Part One: Those Things About Khitan

Preface

Midnight Autumn Song

Author: Yu Shenxing

The cool breeze comes in the middle of the night, and the white dew condenses like jade.

I dare not wipe the anvil clean, but disturb my clothes and disturb my heart.

The original meaning of Khitan is iron, which means solid, indicating that this is a fierce and brave nation, as hard as iron.

As early as more than 1,400 years ago, the Khitan had already appeared in the history books. The history books record that they had strong soldiers and horses, were good at riding and shooting, were brave and good at fighting, were capable of shooting eagles, and their horses could ride the wind. They were the unrivaled eagles on the grassland. Later, Yelu Abao

Ji unified other ministries and established the Khitan Empire, which was later renamed Daliao.

When the Khitan Empire was at its most powerful, it once dominated northern China. It stretched from the northwestern part of Hebei Province to the south, to the Outer Xing'an Mountains and Lake Baikal in the north, to Sakhalin Island in the east, and across the Altai Mountains in the west.

The Khitan Empire successively experienced the Five Dynasties, the Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties, the Northern Song Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, and for a long time formed a pattern of confrontation between the north and the south with the Song Dynasty.

During the period of confrontation with the Song Dynasty, the Khitan Empire reached its peak and once blocked the Silk Road from the Central Plains to the West. Many countries in central and western Eurasia mistakenly believed that the entire China had fallen to the Khitan's iron cavalry.

At that time, the word Khitan became a synonym for China.

When the Italian traveler Marco Polo introduced the East in his travel notes, he called China Khitan. Even today, Slavic-speaking countries still call China Khitan.

Since Buddhism was introduced to Khitan, Khitan emperors have been keen on burning incense and worshiping Buddha, which naturally promoted the popularity and development of Buddhism. Most of the ancient Buddhist temples and pagodas preserved in the area north of the Yellow River were built by Khitan.

The Khitan, a strong nation, humbly learned the culture of the Central Plains, absorbed a large number of talents from the Central Plains, and created a prosperous era in northern China!

However, with the rise of the Jurchen tribe, the once prosperous Khitan Empire eventually came to an end. Some Khitan people escaped by chance and were forced to move westward, establishing a new regime in the Western Regions - the Western Liao.

This was the last hope of the Khitan Empire. Although the Western Liao Empire was once powerful, it was eventually destroyed by the Mongols following the conquest of Genghis Khan's Mongol army.

Where did this nation come from? How did it quickly become powerful in northern China? It has been in constant friction with China in the long-term historical process, and once seriously threatened the stability of the Central Plains. We started the study of the history of the Khitan with these questions.

.

Life insights: President Lincoln, who enjoys a high reputation in American history, attaches great importance to choices in life. He once said: The so-called smart person is that he knows how to choose. Lincoln himself is a person who knows how to choose.

When he was at a disadvantage during the Civil War, he still firmly chose the path of "fighting for freedom and the abolition of slavery", and finally achieved great achievements.

There are many people who have achieved brilliant achievements thanks to choosing the right path, such as Sima Qian, Lu Xun, and Bill Gates. We can imagine if Sima Qian did not choose the most humiliating method of execution for men between death penalty and castration.

Living in shame and humiliation, if Lu Xun was reluctant to give up medicine, if Bill Gates chose to get Harvard's gilded essays... would they still be able to write those brilliance that will shine through the ages?

If you sow melons, you will reap melons; if you sow beans, you will reap beans; success or failure in life is due to choices. Choice is so important, and making the right choice is so difficult: there are too many variables, too many temptations, too many difficulties... However, the right choice

It is because of the difficulty of making the right choice that there is a difference between success and failure. There is often only a little difference between greatness and mediocrity: choice. Only those warriors and wise men who rise to the challenge will stand out from the mediocrity.

As the great Buddha said: Some people stand on the other side of the river, and most of the people stand on this side of the river and run up and down. Those who run up and down on this side of the river are like animals who are restricted by the environment and cannot control themselves.

You know, it's like a person is locked up somewhere. Although they have a key in their pocket, they can't use the key to open the door because they don't know that there is a key in their pocket. In fact, God has given humans and animals alike life and adaptation.

In addition to the instinct to survive in the environment, it also gives human beings a master key: the freedom to use wisdom to choose actions. Man is the "spirit of all things", and "spirit" is "spirit". Human beings are different from other lives.
Chapter completed!