Chapter 40 Section 2 Yelu and Xiao

Although the Empress Dowager Shulu almost met Liao Shizong with swords, considering the rise and fall of the entire Khitan Dynasty, she chose to stop the war and officially recognized Sejong's imperial lineage.So Liao Shizong finally became the legitimate emperor of Liao.Later, in order to consolidate the throne, he put Empress Dowager Shulu and Yelu Lihu under house arrest.However, during the short three years of Liao Shizong's reign, several clan rebellions still occurred.So why was Liao Shizong's rule so unstable? As mentioned earlier, although Emperor Sejong imprisoned the queen mother and uncle, his life was really uncomfortable.why?Because his throne was picked up, these so-called Conglong heroes didn't really support him.Why let you be the emperor?Because there is no one else.We absolutely cannot allow Yelu Lihu to succeed to the throne. Once he succeeds, everyone has to accompany the late emperor. We cannot bear this.At that time, no one else could stand against Li Hu, and it was you who would be the general among the dwarfs.As soon as Emperor Sejong succeeded to the throne, the disobedience of the ministers was fully exposed.

The Khitan people are very interesting. When we check the history books, we will find that they seem to have only two surnames, one is Yelu and the other is Xiao. I have never seen others. The ministers with other surnames are generally of different races.The surname of the later family is Xiao, and the surname of the royal family is Yelu.At least those with the surname Yelu belonged to the same clan as Emperor Taizu back then, unlike the Central Plains Dynasty, where the emperor's surname was Zhao, but not all people with the surname Zhao belonged to the royal family.The Khitan people may have a small population in the first place. If a clan is all surnamed Yelu, they are all royal families, and they all have the qualifications to be emperors.Your surname is Yelu and I am also Yelu. In terms of seniority, I am older than you. Why can't I be emperor?In the Liao Dynasty, there were many royal rebellions.

In ancient China, since Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, abolished enfeoffment, and moved counties and counties, the enfeoffment system basically bid farewell to the historical stage. The three dynasties that went against the historical trend—Western Han, Western Jin, and Ming, engaged in enfeoffment. The probability of accidents is hundred percent.If the royal family had real power, especially military power and financial power, his addiction to the emperor would definitely be hooked, so the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion in the Western Han Dynasty, the Eight Kings Rebellion in the Western Jin Dynasty, and the Jingnan Battle in the early Ming Dynasty occurred.Of course, the battle of Jingnan in the Ming Dynasty was won by the local vassal king Zhu Di, who overthrew the orthodox emperor and became emperor himself.Therefore, it is very detrimental to the emperor's "maintaining stability" to entrust the enfeoffment and let the clan kings have military power in their hands.In general, the principle of enfeoffing the clan in the Central Plains Dynasty is to enfeoff but not establish. Originally enfeoffing a state to establish a country is called feudalism, but the imperial court enfeoffs but does not establish. If the emperor confers you as the king of Qi, you will enjoy the title, salary and corresponding political treatment, but you You are not the highest officer of Qidi, you have no right to interfere with Qidi's military and civil affairs.In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the titles of the royal families and princes did not use the ancient country names, Qin Wang, Qi Wang, Chu Wang, and Zhao Wang, none of them, they used good names instead, Prince Gong, Prince Chun, Prince Yi...you can think of seeking a country Don't even think about it.The Central Plains dynasty solved the clan problem relatively well.But because the nomads in the north were ruled by families, the power of the clan kings was too great. In the Liao Dynasty, this problem was not resolved, and rebellions of the Yelu clan occurred from time to time.

Another big clan in Khitan is the Xiao clan.We listen to storytelling romances, such as "The Yang Family", and the one we are most familiar with is Empress Dowager Xiao.In the Liao Dynasty, more than a dozen empresses were all surnamed Xiao. The only exception was Shizong's empress, the Han court lady Zhen.If you want to talk about Empress Dowager Xiao, you have to point out which Empress Dowager Xiao it is (The Empress Dowager Xiao mentioned in Pingshu Romance refers to Xiao Yanyan, the queen of Liao Jingzong, which we will talk about later), otherwise you just talk about the Empress Dowager Xiao of the Liao Dynasty, the Empress Dowager of the Liao Dynasty The family's full surname is Xiao, and they are all Empress Dowager Xiao.Why is the family name Xiao?Empress Shulu assisted Taizu in founding the country, the credit is too great, the emperor Taizu said, my queen's credit is too great, you see how bad my brothers are, rebelling all day long, rebelling three times, it is better for my brother-in-law, They are loyal to me because they know that being emperor is useless.Emperor Taizu compared himself to Liu Bang, the great ancestor of the Han Dynasty.Liu Bang himself said that with an army of millions, you must conquer and win battles. I am not as good as Han Xin; in strategizing and winning thousands of miles away, I am not as good as Zhang Liang;But I can use these three people (I don't know why these three people listen to him), so I have the world.Who is the boss among these three people?Obviously Xiao He!According to folklore, Xiao He chased Han Xin back, so he deserved the most credit.As soon as the Han Dynasty was established, Xiao He became the prime minister.After Liao Taizu founded the country, he gave his descendants the surname Xiao, hoping that they would assist him like Xiao He assisted Han Gaozu.From now on, the Yelu family will be the emperor, and the Xiao family will be the prime minister.

The emperor's full surname is Yelu, and the prime minister's surname is basically Xiao. These Yelu and Xiao are all noble relatives and relatives of the country. Out.These people think that our place is not like the Central Plains dynasty, where the father died and the son succeeded. The Khitan throne seems to be able to sit on whoever has thick arms and big fists.Then can't I sit with my thick arms and big fists?It's always a good thing to have an emperor addiction.