Where have the Khitans gone? Gods help me

Disappearance and Descendants In the magnificent history of our country, a clan of eagles that fought in the sky suddenly emerged - the Khitan. The Liao Kingdom established by this nation spanned both the inside and outside of the Great Wall, with the Liaohe River Basin in northern my country as its core area. It vigorously developed its glory in the land of China for more than 200 years, miraculously leaving behind surprises and mysteries. Suddenly disappeared without a trace. From the time when Yelu Abaoji established the Khitan state in 916 AD, to when Yelu Yanxi was captured and destroyed by the Liao Dynasty in 1125 AD, the Liao Cun Kingdom collapsed in 209 AD. After the demise of the Liao Dynasty, Yelu Dashi, the eighth descendant of Abaoji, established the Western Liao Dynasty in 1124, which lasted for more than 90 years and was destroyed by the Mongols in 1218. But what is puzzling is that with the demise of the Liao Empire, the Khitan nation, which once had a population of more than 1.2 million, also disappeared without a trace. So, where did this outstanding nation that once created many civilizations go? The historians can only speculate on the fate of millions of Khitans in three general ways: First, the Khitans living in the ancestral land of the Khitans gradually forgot their origins and merged with other ethnic groups. Second, after the fall of Western Liao, most of the Mobei Khitans moved westward to the Kerman region of Iran and were completely Islamicized. Third, after the war between Jin and Mongolia broke out, some Khitans who "swore not to eat golden millet" defected to Mongolia and followed the Mongolian army in their expeditions east and west, spreading to all parts of the country. Chinese historians used to believe that the Khitan people mostly integrated into other ethnic groups at different times and under different historical conditions. After the fall of Liao Dynasty, except for some Khitan people who moved westward with Yelv Dashi, most Khitan people still stayed in the northeastern region. Although most of these Khitan people merged with the Jurchen, Han, and Mongolian peoples, some Khitan people still retained the customs and habits of the Khitan nation in the form of groups. After the Jin-Mongol War broke out, many Khitans revolted and participated in the struggle against the Jurchens' rule. Some of these Khitans were suppressed by the Jurchens, and some defected to the Mongols. The Khitans who took refuge with the Mongols were dispersed throughout the country as the Mongols conquered east and west. The Khitan people who moved westward with Yelu Dashi established a Qi'erman dynasty in Kerman Province, Iran, after the fall of Western Liao, commonly known as Later Western Liao. But the traditional customs of this part of the Khitan people have disappeared and have been completely Islamicized. But their influence on the West is still there today, so much so that modern Russian and Latin have always called China "Khitan". Huang Bin recorded an interesting incident in "The History of the Liao Kingdom": In the 13th century, the Mongolian people conquered Central Asia, West Asia and other places, and spread the production and use of Chinese gunpowder and tubular firearms to Arab countries. At this time, the Khitan It has been extinct for more than 100 years, but the famous Arab military book "Equestrianism and Ordnance", written in the late 13th century, also records the gunpowder formula as "Khitan flower" and the tubular firearms as "Khitan musket" and "Khitan rocket". Are the Daur people Khitan people? Are there any Khitan people who have not been integrated with other ethnic groups? Regarding this issue, some people in the Qing Dynasty proposed that the Daur people originated from the Khitan people. Modern scholars also believe that the Daur people are the ethnic group that inherits the most traditions from the Khitan people. We came to the Molidawa Daur Autonomous Banner in Inner Mongolia where the Daur people live for on-site interviews. We found that the Daur people here have many legends, customs, languages, etc., and have a deep relationship with the Khitan people recorded in historical materials. The Daur people have always worshiped their own Bodhisattva, Kulie Buddha, and Kulieer was the name of the leader of the Khitan who moved north more than 800 years ago. According to historical records, after the fall of the Liao Dynasty, this Khitan general who refused to surrender money led a group of Khitan people to the Nenjiang River Basin and organized clan tribes to settle down in accordance with the customs of the Khitan people. Until the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Daur chief Gentemur in the Genhe area was still called the Khitan chief by the Tungus people. The Daur people’s methods of hunting, falcon hunting, falcon training, and fishing are also roughly the same as those of the Khitan people in historical records; the Daur people love to play Go, and their Go and chess boards are very different from those we have seen. But it is very similar to the Go and chessboards unearthed from Liao tombs; the Daur people still maintain the marriage custom of "people with the same surname can be friends, and people with different surnames can get married." No matter how many generations they are estranged, people with the same surname will never intermarry. This is different from the Khitan people with the same surname. The customs of marriage are also the same; the Daur people's ritual of worshiping the sky and its sacred tree are similar to the Khitan people's worship of the sky and "tree king"; the Daur people used to practice cremation and wind burial, and the shaman's body was placed on a wooden frame after death After a few years, the remains will be buried in the soil.

The Khitan people also "put their corpses on the trees in the mountains"; the two ethnic groups belong to the Altai Mongolian language family and have similarities in pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, etc.; both ethnic groups believe in shamanism, and "cook rice" to make speeches based on bone divination. Advocating black, worshiping the sun, kneeling down, etc. In addition, in the Liao Dynasty, the emperor's palace tent was called "Orduo", and the army that guarded Ordo and protected the emperor was called the Ordo Army. After the emperor's death, Orduo returned to guard the emperor's tomb. The army guarding Abaoji was called "Diordo". Experts speculate that it is likely that "Diordo" gradually evolved into the current "Daur" over the course of history. Khitan descendants discovered in Yunnan. When the Liao Dynasty fell, some Khitan people went south or to the desert of Beitou. For thousands of years, there was little news and traces were hard to find. In the early 1990s, a shocking news suddenly came from the Institute of Ethnology of the Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Sciences and the Yunnan Institute of Ethnology. Thousands of miles away from the north of my country, in the southern border areas of Shidian County, Yunnan Province, Baoshan, Lincang, 150,000 Khitan descendants have been found in Dali, Dehong, Xishuangbanna and other places, most of whom live in Shidian County. According to investigations conducted by two research institutes since 1990, these Khitans settled here during the expedition to Yunnan with the Mongolian army. They have gone through several historical periods including the Yuan, Ming, Qing, the Republic of China and New China, and they still retain many cultural traditions of the Khitan nation. Nowadays, they still use Khitan small characters on the tombs of their ancestors, collectively referring to them as "I". Their physical characteristics are also obviously different from the local people, and they are taller. These people have surnames such as Amang Jiang, Amang Yang, and Amang Li. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, they have been changed to Jiang, Li, Zhao, He, Cha and other surnames. Among the descendants of the Khitan people, the history of the changes of the Jiang family recorded in the "Mengban Jiang Family Tree" collected by Jiang Jiayun in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture is the most representative: "The ancestors of the Jiang family had a surname of Yelu and a name of Abaoji. , founded the Liao Dynasty and was destroyed by the Jin Dynasty. His descendants took A as their surname and changed it to Mang. In the early Yuan Dynasty, he served with the Mongolian army in the southern expedition and was awarded the post of General Wu Lu during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty. After several generations, the family name was changed to Jiang." This genealogy clearly records that the Mengban Jiang family is the descendant of Yelu Abaoji, the Taizu of the Liao Dynasty, and the evolution of the surname. . In the home of Jiang Wenliang in Mugua Village, Youwang Township, Shidian County, Baoshan Prefecture, a copy of "The Genealogy of Shidian Changguan Si" was also found. The opening chapter contains a four-part seven-character poem: The ancestor of the Liao Dynasty, Emperor Yan, Shen Ji, the Khitan Emperor; the White Horse A man rides up the river, and a woman rides Qingniu Huanghe. The ancestor of the first generation was Muye Mountain, and the descendants of the eight tribes moved to Huanghe; the emperor conquered the south and conferred the title of Golden Horse, and the emperor of the northern war granted six court ministers. The surname is Fengtang, the surname is Abaoji, the ancestor of Yelu; the golden tooth announces the history of Fufu, and the Shidian hereditary official. The merits of the ancestors will be spread far and wide, and the generations of descendants will last forever; the autumn frost and spring dew will pay tribute to the kindness, and the merits of the ancestors will last forever. This seven-character poem not only tells the origin of his clan and the heroic history of his family, but also points out the change process of the "famous surname". In this genealogy, there is also a picture of "green ox and white horse", which depicts the ancient legend about the origin of Khitan. There is also an ancestral temple built in the west corner of Mugua Village, Youwang Township, Shidian County, namely the Jiang Ancestral Hall. The ancestral hall runs from north to south and is divided into front and rear courtyards. The main entrance of the ancestral hall is opened on the east wall according to the custom of the Khitan people. Under the pointed eaves on the front of the east door building of the ancestral hall, there is a seal inscribed with the word "Yelü", followed by a long vertical plaque with the four characters "Chiang's Ancestral Hall" in the frame. There is a couplet written between the pillars of the door: "Thousands of trees in front of Yelu Court, a spring in Mangjiang Temple." On the walls of the temple, there are colorful paintings with a rich northern grassland style, similar to those unearthed from Liao tombs. The murals show their nostalgia for their ancestors. In recent years, Chinese experts have found through DNA testing that these Khitan descendants in Yunnan have a high degree of homology with the Khitan people unearthed from Liao tombs in the north, and they have a high degree of homology with the current Daur people, that is, they have the most recent genetic relationship. The mystery of Khitan descendants is solved. Supplement: According to research by Northeastern scholars, after the fall of the Liao Dynasty, some Khitans who "swore not to eat golden millet" lived in Shenyang and Mongolia in the Northeast and continued to live a nomadic life. Later, after the fall of the Jin Dynasty, the Khitans began to move to cities. During the Ming Dynasty, the Yelu tribe in the northeast surrendered to the Ming Dynasty and were given Han surnames such as Liu and Feng. Later, some of them surrendered to the Jin Dynasty, and some began to move westward to near Iran, becoming completely Islamic. Famous deeds Li Guangbi (708-764) was a native of Liucheng, Yingzhou (now Chaoyang, Liaoning Province) in the Tang Dynasty of China, and a member of the Khitan tribe. At the beginning of the fifteenth year of Tang Tianbao's reign (756), Li Guangbi was recommended by Guo Ziyi as the deputy envoy of Hedong Jiedu. He led his troops east out of Jingxing (now northwest of Jingxing, Hebei Province) to participate in pacifying the Anshi Rebellion.

Successively captured Changshan (now Zhengding, Hebei), Jiumen (now northwest of Hebei City), Zhaojun (now Zhaoxian, Hebei) and other places. In May, he joined forces with Guo Ziyi in Changshan, took advantage of the enemy's fatigue to attack, and defeated Shi Siming's troops in Jiashan (now Quyang, Hebei), and besieged Boling (now Dingxian, Hebei). The army's power was greatly boosted, and more than ten counties in Hebei were killed. Officials returned to Tang Dynasty. In the second year of Zhide (757), Shi Siming, Cai Xide and others led an army of 100,000 to attack the northern capital Taiyuan (today's southwest of Taiyuan). There were less than 10,000 Li Guangbi's troops left in the northern capital. They first dug trenches outside the city, and then used the excavated soil to make hundreds of thousands of bricks to strengthen the city walls. When the enemy attacked the city, they used cannons to hit the city with boulders, and they also dug tunnels to trap the enemy and constantly attacked the rebels, making them afraid to approach. When Shi Siming returned to the north, Li Guangbi took the opportunity to attack, defeated Cai Xide, and annihilated 70,000 of his men. He not only defended Taiyuan, but also ensured the safety of the Tang army's left flank. In July of the second year of Qianyuan (759), he was appointed deputy marshal of the world's soldiers and horses. Shi Siming's army suddenly crossed the river, fell into Bianzhou (now Kaifeng), and forced Luoyang. Due to the disparity in military strength, Li Guangbi abandoned Luoyang and defended Heyang (south of today's Mengxian County, Henan Province) to threaten the rebel flanks and prevent them from advancing westward. Then he waited for the opportunity to go into battle, thwarted the rebel attack on the three cities of Heyang, and wiped out 20,000 enemies. In the second year of the Yuan Dynasty (761), the imperial court forced Luoyang to be recaptured. He had no choice but to send troops. At that time, the rebels were still strong, and the general Pugu Huai'en violated the military regulations, so he was defeated at Mangshan (now north of Luoyang). Wenxi withdrew the bail. (Today's northeast of Wenxi, Shanxi). Later, he was reinstated as the deputy marshal of the Henan provinces, went out to Linhuai, led the troops of the Henan provinces to counterattack the rebels, and cooperated with Pugu Huai'en and others to regain Luoyang. He participated in the suppression of the peasant uprising led by Yuan Chao in eastern Zhejiang. In the second year of Guangde's reign, he died of depression due to suspicion from the court. Edit this paragraph: The mystery of the missing Khitan people. In the early 1990s, Mr. Chen Naixiong, a well-known Mongolian research expert, visited Baoshan in person, conducted a detailed investigation of local genealogy, local chronicles and legends, and compared 326 "my" words with multi-ethnic words. , found that more than 100 of them belong to the Altaic language family, verifying that there is indeed some connection between the "I" language and the Daur language. In the mid-to-late 1990s, the emerging molecular archeology provided practical and effective help in finally solving this problem. By extracting the DNA of various ancient organisms and comparing their sequencing results, molecular archeology can find out their inherent genetic connections, and the conclusions are highly scientific. When researchers Liu Fengzhu and Chen Zhichao from the Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Social Sciences collaborated with experts such as Professors Yang Huanming and Liu Chunyun of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences to conduct research on the "molecular archeology" topic, they listed the study of Khitan descendants as an important content. The research team first collected blood samples from the Daur, Ewenki, Mongolian and Han populations, then went south to Baoshan, Yunnan, to extract 100 blood samples from "people", and then passed through Leshan, Sichuan, where they were unearthed from the Yeluyu family tomb in Inner Mongolia that was on display there. Small specimens were extracted from the corpse of a Khitan woman. After completing the DNA sequencing of the Khitan remains, Daur people, Mongolians, Oroqen people, Han people and Yunnan "people", the research team conducted rigorous comparative testing and finally concluded that among the Daur, Ewenki, Mongolian and Han people groups Among them, the Daur people have the closest genetic relationship with the Khitan people, and the "person" in Shidian, Baoshan, Yunnan has a similar paternal origin to the Daur people, and they are both descendants of the Khitan people. Following the Jurchen Mongols, Khitan descendants were dispersed throughout the country. After the Jin Dynasty destroyed the Liao Dynasty, many Khitan people were sent by the Jurchens to the northern border to build the "Jinjiehao" fortification to resist the Mongolian attack, and then stationed there. After the destruction of the Jin Dynasty, some of the Khitan people who were stationed moved northward during the war, maintaining a relatively large and complete ethnic group. This part of the Khitan people are the ancestors of today's Daur people. The "I" of Yunnan originate from the descendants of the Khitan people who were sent to Yunnan by the Mongols in the Yuan Dynasty. After the fall of Liao, some Khitans surrendered to Genghis Khan under the leadership of Yelu Tuhua, the royal family of Liao. In 1254 AD, his grandson Yeluman followed Kublai Khan to destroy Dali in ancient times, and was ordered to lead his troops to stay in Yunnan. "History of the Ming Dynasty: Yunnan Tusi II" records Shidian chief official Si Asulu and Fengxi chief official Si Afeng as the third-generation grandson of Manggu, and Asulu is also regarded as an ancestor by contemporary "people". After more than 740 years of historical vicissitudes, there are now no fewer than 150,000 Khitan descendants in western Yunnan. In the process of reproduction, they continued to intermarry with the local ethnic groups, so compared with the Daur people, "I" are slightly more closely related to the Khitan people.