Educated Khitan families kept places in the Jin army and service after 1125: the Yila (the Liao royal house Yelu under a Jurchen-sounding name) and the Shimo (the Liao consort house Xiao).
They serve as officers, translators, Khitan-script clerks (until the script was withdrawn from official use, Mingchang 2 or 1191, to be checked) and frontier envoys. In 1196 Yelu Ahai was the Jin envoy who invested Temujin (the same Chinese article); in the real course he joins Temujin in 1203 (English Wikipedia, Jin dynasty; a later event, see the likely course). The Yuan-age biographies also list the Yila and Shimo families that give the Mongols their Khitan staff in the next generation.
Another Khitan name belongs to the next decade and is not a 1200 fact: Yelu Liuge, a Khitan frontier officer of the Long'an country who rises in 1212 (see the Khitan realm record); his post and age in 1200 are not known, so he is a name to hold in reserve.
Who he is
- Name
- Yelu Ahai and his brother Yelu Tuhua (Khitan officers of the Jin on the northern frontier in 1196)
- Title
- Heads of the Khitan service families of the Beijing circuit (Yila = Yelu, Shimo = Xiao)
- Since
- in Jin service by 1196
- Born
- not known
- Family
- Yelu (Yila)
- Confidence
- medium
The Yuanshi biographies of Yelu Ahai and Tuhua and the Mongol sources have them as Jin envoys and frontier men before, in the real course, they go over to Temujin in 1203 (a later event, see the likely course). In 1196 Yelu Ahai was the Jin envoy who invested Temujin (from a Chinese article on the Khitan under the Jin, gjrwls.com, read this session).
Overlord
The Jin emperor, through the Beijing liushou and the frontier commissions
What it holds
- Official posts and command of Khitan meng'an and mouke units
- Hereditary estates in the Beijing circuit (not located)
How it was acquired
By service to the Jin after 1125.
Allies and rivals
Jurchen commanders; the Jin court's suspicion of Khitan; kin who rose in 1161 and 1196-1198 (not pinned).
How things stand that morning
The Khitan service houses are loyal on paper but watched.
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
- 1203 (later than the start of play; month not pinned)Yelu Ahai goes over to Temujin (English Wikipedia, Jin dynasty); his brother Tuhua is named with him in the Yuan sources (to be checked).Depends on: Temujin surviving the war with Toghrul in 1203 and the brothers still serving on the frontier Stopped by: Their recall by the Jin or Temujin's defeat
Where the sources disagree
- The pairing of Ahai and Tuhua as brothers with Jin careers is from the Yuanshi as we remember it; the Chinese article we read names Ahai and speaks of his brothers without a name we could confirm. Medium-low confidence on Tuhua.
Evidence: Two Yuanshi names and the article; no landed seat known.
Primary sources for Khitan and Xi
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- History of the Jin, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office, with Ouyang Xuan among the chief compilers (1343 to 1344, from the Jin veritable records and the Jin national history). The official history of the Jurchen empire that ruled north China and Manchuria in 1200. Read online
- Record of the Great Jin State, Attributed to Yuwen Maozhao (宇文懋昭); the attribution is doubtful (preface dated 1234; probably assembled in the Southern Song from Song and Jin material, with later accretions). A Song-side history of the Jin, with annals for each emperor and chapters on institutions, customs, the capitals and the Jurchen way of life. Read online
- Compendium of Chronicles: the Turkic and Mongol tribes and the life of Chinggis Khan, Rashid al-Din Hamadani (about 1300 to 1311, in the Ilkhanate). The fullest description of who held what on the steppe around 1200, written a century later from Mongol court records (the Altan Debter) and from informants such as Bolad Chingsang. Read online
- History of the Liao, chapter 30, on the Western Liao, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1344). The only Chinese official notice of the Qara Khitai, a few pages at the end of juan 30. Read online
- History of the Yuan, Song Lian (宋濂) and the Ming history office (1369 to 1370). Juan 1, the annals of Taizu (Chinggis Khan), gives a dated outline of Temujin's early wars drawn from the same lost Altan Debter as the Shengwu qinzheng lu: the Tatar war with the Jin in 1196, the Merkit and Naiman campaigns, the Tayichi'ut war, Jamuqa's coalition of 1201 and the Tatar and Kereyit wars of 1202 and 1203. Read online
- Brief Account of the Black Tatars, Peng Daya (彭大雅) with notes by Xu Ting (徐霆) (1237 (Peng Daya's text from a 1232 to 1233 embassy, Xu Ting's notes from a 1235 to 1236 embassy)). Two Song envoys' notes on the Mongols under Ogodei: the steppe, climate, herds, hunting, the ruler's tent and court, the army, taxes, trade, the postal relay, the Uyghur and Khitan clerks, and the subject peoples. Read online
- Full Record of the Mongol Tatars, Zhao Gong (趙珙), formerly attributed to Meng Gong (孟珙) (1221). The earliest outside description of the Mongols, by a Song envoy sent to the Mongol commander Muqali at Yanjing (Beijing) in 1221. Read online
Sources and studies
- Article on the Khitan under the Jin dynasty, gjrwls.com (read this session)
- Wikipedia: Jin dynasty (1115-1234) (read this session)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.