Subject: cavalry
Culture: Khitan
Setting: Liao empire, Machuria-Mongolia 10-11thc
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
* Hansen 2015 p282
"Empress Chunqin initiated a century of successful Kitan attacks on the Chinese, who were unable to mount an effective defense against the much superior armed Kitan horsemen. In 938 she led the Kitan armies and managed to take the sixteen prefectures in the immediate vicinity of modern Beijing that would remain in Kitan hands until the fall of the dynasty. The Kitan military machine continued to deal the different Chinese kingdoms defeat after defeat. Empress Chunqin lost power in 947, when her son led a successful attack on Kaifeng. The Kitans proved unable to govern the area and withdrew after three months. In the years immediately following their withdrawal, the founders of the Song were successfully uniting the Chinese empire for the first time in fifty years, and flush with their victories, the Song attacked the Kitans in 979. A Kitan arrow struck the Song emperor, who had grossly underestimated the fighting power of the Kitans and who was forced to flee south in a donkey cart. This victory was the first of many the Kitans would achieve at the expense of the Song."
* Peers/Perry 1996 p
"
Costume
* Greer p89-91 (describing a Khitan [Liao] Cavalryman)
"Although equipped with lacquered leather band armor, these cavalrymen operated as skirmishers. Armed with bows, javelins and swords, they lacked horse armor, most of the personal armor, and the halberd of their heavier counterparts.
"Nobles had a dress code that distinguished peerage. Only the highest nobles wore sable, with a purplish-black sheen being preferred over a plain black one. Ermine followed, with sheep, and mole furs being utilized by the lower classes. Khitan (Liao) officials wore a tunic (kalat) of dark green, fastened by buttons to their left."
* Peers/Perry 1996 p47 (reconstructing a Khitan ordo cavalryman)
"The famous Wen Ch'i scroll depicts a party of these 'barbarians' in the act of looting a Chinese house. It is thought that the scroll is based on an original of the Sung period, and that the models for the figures were Khitan warriors. This man has removed his helmet, showing the soft cap worn underneath. ...
"This source shows coats in various shades of brown, and trousers as brown or blue. ... They arranged their hair in a pig-tail and, like the later Manchus, imposed this style on their Chinese subjects as a sign of submission. Guards at the Kin court are said to have worn red or blue cuirasses, probably of lacquered leather."
Sword
* Peers/Perry 1996 p
"
Ornaments
* Kimbell Art Museum > Passport to Asia
"Hailing from Inner Mongolia, the Liao dynasty took control of the northern part of the Chinese territory in the early tenth century and eventually conquered the steppes. From an artistic perspective, the Liao were strongly influenced by the Tang carving of jade ornaments for secular use."
