Liao dynasty

The Liao dynasty is more than the political home of Xiao Feng’s Khitan ancestors: its institutions and frontier policies repeatedly turn questions of identity into matters of allegiance, war, and civilian survival. The narrative connects imperial succession, military command, and strategic territory to the choices made by its rulers and by people caught between Liao and its neighbors.

Dynastic Identity and Imperial Power

The dynasty’s ruling surname is Yelu, while the empresses of successive generations belong to the Xiao clan. Because the Xiao family repeatedly provides empresses, it has also produced many generals and officials and holds considerable influence at court. When an emperor is young, an empress dowager may assume power, further strengthening her clan’s position. This structure gives the imperial household’s maternal line a political weight that reaches well beyond the palace. When Xiao Feng learns that his father belonged to a great Khitan clan, the revelation unsettles his sense of self; he tells A'Zhu that he will henceforth be Xiao Feng rather than Qiao Feng. His personal renaming thus takes place within a state where clan identity and political standing are closely linked.

Succession, Kinship, and Legitimacy

The history of the Liao succession shows how family ties can stabilize authority and also leave later generations vulnerable to disputed claims. The Holy Emperor designates his eldest son, ZongZhen, to succeed him, although the empress favors her second son, ZhongYuan, and schemes to put him on the throne. ZongZhen warns his brother of their mother’s plan; ZhongYuan does not take the throne, and ZongZhen succeeds. In gratitude, ZongZhen names him royal emperor brother and next in line. Yet after ZongZhen’s death, the throne passes instead to his son HongJi.

Once emperor, HongJi confers on ZhongYuan the title of royal emperor uncle and again places him next in the succession. He also gives him supreme command of the army and exceptional court privileges. ZhongYuan’s son NieLuGu receives the title Prince of Chu and command of the Southern Chancellery, while the Northern and Southern Chancelleries divide military administration. These arrangements concentrate immense authority in the uncle’s household even as HongJi occupies the throne. When HongJi is away hunting, NieLuGu’s rebellion turns that inherited concentration of command into an immediate threat. The rebels declare ZhongYuan emperor and issue an edict portraying HongJi as a false ruler who tried to usurp the throne. The crisis exposes the gap between formal succession and the military power capable of enforcing a rival claim.

Frontier Warfare and the Costs of Policy

Liao’s conflict with the Song is sustained not only by armies but by the strategic geography and political economy of the border. The account attributes the Liao military advantage in part to the sixteen prefectures ceded by Shi JingTang in return for Liao’s support. The territories occupy strategically important positions, allowing Liao forces to advance deeply into Song lands; despite repeated campaigns across three generations, the Song does not recover them. The territorial settlement therefore shapes the military balance long after the original bargain.

The narrative also describes an economy in which troops are not supplied with rations or paid salaries, but are expected to obtain what they need by raiding neighboring lands. Liao incursions into Song, Western Xia, Jurchen, Korea, and other neighboring regions are called Beating the Grass Valley; retaliatory Song raids into Liao territory are called Beating the Standing Valley. The paired practices make frontier civilians bear the cost of interstate warfare. Xiao Feng recognizes the cruelty of this system, and his reluctance to serve long as an official is sharpened when he sees Song captives taken in a raid near ZhuoZhou. He releases them and urges them to move away from the border, while acknowledging that he may not be able to protect them again.

A State Experienced Across Divided Identities

The border is also a place where political enmity coexists with personal respect and practical exchange. A Jurchen chief, HeLiBu, welcomes Xiao Feng despite his Khitan identity: the Jurchen and Khitan are at war, yet the tribespeople admire capable heroes, and AguDa’s praise helps secure Xiao Feng’s reception as an honored guest. In another encounter, Khitan fighters attack Jurchen hunters without first clarifying who they are. Xiao Feng cannot bring himself to kill his own people, but he intervenes to help the Jurchen escape and disables several Khitan riders without killing them. His actions make the conflict of belonging concrete: neither ancestry nor hospitality entirely determines whom he protects in the moment.

That divided position informs his response to Liao’s captive-taking. After the raid, he recalls that he once regarded himself as a Song subject, sharing their language and food, and questions why people insist on dividing Khitan, Song, Jurchen, and Korean communities into hostile categories. The captives’ release is not presented as a solution to the recurring raids, but it is a direct refusal to let his office turn them into spoils. Through this choice, the dynasty’s political and military structures are measured against the human consequences they impose, and Xiao Feng’s conflicted identity becomes a vantage point from which to challenge the logic of collective enmity.