In 916, the Liao Dynasty (Khitan Kingdom) was officially established, and the Liao Taizu Yelü Abaoji believed that as emperor, he was "the king of the order, and the gods were worshipped by the heavens", which was designated by the heavens, and since the heavens designated themselves as the son of heaven, they had to sacrifice to the lord of heaven, which was the most legitimate thing. Liao Taizu had always admired the culture of the Central Plains, and also wanted to learn from the emperor of the Central Plains and sacrifice the virtuous people, so he asked the minister again: "Those who have great merit, they want to worship them, why first?" "Whoever has great merit also intends to sacrifice him, so who will come first?" The ministers "all regarded Buddha as right", but Liao Taizu said that Buddhism was not native to China, so he did not agree and wanted to find a Chinese himself.
Liao Taizu's eldest son, Yelü Bei, was more familiar with the culture of the Central Plains, so he said to Taizu: "Confucius is the great sage, respected by all the worlds, and it is advisable to be first." When Liao Taizu heard this, he felt that it was reasonable, and immediately ordered the construction of a Confucius Temple, and modeled on the Central Plains way of running schools, established schools, carried out cultural education, and the school instilled Confucianism in the readers.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Liao State, Confucian culture was promoted, indicating that the Khitan people had a sense of belonging to China and believed that they also belonged to China, which can be seen from liao taizu's attitude toward Buddhism. After this, a large number of Han Chinese were used to formulate a canonical system, and Han Chinese were invited to emigrate to the territory of the Liao State. Of course, the Liao State attaches great importance to the culture of the Han people, but also attaches importance to the maintenance of the original customs of the Khitan people, and adopts the "dual system", with the Khitan system to manage the Khitan people, and the Political System of the Han people to rule the Han people, that is, "the Han does not rule the Han, the Han does not rule the Han, the Han is different, since ancient times." That is to say, the Liao State did not fully Sinicize, but mixed the Han system with the original Ritual System of the Khitan to meet the development needs of the time.
The reason why the Liao state wanted to adopt the dualistic system was actually a psychological contradictory reaction, And Taizu Liao once said to his courtiers: "I understand the Chinese language, I dare not speak it, I am afraid that my subordinates will follow me, and the soldiers will be weak and weak", worried that the soldiers will be affected by the culture of the Central Plains, become weak and lose their combat effectiveness. On the one hand, Liao Taizu captured a large number of Han Chinese and wanted them to serve him; on the other hand, he was afraid that the Central Plains culture would have a great impact on the Khitan people, weakening the combat effectiveness and detrimental to the rule. For this reason, the Liao Dynasty forbade the Khitans to take the imperial examination, and if the Khitan violated it, they would "whip two hundred" to prevent the Khitans from taking the imperial examination. This was only the policy of the early days of the Liao Dynasty, but with the passage of time, many Khitan people loved the Central Plains culture and became a mainstream, and even in the last year of the Liao Dynasty, the Khitan nobleman Yelü Dashi once took the imperial examination, "Dengtianqing Five-Year Jinshi Brother", and won the Tianqing Five-Year Jinshi Examination.
In 947, when Emperor Taizong of Liao led his army straight into the Central Plains and destroyed the fifth dynasty of the Third Dynasty, later Jin, when he first entered Bieliang, he was still a little unsuitable for the culture of the Central Plains, "There is a division to please follow the law", the Han bureaucrats in the Central Plains greeted him with various etiquette, he initially refused, and said: "I bow down to the armor, to fix the Central Plains, too often the ceremony, do not have time to take care of it", I think it is by force to destroy the Later Jin, etiquette, it is not important, don't do it. The reason why Yelü Deguang did not want the etiquette of the Han people was mainly that he did not feel the importance of etiquette, but when he officially claimed the title of emperor in the Central Plains, "was crowned by China, and the hundred officials often participated", put on the dragon robe of the Emperor of the Central Plains, and accepted the worship of the hundred officials, he was deeply shocked by such a grand scene, and sighed to the left and right: "The Han family ceremonies, its grandeur is so." I have to sit in this temple, is it not the true Son of Heaven and evil!" That is to say, after wandering between Khitan customs and the Central Plains etiquette system for a while, Yelü Deguang finally accepted the Central Plains ritual system and believed that only by accepting the ritual culture of the Central Plains was the true son of heaven.
Therefore, when Yelü Deguang was forced to leave the Central Plains and return to the Liao Kingdom, he sent "the Officials of the Jin (Dynasty) Divisions, concubines, eunuchs, Fang Ji, Baigong, Tushu, Calendars, Stone Classics, Bronze People, Mingtang Inscriptions, Taichang Music Scores, Zhugong County, Halogen Books, Dharma Objects, and Armor Battles to Beijing", and brought the officials, concubines, eunuchs, and various cultural relics and classics of the Later Jin Dynasty back to Shangjing, the capital of the Liao Dynasty. Although Yelü Deguang died of illness on the way back to the Liao Kingdom, the fact that he successfully entered the Central Plains and became emperor had a great influence on the later Liao Dynasty. In terms of the etiquette system of the Liao Dynasty, the emperor and Han officials wore Han costumes, and the empress dowager and Khitan courtiers continued to retain traditional costumes, although the Khitans retained many inherent systems, but also adopted a lot of Han chinese systems.
In the early days of the Liao Dynasty, it once entered the palace to the Later Liang of the Central Plains Dynasty, and after the fall of the Later Liang, its relationship with the Central Plains Dynasty was mostly reciprocal, and the diplomatic relations established by the two countries after the establishment of the Central Plains Song Dynasty were still the same as the equal diplomatic relations between the five dynasties. When the Song and Liao signed the alliance of the Liaoyuan, the two countries officially entered a state of confrontation, but the relationship was still friendly, the Liao Emperor called himself the "Great Khitan Emperor" in the letter to the Song Dynasty, calling the Song Emperor the "Great Song Emperor", and the Song Dynasty also recognized the Liao Emperor as the "Great Khitan Emperor", which was equivalent to recognizing that there were two suns in the sky and two heavenly sons under the heavens, and the legal status of the Liao Dynasty was officially recognized. This is of great significance, you know, before that, the Liao Dynasty had always been regarded as a barbarian by the Central Plains, and was not qualified to inherit the unification. Now that the orthodox status of the Liao Dynasty has been recognized, its significance will be very beneficial to the Liao Dynasty, which means that the Liao Dynasty is also Chinese orthodox. "The Battle of the Six Armies of Jin Wu and Huang Qi, the Jin Dynasty of the Liao, the Tang after the Jin, the Liang Tang after the Tang, the Liang Tang of the Later Tang, the liang Tang of the Later Tang, which also came from itself", responsible for the security of the emperor's ministers, liao inherited the Chinese orthodoxy.
Later, war broke out in song and xia, and the Liao Dynasty, as the eldest brother of Western Xia, sided with Western Xia, believing that the Song Dynasty was bullying the Western Xia Kingdom, and even called the Song Dynasty "Biaokou":
"It is a matter of invading Xiatai with a koukou, harboring greed, winning and losing, hanging for twenty years, wounding and giving birth to silverfish, commanding one to come, smoke and dust in two, stupid Tartar, self-inflicted and murderous."
It is very interesting here, in the consciousness of the Liao State, it is already Chinese orthodoxy, and the Song Dynasty has become a bandit. Later, when the Liao Dynasty discovered that Ouyang of the Song Dynasty had revised the History of the New Five Dynasties and placed the Khitan in the Appendix of the Four Yi, it was very angry and felt that it was no longer a barbarian. The crown prince Liu Hui wrote to Emperor Daozong of Liao: "The subject please follow the initial deeds of the Zhao clan and detail the history of the state (Liao state)." Since you Song Dynasty did this to the Liao Dynasty, coming and going without being rude, when the Liao Dynasty was revising the history of the country, it compiled the deeds of the early Zhao and Song Dynasties into the history of the Liao Dynasty, which is equivalent to saying that the Zhao clan also belonged to the Liao Dynasty, and put the Song Dynasty in the position of a vassal of the Liao Dynasty.
The reason why the Liao Dynasty dared to do this, in addition to having mastered and accepted the culture of the Central Plains, there was also a very important reason that the Liao Dynasty obtained the traditional relics of the emperors of the Central Plains. When Yelü Deguang left the Central Plains, he "swept the fa-objects, first to Zhongjing", and transported the things handed down by the emperors of the Central Plains back to the capital of the Liao Dynasty, Zhongjing, "so since the Qin and Han Dynasties, the imperial relics have all entered the Liao." In ancient China, the succession to the throne depended on relics, such as whoever received the seal of the country was eligible to inherit the throne. Although the seal of Qin Shi Huang had been burned in the Later Tang Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty still thought that the seal taken back from the Later Jin Dynasty was the one of Qin Shi Huang. After the various cultural relics handed down by the emperors of the past were plundered by the Liao Dynasty, "the Zhou and Song Dynasties changed the system according to the map, which is not a relic", and the Later Zhou and Song Dynasties re-created the necessary things for the new throne according to the graphics, which were not handed down by the emperors of the past, and this also just made the Liao Dynasty have a dependency, feeling that they have inherited the relics of the emperors of the past, which is the Chinese orthodoxy.
The full name of the Liao Dynasty is the "Great Central Liao Khitan State", although the place where the Liao Dynasty was founded was not the central land identified by the Han People, but the Liao Dynasty still regarded itself as Chinese orthodoxy. At the beginning, when Emperor Taizong of Liao crowned Shi Jingyao as emperor of the Jin Dynasty, he said, "Er wei is close relative, and it is actually the branch, so Yu regards Er as a son, and Er treats Him as a father", and Shi Jingyao is about the kingdom of father and son. In the book, there are also "Rites of Filling the Hundred Kings" and "The Great Righteousness of Thousands of Years", which means that it is hoped that Shi Jingyao will inherit and develop the "Chinese" tradition and become a descendant of Huaxia, and Shi Jingyao is also a "close relative" and "benzhi" of the Khitan people, which means that "the Khitan is China".
In order to highlight its orthodox identity, the Liao Dynasty also claimed to be a descendant of the Yellow Emperor, such as yelü, and the surname after Sinicization was Liu, and Liu was recognized as a descendant of the Yellow Emperor, "from the Xuanyuan Emperor and Liu Lei". In the Book of Lamentations of Empress Dowager Shengzong, it is written: "Zhou Mu Deye, Wen Mu first. Han Dynasty Yi Fan, Ma Hou called Xian. Ibi went to the end, and whoever succeeded him. "When the empress died, Emperor Shengzong of Liao expressed his condolences, comparing the empress to the mother of King Wen of Zhou and the empress of Liu Zhuang, the empress of the Han Dynasty, the empress dowager of the Han Dynasty, and his own empress died, who will inherit the orthodox ideas of Zhou and Han in the future? This is equivalent to indirectly indicating that the Liao Dynasty inherited the orthodox ideas of the Zhou Dynasty and the Han Dynasty. There is also the "Epitaph of Lady Xiao of the Great Khitan Kingdom" that records her husband Yelü TuoHanli: "The public filthy Hanli was first from Yu Shun. "Shun is a descendant of the Yellow Emperor, and this epitaph records that the Khitan Yelü clan of the Liao Dynasty traced the distant ancestors back to Shun and even the Yellow Emperor of the Xuanyuan clan.
Regarding the trend of khitans accepting the culture of the Central Plains, some clues can also be seen from the struggle for imperial power in their own countries. During the Liao Taizu period, there were two people who were most qualified to inherit the throne at that time, one was the eldest son Yelü Bei, and the other was the second son Yelü Deguang. Yelü Deguang was the Grand Marshal of the Terracotta Army, and according to the old Khitan customs, the person in charge of the Terracotta Army had the qualification to elect a Khan. Yelü Bei was the crown prince at that time, and he liked the Culture of the Central Plains, and according to the traditions of the Central Plains culture, he was eligible to inherit the throne. However, since the feudal forces and the Culture of the Central Plains were still weak in the Liao Dynasty at that time, the result of the struggle was the succession of Yelü Deguang, which showed that the representatives of Khitan culture still had the upper hand.
Later, after the death of Emperor Taizong of Liao, there were also two people who inherited the throne, one was Emperor Taizong's brother Yelü Lihu, and the other was Yelü Wulu, the son of the former prince Yelü Bei. Li Hu was also the Grand Marshal of The Terracotta Army as the Emperor's brother-in-law, and also had the qualifications to inherit the throne, but in the end it was Yelü Wuyi, who liked the culture of the Central Plains, who wanted to succeed to the throne, for Emperor Shizong of Liao. Later, Because of the "Mu Chinese customs", Liao Shizong may have gone too far in the introduction of Han culture, which caused dissatisfaction among the conservative forces, and a rebellion occurred in the country, and Liao Shizong was killed. After succeeding Emperor Muzong of Liao came to power, he suppressed Han culture and was later killed by slaves for killing slaves.
Since then, several Liao emperors, most of whom were Sinicized, advocated the absorption of a large amount of Central Plains culture, creating a heyday in the history of the Liao Dynasty. In the repeated competition between Khitan culture and Han culture, the foreign Central Plains culture has fully gained the upper hand, and many Khitan nobles advocate Sinicization to introduce Central Plains culture. Liaojingzong Yelüxian "Ya good music, happy medicine", Liaoshengzong Yelü Longxu "young xi shuhan, ten years old can poetry", once "personally translated Bai Juyi's "Satire Collection" in Khitan characters, and commanded the ministers to read it", personally translated Bai Juyi's "Satire Collection" into Khitan for the ministers to read. In the later period, some high-ranking officials and dignitaries of the Khitan ethnic group, who were proud of their ability to read and write, no longer had the prejudice that they could not use their weapons, actively absorbed, inherited, and carried forward the Culture of the Central Plains, and integrated with their own ethnic culture to develop a unique Liao culture.
Therefore, when the Liao Dynasty accepted the Han culture and applied the Confucian culture of the Han people, in the face of the Song Dynasty, psychologically, the Liao Dynasty also had enough self-confidence and confidence. And also from the source to trace themselves to be the descendants of the Yellow Emperor, inherited the cultural relics handed down by the Chinese emperors, and psychologically recognized themselves as part of China, and also qualified to inherit Chinese orthodoxy.
Liaoguo related:
"The Liao Dynasty was obsessed with "Hai Dongqing" and did not hesitate to force the Jurchens to rebel, and there was such a profound reason behind it"