Pre-Mongolian Origins
The Khitans were a proto-Mongolic people of the Xar Moron and Liao river basins, in today's Inner Mongolia, descended from the Xianbei. Under Tang rule their chiefs carried Chinese titles; from 730 the Yaonian clan provided their qaghans. For a century the Khitans lived between the Tang and the steppe empires, first the Türks and then the Uyghurs, whose overlordship they threw off in 842. In 907 the tribal chiefs raised Abaoji of the Yelü clan as qaghan; in 916 he declared himself emperor and founded the Liao dynasty, which ruled northern China and the Mongolian steppe until 1125. Most of what is known about the Yaonian qaghans comes from the Tang histories and the Liao History, compiled in 1344, and the record is thin.
9 Rulers
The Yaonian line began in a crisis: in 730 the military chief Ketuyu killed the pro-Tang king and raised Qulie as qaghan. The Yaonian qaghans then held the title for nearly two centuries, while real power often lay with the military chiefs of the Yelü clan, Abaoji's ancestors. Reign dates for the qaghans between Hula and Yelan are modern estimates; the Liao History gives their order and titles but almost no dates.
First Yaonian qaghan, raised by the military chief Ketuyu after he killed the pro-Tang king in 730; killed with Ketuyu by Li Guozhe in 734.
Read the profileRaised by the Yelü chief Nieli after Li Guozhe's murder; reorganised the Khitan tribes, married the Tang princess Jingle in 745 and then killed her and rose against An Lushan.
Read the profileYaonian qaghan identified with Li Kailuo, whom the Tang recognised in 746 after Zuwu's revolt; his reign saw An Lushan's wars on the Khitans and the start of Uyghur overlordship.
Read the profileYaonian qaghan known only by his title; the Khitans were then subject to the Uyghur Khaganate while still sending envoys to the Tang.
Read the profileYaonian qaghan known only by his title, from the period when the Khitans were subject to the Uyghurs.
Read the profileLast Yaonian qaghan under Uyghur overlordship, known only by his title; his reign ended about the time the Uyghur Khaganate fell in 840.
Read the profileYaonian qaghan who broke with the Uyghurs after their fall and turned to the Tang in 842, exchanging the Uyghur seal for a Tang one.
Read the profileYaonian qaghan identified with Xi'erzhi, who sent envoys to the Tang in the 860s and 870s as Khitan strength grew.
Read the profileLast Yaonian qaghan; raided the Xi and Shiwei and fought Liu Rengong, then gave Abaoji command of the army, and was set aside when the chiefs raised Abaoji in 907.
Read the profile1 Ruler
Abaoji took the qaghan title in 907, refused to hand it on after the customary three-year term, and in 916 made himself emperor of a hereditary dynasty, the Liao. He held both forms of rule at once: emperor in the Chinese manner and qaghan of the Khitan tribes.
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