The Khitan is a nomadic nation in ancient China, which first originated from the Northeastern region of China. The early generations made a living by hunting and nomadic. Later, in order to seek a better living space, they began to continuously wage wars with foreign countries.
Due to their year-round hunting and nomadic activities, their physical fitness is much stronger than that of people in the Central Plains. Therefore, when they went to the Central Plains to plunder wealth, it was easy to obtain much more wealth than their nomadic hunting. Later, plundering naturally became an important means of making a living for them.
After the Alliance of Song and Liao Chanyuan , the Khitan did not live a stable life. In order to compete for territory and people, he launched a large-scale war with the rising Goryeo on the Korean Peninsula.
Although they made their fortune in the grasslands, the Khitan did not completely control the grasslands in eastern Asia. There were also other grassland tribes that resisted the Khitan rule at all times.
Although the powerful Khitan did not truly realize its dream of taking over China and becoming the real masters until its demise, the name "Khitan" was actually linked to the name of China.
After the Jin Dynasty destroyed the Khitan, the Khitan noble Yelu Dashi led part of the Khitan forces to move westward. They took advantage of the situation and incorporated the 20,000 Khitan cavalry troops who were stranded in the important town of Kedun in the northwest (which was once an important city of the Uighur Khanate). In 1124, they established the Western Liao , or Kara Khitan.
The territory of Xiliao spanned Xinjiang of China, present-day Mongolia and parts of Central Asia. Yelu Dashi not only resisted the pursuit of the Jin Dynasty, but also expanded in all directions. In 1141, they defeated the Seljuk Empire , a powerful regime that dominated western Asia at that time.
The Seljuk Empire was established by a branch of the Turks. It often fought with the Eastern Roman Empire, so the reputation of the Western Liao (i.e. Kara-Khitan) also spread to Europe because of this battle. Some of the regimes around him, such as the Western Kara Khanate, the Eastern Kara Khanate, Gaochang Uyghur and Khwarizimo, successively surrendered to the Western Liao Dynasty in its power.
Since Xiliao was entrenched in Central Asia, blocking exchanges between eastern Asia and the west, Xiliao also inherited many Chinese systems absorbed during the Khitan period. He even considered himself to be the continuation of the orthodox dynasty of ancient China. Therefore, countries in the western part of the Eurasian continent even mistakenly believed that China at that time was under the rule of the Kara Khitan, thinking that the Kara Khitan was China. At that time, the Southern Song Dynasty, which was in the south of the Yangtze River and was contemporary with the Western Liao Dynasty, was not familiar to the Western world. As a result, Cathay, the Western spelling name of Khitan, spread like wildfire and became the name of China in some Western countries.
1Xiliao was destroyed by Mongolia in 218. Afterwards, the Italian traveler Marco Polo visited the capital of the Yuan Dynasty and described in his travel notes the prosperity of the Khitan Province under the rule of the Mongols. He also said that there was gold and spices everywhere, making the name of Khitan a household name in Europe and becoming a dream that Europeans yearned for and pursued. Cathay has become a nickname for Westerners to refer to China, especially the hometown of the Jin Dynasty. To this day, China is still called Khitan in Slavic-speaking countries.
Until 1575, Rada, a Spaniard who had visited the coast of Fujian, pointed out after an inspection: "The country we usually call China was once called Cathay by the Venetian Marco Polo." After that, Ming Dynasty Wanli twenty-nine years (1601), the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci came to Beijing City . Based on his own life experience and actual measurement of longitude and latitude, he confirmed beyond a doubt that Beijing City is the Khanbali described in "The Travels of Marco Polo" , and Cathay and China refer to the area of the Ming Dynasty where he is located.
The Khitan was not only once the overlord of eastern Asia in terms of strength, but also became synonymous with China after its demise. This is a manifestation of the vast influence of grassland civilization.
