The Liao and Jin dynasties were both dynasties in which the northern ethnic groups moved south to the Central Plains and established regional royal regimes in northern China. The Liao Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty after him have many similarities, but there are differences in the same places, after reading this article, everyone will definitely have a clearer understanding of the Liao and Jin dynasties.
First of all, the founder of the Liao Dynasty was Yelu Abaoji, during his reign, he founded the Huluduo system, established the palace guards: formulated the legal code, created the Khitan script, and laid the foundation of the various systems of the Liao Dynasty.
Next, we start with the political system of the Liao State, through the discussion of the local political system of the Liao State and the simple summary of the military system, and briefly recognize the Liao Dynasty from top to bottom. And by comparing the differences between Liao and Jin, we will introduce the Jin state established by the Jurchen tribes.
After the establishment of the Liao State, there were Han people, Khitan people, Bohai people, etc., and it was necessary to adapt to the rule of these different ethnic groups and different modes of production, so a set of unique political systems different from those of the Han people was established, such as the official system in the north and south, and the bowl system in the four seasons.
Liao's ** political system
Emperor system:The emperors of the Liao Dynasty had the highest authority, both as the Khitan Khan and as the Han emperor; In the early period of the Khitan, the system of hereditary election was implemented, and after the founding emperor of Liao, Yelu Abaoji, was elected as the khan, he killed all the seven chiefs, overthrew the hereditary khan system, and developed into a feudal hereditary system passed from father to son. It is an extension of the emperor's system, which means "palace tent", which is the institution that manages the emperor's private property, including soldiers and horses, population, prefectures and counties, etc. The emperors of the Liao Dynasty all had their own Huluduo, and they all set up special officials to manage them. Later Jin and Yuan also followed this system.
North and South Bureaucracy:Liao's ** official system. Liao set up the southern and northern officials in **. The southern officials ruled the Han and Bohai people in accordance with the system of the Tang Dynasty, with three provinces and six departments, and the nobles of the Han scholars and Khitans were appointed. The northern officials ruled the Khitans and other ethnic minorities according to the old Khitan system, and their institutions were simpler, but their status was higher than that of the southern officials, and all the Khitan nobles were appointed.
The decision-making system of the four-hour bowl:The bowl was set up by the Liao Emperor when he went out on a safari. The Spring and Autumn Bowl is a tribal activity and meeting, mainly dealing with tribal affairs in the north. The summer bowl and winter bowl are mainly held in Yong'an Mountain and Guangpingdian, mainly to hold a meeting of the ministers of the north and the south to deal with the major affairs of the country, such as the issue of peace and war. The bowl later became the political center of the Liao Emperor's regular meetings with ministers from the north and south to decide on major matters.
Wujing system:The Liao Dynasty successively formed the five-capital system, namely Shangjing Linhuang Mansion, Zhongjing Dading Mansion, Tokyo Liaoyang Mansion, Nanjing Youzhou Mansion and Xijing Datong Mansion. Wujing is the administrative center of the Han region, of which Shangjing is its capital, and the other four are the capital.
State and county system:The Liao Dynasty implemented the state and county system in the former Bohai and Youyun regions, and set up prefecture and county magistrates to administer them.
Steppe tribal system:The Liao Dynasty practiced the grassland tribal system in the Khitan and the ethnic minority areas in the north.
The military state system under the head:The military state of the head was set up by the clans of the Liao Dynasty, the ministers of foreign relatives and the people who had military exploits in the tribe to which they belonged according to the population they received and captured, and the large states built cities. The officials of the states, with the exception of the envoys of the moderation, were appointed by the nobles of the states themselves. Those who were engaged in agriculture in the state had to pay rent in kind to the nobles of the military state, and they also had to pay taxes to Liao**. The commercial tax in the city, except for the liquor tax, which needs to be paid to Liao**, the other nobles of the military state.
Judicial system:Liao practiced two different legal systems, among which Han laws such as "Tang Law" and "Tang Order" were used to govern the Han people, and Khitan laws were used to govern the Khitan people.
Military system:The Emperor was the supreme military governor and relied on the Northern Privy Council to manage the army.
All in all, the political system of the Liao Dynasty adapted to the needs of multiple ethnic groups and carried out partition, but there were also unequal treatment of ethnic groups, and the political system of the Liao Dynasty gradually tended to be more sinicized in the later period.
The Bo Ji Lie system, headed by the emperor and composed of members of the royal family and nobles, constituted the highest decision-making body of the Jin Dynasty and held the power of the military state. Later, Jin's new system of heavenly dependents was reformed, and Jin fully implemented the Han official system.
After the establishment of his own political power, Kim evolved the Meng'an Mook system, which he had previously practiced internally, into a local administrative organization that integrated military and government. Specifically, three hundred households are used as one mou ke, that is, the centurion in the army, and ten thousand mu ke as a fierce an, that is, a thousand commanders. Meng'an, Mouke was both a military general and a local administrator, and later when Jin unified the administrative divisions of the state, Meng'an Mouke was still retained as a grassroots organization of Jurchen local feudalism.
In terms of political ideology, the guiding political ideology of the two dynasties has shown the characteristics of pluralism. Different from the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the northern regimes evolved in the direction of accepting Confucian ethics, the Liaojin and Jin dynasties had more diverse political choices, and they also absorbed a lot of Buddhism and Taoism while accepting Confucianism, so that shamanism in line with their national traditions was used as a political guiding principle, and compared with the previous Northern regimes, the Liaojin rulers had a more distinct national consciousnessIn particular, the Jin Dynasty put forward the idea of "one China" for the first time in Chinese history.
Unlike the traditional Han Chinese dynasties, the ruling groups of the Liao and Jin were ethnic minorities: the Liao Dynasty was a regime established by the Khitans, and the Jin Dynasty was a regime established by the Jurchens. The Khitan are nomadic peoples, and their steppe-based thinking and continental characteristics are more obvious. The Jurchen is a fishing and hunting people, with a large scale of agricultural activities, and its ancestors have the experience of establishing a feudal regime imitating the Central Plains, which is relatively easier to understand the political system of the Central Plains and the operation logic of the monarch's power.
The political system of the minority regimes has also been integrated into their own culture: for example, the aforementioned Liao implements the rule of the four seasons, which retains the characteristics and advantages of the rule of "Xingguo", and one of the important characteristics of the political institutions of the Liao Dynasty is to maintain the mobility of the ruling institutions. The North-South Ministers' Council was the highest decision-making body of the Liao Dynasty, and was held regularly in winter and summer every year. The predecessor of the North-South Ministers' Conference was the Khitan Noble Council, and later after the establishment of the Liao regime, Han officials were added, and it became the North-South Ministers' Council. Among them, the status of the Fan and Han is unequal, and the status of the Khitan is even superior. The Liao Dynasty's bureaucratic system was divided into "northern" and "southern", which was more conducive to the management of multiple ethnic groups and the mobilization of the enthusiasm of all ethnic groups in the region. The coexistence of the local upper tribal system and the state and county system laid the foundation for the consolidation of the Liao Dynasty's rule.
The vigorous system implemented in the early Jin period, the official system of people as the first political power, is the unique political culture of the Jurchens。In the middle of the period, after the Jin Dynasty extended the scope of political rule to the vast northern region of the Central Plains north of the Huai River, it began to vigorously implement the Han dynasty governance system, and replaced the unique national traditional system of the early Jurchens with the Han ruling system, especially the Bo Jilie system, and turned to the three-province and six-ministry system.
In the process of political power construction and political rule, the Jin Dynasty not only inherited many contents of the Liao Dynasty, but also solved the long-standing problems of the Khitans. For example, the Jin Dynasty's implementation of the imperial examination system of selecting officials was a step forward from the Khitans' practice of serving as bureaucrats in various departments without participating in the imperial examinations in the Liao Dynasty. In addition, the Jin Dynasty improved the system of local officials, and introduced the official character system in addition to the traditional Meng'an Mou restraint system and herd herding institutions in the Jin Dynasty.
Whether it is the Liao Dynasty of the Khitan nationality or the Jin Dynasty of the Jurchen nationality, without exception they were subdued by the Central Plains culture, and they all carried out different degrees of sinicization in the later period, and finally recognized themselves as members of the Chinese nation, which shows the benefits and disadvantages of culture.