established the Yuan Shenshu as the Taizu of Liao.
Later, he actively took in refugees who fled to the grassland due to the war in Hebei, and built a city wall on the grassland in the style of the Central Plains to allow these refugees to settle temporarily. These moves won him a lot of support.
Restoration of the Jeremiah machine
It is true that Abaoji did greatly enhance the prestige of the Khitan and provided the Khitan people with an excellent opportunity to march into the Central Plains, but because he died early, he did not see the day when the Khitan people really became strong.
Later, in 936, civil unrest broke out in the Later Tang Dynasty. Hedong Jiedu made Shi Jingyu proclaim himself emperor and abandon the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun.
Liao dynasty currency
In the end, after successfully destroying the Later Tang and occupying the Sixteen Kingdoms of Yanyun, the Khitans gradually opened the door to the Central Plains south. After a period of planning and fighting, the Khitan occupied most of the Central Plains in 947 AD.
From then on, Emperor Taizong of Liao changed the name of the country to Daliao and formally established the Liao Dynasty. However, Yelud Guang failed to balance the relationship between the Khitan and the Han, which forced him to lead his army north, and eventually died in Luancheng, Hebei.
Map of Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures
After the death of Yelud Quang, Yelu Nguyen, the eldest grandson of Yelu Abaoji and the son of Yelud Quang's eldest brother, ascended the throne for Emperor Taizong of Liao. Compared to his uncle and grandfather, Yeluruan is like a second-generation ancestor who is neither learned nor skilled.
During his reign, he fought overseas many times, hunted for good wine, and arbitrarily appointed traitors in his later years. All this led to the stagnation of the Khitan nation, which had finally prospered.
- Li Zanhua
After the death of Yeluruan, the Khitan people fell into turmoil, and the relatively frequent coups also caused many Khitan people to be in panic.
Fortunately, Liao Jingzong, who later ascended the throne, was very optimistic. He made great use of his wise ministers and cared about the people's livelihood, which made the lives of the Khitan people much more stable. It's just that the emperor of the Liao Dynasty was always absent from the court because of his poor health.
Empress Xiao Xiao of Liaojingzong
At that time, most of the military affairs were authorized by Emperor Jingzong of Liao to Empress Xiao Qiu, which also laid a certain foundation for Xiao Qiu's later regent. Xiao Xiao, as a very important female politician in the history of Khitan -
She led the entire Khitan tribe to its heyday. Later, Liao Shengzong grew up and took charge of the imperial government. At this time, the Liao Dynasty in his hands was already extremely powerful. After some confrontation with Song, Song even agreed to the alliance of Lanyuan and could pay tribute to Liaosui.
Illustration of the Zen Academy Alliance
The Khitan gradually declined
After the death of Emperor Shengzong of Liao, his eldest son Yeluzong truly ascended the throne for Emperor Xingzong of Liao. At that time, her biological mother, Empress Dowager Fatian, hoped that she could be like Empress Dowager Xiao and turn over the clouds.
And in order to eliminate the hidden danger, she also killed Empress Qi, the adoptive mother of Liaoxingzong. Coupled with the fact that Empress Dowager Fa Tian later killed Liao Xingzong, this made Liao Xingzong and the Empress Dowager seriously separated.
The Khitans were cavalry
Although Liao Xingzong later took power into his own hands, due to various previous events, the relationship between Liao Xingzong and the Empress Dowager has been very bad. This situation caused Liao Xingzong at that time to not have enough energy to deal with government affairs.
What's more, later he completely let go of himself and began to act according to his own preferences, which caused the Khitan people to gradually get tired of it, and the Liao Dynasty went further and further on the downhill road from then on.
Comparison of Khitan, Jurchen, Western Xia
In 1122, the Jin army conquered Liaozhongjing, and Emperor Tianzuo was forced by the Jin army to go into exile in Jiashan Province. Although later, with the support of Yelü Dashi and Li Zhiwen and others, Yeluchun ascended the throne as emperor, and Northern Liao was officially proclaimed.
It was only because a large area of the Liao Dynasty fell under the iron hooves of the Jin soldiers, and Yeluchun did not have the ability to turn the tide, that the survival of the Khitan people became more and more problematic.
Map of Liao (Khitan).
Where are the remaining Khitans?
At that time, under the impact of the Jin people, the Khitan people could be said to have suffered heavy casualties. Although the Liao nobleman Yelu Dashi later gathered the remaining Khitan remnants, he succeeded in taking control of the Mongolian plateau and eastern Xinjiang.
It's just a pity that they didn't live in this area for a long time, so they decided to march west under the invasion of the Jin soldiers. In 1132 AD, Yelu Dashi was declared emperor in Yemi, and the capital was called Xiu Ruduo, and the history was called Western Liao.
Map of the territory of Western Liao
I have to admit that the bloodline of the Khitan people is indeed very strong. In this situation of the Khitan people being divided and suffering heavy losses, Yelüdashi insisted on relying on his own strength to develop Western Liao into a famous Central Asian power at that time.
If the Mongol army was not too strong, perhaps Western Liao would have lasted for a long time. At that time, under the impact of the Mongol army, the Khitans, who had just started their business, suffered heavy losses again.
It is reported that only a very small number of Khitan people survived successfully at that time and led their descendants to migrate to present-day Iran, establishing the Later Western Liao State.
Of course, in addition to these migrating Khitans, there is actually a group of Khitan people hidden deep in the Central Plains. In order to save their lives, they eventually decided to intermarry with the local Han Chinese, and their ethnic roots became weaker and weaker over time.
Part of the Khitan migrated to Iran and its environs
It is also worth mentioning that when the Mongol army fought in Yunnan and other places, it also abandoned some Khitan people in Yunnan and let them kill themselves. And these Khitan people are the "Daur people", one of the fifty-six ethnic groups.
Over the years, they gradually lost many of the characteristics of the Khitans. Without high-tech technologies such as DNA identification, we might not know they had close ties to the Khitans.
The Daur and Khitan have a high degree of genetic similarity
wraparound
All in all, for the evolutionary status of the Khitan people, in fact, many people said that it is "unimaginable". Now, the pure-blooded Khitans are probably no longer there. As for those Khitan blood carriers, they are scattered everywhere:
Some are in Iranian regions; Some are in Iranian regions; Some are in the Iranian region.
Some have been thoroughly sinicized and become part of the Han ethnic group;
Some people live in Yunnan and belong to the Daur ethnic group, one of the fifty-six ethnic groups.
When we understand the history of the Khitan people, we can't help but sigh: time is the most real and cruel existence in the world.
Daur
Statement: The content does not have any violations of laws and regulations, all content is not to spread any negative energy, alert future generations, must be a good citizen who abides by the law, engage in normal business activities, remember the important mission of the new era of socialism, please review the teacher to allow it to pass, thank you!
If the content of the article involves the content of the work, copyright images, infringement, rumors or other problems, please contact to delete. Finally, if you have any different ideas about this event, welcome to leave a message in the comment area to discuss!