In recent years, various "winter fishing festivals" have been held hastily in the northern countries where winters freeze over, and the so-called "head fish", in particular, can actually be sold for nearly a million dollars. Almost all of the publicity around the world claims that "winter fishing" inherits the cultural heritage left by the Khitan people.
Winter fishing festivals have blossomed everywhere
The Khitan people have disappeared, but are remembered in history for the existence of the Khitan state and the Liao dynasty. The politically significant ice fishing was actually a springtime gift of the Liao emperors, and the first fish was caught by the emperors themselves, not by fishing.
Fishing was an important springtime ritual for the Khitans, and the first fish feast was a state banquet, hosted by the head of the Jurchen, thousands of miles away. Hong Yan is said to have turned against the Liao because he was humiliated at this banquet and almost killed by the Liao emperor.
Most Liao emperors died in military parades.
The term Bona may be unfamiliar to those who are not interested in the history of northeast China. It is a proper noun, and in Khitan, it is usually interpreted as an imperial camp. However, this interpretation is too narrow. If interpreted broadly, Bona should refer to the central government of Liao, which moved around and took the form of more of a unique political system.
Beijing was only the nominal capital of Liao.
There were quite a few Liao capitals, five of them, but the emperor, the harem and the court ministers were hardly ever in the capital. The tradition of the Khitan people on horseback was to make their homes on carts and horses and to move at any time. Therefore, it was difficult for the Khitan emperors to tour the country throughout the year, so the whole centralized power was precarious. Even except for the last emperor, all the Liao emperors died moving to Jiabo, not in their beds in the capital.
Liao had the desert and the Great Wall, which should be governed. Contrary to the cold of fall and winter, the summer of spring and summer, the water and grass fishing, old age is common. Each time there is its own place, called "Bona" Liao Shi Yingwei Zhizhi.
Spring, summer, fall and winter seasons, the Liao Emperor and his huge team stayed for a long time is where they keep the pot, so there is a "spring pot", "summer pot", "Autumn Pot ", "winter pot" points, corresponding to the activities of the "spring water", "summer cool", "autumn mountains "Spring Water", "Summer Cooling", "Autumn Mountain" and "Winter Sitting".
Bona, which has a history of more than two hundred years throughout the Liao Dynasty, has a year-round cycle. Liao Dynasty Bona area migration, the change of seasons, each quarter lasts three months. After Liao Shengzong, the location of Bona was relatively stable. In spring, it was the area around Duck River in Changchun; in summer, it was Yongan Mountain and Tan Mountain; in fall, it was Fuhu Forest in Qingzhou; and in winter, it was Guangping Lake in Yongzhou.
The greatest threat to Liao after Song Yihe was in the northeast.
The Khitans were truly a horse-riding people, judging by their constant migration. Even the emperor was either camping or on his way to camp. Some people in the Song Dynasty thought that it was a waste of time to hunt because the seasons were so uncertain, but in reality, it was a political system practiced by the Khitan people. Officials of the Khitan and the Han's Xuanhui House had to be obeyed, so the political affairs of the Liao Dynasty were also dealt with during the migration process.
In the more than 200 years of the Liao's history, there are 153 records of spring bona, and most of the years in which spring bona were not carried out were in the early part of the Liao period, during the war of the Great Song invasion of the Xiping Grassland.
With the expansion of the country, the scope of travel of Bona gradually expanded. For example, when Liao Taizong's Luno Abaoji first set up the system, the range was only around the main camp, which was not called Bona, but "Lou".
When Baoji was powerful, he built a building on Mount Kiba, called the South Building. The north building was called the North Building. The big tribe built a building thousands of miles east, called the East Building. Today, go to Beijing to buy a building called the West Building. A four-hour trip between the four buildings. -- "General Summary of Wujing"
Liao's early rule was not stable, so Chunnan this place
But with the reconciliation of the Southern Song Dynasty, the western grasslands of the submissive, especially after Liao Shengzong, the Northeast of the female Zhen tribes became the most threatening presence of the Great Liao State. Of course, the female tribe was also subject to the Liao state, so it can also be seen that the political affairs of the Liao state has changed from external military wars to internal rule, mainly dealing with the relationship between the tribe and the vassal state, especially for the northeastern vassal state of the town of the governor.
After years of study by researchers, it is believed that after Liao Shengzong, the most remote place, Chunab, migrated eastward from time to time from Lake Chagan in Jilin, neighboring the female Zhenren, Zabu, and Guwu.
Chunab was mainly to appease the female Zhenren.
The Liao emperor's annual trip to Bona had important tasks to accomplish in each season. For example, in the summer of Bona, a top-level meeting between northern and southern officials would be held.
The Khitan's policy of governance was to have a north-south official system, i.e., the separation of Khitan and Han. The Han people were in charge of the southern officials, and ethnic groups other than the Khitans and Han people were in charge of the northern officials. Jin Yong's Feng Xiao, the king of the southern court, was in charge of governing the Han.
In China, on the other hand, officialdom is divided into north and south. The Khitan are governed by the state system, and the Han are governed by the Han . Liao's official system is divided into the Northern and Southern Courts. The North governs the court, tribes, and governments of subordinate states, while the South governs Han counties, rents, and military affairs. It was appropriate to be subject to secular constraints. --Liao Shi Hundred Officials
Dong Bo was mainly engaged in diplomacy, i.e., receiving emissaries from the Song Dynasty and other countries.
Chaohu Bona Plaza
And Chunabo was mainly Zhenmi female Zhen and other northeastern countries.
Ching two years in the spring of the first month did not new, such as the Duck River. Ding ugly, five ministers came to pay tribute. February Ding You, such as spring state. Fortunately, mixed with the river hookfish. Foreign female genitalia toji if thousands of miles away, there will be stories to come to the court. -- Liao Shi Ben Ji
The above paragraph is about the last emperor of the Liao Dynasty - Emperor Tianzuo's Spring Bona.
According to Chunabo's timetable, "The Khitan went hunting in the first half of the first month of the year, once every sixty days." That means that in the first month, it takes 60 days to reach Chunabona. According to the current calendar, it's almost the end of March.
But the chiefs of the five kingdoms to which they belonged and the out-of-bounds female tribes without Liao were able to arrive at Chunabo's place in time to pay tribute. It can be seen that meeting with the female jin tribes in Chunabo has become a practice in Liao dynasty's political affairs.
A mature woman gave birth to a female Zhenren and five kingdoms.
When the Khitan conquered the Bohai Sea, the Jurchen were subordinate to the Khitan. Under Liao's rule, there were three forms of Jurchen rule depending on the territory.
One was the "ripe jin", that is, with the Liao people, the ripe jin inhabited the Changbai Mountains and the area of present-day Liaodong and Liaonan. Liao in this area set up a vassal state, subordinate department, called Dadingfu.
"Five degrees of cooked female real tribes. The total *** there are more than 10, 000 families, all live in the mountains and forests, especially good at hunting . They were sent under the guardianship of the Khitan Privy Council to the Khitan or Bohai people. It covered more than 700 miles north and south, 400 miles east and west, and 500 miles northwest to Tokyo" Khitan Guozhi.
In addition to the ripened women's truth under the jurisdiction of section 5, there are ripened women's truth under the administration of Liao. "Southeast to the country of ripened female genitals is again not under the control of the Khitan. It is more than 800 miles east to west and more than 1,000 miles north to south. The inhabitants live scattered in the mountains and forests and cultivate houses, the same as the ripe women. However, there are no princes and leaders who are good at riding and shooting. There have been no cases of thieves fighting lawsuits since ancient times, moving at will, as few as a few hundred or as many as three or two."
The second is the "raw female jinns", i.e., out-of-bounds female jinns.
The land is the Sushin area. Thousands of miles away, the household m
"伐阿里、彭努利、奥里米、李越本笃、李越吉果，圣教来时，居故土，以镇东北界，属黄龙府部署师。 -- "Khitan State Records"
When Liao was strong, we set up five ambassadors, all of whom were Khitans. But in the later period the five states rebelled so often that even our envoys were withdrawn from the Liao.
Not only the Ministry of the Five Kingdoms, but even the Ministry, with the growing strength of Liao, became a thorn in Liao's side. Though it was to pacify these female jinns, the spring bona became the trigger for the female jinns' rebellion.
Liao Tomb Mural Hunting Diagram
The emperor himself caught the first fish.
Wanyan A Bonechild nearly died after the fall of Liao because he attended the ceremony of the beginning of spring.
Meet the fish feast, the wine is already half drunk, go to Linxuan, order the chiefs to dance. I can't do it alone. Over and over again, you will never obey. On Sunday, he secretly told Feng Xiao, the envoy of the Tang Dynasty, he said, "The day before yesterday's banquet, Bonya is too arrogant, he does not care too much, so he can use the side business to punish it. Otherwise there will be consequences." Feng Xian said, "The barbarians do not know propriety and righteousness; if they are killed without any great fault, I am afraid of hurting their hearts." --Liao History
From the above, it can be seen that with the decline of Liao, Chun's attitude towards the female Zhenren also shifted from town to pampering. The fact that Ah Bone can repeatedly reject the Liao emperor's will also shows the power of the Jurchen, and of course the course of history proves this.
The "fish head feast" was the culmination of the "winter fishing" ritual that is popular around today. Today's winter fishing also sells headfish, but in the Liao Dynasty, only those caught by the emperor himself were called headfish.
Song Dynasty poet Cheng Dachang detailed the Liao emperor's hooked fish in his book "Liao History," which was published in the book's chapter "Evolutionary Dew.
To catch fish, the emperor and the empress dowager would camp out on the ice. When it was time to hook fish, people were sent to block the river upstream and downstream for ten miles with nets in case the fish couldn't be caught. When it was time to start hooking fish, a retainer must drive all the fish to the emperor.
The method of hooking fish was to cut four holes in the ice, one of which was to break the water and the other three needed to be permeable. In principle, fish also like to breathe freely underwater, so they congregate around the holes in the ice, and the other three holes are for observation of the fish's position under the ice.
When all the big and small fish have come, the emperor hooks the fish and throws the big hook with the rope tied to it right into the ice hole. After hooking the big fish, the fish swam around with the hook, but because of the rope tied to it, the fish could pull them up when they ran out of steam.
"If you catch the first fish, you can buy wine and make a feast." When the emperor caught the fish himself, he would hold a "first fish banquet" to entertain the chiefs of the Jurchen tribes, which could also be considered a "national banquet".
Liao territory map
After the détente with the Song Dynasty, the grassland also surrendered, and the external attack and deforestation ceased, it is necessary to improve the internal stability. The Liao emperors toured the territory all year round, inspecting the defenses, reviewing the drills, and appeasing the vassal states. Especially later, the Wanyan tribe united the Jurchen, and the five kingdoms often rebelled, the Liao emperor took the spring pot of the place shifted to the northeast.
The Liao emperor of course knew that hosting a banquet can not feed the female wolves, in the border with the female tribes to choose the spring Nabe, naturally show off the force.
In the spring, in addition to "the army of the states along the border, each guarding the border", like the army, the Liao emperor also brought a large number of elite forbidden army. According to historical records, the entire Bona was guarded by at least 4,000 Khitan soldiers, which was definitely a huge deterrent force in the sparsely populated northeast region.
The tradition of the Khitans is fishing and hunting, and it was natural for Emperor Liao to emphasize the tradition by fishing for head fish. Chunabo's reception of the female chiefs can be seen as a demonstration of their strength, so Chunabo can be seen as an effective combination of life, military and social affairs management.
Jin inherited this system even after it destroyed Liao. The later Mongol Yuan and Qing regimes, the steppe peoples occupying the central plains, followed this tradition to a greater or lesser extent. This was mainly due to the highly similar living customs and beliefs