Khitan people

The earliest written reference to the Khitan is from an official history of the Xianbei-led Northern Wei dynasty dating to the period of the Six Dynasties. Most scholars believe the Khitan tribe splintered from the Xianbei, and some scholars believe they may have been a mixed group who also included former members of the Xiongnu tribal confederation.^[9][10] The Khitan shaved their heads, leaving hair on their temples which grew down to the chest, in a similar fashion to the related Kumo Xi, Shiwei, and Xianbei whom they are believed to be descended from.^[11]

During their early history the Khitan were composed of eight tribes. Their territory was between the present-day Xar Moron River and Chaoyang, Liaoning.^[12] The Khitan's territory bordered Goguryeo, the Central Plains, and the lands of the Eastern Turks.^[13]

Between the 6th and 9th centuries, they were successively dominated by the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, the Uyghur Khaganate, and the Tang dynasty.^[14] The Khitans were less politically united than the Turkic tribes, but often found themselves involved in the power games between the Turks and the Sui and Tang dynasties. It is estimated the Khitans had only around 43,000 soldiers – a fraction of the Turkic Khaganates.^[13] In 605, the Khitans raided the Sui dynasty, but the Emperor Yang of Sui was able to convince the Turks to send 20,000 horsemen to aid Sui against the Khitans.^[15] In 628, under the leadership of tribal chief Dahe Moui, the Khitan submitted to the Tang dynasty, as they had earlier submitted to the Eastern Turks. The Khagan of the Eastern Turks, Jiali Khan, offered to exchange the rebel Liang Shidu for the Khitans, but Emperor Taizong would not agree to the exchange.^[12]

During the reign of

Like the Tuyuhun and Tangut, the Khitan remained an intermediate power along the borderlands through the 7th and 8th centuries.^[17] The Khitans rose to prominence in a power vacuum that developed in the wake of the Kyrgyz takeover of the Uyghur Khaganate, and the collapse of the Tang dynasty.^[18]

Liao dynasty

The Later Jin dynasty remained a vassal of the Khitans until the death of Shi Jing Tang in 942, but when the new emperor ascended, he indicated that he would not honor his predecessor's arrangement. The Khitans launched a military invasion against the Later Jin in 944. In January 947, the Emperor of the Later Jin dynasty surrendered to the Khitans.[23] The Khitan emperor left the conquered city of Kaifeng and unexpectedly died from an illness while travelling in May 947.^[24]

Relations between Goryeo and the Khitans were hostile after the Khitans destroyed Balhae. Goryeo would not recognize the Liao dynasty and supported the fledgling Song dynasty, which had formed south of the Khitans' territory. Though the Khitans would have preferred to attack China, they invaded Goryeo in 993. Khitan forces failed to advance beyond the Chongchon River and were persuaded to withdraw, though Khitan dissatisfaction with Goryeo's conquest of the Jurchen prompted a second invasion in 1010. This time the Khitans, led by their emperor, sacked the capital city Kaesong. A third and final invasion in 1018 was repelled by Goryeo's forces, bringing an end to 30 years of war between the rivals.^[25]

The Liao dynasty proved to be a significant power north of the

One of the causes of the Jurchen rebellion and the fall of the Liao was the custom of raping married Jurchen women and Jurchen girls by Khitan envoys, which caused resentment from the Jurchens.^[27] The custom of having sex with unmarried girls by Khitan was itself not a problem, since the practice of guest prostitution – giving female companions, food and shelter to guests – was common among Jurchens. Unmarried daughters of Jurchen families of lower and middle classes in Jurchen villages were provided to Khitan messengers for sex, as recorded by Hong Hao.^[28] Song envoys among the Jin were similarly entertained by singing girls in Guide, Henan.^[29] There is no evidence that guest prostitution of unmarried Jurchen girls to Khitan men was resented by the Jurchens. It was only when the Khitans forced aristocratic Jurchen families to give up their beautiful wives as guest prostitutes to Khitan messengers that the Jurchens became resentful. This suggests that in Jurchen upper classes, only a husband had the right to his married wife while among lower class Jurchens, the virginity of unmarried girls and sex with Khitan men did not impede their ability to marry later.^[30] The Jurchens and their Manchu descendants had Khitan linguistic and grammatical elements in their personal names like suffixes.^[31] Many Khitan names had a "ju" suffix.^[32]

Following the fall of the Liao dynasty, a number of the Khitan nobility escaped the area westwards towards

During the 13th century, the Mongol invasions and conquests had a large impact on shifting ethnic identities in the region. Most people of the Eurasian Steppe did not retain their pre-Mongol identities after the conquests. The Khitans were scattered across Eurasia and assimilated into the Mongol Empire in the early 13th century.^[33]

Fleeing from the Mongols, in 1216 the Khitans invaded Goryeo and won several battles, even reaching the gates of the capital, but were defeated by Goryeo General Kim Chwi-ryeo who pushed them back north to Pyongan,^[34][35] where the remaining Khitans were finished off by Goryeo forces in 1219.^[36][37]

Language and writing systems

The Khitan language is now extinct. Some scholars believe that Khitan is

Economy

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As nomadic Khitans originally engaged in

The Khitans practiced shamanism in which animals played an important role. Hunters offered a sacrifice to the spirit of the animal they were hunting and wore a pelt from the same animal during the hunt. There were festivals to mark the catching of the first fish and wild goose, and annual sacrifices of animals to the sky, earth, ancestors, mountains, rivers, and others. Every male member of the Khitan would sacrifice a white horse, white sheep, and white goose during the Winter solstice.^[43]

When a Khitan nobleman died, burnt offerings were sacrificed at the full and new moons. The body was exposed for three years in the mountains, after which the bones would be cremated. The Khitan believed that the souls of the dead rested at a place called the Black Mountain, near Rehe Province.^[44]

Khitan tents always faced east, and they revered the sun, but the moon did not have a large role in their religion.^[45] They also practiced a form of divination where they went to war if the shoulder blade of a white sheep cracked while being heated (scapulimancy).^[43]

Women

Khitan women hunted, rode horses and practiced archery. They did not practice foot binding, which started becoming popular among the Han during the Song dynasty. The Khitan practiced polygamy and generally preferred marriage within the tribe, but it was not unknown for an Emperor to take wives from other groups, such as the Han, Koreans,^[46] and Turkic tribes.^[47]

Genetics

A 2015 study postulated that Khitan males may have belonged to haplogroups

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  Fresco of a Khitan man
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  Khitans holding wrapped up banners, maces, and drums
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  Khitan mace man
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  Halahaicheng tomb mural
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  Halahaicheng tomb mural
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  Cooks
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  Mural from tomb in Aohan, Liao dynasty
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  Hairstyle
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  Aohan tomb of men preparing drinks
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  Hunters
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  Khitan women, painted on wood.
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  Women
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  Women
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  Woman
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  funerary mask

  and crown
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  One of the Yixian glazed pottery luohans at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, created in the 12th century during the Liao dynasty.

See also

• History of the Khitans
• List of Khitan rulers
• Yelü
• Liao dynasty
• Northern Liao
• Qara Khitai (Western Liao dynasty)
• Eastern Liao
• Later Liao
• Qutlugh-Khanids
• Cathay
• Mongol mythology

References

Citations