The defects of Liao history, the historiographical value of Liao history

Although there are many defects in the History of Liao, the preciousness and importance of the History of Liao, as the only existing work that systematically and completely records the historical facts of the Liao Dynasty, are self-evident. Moreover, the "History of Liao" preserves many materials recorded in the two books of "Liao Shilu" and Chen Daren's "History of Liao", so its historical value is still relatively high.

Since the records of Yelu Yan and the history of Chen Daren Liao have been lost, the history of Yuan Xiu Liao has become the only existing official history book that records Liao more systematically and completely. It provides some materials for the study of the class struggle, the production struggle, the relations of nationalities, and other issues of the time.

For example, the Tianzuo Chronicle reflects that when the Liao Dynasty's war against the Jurchens was defeated, Han Chinese peasants and people of all ethnic groups revolted one after another, including an army of 200,000 led by An Sheng'er and Zhang Gao'er. For example, Yingwei Zhi and Lizhi provide materials on the establishment and distribution of Khitan tribes, as well as the customs and habits of nomadic peoples. The Geographical Chronicles and the Hundred Official Chronicles record the geographical establishment and the general situation of the ruling institutions of the agricultural and pastoral areas at that time.

The Benji, the Tribal Table, the Subject State Table, and the Records of the Two Foreign Nationalities also preserve some reference materials for studying the history of various ethnic groups other than the Khitan and the history of Sino-foreign relations. It can also be seen from the history of Liao that due to the development of agriculture and the increase in the population of handicrafts on the grassland at that time, some agricultural settlements and cities gradually appeared. In particular, Shangjing and Zhongjing, which were established successively, had close ties with Nanjing (present-day Beijing), thus communicating the economy and culture of this vast area.

A chronicle of the Liao Dynasty. Yuan Tuotuo and other Feng Yi repairs. The book has 116 volumes, including 30 volumes, 31 chronicles, 8 tables, and 45 biographies.

It records the history of the Liao Dynasty (907 1125) and the Khitan and Western Liao before the founding of the People's Republic of China. The last volume is the "Chinese Interpretation", where the official system, palace guards, tribes, etc. use the Khitan language as the title, refer to the historical texts and slightly annotate; It also explains the system of some non-Khitan names. ”

The History of Liao, that is, the history of the Liao State, consists of 116 volumes. Of course, this must have been revised by the Yuan Dynasty. It is generally believed that the "History of Liao" is relatively brief, even rough, and is the lowest quality of the 24 histories.

There are two main reasons, one is the rush of time, and the scope of historical materials is narrow.

Time reason: The time to compile "History of Liao" was too hasty! It began in April 1343 and was completed in March of the following year, taking only 11 months. You must know that no matter how good the Liao Kingdom is, it has a history of more than 200 years!

Lack of historical materials: The main historical materials of the History of Liao are Ye Longli's Khitan Chronicles of the Southern Song Dynasty, Ye Luyan's Records of the Imperial Dynasty at the end of the Liao Dynasty, and Chen Daren's History of Liao in the Jin Dynasty, which lacks first-hand historical materials. Of course, the Liao Dynasty itself is relatively lacking in information.

"History of Liao" is a biographical history book that records the history of the Liao Dynasty. Because there are not many records of the Liao Dynasty circulating, and there are very few relevant materials other than the "History of Liao", it has become the only historical book of the Liao Dynasty, which is more precious. The History of Liao: Yingwei Zhi is a unique chapter in the 24 histories, reflecting the differences between agriculture and animal husbandry to a certain extent.

The four o'clock movement of the Khitan palace tent; Winter and summer bowls (meetings to deal with government affairs), spring water (goose catching, hook fish), and autumn mountains (whistle deer) belong to the grassland nomadic life tradition, which is different from the agricultural society of the Central Plains. The "Hundred Official Chronicles" is divided into northern officials (the old official positions of the Khitan grassland) and southern officials (traditional official positions in the Central Plains), which is also a documentary practice.