General Description
"The Khitan first appear in documentary sources in the 4th century as a people of the south-central portion of northeast China, from a region of mountains and open grasslands. Under the leadership of Abaoji, the Khitan rapidly adopted a centralized royal form of organization, with clear similarities to Chinese traditions but also incorporating some of the familiar steppe pastoralist strategies (Wittfogel and Feng 1949, pp. 59-65). Although Buddhism was a central feature of the polity, as the empire expanded into Central Asia the majority of the population was actually Muslim (Biran 2006, p. 66; Dunnell 1996, p. 4)."
[1]
"Liao occupation of the Central Plains, 947"
[2]
"The Liao emperor did not conquer and govern the Central Plains directly. ... by dint of military success, he had become the legitimate emperor of the Central Plains. Familiar with T’ang protocols, and advised by formally educated ministers from both Liao and the Later Chin, Te-kuang observed such practices as declaring a new dynasty, wearing Chinese dress, and reemploying former officials. ... He appointed new governors, demoted K’ai-feng from its capital status, and established Chen-chou as a capital instead. But Te-kuang did not intend to stay. ... he treaded the conquest as a very large raid, in which public relations were irrelevant and only loot mattered. Perhaps most damaging to Te-kuang’s image was the policy of "smashing the pasture and grain" (ta ts’ao-yu) ... The Liao armies devestated the region around the capital, foraging to supply themselves and practicing the all-too-common cruelties of soldiers in wartime. To reward his troops, claimed to number three hundred thousand, Te-kuang demanded from an already overtaxed population cash and cloth to be stockpiled for transport north. Most ambitious of all was Te-kuang’s attempt to take north every material element of the Later Chin imperial institution, including palace women and eunuchs, the complete contents of the imperial storehouses, and every last bureaucrat. ... Te-kuang ... apparently wrote his younger brother listing his own three faults in this venture: demanding cash from the people. ordering indiscriminate foraging and plundering, and failing to return the governors to their provinces in good time. The letter, preserved in the Liao shih (Official history of the Liao), describes the "foreignness" of the Khitan: they are raiders (rather than tax collectors) and pastoralists (rather than farmers), and they keep their governors at court(rather than giving them active responsibility in their provinces)."
[3]
Revolts against Liao: "Te-kuang, preoccupied with removing himself and his plunder north to the Liao homeland, was largely unresponsive to these events, although he did make an example of Hsiang-chou2, slaughting some hundred thousand men and children, and taking away the women."
[4]
"The Liao, for their part,did not vigorously defend the territory they had conquered. On the few occasions when they did fight, they did not try very hard."
[4]
"The one region the Liao seemed concerned to hold was the key strategic city of Chen-chou, which controlled the main access between the Central Plains and the Liao homeland."
[5]
Standen, N. "The Five Dynasties." in Twitchett, D and Smith, P J ed. 2009. The Cambridge History of China Volume 5: The Sung Dynasty and its Precursors, 907-1279, Part 1. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
"The comitatus of the early Khitan, a Mongolic people, is known from the ac- counts of An Lu-shan’s Rebellion. For a detailed treatment of the later Liao Dynasty of the Khitan, including discussion of its imperial guard corps, see the outstanding early study by Wittfogel and Fêng (1949). “Each [Khitan Liao] emperor had a separate ordo, or camp, with a ‘heart and belly guard’ of 10,000 to 20,000 households. . . . The members of this guard, particularly the non-Khitans, were the emperor’s private slaves, but their proximity to him gave them high status. After the emperor’s death they guarded his mausoleum while his suc- cessor recruited a new ordo and guard” (Atwood 2004: 297). The Liao state, with its five capitals (ordo), seems to have been organized, theoretically, around the ideal of the “khan and four-bey” system. The khan of the Kereit, who were rivals of Temüjin during his rise to power, “had crack forces of ba’aturs, ‘heroes’, and a 1,000-man day guard, institutions Chinggis Khan would later imitate” (Atwood 2004: 296), along with the golden tent (ordo) connected to them."
[6]
[1]: (Rogers 2012, 227)
[2]: (Standen 2009, 102)
[3]: (Standen 2009, 102-103)
[4]: (Standen 2009, 105)
[5]: (Standen 2009, 106)
[6]: (Beckwith 2009, 391-392)
Early Mongols |
cultural assimilation |
Preceding: Uigur Khaganate (mn_uygur_khaganate) [absorption] |
confederated state |
[1,500,000 to 2,000,000] km2 | 908 CE |
[2,000,000 to 2,500,000] km2 | 1000 CE 1100 CE |
3,800,000 people |
Present |
Present |
Present |
inferred Present |
inferred Present |
inferred Present |
Present |
inferred Present |
Present |
Present |
inferred Present |
Unknown |
Present |
Absent |
Present |
Present |
Unknown |
inferred Present |
inferred Present |
unknown |
Year Range | Khitan I (mn_khitan_1) was in: |
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(960 CE 1125 CE) | Orkhon Valley |
Variable | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | See More | |||||||
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Original Name | Khitan Empire | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Capital | Central Capital | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Capital | Beijing | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Capital | Boro Khoton | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Capital | Liao-yang | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Capital | Ta-T'ung | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Alternative Name | Liao Dynasty | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Variable | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | See More | |||||||
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Duration | [907 CE ➜ 1125 CE] | Confident | |||||||||
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Variable | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | See More | |||||||
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Succeeding Entity | Early Mongols | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Relationship to Preceding Entity | cultural assimilation | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Preceding Entity
745 CE 840 CE
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Uigur Khaganate (mn_uygur_khaganate) [absorption] | Confident | |||||||||
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Degree of Centralization | confederated state | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Variable | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | See More | |||||||
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Specialized Government Building | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Merit Promotion | Present | Inferred | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Full Time Bureaucrat | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Examination System | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Variable | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | See More | |||||||
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Mines or Quarry | Present | Inferred | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Variable | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | See More | |||||||
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Written Record | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Script | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Phonetic Alphabetic Writing | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Nonwritten Record | Unknown | Suspected | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Non Phonetic Writing | Present | Inferred | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Mnemonic Device | Unknown | Suspected | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Variable | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | See More | |||||||
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Scientific Literature | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Sacred Text | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Religious Literature | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Practical Literature | Present | Inferred | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Philosophy | Present | Inferred | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Lists Tables and Classification | Present | Inferred | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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History | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Fiction | Present | Inferred | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Calendar | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Variable | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | See More | |||||||
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Token | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Precious Metal | Uncoded | Undecided | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Paper Currency | Uncoded | Undecided | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Indigenous Coin | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Foreign Coin | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Article | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Debt And Credit Structure | Uncoded | Undecided | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Variable | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | See More | |||||||
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Postal Station | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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General Postal Service | Unknown | Suspected | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Courier | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Variable | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | See More | |||||||
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Geometrical Measurement System | Uncoded | Undecided | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Variable | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | See More | |||||||
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Wooden Palisade | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Stone Walls Non Mortared | Present | Inferred | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Stone Walls Mortared | Unknown | Suspected | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Settlements in a Defensive Position | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Modern Fortification | Absent | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Moat | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Fortified Camp | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Earth Rampart | Unknown | Suspected | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Ditch | Present | Inferred | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Complex Fortification | Present | Inferred | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Long Wall | unknown | Suspected | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Variable | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | See More | |||||||
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Tension Siege Engine | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Sling Siege Engine | Absent | Inferred | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Sling | Unknown | Suspected | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Self Bow | Unknown | Suspected | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Javelin | Unknown | Suspected | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Handheld Firearm | Absent | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Gunpowder Siege Artillery | Absent | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Crossbow | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Composite Bow | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Atlatl | Absent | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Variable | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | See More | |||||||
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War Club | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Sword | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Spear | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Polearm | Unknown | Suspected | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Dagger | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Battle Axe | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Variable | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | See More | |||||||
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Wood Bark Etc | Unknown | Suspected | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Shield | Present | Inferred | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Scaled Armor | Unknown | Suspected | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Plate Armor | Unknown | Suspected | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Limb Protection | Unknown | Suspected | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Leather Cloth | Present | Inferred | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Laminar Armor | Present | Confident | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Helmet | Unknown | Suspected | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Chainmail | Unknown | Suspected | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Breastplate | Unknown | Suspected | 907 CE 1125 CE | ||||||||
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Variable | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | See More |
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