A-Pao-Chi - king of the Khitan nation

died 926, China

Pinyin Abaoji, posthumous dynastic name Liao T'ai Tsu, Pinyin Liao Tai Zuleader 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).