KHITANS

(470 - 1218 CE)

 

EARLY KHITANS

Kumo Xi Federation (555 - 847 CE)

Kùmò Xī (Pinyin, “Western Barbarians”)

Xī  (Pinyin, “Westerners”), a.k.a., Tatabi

Pre-Dynastic Khitans (470 - 585 CE); Dahe Kingdom (618 - 730 CE); Yaonian Kingdom (730 - 906 CE)

Kitai (Khitan), Xīdān (Pinyin), Kitayn (Old Turkic) (“Those that live near the Xi”)

 

KHITAN EMPIRE

(907 - 1125 CE)

Mos Jaelud (Khitan), Lyao Uls (Mongolic), Liáo Cháo (Pinyin) (“Liao Dynasty”)

a.k.a., Mos diau-d kitai huldʒi gur (Khitan), Khyatin Kidan (Mongolic), Qìdān Guó (Pinyin) (“Kitan Empire”)

 

KARAKHITAN EMPIRE

(1125 - 1218 CE)

Kara Khitan (Khitan), Khar Kidan (Mongolic), Hala Qidan (Arabic), Kharakhitai (Persian) (“Black Khitans”)

Xī Liáo (Pinyin, “Western Liao”) (1124 - 1220 CE)

 

This gallery and these notes are dedicated to the Khitans from the time they first emerge in the historical record (ca. 470 CE), through the period of their subsequent alliance with the Tatabi—the Kumo Xi federation (ca. 555-847 CE)—following the collapse of the Nirun Khaganate (ca. 555 CE), and their emergence as the primary power in southern Manchuria following the subjugation of the Tatabi by the Tang Dynasty of China (ca. 847 CE). It also includes the period of consolidation of Khitan power in Inner Manchuria under the Yaonian Kingdom (730-906 CE), the conquests of Yelü Abaoji (ca. 901-926 CE) and Yelü Deguang (926-947 CE) that created the Khitan Empire of the Liao Dynasty (907-1125 CE), and the fall of the Liao to their former Jurchen tributary allies (ca. 1115-1125 CE). Further, this gallery and these notes cover the period of the exile of the Khitan ruling clans to the outpost at Kedun in Mongolia (ca. 1124-1130 CE), the migration of the Kara-Khitans into Central Asia under the leadership of Yelü Dashi (ca. 1131-1134 CE), and the period of the Karakhitan Gürkhanate (1134-1220 CE)(“the Universal Empire of the Black Khitans”). At the beginning of Khitan history, we only know the exonyms applied to them by other peoples—to the Chinese, they were the Xīdān (“Those that live near the Xi”), and to the Turkic peoples that inhabited Mongolia and northern China at that time, they were the Kitayn, a name that seems to be a variant of the Chinese usage. From about the period of the Tang Dynasty of China, the name was rendered as Qìdān in the southern Han Chinese dialect. By the time the Khitans developed their own written language (ca. tenth century CE), they seem to have accepted these earlier exonyms and referred to themselves as Kitai. Later still, after the Khitans migrated into Central Asia, they came into contact with the Muslim Turk and Islamic Persian peoples, who rendered the name as Qidan (Arabic) or Khitai (Persian). The Persian usage also influenced the development of the modern English transliteration—Khitan—because early European travelers along the Silk Road most often encounterd this version of the name, largely thanks to the Sogdians, a Persian ethnic group whose merchants were found throughout Central Asia. Indeed, an early Italian rendering of the name was Catai (often attributed to Marco Polo), and due to the fact that early European travelers to Central Asia were told that the Khitans originated in China—indeed, that they had once ruled a large part of China—the Europeans started associating China with the term, “Catai.” By the time it got into the English language, it was written as "Cathay," a misnomer that Europeans used in reference to China until the late eighteenth century. Finally, when the Mongols created their vast empire, and Temujin Chinggis Kha'an ordered that a written language be created to accomodate the spoken Mongol language—this Mongolian language was based on the Turkic Uyghur script, which was in turn based on the Sogdian script—and the name of the Khitans was rendered as Kidan in Mongolian.

 

When I say that the Khitans were a Mongolic people, I think that term probably needs some context—today, when most people think of the Mongols, they usually think of the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan. However, those Mongols were a complex cultural aggregate whose ethnogenesis is intertwined with that of other, lesser known, Mongolic, Turkic, Tungusic, and Samoyedic peoples, and the origins of the Khitans are part of that story. The first identifiable Mongolic group living on the Mongolian Plateau were a people known as the Xiongnu (pronounced, SHUNG-new)(ca. 335 BCE-155 CE), and after the Xiongnu Empire (209 BCE-53 CE) was shattered by the Han Dynasty of China, another Mongolic people who originated in Inner Manchuria—known as the Xianbei (pronounced, SHEEN-bay)—migrated onto the Mongolian Plateau (ca. 155-450 CE) and assimilated the remnant tribes of the Xiongnu. The Xianbei were initially a confederation of different tribal kingdoms (khanlig, “khanates”), several of whom migrated into northern China following the collapse of the Han Dynasty (ca. 220-589 CE), while other groups remained in Mongolia and Manchuria. Those that continued to live on the Mongolian Plateau were eventually united under the leadership of the Nirun Xianbei (330-555 CE)(a.k.a. the Róurán, Rúrú, Juan-juan, or Tántán), while those that remained in Manchuria were divided into three main tribal federations—the Murong/Muren (ca. 155-337 CE), who lived on the North China Plateau (modern Hinggan and Xilingol) in southwestern Manchuria; the Yuwen (ca. 155-345 CE), who dominated the Liao River region (modern Liaoning, Chifeng, and Tongliao) in southeastern Manchuria; and the Shiwei (ca. 155-789 CE), who dominated the lands between and to either side of the Songhua and Mudan rivers (modern Heilongjiang and Jilin) in northern Manchuria. The Murong and Yuwen became embroiled in the Xianbei migrations into northern China (ca. 220-581 CE), particularly that of the Tuoba Xianbei, who migrated from northeastern Mongolia into northern China and founded the Northern Wei Kingdom (386-535 CE). The Murong expanded to the east and conquered the Yuwen, thereby creating the Yan Empire (337-436 CE)—the Yan state initially controlled only southern Manchuria (north of the Gulf of Pechihli), but under emperor Xianwu, Shandong was conquered (south of the Gulf of Pechihli). Following a bitter dynastic struggle (ca. 284 CE) some elements of the Murong followed the Murong prince, Tuyuhun, and migrated west along the Yellow River to conquer the Qiang tribes in the Qilian Mountain region of western China, resulting in the Tuyuhun Kingdom (285-670 CE). The Yan Empire collapsed during the reign of the usurper, Feng Hong (430-436 CE). The Northern Wei conquered Shandong, the Nirun conquered southern Manchuria as far east as the Liao River, and the Korean Kingdom of Goguryeo expanded across the Changbai Mountains into southern Manchuria, as far west as the Liao River (some groups of Murong are believed to have fled northward into the lands of the Shiwei). The Nirun were eventually overthrown by a group of former tributary allies from the Altai Mountain region in western Mongolia known as the Gaoche/Tiele, whose ruling Ashina clan founded the Kök Türük Empire (ca. 450-744 CE)(a.k.a., the Göktürks or Tūjué). The Gaoche/Tiele were among the first of the Central Asian Turkic peoples (see my Central Asian Turks gallery). When the Nirun were overthrown by the Gaoche/Tiele, two former Yuwen groups re-emerged in southern Manchuria—the Tatabi (a.k.a., the Xi) and the Khitans (a.k.a., the Xidans)—and these two tribal groups formed the Kumo Xi federation (ca. 555-847 CE). The Kumo Xi later became a tributary state (jimifuzhou) of the Tang Dynasty of China (ca. 628 CE), but when the Tatabi/Xi rebelled against the Tang (ca. 847 CE), they were virtually annihilated by the Tang (the survivors were forcibly resettled in northern China and were promptly assimilated). The Khitans thus became the masters of southern Manchuria by default. By that time, the Göktürks/Tūjué had also been overthrown by an alliance between the Tang Dynasty and the Uyghur/Uighur Turks—a subgroup of the eastern Göktürks that originated in Zungharia (modern northern Xinjiang)—and the Uyghur Khaganate (744-848 CE) quickly expanded to encompass Zungharia, the northeastern quarter of the Tarim Basin, western China (Gansu and Qinghai), all of Mongolia, southern Siberia (from the Yenisei River region in the west to the Sea of Japan in the east), and northern Manchuria (i.e., the Shiwei tribes). The Khitans seem to have been dominated by the Uyghurs, although they were something akin to tributary allies, not direct subjects.

 

In 840 CE, there was a massive volcanic eruption in the Changbai Mountains (Mount Baekdu/Paektu), which form the border between Korea and Manchuria. So much ash was thrown into the atmosphere that northern Asia experienced a decade-long climate shift that resulted in short, cool summers and long, severely cold winters. The royal horse herds of the Uyghurs, which were kept on the grasslands of the Mongolian Plateau, died in droves during these severe winters, and since the Turkic military system relied heavily on cavalry, this was particularly devastating. The Kyrgyz were a Samoyed-Turkic people that lived between the Yenisei River and Lake Baikal in southern Siberia from about 201 BCE, and although they had been conquered by the Uyghurs (ca. 758 CE), they had been particularly rebellious, and when the Uyghurs demanded that subject peoples such as the Kyrgyz and Shiwei help them replenish their herds, the Kyrgyz rebelled, invaded Mongolia, and sacked the Uyghur capital (ca. 848 CE). They then promptly turned around and went home laden with booty, and the Uyghurs subsequently abandoned Mongolia and retreated to their territories in western China. This left the central steppes of the Mongolian Plateau only thinly inhabited by the Zubu/Dada tribes (descendants of the Suibu Xianbei), while the Altai Mountain region (southwestern Mongolia) was inhabited by the Naimans, the Sayan Mountain region (northwestern Mongolia) was inhabited by the Keraites/Keraits/Khereids, the Gobi Desert region (southeastern Mongolia) was inhabited by the Tatars, and the Orkhon River region (northeastern Mongolia) was inhabited by the Merkits/Mergids (these are all considered to be Turko-Mongolic groups that resulted from assimilation between the Xiongnu, Xianbei, and eastern Turks). The Shiwei of northern Manchuria also gained independence with the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate, and a subgroup of the Shiwei known as the Menggu/Mengwu migrated into eastern Mongolia (ca. 848-907 CE), forcing the Merkits to migrate westwards to the steppes south of Lake Baikal. The Shiwei that remained in northern Manchuria became known as the Da Shiwei (“Great Shiwei”), and those in Mongolia as the Menggu Shiwei (“Mongolian Shiwei”). However, the biggest winners following the disintegration of the Uyghur Khaganate were the Khitans.

 

The stage was set for the career of a remarkable Khitan chief (mufoho) named Yelü Abaoji (901-926 CE)(a.k.a., Emperor Taizu of Liao), founder of the Liao Dynasty (907-1128 CE). Under Abaoji and his son and successor, Yelü Deguang (927-947 CE)(a.k.a., Emperor Taizong of Liao), the Khitans expanded in all directions. To the northeast of the Khitans lay the territories of the Balhae Kingdom (698-926 CE)(a.k.a., P'o-hai or Bohai), which had inherited those lands of Goguryeo that lay to the west and north of the Changbai Mountains (i.e., eastern Heilongjiang, eastern Jilin, and eastern Liaoning in Inner Manchuria, and modern Khabarovsk Krai and Primorsky Krai, Russia, in Outer Manchuria). Like the Uyghur Khaganate, the Balhae Kingdom fell into decline following the eruption of Mt. Baekdu/Paektu (since the volcano was in the heart of their kingdom, Balhae was particularly devastated), which allowed the Khitans to conquer the agricultural and urban heartlands of the kingdom that lay to the north of the Gulf of Pechihli (eastern Liaoning and Jilin). After the conquest of Balhae, the Khitans also received the submission of the Jurchen (a Tungusic people who lived in the northern forests of the Balhae Kingdom). The Khitans also expanded to the west, onto the Mongolian Plateau, attempting to fill the power vacuum left by the Uyghurs. The Khitans took over much of the central steppes, where they kept their horse herds (by the time the Khitans took over Mongolia, the climate shift from the Mt. Baekdu eruption was abating), and they received the submission of the Naimans, Khereids, Tatars, Merkits, and Zubus. Likewise, the Shiwei tribes in northern Manchuria and eastern Mongolia were made tributary allies of the Liao. Finally, to the south of Manchuria, the Khitans were able to take advantage of the fragmentation of the Empire of China after the fall of the Tang Dynasty (ca. 907 CE) by annexing sixteen prefectures located in the northern quarter of the North China Plain (northern Hebei and Shanxi provinces), and by dominating a series of Sinicized Shatuo Turk states that emerged in northern China (these were located along the middle and lower stretches of the Yellow River). The Khitans went on to make the Tangut Empire of western China a tributary state—the Tanguts were a Tibetan group that toppled the Tuyuhun Kingdom in the Qilian Mountains region (ca. 670-907 CE), and later expanded into Qinghai and Gansu in the aftermath of the collapse of Tang China (ca. 907-1227 CE). Even after the Song Dynasty (960-1279 CE) reunited most of China under imperial rule, they had limited success in wresting the north back from the Khitans, and the west back from the Tanguts (only the Shatuo states were re-conquered).

 

The reign of emperor Yelü Longxu (982-1031 CE)(a.k.a., Emperor Shengzong of Liao) is often considered to be the height of the Khitan Empire, when it covered over 1.5 million square miles, had a population of 750,000 Khitans and 3 million Chinese (plus an unknown number of Jurchen, Koreans/Balhae, Shiwei, Shatuo Turks, and proto-Mongolian tribes), and encompassed all of Manchuria (Inner and Outer), all of Mongolia, and parts of northern China. However, as so often seems to be the case in history, the seeds of destruction were sown alongside those of victory, and the peak of a civilization also usually marks the beginning of its decline. Shengzong would launch an attack against the Goryeo Kingdom (918-1392 CE) of Korea in 993 CE that would lead to a war that would last until 1022 CE—a war that proved disastrous to the Khitan Empire (the peace treaty that ended the war essentially left the borders where they were before the war, at the Changbai Mountains). The Goryeo/Koryŏ Kingdom, not to be confused with the earlier Goguryeo Kingdom, had united the entire Korean Peninsula (the modern name, Korea, comes from Koryo), and despite the peace treaty that ended the Goryeo-Khitan War (993-1022 CE), the Goryeo Kingdom became an inveterate and highly capable foe of the Liao. They worked to undermine Liao authority in Outer Manchuria amongst the Balhae and Jurchen, which led to a major revolt by the Balhae (ca. 1018-1034 CE) and the increasing independence of the Jurchen (Jurchen auxiliaries that participated in the war with Goryeo were also discontented over what they saw as insufficient recognition of their importance by the Liao). From 1031 to 1092 CE, a series of palace intrigues and civil wars were exacerbated by the growth of private armies recruited and maintained by great magnates of the Khitan Empire. The Zubus of central Mongolia rebelled against Khitan domination several times (ca. 983-1003, 1036, and 1090-1100 CE), and after the last of these rebellions was crushed, the Khitans invited the Menggu Shiwei to take the lands of the Zubus. The Menggu Shiwei became the Khitans' favored tributary allies in Mongolia thereafter (ca. 1000-1125 CE). Although the Khitans were ultimately victorious over the Zubus, the regime had limited success in quelling the growing internal dissent from tribal traditionalists who believed the Sinicization of the imperial court was diluting the Khitans' nomad vigor. This long series of struggles taxed the resources of the empire and reinforced its internal divisions. Further, the failure to conquer Goryeo meant that the expense of the campaigns there could not be offset by new aquisitions and income (i.e., booty, new resources to exploit, and new subjects to tax). The growing weakness of the Liao Dynasty created an opening for a Jurchen war-chief named Wanyan Aguda (1068-1123 CE)(a.k.a., Wan-yen Akuta), who united the Jurchen against the Khitans and launched an open rebellion in 1114 CE. The Song Dynasty of China saw this as a chance to recover its territories in northern China, and formed an alliance with the Jurchen in 1121 CE (as it turned out, this would prove to be an ill-fated alliance for the Song). By 1124 CE, the Jurchen had driven the ruling clans of the Liao into exile at a remote outpost (Kedun) in central Mongolia (near modern-day Ulaanbatar), and by 1125 CE they had secured their hold over the former Khitan Empire (they went on to attack Song China as well, pushing the southern border of their state well past the Yellow River). 

 

Many Khitans quickly came to terms with the new Jurchen Kin Dynasty (1115-1234 CE), but a Khitan prince named Yelü Dashi (1087-1143 CE) led 200 loyal nobles into exile at Kedun. The last Liao emperor, Yelü Yanxi (1101-1125 CE)(a.k.a., Emperor Tianzuo of Liao), first fled to the court of the Tangut Empire at Xingjing (modern-day Yinchuan), but the Jurchen pressured the Tanguts to expel him, and he joined Yelü Dashi at Kedun. The two leaders fell out regarding how to go about reconquering the empire, but Yelü Yanxi was captured by the Jurchen in 1125, and kept a prisoner until 1128 CE, when he was forced to endure the lingchi (Pinyin, “the death of a thousand cuts”). This left Yelü Dashi in command of the growing Khitan diaspora (by that time, the exile community at Kedun had grown to 100,000, mostly members of the royal clans and Khitan soldiers and their families, and there was also a group of 10,000 Khitan soldiers that had fled further west, who took up service with the Karakhanid Khanate in Central Asia). The Jurchen quickly consolidated their hold on the former Khitan Empire and prepared to crush the Khitans at Kedun, but a Menggu Shiwei chief named Khabul, of the Borjigin/Borjigid clan, defeated a Jurchen army sent into Mongolia (ca. 1125 CE), and then proceeded to raid Jurchen territories in northern China. As reward, Yelü Dashi named him Khabul Khan of the Khamag Khanate (1125-1206 CE)—khamag roughly translates as “all of the Mongols,” and thus this title seems to indicate that Dashi was appointing Khabul as overlord of Mongolia (certainly, Khabul's descendants interpreted it this way). However, the hoped-for support of the Tanguts did not materialize, and Yelü Dashi seems to have calculated that he would be unable to reconquer the empire from Mongolia. We do not know his exact chain of reasoning, but he only had an estimated 30,000 Khitan regulars at his disposal, while the Jurchen could field armies of 70-80,000 men. However, he seems to have received word, perhaps from the Khitans that had taken up service with the Karakhanid Khanate (840-1212 CE), that the Karakhanid city-states were ripe for conquest—the Karakhanids were Turks that controlled most of the Sogdian city-states along the middle stretch of the Silk Road (Sogdia and Khorasan), and they had been fatally weakened by a series of destructive wars against the Seljuk Sultanate (1037-1194 CE). The Karakhanids had been made vassals of the Seljuks, but Seljuk power lay in Iran, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Anatolia, and the Karakhanid city-states were, to the Seljuks, remote outposts. From 1131 to 1134 CE, Yelü Dashi established a forward base on the banks of the Emil River in eastern Kazakhstan. In 1134 CE, he and Khabul Khan again defeated an attempted Jurchen incursion into Mongolia, after which Yelü Dashi assumed the title of gürkhan (“universal king”), and the Khitans at Emil began calling themselves the Kara-Khitans (“Black Khitans” or “Western Khitans”). The Kara-Khitans were joined at Emil by several minor tribes of Mongols, and received the submission of the Turkic Karluks (eastern Kazakhstan was their homeland). Even so, when Yelü Dashi moved into Karakhanid territory, he probably only had about 40,000 soldiers. As such, the Karakhanids do not seem to have seen the Karakhitans as much of a threat, and they seem to have thought they could take them into service alongside those Khitans already in Karakhanid service. Yelü Dashi and his men were invited into the territory of the city-state of Balasagun (the Chuy Valley, northern Kyrgyzstan) to help the Karakhanid governor to repel an attack by the Kangli Turks of southern Kazakhstan, but once this was accomplished, the Khitans already in Karakhanid service defected to Yelü Dashi and he was able to storm Balasagun. The eastern Karakhanid khan, Ibrahim bin Ahmad (1128-1158 CE), massed an army to crush the Khitans, but Yelü Dashi's forces (now numbering 50,000 Khitans, and probably an equal number of Turkic auxiliaries) defeated the Karakhanids at the Battle of Khujand (1137 CE). The Karluks and Kangli now submitted to Yelü Dashi en masse, bringing much of eastern and southern Kazakhstan under Karakhitan overlordship. When the Seljuks attempted to intervene on behalf of the Karakhanids, the Khitans defeated a huge Karakhanid-Seljuk army at the Battle of Qatwan (9 September 1141 CE). Yelü Dashi seems to have intended to use his conquests in Central Asia to allow him to build up a power-base from which he could ouster the Jurchen and re-establish the Khitan Empire, but two large Karakhitan incursions into western China were repulsed by the Jurchen (in 1135 and 1137 CE), and Yelü Dashi's successors seem to have abandoned the idea and contented themselves with establishing an empire in Central Asia.

 

The Karakhitan Gürkhanate was a different kind of state than that of the Khitan-Liao. Although the capital city was established at Balasagun, the Khitans established a large, lavish tent camp on the plains of the Chuy Valley, and this relatively small territory (almost 20,000 square miles) was the only area where they established any significant occupation. The rest of the empire came to consist of semi-independent tributary allies, most encompassing much larger territories than those inhabited by the Karakhitans—the remainder of the Karakhanid city-states of Sogdiana (modern-day Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and northern Afghanistan), the Turkic Karluk tribes in eastern Kazakhstan, the Turkic Kangli tribes in southern and central Kazakhstan, the Uyghur Kingdom of Qocho in the Tarim Basin, the Turkic Yaghma tribes in Zungharia, the Turkic Chigil tribes in the valley of Lake Issyk-Kul, and the Shahdom of Kwarezmia in Khorasan. Fatefully, the Khitans helped the Kwarezmians to ouster the Seljuks from Iran and the Ghurids from western Afghanistan, which convinced the Kwarezmshah, Ala ad-Din Muhammad (1200-1220 CE), that he could topple the Karakhitans (at its height, the Kwarezmian state dwarfed that of Karakhitai in both size and resources). Meanwhile, the Khamag Mongols had, since the exodus of the Khitans, fought for supremacy of the Mongolian Plateau, something achieved by Temujin Chinggis Kha'an (Khabul Khan's great-grandson), and when Naiman Mongol refugees fled Temujin's takeover of Mongolia, they were welcomed by Gürkhan Yelü Zhilugu (1178-1211 CE) in Karakhitai. A Naiman chief named Küchlüg/Küçlüg/Güčülüg found special favor with the gürkhan, becoming a trusted advisor at court. However, Küchlüg secretly conspired with the rebellious Kwarezmshah, Ala ad-Din Muhammad, eventually leading to the capture and execution of Yelü Zhilugu (he was ambushed while hunting). Küchlüg usurped the throne of Karakhitai, but he did not live long to enjoy his success—the Mongol Empire invaded Karakhitai (ca. 1216-1218 CE), defeated a small Naiman-Khitan army outside Balasagun, and then captured and killed Küchlüg. Many Karakhitans failed to rally to Küchlüg during the Mongol invasion, greeting the Mongols as liberators, and the Central Asian Karakhitans more-or-less seamlessly joined the Mongol Empire. Thereafter, Karakhitan warriors joined the Mongol hordes (particularly those of the Chagatai Khanate), and Karakhitan elites became prominent members of the Great Khan's court and Battle Guard (Khorchin).

 

The Khitan military system deserves a more in-depth analysis, so I would like to direct you to the Army in Depth button below. Suffice it to say here that the Khitan military system evolved through at least three distinct periods—the Early Khitan Period (ca. 470-906 CE), the period of the Khitan Empire (ca. 907-1125 CE), and the Karakhitan Period (ca. 1125-1218 CE). The Khitan army in each of these periods had specific strategic and tactical dimensions that make them distinct, although there is also an identifiable continuum of design and practice. The Khitans benefitted from a long period of North Asian steppe nomad migration into northern and western China, and the gradual merger of steppe nomad and Chinese strategic and tactical principles. The Khitans were, perhaps, the first to develop a coherent system that applied Chinese principles of standardization to the equipment, recruitment, and training of nomad hordes (Khitan, woluto, Turkic, ordu, Mongolic, ordo or ordon), and they are usually credited with providing the template for Temujin's later, and much better known, professionalization and organization of the army of the Mongol Empire (to be fair, the Tanguts also seem to have influenced Temujin's ideas). The army pictured above is that of the Khitan Empire. I used Khurasan Miniatures' Tang Dynasty line for most of the figures, with a few of my own modifications—the remarkable thing about the armies of the Tang and the nomad states that emerged after the fall of the Tang (e.g., the Tangut Empire, the Khitan Empire, and the Five Dynasties of northern China) is the similarity of military equipment and thus of the general appearance of the armies fielded by these states. This is definitely one of my favorite armies. It has a great balance between regular units of Khitan cavalry (main battle and skirmishers), irregular units of cavalry auxiliaries (Jurchen, Shiwei, Turk), some decent infantry options (mainly Chinese and Korean auxiliaries, although some of the minor tribe skirmishing infantry is useful for operations in rough terrain), and nifty supplementary options like Chinese artillery and masses of herded captives to drive into enemy formations to sow confusion and horror (once again, a practice that seems to have informed Temujin in his development of terror tactics). Plus, I think they're visually striking—the Khurasan sculpts are top-notch, and I think I did justice to the flags, pennons, and painting/mounting of the figures.