Legacy
Abaoji's ongoing success was due to his ability to introduce innovations to Khitan society. Arguably the most important was the introduction of a dual administrative system in which nomadic steppe peoples would be governed by steppe traditions while sedentary populations in conquered Balhae and north China would be governed by a civil bureaucracy run largely on Han protocols. While this did not receive universal support from tribal leaders due to the erosion of their own powers, this became the model that later steppe peoples would use to govern their diverse empires.
Two other important innovations were introduced in 916. He adopted Han court formalities in which he declared himself Celestial Emperor in the Han style and adopted an era name, also in the Han manner of ruling. The second was to name his son, Yelü Bei, as his heir apparent, also a first in Khitan society and something that directly contrasted with Khitan notions of rule by merit. This second innovation did not take hold easily as only a few of his successors experienced simple successions.
He also organised his followers into warrior units known as orda, and then by joining 12 ordas together, he formed an administrative district.
In 918, Abaoji had a new walled city built. A Chinese city was built adjacent to this city in which artisans' shops, commercial shops and warehouses were constructed. Later, five capital cities would be built, including a Supreme Capital (上京), that served as the base of Khitan administration.
Abaoji ordered the development of a Khitan large script in 920. This script looks superficially like Chinese writing. However, it bears little resemblance to Chinese writing, and the two were mutually unintelligible. Five years later, the arrival of a Uyghur delegation led Abaoji to order his younger brother, Yelü Diela, to develop a new script on more syllabic principles. Unlike the Japanese and Koreans, the Khitans managed to adopt the cultural and administrative tool of writing without the baggage of Han culture and grammar that came with the wholesale adoption of Chinese characters.
By the time he died of typhoid fever at the age of 54, Abaoji had captured the entire Balhae state, keeping their ruling family as nobility ruling his new fiefdom. His eastern boundaries were the Yalu River and the Ussuri River. His westward progression had gone far onto the Mongolian Plateau. By the time of his death, he had not acted on his plan to move south.
