Liao dynasty

Lore & Background

The Liao dynasty, also known as the Khitan State, was a Khitan-led imperial dynasty ruled by the Yelü clan, existing from 916 to 1125. Its rise began with the consolidation of Khitan power in the 8th century, followed by expansionist campaigns in the latter half of the 9th century. The Yila chieftain Abaoji unified the Khitans and proclaimed a Chinese-style dynastic state in 916. At its greatest extent, the Liao controlled Manchuria, the Mongolian Plateau, northern Korea, southern Siberia, and the northern tip of the North China Plain, making it the first state to rule all of Manchuria. The dynasty was destroyed in 1125 when the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty captured Emperor Tianzuo. Liao loyalists under Yelü Dashi later established the Western Liao dynasty in Central Asia, which lasted nearly a century before falling to the Mongol Empire. The Liao launched military campaigns against numerous neighbors, including the Kumo Xi, Shiwei, Tatars, Zubu, Khongirad, Balhae, Goryeo, Later Tang, and Song. They secured the Sixteen Prefectures, including modern Beijing and parts of Hebei, by fueling a proxy war that collapsed the Later Tang. In 1004, a Liao expedition against the Northern Song led to the Chanyuan Treaty, which recognized the two powers as peers and brought 120 years of peace. The dynasty’s official name alternated between Great Khitan and Great Liao, reflecting shifts in identity. Cultural achievements include statuary and artifacts, though their influence on later developments, such as musical and theatrical arts, remains unclear. The term Khitai, derived from the Khitans, came to mean China in Central Asia, Russia, and northwestern China, and entered medieval Europe as Cathay.

Reader's Guide

The Liao dynasty, also known as the Khitan State, was a Khitan-led imperial dynasty that ruled from 916 to 1125. Its rise began with the consolidation of Khitan power in the 8th century, followed by expansionist campaigns in the later 9th century. The Yila chieftain Abaoji unified the Khitans and proclaimed a Chinese-style dynastic state in 916. The dynasty launched numerous military campaigns against neighboring peoples and states, including the Kumo Xi, Shiwei, Tatars, Zubu, Khongirad, Balhae, Goryeo, Later Tang, and Song dynasty. It conquered the strategic Sixteen Prefectures by fueling a proxy war that led to the collapse of the Later Tang. In 1004, after a costly expedition against the Northern Song, the Chanyuan Treaty established peace and recognized the two powers as equals, ushering in roughly 120 years of stability. The Liao was the first state to control all of Manchuria. It was destroyed by the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in 1125, but loyalists under Yelü Dashi founded the Western Liao (Qara Khitai), which ruled parts of Central Asia for nearly a century before falling to the Mongol Empire. The dynasty’s name alternated between Great Khitan and Great Liao, reflecting shifts in identity; the Khitan language name reversed the order of these terms depending on which took precedence. The term “Khitai” entered Central Asian, Russian, and Islamic sources, becoming the medieval European name “Cathay” for China, and is still used by Turkic and some Slavic peoples. Cultural achievements include statuary and artifacts, though major questions remain about their influence on later musical and theatrical arts.

Did You Know?

• The Liao dynasty was the first state to control all of Manchuria.
• The name 'Cathay' for China derives from 'Khitai', the name of the Liao dynasty's people.

Seeds of Fragmentation in the Late Tang

The collapse of centralized Tang authority did not happen overnight. The An Lushan Rebellion of the 8th century and the later Huang Chao uprising both shattered the imperial government's grip on the provinces. In the wake of these crises, the old system of districts and prefectures—standard since the Qin dynasty—was overlaid with larger regional administrations called circuit commissions. By the early 10th century, the jiedushi, or regional military governors, had accumulated such power that they operated as de facto sovereigns. They were no longer appointed by the central court; instead, governorships passed from father to son or from patron to protégé. These warlords maintained private armies that rivaled the imperial palace forces and grew enormously wealthy, as their lavish tombs attest. What had begun as a military emergency response to rebellion had, over two centuries, calcified into a patchwork of hereditary strongmen whose recognition as independent sovereigns by foreign powers marked the formal end of Tang unity in 907.

A Three-Stage Arc from Chaos to Reunification

The historian Hugh Clark proposed a useful framework for understanding the era's broad political trajectory. The first stage, spanning roughly 880 to 910, was a maelstrom of small-scale warfare among warlords who each controlled only one or two prefectures. The second stage, from about 910 to 950, saw these fragmented forces consolidate enough legitimacy to proclaim themselves as new dynastic houses. The third stage, 950 to 979, brought the forceful reunification of China under the Later Zhou and then the Song dynasty, accompanied by the deliberate demilitarization of the provinces. A striking contrast emerged between the two halves of the country. The north, centered on the Central Plain, endured near-constant regime change and warfare. The south, divided among several independent kingdoms, enjoyed relative stability that allowed its rulers to invest in trade, land reclamation, and infrastructure. This southern economic development laid the groundwork for the Song Dynasty's later economic boom and triggered a massive southward migration of population.

The Shatuo Chain of Military Dynasties

The Five Dynasties were not a collection of unrelated regimes but a tightly linked chain of military successions rooted in a single Shatuo Turkic army. The first, founded by Zhu Wen, a rebel defector turned warlord, ended the Tang. The Later Tang was established by Li Cunxu, son of the Shatuo leader Li Keyong, who had been Zhu Wen's principal rival. The Later Jin's founder Shi Jingtang was the son of a Shatuo commander in Li Keyong's forces and the son-in-law of Li Siyuan, an adopted son of Li Keyong. The Later Han's Liu Zhiyuan had served as a Shatuo officer under both Li Siyuan and Shi Jingtang. Even the Later Zhou's Guo Wei had a father who fought in Li Keyong's army, and Guo himself served under Liu Zhiyuan. The Song founder Zhao Kuangyin likewise rose through the military ranks of the Later Zhou before seizing power in the Chenqiao Mutiny of 960. The historian Deng Xiaonan has argued that many of these military families, including the Song imperial house, carried mixed Han Chinese, Turkic, and Kumo Xi ancestry, a legacy of the post-An Lushan unraveling of central authority.

The Long Shadow: Coexistence and the Road to the Yuan

The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms era did not end with a clean reunification. When the Song finally conquered Northern Han in 979, the last of the fragmented regimes, the political landscape of China remained deeply divided. The Song controlled much of the south, but the Liao dynasty held firm in the north, and the Western Xia would later establish itself in the northwest. For several centuries, the Song coexisted alongside the Liao, then the Jin dynasty, and various other northern regimes, each maintaining its own sovereignty. The Hebei provinces—Chengde, Youzhou, and Weibo—had already begun diverging culturally from the capital after the An Lushan Rebellion, maintaining local military control, withholding tax revenues, and even conducting independent foreign policy. It was not until the Yuan dynasty conquered all of these competing powers that China experienced a truly unified imperial order. The era thus stands as a prolonged interlude of division, a bridge between the Tang's centralized world and the multi-state reality that would persist well into the 13th century.