A-PAO-CHI

died 926, China Pinyin Abaoji, posthumous dynastic name Liao T'ai Tsu, Pinyin Liao Tai Zu 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 term but made himself king of the Khitan nation. After the collapse in 907 of T'ang rule in 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).