History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 254: The Founding of the Liao Dynasty
A crisis arose on the southern border of the Later Liang Dynasty. As the "Ling Independence" element Liu Yan established his own country and proclaimed himself emperor, vast tracts of land, including the southern part of Guangdong and Guangxi, northern Vietnam, and Hainan Island, were separated from the control of the Later Liang Dynasty, causing its territory to shrink significantly.

These regions, including Ma Yin of Tanzhou and Gao Jichang of Jingnan in the northern two lakes region, Wang Shenzhi of Fujian and Qian Liu of Hangzhou in the east, which are the circles under the "8", have always been nominally subordinate to Later Liang but actually enjoyed a high degree of autonomy. However, as long as they did not openly break away from Later Liang and continued to follow the Later Liang regime, this nominal allegiance was also a political asset of Later Liang.

Liu Yan's unbridled independence set a bad precedent in southern China, and to a certain extent promoted the emergence of the "Ten Kingdoms". Since then, separatist forces in Huainan, Fujian, Hubei, and Hunan have established their own countries and proclaimed themselves emperors, and the "Ten Kingdoms" situation has emerged.

Although Wang Jian's Former Shu regime predated Liu Yan's Southern Han regime, Wang Jian never submitted to the Later Liang and was not a "pro-Zhu faction" from the beginning to the end. He became a strong enemy and opposition to the Later Liang along with Huainan, Hedong, and Fengxiang. Therefore, Wang Jian's founding of a country and his enthronement as an emperor did little harm to the Later Liang regime.

Liu Yan was fundamentally different from Wang Jian. Liu Yan inherited the mantle of Liu Yin, who had gained the Lingnan region with the support of Zhu Wen and had long been in the "pro-Zhu" camp. From the perspective of the Later Liang Dynasty, Wang Jian's enthronement was an external affair, while Liu Yan's enthronement was an internal rebellion.

However, faced with the open rebellion of separatist forces within the country, the central government of Later Liang was helpless and had no idea what to do, which made Later Liang lose all face.

Liu Yan's act of declaring himself emperor inadvertently made the whole world see that the Later Liang regime was strong on the outside but weak on the inside (Li Cunxu of Hedong made the whole world see that the Later Liang regime was not that strong on the inside either).

Therefore, although there was no direct conflict between Later Liang and Liu Yan of Southern Han, but only a few words exchanged through the air, Liu Yan's declaration of emperorship was extremely harmful to the Later Liang regime. It can even be said that it accelerated the disintegration of the Later Liang Empire and its demise.

[The Founding of the Liao Dynasty]

When the Later Liang encountered a crisis in the south, the Hedong Group also fell into a serious crisis in the north, and this northern crisis was affected by the combined efforts of internal and external forces.

Relying on its strong comprehensive strength and the outstanding political wisdom of its rulers, the Tang Empire built an international (Asian) order with the Central Plains Chinese civilization at its core, and won universal recognition and support from surrounding nations.

It is particularly important to emphasize that, whether it was the powerful Han Dynasty, the prosperous Tang Dynasty, or any other period, Chinese civilization has never claimed hegemony, never bullied the weak, and never pursued hegemony, unlike a certain country today, which is wearing the cloak of world police, shouting slogans of maintaining peace, claiming to be a beacon of the world, but doing the most despicable and dirty things.

The Tang Empire can be used as a typical example of the "external expansion" of Chinese civilization. With its advanced science and technology, political system, and cultural heritage, Chinese civilization was sincerely admired and worshipped by the relatively backward nations around it. Then, they yearned for it and took the initiative to take Chinese civilization as a mentor, learn the political system, culture, technology, etc. of the Central Plains, and actively accept sinicization.

In other words, the Tang Empire's status as a "regional hegemon" and "world leader" was not achieved through military conquest, but through its own charm, which won the active allegiance of other ethnic groups. The vassal relationship between the Tang Empire and the surrounding ethnic groups was formed naturally.

Since its founding, the Tang Dynasty has pursued a policy of appeasement and control towards the surrounding ethnic groups, and has not engaged in political or racial discrimination. The openness and tolerance of the Tang Dynasty is rare in ancient times and need no elaboration.

In terms of regional affairs, the Tang Empire shoulders an unshirkable responsibility, which, in short, is to maintain regional balance. To be honest, the Tang Empire is not a white lotus, and maintaining the status quo and balance is also in the interests of the Tang Empire. If they are allowed to annex and attack without mediation and reconciliation, then a powerful tribe will emerge to unify the northern nomadic peoples, forming a nomadic force with strong military power and a strong desire for war, and then go south to invade the Central Plains. Looking through historical records, this is indeed a historical law that has been repeated again and again. Whenever the Central Plains fell into turmoil and civil strife, it would lose control of the northern ethnic minorities. A powerful nomadic people would appear in the north in a very short time, complete the integration of the grassland, and then continue to invade the south, becoming a serious external threat to the emerging dynasties after the stability of the Central Plains, such as the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu, the Song Dynasty and the Khitan, and the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia.

Therefore, the Tang Empire, for its own safety, had to actively mediate regional affairs, protect vulnerable groups, and prevent the emergence of regional hegemons. For example, the "Nanzhao" mentioned above was misled by treacherous officials through improper means such as heavy bribes, which led to the unification of the six states. After that, Nanzhao really became a major concern for the Tang Dynasty, and even became the fuse for the demise of the Tang Dynasty.

Although the Tang Empire made mistakes on the issue of "Nanzhao" in the south, it never took the northern nomadic peoples lightly, because the northern nomadic peoples have been the eternal nightmare of the Central Plains Han people since ancient times, and "beware of the northern Tartars" is deeply imprinted in the genetic genes of every Han person.

During the Tang Dynasty, the nomadic peoples in the north were very diverse. Some of the more influential ones were the Dangxiang, Huihe, Tiele, Khitan, Xi, Shiwei, Mohe (pronounced the same as "Mohe"), Bohai Mohe, Xi (pronounced the same as "Xi"), Urohun, Shatuo, Tuyuhun, etc. Among them, each ethnic group was divided into different tribes, such as the "Nine Clans of Tiele" and the "Eight Clans of Khitan", and each tribe was divided into multiple clans, such as the Yelu clan of the Khitan Diela tribe.

From this we can see that at that time in the northern grasslands, there were many nomadic peoples, and their branches and factions were numerous, so they would not pose a threat to the Tang Empire. However, they all needed to trade with the Tang Empire, and the Tang Empire would profit from it.

As the Tang Dynasty declined, its control over the northern nomadic peoples gradually dissipated. As a result, the nomadic peoples without control also returned to the most primitive law of the jungle, where the strong prey on the weak. For example, the Khitan, Yelu Abaoji unified the "Eight Khitan Tribes", making the entire Khitan nation united, and quickly launched annexation wars against other northern nomadic peoples such as the Xi, Shiwei, and Mohe, and quickly became the overlord of the grassland with a crushing force.

The turmoil in the Central Plains not only provided an opportunity for the grassland peoples to integrate themselves, but also provided a large number of talents. At that time, many Han people fled to the northern grasslands to escape the war. Among them were diligent farmers, skillful craftsmen, and scholars with both literary and military skills.

The influx of a large number of refugees from the Central Plains brought sufficient labor, advanced technology and culture to the northern nomadic peoples, added infinite vitality to the grasslands, and accelerated the evolution of grassland civilization.

Let’s take the Khitan as an example.

The reason why the Khitans were able to quickly unify the grasslands under the leadership of Yelü Abaoji was not only due to his great talent and strategy, but also the continuous help of refugees from the Central Plains. For example, long before Yelü Abaoji became the leader of the tribe, the Khitans had learned iron smelting from refugees from the Central Plains and had their own handicraft industry. The nomadic peoples were able to smelt iron, which was even more powerful.

As mentioned in the previous article, when Yelü Abaoji encountered civil strife and was forced to resign by the other seven chiefs, he proposed a condition for his resignation, which was to allow him to live with the Han people under his rule, build a city and live in self-exile. This can also reflect from the side the large number of Central Plains refugees in Khitan (at least in the Diela tribe) and their close relationship with the chief (Yelü Abaoji).

It was a Han Chinese who fled to the grasslands to seek refuge and helped Yelü Abaoji establish his country and become emperor, and made outstanding contributions to the prosperity and stability of Khitan. This person enjoyed a high status in Khitan, and both the History of Liao and the History of Khitan had high praise for him. One of his famous actions was unprecedented in ancient and modern times, and was even used as a reference by our new China. An incident that happened to him was also adapted into a classic play known to all women and children.

This legendary figure is Yelu Abaoji’s number one strategist—Han Yanhui.

(End of this chapter)