252 Liao dynasty KHITAN EXPANSION The Khitan seized the opportunity offered by a disintegrating Tang dynasty to begin their expansion In 901 a powerful Khitan chief led an army of his people and began to conquer into northeastern China, seizing 16 prefectures in present Hebei (Hopei) province, including the city that would later be called Beijing In 907 the chief of the Yelu tribe named Abaoji (A-po-chi) assumed the title of emperor and proclaimed his state the Great Liao He created a dual empire, part sedentary and part nomadic The sedentary part was called “south-facing”; it was bureaucratic, headed by a southern chancellor, and staffed by Han Chinese who had surrendered to him It would rule the sedentary Han Chinese people under the Liao, based on a modified and harsher version of Tang laws The southern chancellery’s task was to collect taxes from the Chinese subjects and to oversee their production of items the Khitan court required The Tang style examination system was even instituted later, but the Chinese were treated as a subservient caste Chinese people were recruited to serve in the infantry that supported the Khitan cavalry and as a labor corps The Khitan tribal people were to retain their tribal and nomadic traditions under a “north-facing” administration headed by a northern chancellor They were ruled under their tribal laws This dual system of government functioned for 200 years Abaoji built walled cities throughout his lands He also built five walled capital cities The Supreme Capital was in central Manchuria, where the Khitan people originated according to their legend The Eastern Capital was also built in central Manchuria, where modern Liaoyang is located A Central Capital was 100 miles south of the Supreme Capital and its function was to administer a newly conquered tribe; the Western Capital was the old Chinese city Datong (Ta-tung) along the Great Wall of China in modern Shanxi (Shansi) province The Southern Capital was the renamed Chinese city called Yan (Yen), at modern Beijing Even though the cities conformed to Chinese concepts of city planning, large areas were left vacant to accommodate the yurts (tents) of the Khitan SINICIZATION OF THE KHITAN The Liao court moved from capital to capital, reminiscent of their nomadic ways Despite resistance to Sinicization, the Khitan adopted many Chinese ways and began to enjoy the numerous luxuries their Chinese subjects offered On the other hand such Khitan customs as the levirate (a man’s right to take his brother’s widows as his wives) and the sacrifice of many human victims when an important man died continued Even Abaoji’s powerful chief wife, who was also mother to his heirs, was asked to kill herself to be buried with him She refused, claiming that her young adult sons still needed her guidance, but cut off one of her hands to be buried with her husband Nor did the Khitan fully adopt the Chinese rule of succession by primogeniture (where the eldest son of a ruler’s wife succeeded him on the throne) but continued to select one among the deceased man’s sons by consensus and acclamation, with the result that murderous succession struggles followed each ruler’s death, causing political instability Whereas few Chinese learned Khitan, the elite among the Khitan soon became fluent in written Chinese Chinese was the international diplomatic language among the East Asian states and all treaties and diplomatic correspondence were in Chinese Even the Northern Chancellery produced few if any documents in Khitan, and there are no drafts in Khitan of Liao correspondence with the Song (Sung) The educated Khitan had much to gain from learning Chinese because of the abundance of written works produced in that language When most Khitan became Buddhists in the 10th century, learning Chinese also gave them access to the teachings of Buddhism In time the Khitan elite came to call those of their own people who strictly adhered to their nomadic traditions as “wild Khitan.” In the 10th century the Liao state confronted two enemies among its sedentary neighbors One was Korea, where a long-lasting dynasty was established over the unified peninsula in 918 called the Koryo dynasty It would last until 1392 Liao invaded Koryo in the 890s and 990s and forced the Koryo kings to become Liao vassals, following the widely accepted Chinese tradition of interstate relations with its neighbors LIAO AND SONG (SUNG) RELATIONS Liao’s main neighbor and adversary was the Song (Sung) dynasty in China (960–1279) The initial peaceful relationship between the Song and Liao ended in 979 when Song emperor Taizong (T’ang-tsung) attempted to recover the 16 prefectures in the Beijing area the Liao had earlier conquered He was beaten back, and later for a second time In 1004 the two sides finally made a peace treaty, called the Treaty of Sangyuan It fixed their borders to reflect Liao’s control of the 16 prefectures, stipulated the opening of several markets for trade between the two states, and declared the two states equal to each other and their rulers as “brother” sovereigns; both promised not to build fortifications along their border Significantly the Song agreed to give