Southern Chancellery

The Southern Chancellery is the Liao Empire’s southern military-administrative authority, paired with the Northern Chancellery. Its place in the state’s command structure gives it influence over armed forces and the capital’s security; when its chief turns against the emperor, that institutional power becomes the machinery of a succession crisis. After the rebellion is suppressed, the office passes to Xiao Feng, whose tenure exposes the distance between military authority, imperial policy, and his own moral commitments.

Structure and Political Authority

The Liao Empire’s military affairs are divided between the Northern and Southern Chancelleries. During Yelu Hongji’s hunting expedition, the Northern Chancellery’s lord accompanies the emperor, while the Southern Chancellery’s lord remains in the capital to guard it. That division leaves the southern office at the heart of the crisis: its chief, Yelu NieLugu, is also Prince of Chu, and his father, Yelu Zhongyuan, commands the empire’s entire army.

The office’s authority rests on a succession settlement inherited from an earlier reign. Yelu Hongji’s grandfather, Yelu Longxu, had two sons: Yelu Zongzhen, who was kind and generous, and Yelu Zhongyuan, who was a gifted military commander. When Yelu Longxu selected Zongzhen as his successor, the empress favored Zhongyuan and tried to secure the throne for him. Zongzhen disclosed her plan to his brother; Zhongyuan did not take the throne, and Zongzhen rewarded him with the title of royal emperor brother and made him next in line to succeed.

That apparent settlement did not determine the next succession. After Zongzhen died, his son Yelu Hongji became emperor rather than Zhongyuan. Feeling indebted to his uncle, Hongji elevated him to royal emperor uncle and again made him heir presumptive, while also appointing him supreme commander of the army and granting exceptional court privileges. Hongji then gave Zhongyuan’s son, Yelu NieLugu, the title Prince of Chu and control of the Southern Chancellery’s military affairs. The office therefore joined formal administration to a powerful family’s military command, leaving the emperor dependent on relatives whose inherited standing could also be turned against him.

Rebellion and the Office’s Role

With Hongji away from the capital, the Southern Chancellery’s command became an instrument of revolt. A scout reported that the capital had been occupied and that the empress dowager, empress, prince, princess, officials, and their families had been taken captive. A later report brought an edict proclaiming Zhongyuan emperor and describing Hongji as a false ruler who had usurped the throne. The claim drew force from the old succession history and from Zhongyuan’s authority over the army: Hongji feared that the edict could weaken his troops’ loyalty, while his own following numbered about one hundred thousand against the far larger forces available to his uncle and cousin.

The Southern Chancellery was thus more than a place of government. Its command over military affairs gave the rebellion a path from the capital into the wider army, while the dynastic claim supplied a public justification for that force. The crisis also revealed the risks built into the office’s arrangement: the emperor had entrusted a major command to the son of a royal uncle whom the court itself had repeatedly placed next in succession. The narrative links the rebellion not only to individual disloyalty but to the unresolved history of who had the stronger claim to rule.

Xiao Feng’s Appointment and Administration

After the revolt was defeated, Yelu Hongji appointed Xiao Feng to the Southern Chancellery’s highest post. Xiao Feng initially wished to decline, but accepted because he saw his sworn brother’s offer as a sign of their bond and did not want to injure it. Hongji named Yelu MoGe chancellor of the Southern Chancellery, charging him with assisting Xiao Feng and managing its affairs. MoGe was to lead the returning rebels back to the capital, while Hongji went to reunite with the empress dowager and empress.

Xiao Feng assumed command under exceptional circumstances. He had faced an immense rebel force, and the Southern Chancellery’s officers had witnessed his courage. Their obedience also reflected the former Prince of Chu’s poor relations with his subordinates and the fear many felt after taking part in the rebellion. Hongji pardoned those who had rebelled; Xiao Feng accepted that decision and told MoGe to let the troops rest, eat, and then return to the capital. An officer explained that his family had been held hostage to compel his participation, and Xiao Feng declined to pursue past offenses. His authority was established not solely by appointment or martial reputation, but through a practical response to the soldiers’ fear and the pressures that had shaped their conduct.

The position brought a scale of responsibility unfamiliar to Xiao Feng. As a long-serving leader of the Beggar Society, he already knew how to command people, but the Liao army followed its own regulations and conventions. He took care to learn them and relied on MoGe’s administrative ability. The jurisdiction extended well beyond the capital: the sixteen prefectures ceded to the Liao Empire, along with Datong in the west and Dading in the central region, fell under his command. The weight of the office required him to leave his small tent for an official residence; after several days supervising its work, he felt worn down and delegated much of the administration to MoGe.

Expansion, Border Raids, and Xiao Feng’s Conflict

The emperor’s appointment carried a strategic purpose beyond keeping the Southern Chancellery functioning. After Xiao Feng had spent over a month receiving chiefs, officials, and envoys bearing gifts and praise, Hongji summoned him and ordered him to be based in Nanjing, ready to conquer south when circumstances favored an invasion of the Great Song. Hongji acknowledged that the Liao Empire needed time to recover and that the Song’s internal government offered no immediate weakness to exploit, but instructed Xiao Feng to keep the prospect of annexation in mind.

Nanjing’s location made that plan intelligible. The account identifies it with Yanjing, also known as Youdou, and describes the strategic value of the sixteen prefectures acquired by the Liao Empire after Shi Jingtang ceded them in return for Liao support. The Song had fought for three generations to recover those territories without success. Their position allowed Liao forces to penetrate deeply into Song territory, while the Song lacked comparable defensive strongpoints. The office Xiao Feng held therefore carried both administrative jurisdiction and a forward-facing military purpose shaped by a long contest over frontier land.

Xiao Feng accepted the order but was reluctant to carry it out. Raised in the south and familiar with the Great Song, he could not readily reconcile that upbringing with a duty to lead an invasion against it. He planned to go to Nanjing, serve for a time, and eventually seek permission to resign. The Southern Chancellery placed him inside the very policy he hoped to avoid: his sworn brother’s trust made departure feel like betrayal, while imperial service threatened to make him an agent of conquest.

That conflict sharpened when Xiao Feng encountered the human costs of the border system. Liao troops took no regular pay or rations and were expected to supply themselves by raiding neighboring peoples, a practice called Beating the Grass Valley. Song forces retaliated with raids known as Beating the Standing Valley. The cycle made civilians near the frontier vulnerable to capture by either side. When a Liao troop brought hundreds of Song captives to Xiao Feng, he recognized in their plight the same suffering he had previously witnessed among Khitan people captured by the Song. He released the captives and urged them to move away from the border, while reflecting that shared language and customs did not make one population more human than another.

The Southern Chancellery consequently becomes the point where Xiao Feng’s personal ethics meet the state’s daily exercise of power. It can command armies, administer strategically important territory, and prepare for expansion; it also places its chief in a position to intervene when military practice harms civilians. Xiao Feng’s appointment grants him the authority to resist one immediate act of cruelty, but it does not resolve his deeper opposition to the policy that his office is meant to serve.