Brief Analysis on Hunting Procedures and Culture of Liao Dynasty Through Zhuoxie Figures

The object of this paper is Zhuoxie Figures, a painting scroll handed down by Hu Gui, a painter from the Khitan period. Hu Gui, the most representative man of "Northern Grassland Painting School". He had a lot of painting works, at present, Zhuoxie Figures must be the largest, the most representative and most abundant one in content. This picture can be roughly divided into three parts. It depicts the hunting life of the Khitan nobles. "Zhuoxie" means to set up a tent and take a rests. Based on historical documents, this paper explores the hunting procedure and culture of Qidan (also known as Khitan, an ancient nationality in China) in Liao Dynasty. In this paper, by means of analyzing the picture scroll content and historical data, the basic procedures of hunting in Liao Dynasty have been sorted out and summarized. In this way, further analysis of the role of hunting in Liao Dynasty has been carried out. Also, the influence of hunting culture in Liao Dynasty on the customs of northern ethnic groups in later ages has also been preliminarily investigated. The results have shown a duality of culture in Liao Dynasty: It has characteristics of incorporating ethnic cultures and other advanced cultures of diverse nature that were absorbed and accepted.