AguDa

AguDa, the second son of the Jurchen chief HeLiBu, emerges as a respected young leader whose friendship with Xiao Feng crosses the lines of a war between Jurchen and Khitan. He welcomes Xiao Feng as an honored guest, commands his tribesmen in moments of danger, and treats generosity as a bond shared across the community. His encounters with Xiao Feng give personal form to the story’s larger question of whether inherited political divisions must dictate individual loyalties.

Identity and standing

AguDa is one of HeLiBu’s eleven sons, all described as capable heroes. He is intelligent and skilled, and both his father and fellow tribesmen admire him. His standing makes his welcome consequential: his praise of Xiao Feng helps ensure that the Jurchen do not hold the visitor’s Khitan identity against him, even though the two peoples are at war.

Alliance with Xiao Feng

When Xiao Feng and AhZi arrive among the Jurchen, AguDa gives up his own tent for them. Xiao Feng initially tries to refuse, but AguDa insists, and Xiao Feng accepts his hospitality. AguDa’s welcome is reinforced by a feast held in Xiao Feng’s honor; the meat of the two tigers Xiao Feng had killed becomes part of the meal. The Jurchen also judge heroism by drinking prowess. After more than half a month without wine, Xiao Feng drinks over ten bags of their exceptionally strong wine without showing its effect, winning the tribesmen’s awe and deepening the welcome AguDa has helped secure.

Their alliance is not simply ceremonial. When Khitan riders pursue a bear and suddenly attack the Jurchen, AguDa recognizes that his people are outnumbered and signals them and Xiao Feng to retreat. The Jurchen hunters fight as they withdraw, while Xiao Feng tries to avoid killing his own people: he dismounts two Khitan riders without seriously harming them, then shoots four more in the shoulders or feet. AguDa and the Jurchen applaud Xiao Feng’s intervention, even as the clash forces him to confront the pull of his Khitan identity against the friendship he has formed with them.

Leadership and communal life

AguDa’s leadership is visible in his practical attention to the tribe’s safety. When a large herd approaches the camp and is mistaken for an enemy advance, he and HeLiBu organize the Jurchen into a defensive formation. AguDa sends four hunters to follow the attendant who has gone to check the approaching group. They confirm that the apparent threat is livestock, not soldiers: cattle, sheep, and horses are being driven by Khitan herdsmen.

The episode leads from alarm to hospitality. That night, Xiao Feng invites the Jurchen to slaughter sheep and cattle for their guests. The following day, he gives gifts to the travelers, then passes the gold, silver, brocade, cattle, sheep, and horses left behind to AguDa for distribution among the tribesmen. The Jurchen hold wealth in common, so the gifts enrich the community rather than a private household. Their banquets continue for several days, and the tribe is grateful to Xiao Feng. AguDa’s role in receiving and distributing the animals places him within a system where leadership and communal obligation go together.

Narrative significance

AguDa’s scenes contrast the violence of frontier conflict with the possibility of trust across its boundaries. The Jurchen and Khitan are at war, yet the Jurchen welcome Xiao Feng because they admire his courage and because AguDa speaks for him. When violence breaks out, AguDa protects his people, while Xiao Feng seeks to restrain his response against his own ethnic kin. Neither friendship nor shared admiration erases the danger, but their alliance complicates the logic that opposing peoples must treat one another only as enemies.

The later account of Liao succession and rebellion offers a broader political counterpoint. It describes how YeLu ZhongYuan once declined the throne in favor of his brother and was later made the next heir, while YeLu HongJi’s accession and his uncle’s powerful position left the succession unstable. AguDa is not part of that imperial family or its struggle, but his earlier story establishes the human scale of the novel’s political divisions: loyalty, authority, and belonging are negotiated through personal acts as well as inherited claims. His generous welcome and organized defense make him a representative of Jurchen communal life without reducing him to a mere obstacle in Xiao Feng’s conflict of identity.