Recently, the "Yanyuntai" TV series is being broadcast, which tells the story of Empress Xiao of the Liao State during the Song Dynasty in China, and this has also triggered a wave of Discussion by Song fans, and what followed is a novel topic, that is, where are such powerful Khitans in history now?
We know that China is a pluralistic country, and now our country has 56 ethnic groups, just like the song sings, "56 nationalities, 56 flowers, 56 nationalities are one", but there is no Khitan among these 56 ethnic groups, as a powerful dynasty in Chinese history that once fought against the Great Song Dynasty, did the Khitan really disappear with the history of the Liao? So today we will rub a wave of heat, let's talk about where the Khitan people in the hit drama "Yan yuntai" have gone now?
The early history of the Khitan people
Like the Jurchens of the Qing Dynasty, the Khitan also originated in the northeast region of China, and the customs and habits of the Khitan people, like all the nomadic peoples in the north of the desert, are semi-nomadic and half-fishing and hunting, which also creates a strong physique of good riding and shooting.
Of course, if you want to discuss it in detail, the Khitan and the Xiongnu may still have some origins, because the earliest record of the Khitan is in the Book of Wei, he first established a biography for the Khitan and recorded the activities and origins of the Khitan people in detail, of course, there are also believed that the Khitan is the product of the fusion of Xianbei and the Xiongnu.
In the early days, the Khitan was divided into eight parts, and during the Tang Dynasty, the Khitan was still a small tribe, and the Khitan at this time can be said to be displaced, because the steppe overlord at that time was not khitan but Turkic, and the Khitan also followed the Turks to attack the Tang Dynasty.
However, the world's major events, the world is unpredictable, no one would have thought that the once powerful Turks split into two parts for internal reasons, and these two Turks were eventually destroyed by the Tang Dynasty, and the Khitan had to submit to the Tang, and honored Li Shimin as the "Heavenly Khan", and paid tribute every year, while Li Shimin named Dahe Guge the Governor of Songmo and gave him the surname Li, and later his grandson Li Duzhong inherited his title to continue to lead the eight khitan departments.
And it was this Li Duzhong who later led the Khitan Eight Departments to lead the army during the Wu Zetian period, the reason was that after Wu Zetian succeeded to the throne, he persecuted the Khitan tribes, and Zhao Wenyi, the governor of Yingzhou at that time, treated the Khitan departments as slaves, which was recorded in detail in the "Divine Detective Di Renjie".
However, although Li Duzhong was brave, he was a powerful opponent of Wu Zhou, and soon after Li Duzhong's death, his brother-in-law Sun Wanrong was killed, and the rebellion ended here, but Liang Zi of the Tang Dynasty and the Khitan was formed, and then it was also a rebellion, until the rise of Hui, the Khitan had to rely on Hui.
The rise of the Khitan tribe established the Great Liao
In the last years of the Tang Dynasty, the Khitan tribe underwent drastic changes, at which time the Yelü family of the Diela tribe within the Qi dynasty arose, and among this tribe, a man named Yelü Abaoji brought the Khitan to the peak.
At that time, according to the internal rules of the Khitans, the position of Khan of the Khitan tribe was not hereditary, but had to be selected once every three years internally, and the winner could continue to be the khan.
However, Yelü Abaoji himself was very eager for the Central Plains culture, he also gave himself a Han name Liu Yi, his ultimate goal is like the hereditary of the Central Plains Dynasty, so after the expiration of the three-year covenant, Yelü Abaoji refused to surrender power, which eventually triggered an internal rebellion of the Khitan clan, known in history as the "Rebellion of the Brothers", and finally Yelü Abaoji quelled the rebellion.
After this rebellion, he was tantamount to telling the world that from then on there could only be one chief with a surname within the Khitans, and this leader was yelü, and yelü Abaoji himself was very happy to learn the advanced culture of the Han people, and in 916 AD, he called the emperor the founding of the country, and set up an empress and a hundred officials according to the Han system, and formulated laws, thus opening the Liao state.
The Liao state was a period of expansion during the reign of Yelü Abaoji and his son Yelü Deguang, and then due to the incompetence of Emperor Muzong of Liao, the Great Liao declined for a while, but during the time of Emperor Muzong of Liao, the State of Liao attracted a great female politician: Xiao Yanyan, who helped the two generations of emperors Yelü Xian and Yelü Longxu to revitalize the Liao state, and the Great Liao also flourished under her rule.
And Xiao Yanyan's reign can be said to be the nightmare of the Zhao father and son in the south, the two northern expeditions of Song Taizong, and the alliance of Song Zhenzong were all given by her.
Unfortunately, after the death of Emperor Yelü Longxu of Liao, the Liao state began to decline, and in the liao Daozong period, the jurchens in the northeast rose and began to gradually encroach on the land of the Liao state, and in 1125 AD, the Jin state attacked Shangjing, captured the Tianzuo Emperor, and the Liao state was destroyed.
Some of the people of the Liao State were integrated with the Jin, Han and other ethnic groups at that time, of course, some of them still retained the customs of the original Khitan tribe, although their writings were lost, but according to today's literature, the Daur people among our 56 ethnic groups today may be the descendants of the Khitan people, because their culture and customs are very similar to the Khitan people of that year, and according to academic discussion, their DNA also has many similarities.
Therefore, many people believe that some Khitans and other tribes have merged into other ethnic groups, while some Khitans have retained the main body of the Khitan and become Daur people.
The Great Stone of Yelü moved west, where did the remaining Khitans go?
In addition to this part of the Khitans, there were also some Khitans who were not willing to submit to the rule of the Jin Dynasty, so they followed the Khitan nobleman Yelü Dashi to Central Asia to establish a political power, historically known as the Western Liao.
However, the strength of the Western Liao Empire did not last long, because they encountered an unprecedentedly powerful enemy: the Mongol tribes, and the Western Liao, which dominated Central Asia at this time, was a stumbling block in their expansion, so naturally they would not let him go, and finally in 1218 AD, the Western Liao, which dominated Central Asia, was destroyed by Genghis Khan.
This part of the Khitans can be divided into two places, one is to continue to move west to the area of present-day Iran, and settled in the local area, after which Islamization; the other part continues to integrate with the Mongols, Uighurs and other ethnic groups, and then follow the Mongols to the south and north of the war spread to the whole country.
end
This is the history of the Khitan people, because China is a pluralistic ethnic group, in the history of five thousand years has experienced many integrations, so they have been unable to distinguish each other, and the Same is true of the Khitan people at that time, some khitans retained the characteristics of the Khitan people left in the place of origin of the Khitan people, after historical changes to become the Daur people, the other part is integrated with other ethnic groups, they are not clear from each other, and they no longer have the characteristics of the Khitan people, and some of them continue to move west.