China has a long history, with many dynasties changing, but there are still some ethnic groups that are still shrouded in mystery. The Khitan people were glorious during the Liao Dynasty, and they can be described as "the territory is all over the world, and the prestige is in the sky". However, this powerful Khitan tribe quickly disappeared from the stage of history after its demise, as if it had never existed. The 1.5 million Khitans evaporated silently, leaving only a series of questions: Where did they go? Is it completely exterminated? Or is it blended in with other peoples? This mystery has puzzled Chinese scholars for centuries. It wasn't until the 20s of the last century that a Belgian missionary accidentally discovered a stone tablet engraved with strange symbols, which opened a ray of hope for solving the mystery of the disappearance of the Khitan people. Later, another mysterious letter claiming to be a descendant of the Khitan was sent to the scholar, is this the key to solving the mystery? Where did the Khitans end up? Let's wait and see.
The glory of the Khitan people
During the Northern Song Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty unified northern China and became a powerful nation at that time. The Khitans have been nomadic since ancient times, good at riding and shooting, brave in battle, and able to conquer and fight. With their excellent cavalry and strong military strength, they continued to expand their territory, and successively captured Hebei, Shanxi, Henan and other places, and their national strength became stronger and stronger.
During the Liao Dynasty, the Khitans not only performed well in military affairs, but also made outstanding achievements in cultural construction. They created a unique Khitan script that was used to record the Khitan language. The Khitan writing system is standardized and complete, and the writing form is quite unique, and many variants and innovative elements are added to the basis of Chinese characters, making it different from Chinese characters. Not only that, the Khitan people also have many outstanding works in the fields of literature, music, and architecture that have been handed down to future generations.
Although the Liao Dynasty was a regime established by the Khitan people, it implemented a policy of entering the Central Plains, and had a high degree of recognition and absorption of Han culture. Most of the Khitan upper-class aristocrats have been sinicized, adopting Han system and Han costumes, following Confucian etiquette, and perfectly integrating their own ethnic characteristics with Han culture. This made the Liao Dynasty a period with unique Khitan national characteristics and a very Chinese color.
At the same time, the Liao Dynasty and the Central Plains Dynasty were divided and contended, and the national strength was strong and the influence was huge. As the overlord of the north, the Liao Dynasty confronted more than a dozen regimes such as the Later Zhou, Later Tang, Northern Han, and Southern Tang, and controlled today's Northeast, North China, Northwest and other vast areas. Everywhere it reaches, there are all the voices of the wishes of "the monarch and the ministers are free and the country will last forever".
In this historical stage, the Khitan people have undoubtedly reached an unprecedented cultural, political and military height, with strong national strength and brilliant culture, which can be said to have truly moved towards the peak period of "the territory is all over the world, and the prestige is in the world". Why did such a powerful Khitan nation disappear so quickly after its demise and become a mystery for future generations, let's wait and see what will be revealed below.
Bloodshed and the destruction of the country
During the heyday of the Liao Dynasty, the Khitan nationality was strong and had a vast territory, which could be described as "the king of the world". However, this glory did not last long, and a seemingly unintentional incident became the fuse that triggered the fall of the Liao Dynasty.
It is said that Emperor Liao Tianzuo liked a bird of prey called "Haidongqing", so he ordered people to go to the Jurchen region to hunt. However, in order to complete the task, the envoys who were ordered to go did not hesitate to loot by force, which aroused the dissatisfaction and anger of the Jurchens. This scene undoubtedly gave the Jurchen people who rose later an excuse to take revenge on the Khitan.
Sure enough, in 1115 AD, the Jurchen Aguta established the famous Dajin State and began to exert military strikes against the Liao Dynasty. The two sides duel in the "Yellow Dragon Battlefield" that year, and the Liao army was finally defeated and retreated by the Jin army. The Jin army took advantage of the victory to pursue, and in just a few months, the capital of the Liao State, Kaijing (present-day Beijing), was captured.
In the face of the powerful Jin army, the Liao Emperor's henchmen scattered and fled. The two remaining forces fled westward, only to be annihilated by the conquered Western Xia tribes, while the other went to Central Asia to establish the short-lived "Western Liao". In the Central Plains, the Jin army unleashed a frenzied massacre of the remnants of the Khitans unprecedented.
The Jin army hated the arrogance of the Liao Dynasty back then, and even hated the oppression of the Jurchens by the Khitans, so they staged a dehumanizing massacre of the Liao prisoners and civilians. According to historical records, the entire massacre lasted for months and was chilling. More than 1.5 million Khitan people living in North China were killed in large numbers, and their cultural traditions and Khitan script were also interrupted, and finally disappeared in the long river of history.
Despite this, the Liao dynasty managed to delay its own demise before its demise. At that time, the emperor Yelu Chunyan was forced to retreat to Nanjing, trying to regroup, and led the remnants to defend for a long time. Unfortunately, the Jin army did not give him a chance to breathe, and then rushed out to raze the last piece of Khitan-owned territory to the ground.
In this way, the once powerful Liao Dynasty was completely destroyed by the Jin people. One reason may lie in the internal decay of the Khitan Dynasty, coupled with the contempt and provocation of the Jurchens, which eventually suffered terrible retribution. However, regardless of the reasons for the fall of the Liao Dynasty, this tragic fate became a decisive moment for the Khitan people to completely withdraw from the stage of history, leaving only a vague shadow.
The remnants of the Khitan scattered all over the place
Although the Liao Dynasty was wiped out under the iron hooves of the Jin people, the Khitans, as the main ethnic group that established this powerful dynasty, did not completely disappear from the stage of history. On the contrary, after their demise, they scattered everywhere, some of them took refuge in other regimes, while others fled to foreign lands, creating a history of dissolute and desolate dispersion.
Some of the remaining Khitan tribes who survived under the iron hooves of the Jin army submitted to the Western Xia Dynasty. Shameful and self-reliant, they regained a foothold in the Western Xia region and participated in many affairs such as military and construction. However, the good times did not last long, and this group of Khitans was soon swept away by the Mongols. In carrying out their ideas as conquerors, the Iron Horsemen of the steppes ruthlessly slaughtered the settled Khitans, leaving them with no place in the land.
Another part of the fleeing Khitans fled to Central Asia to make a living. They established a short-lived "Western Liao" regime in present-day Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and other regions, continuing some of the institutions and cultural customs of the Liao dynasty. It is worth mentioning that among the large number of Khitan monuments and relics handed down in the Western Regions of Central Asia, a considerable number of reliefs depicting the heroic killing of the enemy and defeating the enemy have been found, all of which show the heroic and brave nature of the Khitan people.
However, the existence of the Western Liao regime was only short-lived. With the rise of the Mongol Empire, Central Asia could not be left alone, and eventually became the Mongol Xinjiang. The remnants of the Western Liao had nowhere to hide, so they could only scatter and wander, some of them integrated into the later Kazakhs, Hui and other surrounding ethnic groups, and some gradually assimilated into the local residents. Despite this, there are still tribal lineages in those areas that can be traced back to the Khitan origins.
A considerable number of Khitan refugees were homeless under the impact of history, so they had to wander around, and eventually integrated into the surrounding Han, Mongolian, Jurchen and other ethnic groups. They were gradually assimilated, and the Khitan characteristics became increasingly blurred, but the Khitan blood flowing in their bones made their descendants often have a bit of a foreign flavor.
Later generations of scholars have verified that there are still many ethnic minorities scattered in northern and northeastern China, such as the Dongqian clan and the Daur people, who can find some Khitan shadows from the language customs or former ethnic names. These are the results of the remnants of the Khitan people infiltrating into various places after wandering again and again in the turbulent history. From this point of view, it is true that the bloodline of the Khitan people has not been completely severed, but it is difficult for their once powerful nation to survive.
Mysterious letters lead to new clues
After the catastrophe of the destruction of the country and the scattering of the Khitan people, this once powerful nation finally lost its existence as an independent ethnic group. They either integrated into the Han nationality or assimilated into other ethnic minorities, and the figure of the Khitan tribe gradually disappeared into the smoke and clouds of history.
For hundreds of years, the whereabouts of the Khitan people have become an unsolvable mystery to the world. It was not until the 20s of the 20th century that with the appearance of a mysterious letter claiming to be a descendant of the Khitan, the last traces of the Khitan people finally had a glimmer of light.
The letter came from a county in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. A young man surnamed Zhao wrote to a professor at Peking University's Department of Nationalities that he described himself as a member of the Daur ethnic group, which is a direct descendant of the Khitan ethnic group. The letter revealed that their ancestors were Khitans, and were stationed in border fortresses during the prosperity of the Liao Dynasty, responsible for building city walls and guarding the frontier.
After the fall of the Khitan Dynasty, these border guards roamed in present-day Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang, gradually mixing with the local residents and gradually assimilating some of the local living customs. However, over the years, they still retain some unique Khitan cultural heritage, such as clothing, food practices, and some language habits, etc., which can find some traces of the Khitan people.
The young man surnamed Zhao wrote that the Daur people have been passed down from generation to generation, and they are the descendants of the Khitans, but they have lost their ethnic names in the long passage of time. As soon as this letter came out, it immediately attracted great attention from the Chinese academic community, as if it opened a ray of light for the mystery of the disappearance of the Khitan people.
People of insight rushed to Inner Mongolia for field investigations. They found that there was indeed a unique ethnic minority living there, with a population of about 100,000. Although these Daur people are inseparable from the Mongols and Han Chinese in terms of lifestyle, they have some similarities with the Khitan in terms of identity, tribal titles, language habits, and clothing.
What is even more shocking is that there is also a kind of wood carving art called "Mali" among the Daur ethnic group, which is no different from the stone carving culture that the Khitan people once excelled at. It can be seen that they are likely to be the remnants of the Khitan people who used to be rich and strong in that land.
The Daur people, whose population is not large, may be the last trace of the long-disappeared Khitan people. This mysterious letter undoubtedly brings a new opportunity to solve the mystery, will the mystery of the disappearance of the Khitan be completely solved? Let's wait and see what comes next.
Khitan characters solve the mystery
Are the Daurs really direct descendants of the Khitans? Although this speculation is eye-catching, I am afraid that more powerful evidence is needed to completely solve the mystery. Just when the academic community was being questioned, a fortuitous archaeological discovery finally cleared the mystery of the disappearance of the Khitan people.
It all started one afternoon in the 20s of the last century. A Belgian missionary stumbled upon an old stone tablet at the foot of a mountain more than 50 miles east of Hailar in Inner Mongolia. This stele is about a person more than a person high, and the front is engraved with strange and unknown symbols, with zigzag shapes and dense rows, which can be called mysterious.
Local herders told missionaries that the stele had been standing alone for hundreds of years, and that no one in the neighborhood could read it. Intrigued, the missionary rubbed the stele and sent it back to Belgium. Since then, this mysterious Khitan stele has been passed on to the famous orientalist Mr. Toynbee. Toynbee, on the other hand, was studying the Khitan script.
Through comparison and decipherment, Toynbee confirmed that the stele was inscribed in the Khitan script of the Liao Dynasty, and its content roughly recorded the process of a Khitan migration during the reign of Liao Shengzong. It can be seen that the Khitan script did not disappear at the beginning of the fall of the Liao Dynasty, at least in Inner Mongolia.
This undoubtedly provides a strong basis for proving that the Daur people are descendants of the Khitan. Subsequently, experts and scholars found many stone tablets engraved with Khitan inscriptions in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang. All these show that the Khitan script was not interrupted after the fall of the Liao Dynasty, but was still handed down locally.
What's even more surprising is that the experts found the last two Khitan literacy experts in the world. One of them is an elderly man from Dalinuoergai Sumu in Hailar County, and the other is an old woman living in Mohe County, Heilongjiang. Both were fluent in Khitan script, indicating that the script had indeed been circulating locally for hundreds of years.
With the help of the guidance of these two masters, scholars finally deciphered a batch of Khitan materials found in the local area, and uncovered the ethnic origins of Khitan culture recorded in them. The results confirmed that the local ethnic minorities such as Daur and Niuzurk in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang were the true descendants of the Khitan people who once spread throughout the north.
In this way, a stone tablet, a mysterious letter and two old men who read the Khitan script provide the most crucial clues to unravel the mystery of the disappearance of the Khitan people. This mystery that has plagued Chinese scholars for hundreds of years has finally been completely solved, and the shadow of the Khitan people has not completely disappeared, but has only left traces in the rolling river of history.