In recent years, in the wave of the Internet, the culture of making stems has emerged in an endless stream, such as "where is the Roman orthodoxy" there is a steady stream of "innovative" interpretations.
At first glance, this kind of terrier makes people can't help but call "serious nonsense", but there seems to be some connection.

"Roman orthodoxy in Tongliao" provenance. Source/B station video screenshot
In this series of derivations, although the core "orthodox" issue has a playful component, it is indeed very relevant to various countries and regions. The key to Tongliao's connection with Rome lies in the intermediary of "Russia".
Rome and Russia
In 27 BC, Octavian, the final victor of the Roman Civil War, was awarded the title of "Augustus" by the Senate, becoming the head of the Roman State, and the Roman Republic transitioned to the imperial era. In 395 AD, the Roman Emperor Theodosius I divided the empire among his two sons and divided the east and west. The eldest son, Arcadius, became Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, and the second son, Honorius, became Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. Because the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), was originally named Byzantium, the Eastern Roman Empire was also called the Byzantine Empire by later historians.
Map of the Roman Empire in the East and West. Source/Network
In 476 AD, the Western Roman Empire fell to the end of the Germanic invasion, but the name "Rome" survived until 1806 by the later rule of the Holy Roman Empire, although Voltaire considered it "neither sacred, nor Roman, nor imperial" The Eastern Roman Empire lasted for more than a thousand years, until it was officially brought to an end in 1453 after the Ottoman Turks captured the capital Constantinople.
Also during the reign of Theodosius I, the Roman Empire's attitude toward Christianity was eventually established as the state religion of Christianity after hundreds of years of repression and softness, approval and protection. However, since the division of the Roman Empire, the cultural differences between the East and the West have grown, which is epitomized by the division of the Latin schools and the Greek schools in the East, which eventually led to the expulsion of the Eastern and Western Churches from each other in 1054, and the east-west confrontation between the Orthodox Church centered on Constantinople and the Catholic Church centered on Rome.
As the state religion of the Eastern Roman Empire, Orthodoxy originally meant Christian orthodoxy, emphasizing its own legitimacy. After the fall of The Eastern Rome, the Islamic Ottoman Empire inherited only the geographical territory of Eastern Rome and did not continue its cultural traditions, while Russia, which shared the same faith as Eastern Rome, began to consider itself the orthodox successor of Eastern Rome and Orthodoxy.
Vasnetsov: Ross baptized. Source/Network
The early regime in Russia was Kievan Rus' and in 988 AD, Grand Duke Vladimir of Kiev accepted the Orthodox Church of the Eastern Roman Empire, not only baptizing himself, but also making it the state religion. History refers to this event as the "baptism of Rus", after which Ross was gradually Christianized.
Nineteen years after the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire, Ivan III, Grand Duke of Moscow, married Sophia Paleorrog, niece of the last Emperor Constantine XI, in 1472 and inherited the double-headed eagle emblem of the Eastern Roman Empire as the coat of arms.
Ivan III Double-Headed Eagle Coat of Arms and Coat of Arms of the Russian Empire Double-Headed Eagle. Source/Network
However, at this time the Muscovite Principality was nominally a vassal state of the Mongol Golden Horde. In 1480, Ivan III won the "Ugala River Confrontation" against the Mongol army, officially ending 240 years of Mongol rule over the Rus. In addition, during his reign Ivan III, the Duchy of Yaroslavl, the Principality of Novgorod, the Principality of Perm, and the Principality of Tver were incorporated into the territory of the Principality of Moscow, thus promoting the gradual formation of a unified Russian state.
After the accession of his son Vasily III, the Muscovite Principality not only continued the royal bloodline of Eastern Rome, but also gradually became another religious center of Orthodox Christianity, so it regarded itself as the orthodox successor of Rome, and called Moscow the "third Rome" after Rome and Constantinople (also known as "New Rome"). Later, "Third Rome" also referred to the Russian Empire in a broad sense after the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire.
Statue of Ivan IV. Source/Network.
Ivan III's grandson Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible) further expanded the territory of the Muscovite Principality and was crowned Tsar in 1547, thus concluding a unified Russian state, initially known as Tsarist Russia. The name "Tsar" is derived from the name of the Roman Emperor "Caesar". As the first Tsar, Ivan IV not only declared himself the heir to the Roman Empire, but also presented himself as the heir of the Golden Horde.
Tsarist Russia and Mongolia
Why did Ivan IV claim to be the heir of the Golden Horde? This also starts with the Mongols' western expedition.
At the beginning of the 13th century, the Mongolian steppe people rose rapidly. In 1206, Temujin unified the Mongol ministries and held a conference on the upper reaches of the Hurultai River, and was subsequently elected as the Great Khan of all Mongolia, with the honorific title of "Genghis Khan" and the national name of "Great Mongolia". In 1219, Genghis Khan launched a western expedition and conquered the Khwarazm Empire in Central Asia.
Statue of Genghis Khan. Source/Network
After the end of the First Western Expedition, Genghis Khan divided the fiefdoms for the four sons of Shuchi, Chagatai, Wokoutai, and Tuolei, and the eldest son, Shuchi, was given the title of "all the areas around the Shihe and Altai Mountains of Ye'er and the Ulusi and the surrounding winter and summer pastures", encompassing the territories of ancient states such as Chincha, Huarazm and Kangling west of the Irtysh River and north of the Aral and Caspian Seas. The fiefdom of Shuchi was known as "Shuchi Uluth", the predecessor of the Golden Horde.
After The death of Shuchi, his second son Batu succeeded to the Khan's throne, and then began the Second Western Expedition on the orders of Wokoutai. Batu led the Mongol army to conquer the Bulgars and Chincha people, and then invaded the Kyovan Rus' divided principalities of Ryazan, Vladimir, Chernihiv and other principalities, and captured the city of Kiev in 1240.
A divided principality of Kievan Rus' and Rus' splinters. Source/Network
In 1242, Batu took Sarai (near present-day Astrakhan) as its capital and officially established the Golden Horde. Because of the large number of Chincha people living in the territory, it is also known as the Chincha Khanate. Batu divided the western and eastern lands to his brother Hu'erda and his younger brother Xiban, and established the White Horde and the Green Horde, respectively.
Genealogical map of the Golden Horde. Source/Illustrated Prairie Empire
As the suzerainty of the Various Rus' principalities, the Golden Horde required the principalities to swear allegiance and pay regular tribute, and also created their legitimate agents in the principalities by canonizing them as "Grand Dukes of Vladimir and All Rus', to administer the principalities on their behalf.
At first, the Golden Horde ruled The Rus' system under the Basiha system, which led to constant revolt by the Rus' people. In 1380, Dmitry, Grand Duke of Moscow, led the Rus' army to defeat 200,000 Mongol troops led by the Golden Horde Mamai Khan on the kulikovo fields on the upper reaches of the Don River, and won the "Battle of Kulikovo".
The Principality of Moscow was originally divided from the Principality of Vladimir, and during the reign of Ivan Danilovich he was given the title of "Grand Duke of Vladimir and All Rus'" and received the right to pay tribute on behalf of the kings, known as "Ivan I". After Dmitry defeated Mamai Khan, Mongol rule over Russia weakened somewhat. Although the Disengagement lost another raid on Moscow shortly after, forcing it to continue its submission to The Nagan, the Muscovite Principality remained the most powerful of all of Rus'.
The Muscovite Principality was divided from the Khanates of the Golden Horde. Source/Network
At the same time as the rise of the Muscovite Principality, the Golden Horde continued to decline due to internal strife, splitting into small khanates such as the Kazan Khanate, the Nogai Khanate, the Astrakhan Khanate, the Crimean Khanate, and the Siberian Khanate, while the Great Horde still had Sarai as its capital and considered itself the successor of the Golden Horde.
In 1480, Ahma Khan of the Great Horde led an army to conquest because the Grand Duke of Moscow, Ivan III, refused to pay tribute, and the two armies were stationed on the Ugra River on the border of the Muscovite Principality, known in history as the "Ugra River Confrontation". In the end, Ahma had to withdraw his troops because the allied Poland had not been able to reinforce in time. Ivan III won without a fight, thus ending Mongol rule.
Statue of Ivan III. Source/Network
During the reign of Ivan IV, the Muscovite Principality further annexed the smaller khanates that had split off from the Golden Horde, greatly expanding its territory and forming a unified Russian state centered on the Principality of Moscow, Tsarist Russia. Ivan IV himself also had the blood of the Golden Horde, and his mother, Yelena Grimskaya, was from the Glinsky family and was a descendant of the Mongols, which also provided a legal basis for Ivan IV to claim to be the heir of the Golden Horde.
Although the Golden Horde and Russia do have deep ties in terms of geographical territory and ethnic reproduction, in the end, the Golden Horde is only one of the divided khanates under the rule of the Mongol Empire.
Mongolia and Tongliao
Genghis Khan divided his sons during his lifetime, and after his death, his third son Wokoutai succeeded to the Khan's throne, and his fourth son Tuolei supervised the country, and the khanates still nominally obeyed the orders of the Mongol Great Khan. After the death of Wokoutai, the eldest son Guiyu and the eldest son of Tuolei, Möngke, successively inherited the Khan's throne. In 1260, Kublai Khan, the fourth son of Tuolei, ascended the throne as the fifth Great Khan of mongolia, Jianyuan "Zhongtong", and later changed the name of the country to "Dayuan", and the capital was Dadu (present-day Beijing).
The territory of the early Yuan Dynasty. Source/Tan Qijun Editor-in-Chief: Historical Atlas of China
At first, in addition to the descendants of Genghis Khan, they were able to divide the feudal foreign countries, and the brothers and heroes were also granted territories. His brother Hesar was divided into vast lands along the present-day Erguna River, the Hulunbuir Steppe in the Hailar River Basin, and the Waixing'an Mountains. Hesar was extremely good at archery and served as the commander of the Horqin Guards with bows and arrows, guarding the camp of the Great Khan. The term "Horqin" in Mongolian refers to archers, and gradually evolved into a generic name for the hesar descendants of the tribe, that is, the famous Horqin tribe of the Mongol ethnic group.
After the outbreak of the peasant revolt at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongol regime withdrew from the Central Plains, and the khanates and tribes still had the Mongol Great Khan as the nominal co-lord. The Horqin tribe also underwent many migrations, one of which moved south from the hereditary territory to the Nenjiang River Basin, so it is also called Nen Korqin. Until the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Mongol tribes were gradually divided into three major parts: Southern Mongolia, Western Mongolia and Northern Mongolia, and formed a strong trend with the Ming Dynasty and Jurchens outside.
Nurhachi statue. Source/Palace Museum
In 1616, the Jurchen leader Nurhaci established the Great Golden Kingdom (known in history as "Later Jin") and gradually stepped up planning to attack the Central Plains. In the struggle between the Ming dynasty and the Later Jin Dynasty, both sides chose to rely on Mongol power to balance each other. The Ming Dynasty, in accordance with the strategy of "controlling the Eastern Yi in the first place in the Western Province", tried its best to win over the most powerful Chahar tribe in southern Mongolia, and the leader of the Chahar tribe, Lin Dan Batur, was also nominally the Great Khan of Mongolia. Among the Mongol tribes, the Horqin tribe was similar to the Houjin, and Nurhaci began to envelop the Horqin tribe in the form of marriage.
In 1632, Emperor Taiji, the son of Nurhaci, led an army to conquer Lin Dan Khan in the west, and along the way, he subdued the Mongol tribes and unified the southern desert. In 1636, Emperor Taiji was proclaimed emperor and changed the name of the country to Daqing. The Manchu Qing Dynasty implemented the alliance flag system in the Mongol tribes, and set up a clan in the central government to manage the affairs of the Mongolian, Hui, Tibetan and other tribes.
Under the alliance flag system, the Mongolian Horqin Department formed the Ten Banners of Nen korqin, including the three banners of the left wing and the three banners of the right wing of Horqin, the front and rear banners of Golrose, the Dulbert banner, and the Zabent banner. The confederacy of the Ten Banners is located on Mount Jelim, so it is called jellyim.
Qing Dynasty Zhelim League. Source/Tan Qijun Editor-in-Chief: Historical Atlas of China
As an important ally of the Qing Dynasty, the Horqin Clan gradually became the most prominent branch in southern Mongolia in the Qing Dynasty, "with foreign relatives of the Dynasty, the Netherlands being generous, and the twenty-four heads of the Renezasaks". Horqin and the Qing Dynasty formed a close relationship of "from the dragon zuo order, the world is attached to the lungs, and the country is closely related", and Empress Xiaoduanwen and Empress Xiaozhuangwen of emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty, and the original deposed empress dowager of Shunzhi Emperor Fulin and Empress Xiaohuizhang were all born in Horqin. During the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, he also visited Horqin three times, and also married Princess Gulun and Jing, the concubines born to Empress Xiaoxian, to Sebuten Balejul of the Horqin Department.
In the Qing Dynasty, the Korqin and Jelim leagues always had a pivotal strategic position for the rulers. Until the abdication of the Qing Emperor, the Jelim League was placed under the administration of the Mongolian and Tibetan Courts of the Beiyang Government, and after the establishment of the National Government in Nanjing, it was administered by the reorganized Mongolian and Tibetan Committee.
Map of Tongliao City. Source/CCTV
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Zhelim League belonged to the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in terms of administrative divisions, was assigned to Jilin Province in 1969, and returned to Inner Mongolia ten years later, and the name "Zhelim League" continued until the eve of the new century. In October 1999, the Zhelim League was abolished and Tongliao City was established. In the jurisdiction of Tongliao City, places such as "Horqin District", "Horqin Left Wing Middle Banner" and "Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner" still retain the name of Horqin.
Today, when the culture of making stems is popular, the joke inference of "Roman orthodoxy in Tongliao" will soon pass away, but the long-standing Horqin culture is indeed rooted in the land of Tongliao.
Photography/Self-driving tour, source/figureworm creative
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