Chapter 79 Liao

Brief history: According to the official statement of the Liao Kingdom, the history of the Liao Kingdom should be counted from the thirteenth day of the first month of the fourth year of Tianyou, the last puppet emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Tang Ai.In April of this year, Zhu Quanzhong officially proclaimed himself emperor, and the lingering Tang Dynasty officially declared its demise.Although Yeluyi, the founder of the Liao Kingdom, was actually elected as the Khitan Khan this year, it is also undeniable that the Khitan people honored their Khan as the "Emperor of Heaven".If you are willing to give up your prejudice, since the founding of the Song Dynasty was not counted from the moment when they unified the entire Han and Tang lands, then there is no reason for the founding of the Liao Kingdom to be counted from the day when Yeluyi unified the Khitan tribes nine years later.Although the reign system was not officially adopted until the Khitan ministries unified the Liao Kingdom nine years later, it cannot be denied that the Khitan has become an independent regime during these nine years.

The founder of the country, Yeluyi—who was known by the word "Abaoji" but not by his name—was both a military genius and a flexible statesman with a realistic attitude. He himself is proficient in Chinese and can clearly understand the strengths and weaknesses of the Han and Khitan races.Taking advantage of the chaos at the end of the Tang Dynasty, Abaoji acquired a large number of Han peasants through a series of legal and illegal means, thus gaining a crucial economic advantage.And his extraordinary talent and charisma, and his national policy of giving priority to realism won him the support of Han counselors—it was with these two advantages that Abaoji was able to seize the Khan throne and unify the ministries.

The power of traditional customs should not be underestimated, but this emerging country and nation will inevitably step into the civilized world - which means that they have to abandon some traditional living habits, and may even be regarded as proud parts of the past.This is the most important and essential problem faced by the Khitan Kingdom after its founding. Countless nations and countries in history have tragically disappeared from history because they cringed and stood still at this moment; a very small number of people reformed bravely and violently, trying to speed up their integration into the civilized world, but they also paid a heavy price-they are vigorous , but the result is not much better than the former.

In addition to inheriting his country and power, Abaoji's successors obviously also inherited his spirit of realism.They perfected the north-south face official system, and flexibly adopted multiple systems within a country at the expense of cumbersomeness.In this country, there are slaves, tenants, and free farmers; there are nomads, and farming is encouraged—the Khitan people use the Khitan system, the Han people use the Han system, and even the Bohai people's system is respected. All of this has only one purpose: to give priority to stabilizing the existing rule, and to patiently search for and practice the third way.

However, behind this flexible political maneuver, the conflict between civilization and backwardness, change and habit has not disappeared.Behind the fierce and bloody court struggle is an invisible hand of history.On the one hand, the agricultural economy accounts for an increasing proportion of the national economy, and more and more people in the country's elite accept civilization; Unsustainable, the country is full of remnants of production methods that are incompatible with the farming economy, and the seemingly flexible one-country system also seems to be in the way at this time, but the reforms of the rulers are so slow and difficult-social class mobility is too Slow, lack of efficient supervision mechanism, and almost no effective power check and balance system... The lack of competitive stimulation of "enemy foreign invasion" seems to make the country's elite lack the necessary sense of crisis and motivation for change.The whole country is full of contradictions, and it is immersed in militarism, power struggle, and corruption.

It wasn't until their main competitor, the Song Dynasty in the south, changed as if overnight, that they suddenly woke up... Daliao, Khitan. The thirteenth day of the first month of the first year of Taizu. The Liao Kingdom is located in the north of the World Island.Its land area varies greatly. Until the early years of Xining, the entire territory of the Liao Kingdom was located between 56 degrees north latitude and 39 degrees north latitude, and the land area of ​​the mainland was about 4.5 million square kilometers.It borders the East China Sea in the east and Koryo; in the south, it is adjacent to the Song Dynasty, Xixia, Xizhou Uyghur, and Heihan in sequence from east to west; there are no strict civilized countries and no strict boundaries between the west and the north.The ruling center and major cities of the Liao Kingdom are all concentrated in its southeast.

Official comprehensive demographic statistics are not available.According to statistics by some scholars, the minimum is no less than 3.8 million.Among them, the Han nationality is the largest ethnic group, accounting for about 60% of the national population; the Khitan ethnic group is the second largest ethnic group, accounting for about 20%; the Xi ethnic group accounts for more than 10%.Some scholars optimistically believe that, including all slaves and tribes, the total population reached 9 million.Khitan is the national language.Buddhism is the largest religion. The Liao State adopted the Duodu system.Linhuang Mansion in Shangjing, Dading Mansion in Zhongjing, Datong Mansion in Xijing, Liaoyang Mansion in Tokyo, Xijin Mansion in Nanjing.The initial national capital was Shangjing, and then the political center moved southward, and Shangjing became the nominal capital, while the actual administrative capital was Zhongjing.

The three-level administrative division system of "Tao, Fu-State, Army-County" is adopted.There are five capital roads: Shangjing Road, Zhongjing Road, Xijing Road, Tokyo Road, and Nanjing Road.There are also military states, military fortresses, border cities, tribes, and vassal states that are similar to private fiefdoms of nobles. monarchy.Liao State politics is based on the north-south official system, the northern official system is the Khitan official system, which manages the Khitan and other ethnic minorities; the southern official system is the Han system, which mostly inherits the Tang system, and manages the Han people in the country.But this does not mean that Khitan people cannot be officials in the south, and Han people cannot be officials in the north.Similarly, it cannot be considered that those who add the word "South" in front are officials from the south.In fact, all key departments are officials in the north, and the main institutions are as follows in analogy with the Song Dynasty: the prime ministers of the north and south houses (left and right servants), the North Privy Council (Military Department), the South Privy Council (Official Department), and the Kings of the North and South Courts ( Household Department), Yili Biyuan (Ministry of Punishment), Xuanhui Academy (Ministry of Industry), Dili Madusi (Ministry of Rites), Da Tiyin Division (Zongzheng Division), Dalin Yayuan (Hanlin Academy), Dayuefu ( San Gong).

The economy of the Liao Kingdom is dominated by agriculture, followed by nomadic animal husbandry.Agriculture is mainly concentrated in Nanjing Road, Xijing Road, and Tokyo Road, mainly Han and Xi ethnic groups.The silk weaving industry, papermaking, printing, and gunpowder manufacturing industries are relatively developed, and there are relatively mature iron smelting technologies and mineral mining technologies.Wujing is a commercial center where traders from all over the world gather.However, before Yeluxian, the Lord of Liao, came to the throne, Liao’s taxation mainly relied on agricultural taxes and the exploitation and plunder of tribes and vassal states, and a large number of household registrations and peasant households were privately owned by nobles.After Yeluxian came to the throne, the situation improved.

Liao culture is colorful.After the founding of the People's Republic of China, large Khitan characters and small Khitan characters were created based on Chinese characters and Uyghur characters respectively, which affected the Jurchen and other tribes in the territory.But Chinese is still the most common language in Liao.Regarding the cultures of various countries, the Liao Kingdom adopted an inclusive attitude, and publications of the Song Dynasty could be seen everywhere in the Liao Kingdom.In medicine, architecture, and painting, Liao people have made outstanding achievements. The Liao Kingdom adopted Confucianism as its official ideology.Although the progress of the imperial examination system was slow, some Khitans were allowed to take the imperial examination before Yeluxian came to the throne.After he ascended the throne, all previous prohibitions were abolished, the imperial examination system was gradually improved, and government schools were vigorously built, attracting many foreign students from the Song Dynasty, Xixia, and Goryeo.

(Cross Scroll·One End)