History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 256: One Country, Two Systems

One Country, Two Systems

Han Yanhui made great contributions to the founding of the Khitan state.

At that time, many Han people fled to the grasslands to escape the war and were taken in by the Khitan. However, the people in the Central Plains generally have a deep-rooted sense of hometown and miss their hometown all the time. In addition, objective factors such as climate, environment, lifestyle, and cultural differences led to the frequent escape of Han people outside the Great Wall. Even Han Yanhui deserted.

Although the escape of the Han people could not be elevated to a political issue, it was a very serious loss of talent and productivity, and the loss to the Khitan was immeasurable, but Yelu Abaoji was helpless in the face of it.

Shulü Ping reminded him that he should consult Han Yanhui, a senior consultant in the Central Plains, on the issue of the Han people in the Central Plains. Yelü Abaoji suddenly realized and immediately went to Han Yanhui to discuss countermeasures.

Han Yanhui did not let the Khitan people down. He proposed a very forward-looking solution, which was "Hu-Han separation."

That is, the Khitan people were restrained by Khitan law, and the Han people were governed by Han law.

Therefore, in the Khitan-ruled areas, two sets of management systems existed at the same time. The nomads, mainly the Khitan, continued to follow the nomadic laws, while the Han people maintained the rituals and laws of the Central Plains. The Khitan set up a "two-chamber system" in politics, with officials in the south (the Central Plains farming system) and officials in the north (the nomadic system), and dual cards and dual standby.

In this way, the Khitan people could retain the bravery and ferocity of the grassland civilization, and avoid losing themselves due to being assimilated to the Han culture too early, while at the same time making full use of the advanced productivity of the Central Plains culture.

During the Khitan conquest and expansion, the Khitans paid great attention to the plunder of labor, and "population" was the strategic resource they focused on plundering. For example, in the battles against the Shiwei and Dangxiang tribes, they captured a large number of the enemy's population, and then moved them to the Khitan hinterland, registered them in the household registration system, and made them "Khitans". Then they built cities and streets on the conquered lands, and moved in Han people to fill the population.

In order to eliminate the Han people's homesickness and prevent defection, the Khitans took great pains when building new cities. They would try their best to restore a certain county in the Central Plains 1:1, and also use the names of streets and villages, which was equivalent to copying a certain prefecture, county or village in the Central Plains, and then move the Han people who were originally from these places into this copycat version of their "hometown".

In this way, all these Han people hear are their local accents and all they see is their "homeland", so their homesickness is minimized, greatly reducing the rate of Han people's escape.

This is the common wisdom of mankind. For example, when the people of Yorkshire immigrated to the New World of North America, they named it "New York" (New York City); and the people of Orleans named it "New Orleans".

In addition to building a hometown for new immigrants, Han Yanhui also devised a big benefit: the government would help you find a partner. Historical records record: "They also arranged a spouse for you, taught you farming skills, and raised you. As a result, there were few people who fled."

Young men, the government will help you introduce wives to you and solve your marriage problems; it will also teach you how to reclaim wasteland and cultivate the land to solve your employment problems; it will reduce taxes and levies to maximize your happiness index... What are you waiting for? Come and settle down in the frontier!
Due to the combined effects of the long-term turmoil in the Central Plains and the Khitans' recruitment of talents outside the Great Wall, a large number of Han people from the Central Plains poured into the grasslands, and "breaking through Guandong" became a trend.

According to historical laws, the Central Plains dynasty (Tang) declined and gradually lost control of the northern grasslands. The nomadic people (Khitan) took the opportunity to complete resource integration and then invaded the south.

When describing Liu Rengong, the history books said that Liu Rengong crossed Zhaixing Ridge to attack the main force of the Khitan, and set up a "cow and wine meeting" to deceive the Khitan prince, and set fire to the pasture, which made the Khitan dare not invade the south. As we analyzed in the previous article, this mainstream statement is too self-centered, one-sidedly emphasizes the subjective initiative of the Central Plains civilization, and ignores the Khitan's own factors. The real reason why the Khitan did not invade the south during Liu Rengong's period was that they were busy integrating resources outside the Great Wall and had no time to look south.

Until the present period of Li Cunxu (to which the Youzhou region belonged), although the Khitan occasionally made small moves, they were limited to small-scale looting, which only hurt the hair but not the bones.

In this regard, a large number of people gave the explanation that the Hedong regime was close to the Khitan in order to compete with Zhu Wen's group. For example, Li Keyong and Yelü Abaoji became sworn brothers twice. After Li Cunxu came to power, he also treated Yelü Abaoji as an uncle and Shulü Ping as an aunt. Obviously, this also ignores the development of the Khitan itself. The Khitan had not yet completed the integration of resources in the north, which was the root cause of not invading the south.

The Khitan strategy was to attack the easy first and then the difficult, and to attack the north first and then the south.

There are three main factors that led Yelu Abaoji to formulate this strategy:

1. Comparison of strength.

Although Liu Rengong and Li Cunxu were only part of the numerous vassal warlords of the Central Plains Dynasty, their combined strength still crushed other nomadic peoples on the grassland that had not yet completed internal unification, such as the Shiwei and Tiele. The chances of attacking other nomadic peoples were much higher than attacking Liu Rengong and Li Cunxu.

Second, time.

Nomadic peoples are not monolithic. Each tribe and clan within them is both unified and independent, such as the Eight Tribes of Khitan and the Nine Clans of Tiele. Unless a strong man emerges to unite the nation, the nation will be a mess. In peacetime, they will plunder each other, and in wartime, they will fight each other and be easily defeated one by one.

Therefore, since ancient times, whoever unifies his own nation first will become the ruler of the grassland. Yelu Abaoji was the first to unify the Khitan, so he had to annex it before other nations completed their unification.

3. Culture.

The northern nomadic peoples have almost the same living environment, cultural background, and ideology. Their religious beliefs, lifestyles, customs, and habits are basically the same, and the resistance to assimilation is minimal.

The Central Plains agricultural civilization and the grassland nomadic civilization are simply two very different and relatively independent systems, two different technology trees, and there is almost no compatibility. In addition, the Central Plains civilization has an innate sense of cultural superiority, and regards itself as the Celestial Empire. It disdains and despises the nomadic civilization to the core, denounces it as barbaric, miscellaneous, and barbaric. It regards the rule of the nomadic civilization as the greatest shame, and the resistance sentiment is extremely high.

Even if the nomadic peoples were to forcefully enter the Central Plains, they would encounter all-round resistance and it would be difficult for them to last long. Therefore, the people of the Central Plains proudly shouted the slogan "The barbarians will not last a hundred years".

It was based on these three main reasons that Yelu Abaoji made the unification of the northern grasslands his first-stage strategic goal, so the representatives of the Central Plains civilization (Liu Rengong, Li Keyong, and Li Cunxu) were able to enjoy more than ten years of relative peace and stability.

We must abandon narrow-minded racism, face up to cultural differences, and understand, tolerate and accept different civilizations with a broad mind. The sea embraces all rivers, and tolerance makes it great. It is precisely because the Chinese nation is good at accepting and absorbing, and learning from foreigners to strengthen itself, that it can stand tall among the nations of the world.

On the contrary, narrow-mindedness will lead to blind arrogance and general xenophobia, resulting in closing the country to the outside world and isolating oneself from the world, thus causing further backwardness.

After Yelu Abaoji completed the basic unification of the northern grasslands, "invasion from the south" was put on the agenda.

(End of this chapter)