A-PAO-CHI (947)

Leader of the nomadic Mongol-speaking Khitan tribes who occupied the northwest border of China.


Elected to a three-year term as great khan of the Khitans, A-pao-chi refused to resign at the end of his three years but made himself king of the Khitan nation.


After the deposition in 907 of the last T´ang ruler of China, A-pao-chi made himself emperor and by 916 had set up a Chinese-style dynasty, with his son as heir apparent.


He organized his followers into fighting units known as ordos (similar to what Westerners later called a horde) and then joined 12 ordos into an administrative district.


In 926 in return for aiding the founder of the Later Chin dynasty (936-947) in the Chin ruler´s conquest of North China, A-pao-chi was given the northeast corner of Hopeh Province, an area inside the Great Wall encompassing the present site of Peking.


After the death of A-pao-chi, the Khitans began to take on further Chinese mannerisms, and in 947 they proclaimed the Liao dynasty (947-1125), naming A-pao-chi as their dynastic founder with the posthumous title of T´ai Tsu ("Grand Progenitor").