The Memorial for Yelü Yanning (), also known as the Epitaph for Yelü Yanning, is the oldest known Khitan inscription of significant length and currently the oldest major written attestation of a Mongolic (or Para-Mongolic) language. Dated 986, it is inscribed with 19 lines (271 characters) of Khitan large script. It was found in the winter of 1964 on Baimu Mountain in northwest Baishugou Village, Xiwujiazi Township, Chaoyang County, Liaoning Province, China and is now kept in the Liaoning Provincial Museum. The Khitan word ("hundred") which occurs in line 13 of the upper-right Khitan section of the inscription and which is written with the large script character is one of the earliest fully deciphered Mongolic words preserved in a Mongolic inscription.
Yelü Yanning Duke Yelü Yanning (947-986) is not mentioned directly in the Liaoshi or other Khitan historical documents. The discovery of his memorial inscription in 1964 gave the first information about him. Yelü Yanning was a high ranking Khitan military officer of the Liao dynasty. Yelü Yanning's family belonged to the imperial household: "其先祖已來是皇親" and had a place in the horizontal gers of the Khitan Khan. His great-grandfather Nieligu (*), grandfather Zhiwubu and his father Sage were all widely known as brave and expert warriors who repeatedly accomplished meritorious deeds.: "曾祖諱臬離骨，祖諱[⿱止日]午不，考諱薩割，并名已勇聞。" His father Sage was given the title of "imperial tutor honorable duke" . When the Jingzong Emperor Yelü Xian succeeded to the throne, Yelü Yanning was recruited as a jinshi 近侍 (palace attendant). Yelü Yanning was gradually given the titles of "righteousness-defending outstanding minister" , "sublime fortunate minister" , "acting grand protector" , "senior general of the left imperial insignia guard" , and "imperial censor in chief" . He was granted a fief of 500 families in Qishui County, having been dubbed its "high pillar of state and dynasty-founding viscount" .
Yanning scrupulously performed his guard duties, always ensuring the Emperor's safety and earning the deep trust of the Jingzong Emperor and Empress Xiao Chuo. When the Jingzong Emperor died in 982, Yanning "wished he could follow him in death".: "皇帝卧朝之日，願隨從死。" After the Jingzong Emperor's death, Empress Xiao was regent. In view of his immense loyalty, she went even further in granting Yanning the titles of "righteousness-defending outstanding minister of Fengjie" , "jiedushi (military governor) of Yujueli" , "specially promoted acting grand marshal" , and "honorary chancellor" . He was granted a fief of 700 families as "high pillar of state and dynasty-founding earl" of Qishui County .
During this time the Zubu confederacy (Keraites) in central Mongolia raised armies against the Liao dynasty and pushed eastwards, profoundly affecting the Niaogu, Dilie, Shiwei (Mongols) and others. Emperor Shengzong Yelü Longxu and Empress Xiao sent Yelü Yanning to pacify the northern borderland. Yelü Yanning reached the area of present-day Hulunbuir in Inner Mongolia near the source of the Heilongjiang river and continued to the Kherlen River in present-day eastern Mongolia where he met with success. He died on the 30th day of the 12th month of the third year of the Tonghe period (11 February 986) due to complications from his wounds. He was 39 years old.
Inscription The memorial stone is 84 cm long and 83 cm wide. The Khitan large script section comprises 19 lines (271 characters) on the upper half of the stone, and the Chinese section comprises 24 lines (511 characters) on the lower half, with 3 of those lines taking up the entire vertical length at the left margin. The two texts are not bilingual translations of each other. The date of composition is given as the 18th day of the 11th month of the fourth year of Tonghe (21 December 986). There is no author name given, at least in the Chinese version, implying that the author might have been of low status and merely part of the deceased's retinue. A rubbing of the epitaph was first published in Wenwu 文物: Cultural Relics, issue 7, in 1980.
Nearly all the identifiable dates and titles come from the Chinese portion of the epitaph. The preface introduces Yelü Yanning with the much higher-status titles and achievements granted to him after Emperor Jingzong's death by the then-"present emperor";: "今上皇帝念此忠赤" this would have been Emperor Shengzong or, more likely, the Empress Dowager Chengtian (former Empress Xiao), who was de facto ruler due to Shengzong's young age.
Interpretation of the Khitan text is rather sparse and only a few phrases, words and morphological suffixes have been identified. Most of these are also borrowings from Chinese, generally semantic and phonetic but sometimes graphemic. The first four characters in line 2, ,, as quoted in were identified in the 1990s as referring to the Tianzan Emperor (likely Jingzong, who reigned 948-982). Later, the gloss for the second character was rescinded in a 2014 work, leaving its status uncertain., as quoted in Lines 4-5 contain the phrase , glossed as jinwu dajiangjun hao "the title of senior general of the imperial insignia", probably corresponding to zuo jinwuwei dajiangjun "senior general of the left imperial insignia guard" in line 9 of the Chinese. In line 9, the first four characters mean "child of the father and mother". In line 13, characters 9-10 transcribe jiedushi "military governor". From lines 1 and 12 of the Chinese, Yanning is described as the jiedushi of Yujueli; he eventually died there.: "於羽厥里瘡疾而薨" There are other assorted characters, such as "northwest", "five", "hundred" and "state."
See also List of Khitan inscriptions Khitan large script
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External links Photos of the epitaph Text of the epitaph for Yelü Yanning on the Chinese Text Project Epitaph for Yelü Yanning of the Liao Dynasty entry on the Database of Chinese Epitaphs project, with notes on some names and titles. "Liao Architecture": Qidan Innovations and Han-Chinese Traditions? A review of Liao Architecture by Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt. Discusses the tomb and epitaph of Yelü Yanning and its lotus and vermillion bird motifs.