Super Empire: Cracking the Code of China's Most Powerful Dynasty

Author: Mei Chaorong / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-07-01
Features: "Genghis Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, achieved such great victories on the battlefield not through the number of his troops, but through strict discipline, systems, and feasible organization. It can also be said that his brilliant achievements came from his art of command. The campaigns he conducted, in terms of their scale, artistry, suddenness, flexibility, and strategic and tactical encirclement, were unprecedented in history." — India's former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru "Without the outstanding talent and extraordinary achievements of these Yuan Dynasty rulers and their people, the path to China might not have been opened. Who knows when Marco Polo's journey to the East would have been discovered? Without Marco Polo and other pioneers inspiring the West to imagine China and making them eager to travel there, how could there have been Christopher Columbus?" — American historian Daniel J. Boorstin "The Great Yuan Empire erased the boundaries on the Silk Road, leveled the fortresses that hindered economic and cultural exchange, and thus began frequent exchanges and shortened the distance between the East and the West." — Renowned Yuan history expert Han Rulin "Kublai Khan, the Great Khan of the Yuan Dynasty, was the greatest of all kings or emperors. He was a powerful ruler with a vast population, land, and wealth, unparalleled since the dawn of humanity. He truly deserved the title." — Traveler Marco Polo "The Spring Festival Ballad by Han Jingzi, a son of the Yuan Dynasty: The cuckoo cries, 'It's spring, but you're not back. It's spring, but you're not back. Day by day, you grow sadder, like drifting willow catkins. All spring, no news of fish or birds, only a pair of swallows fighting over mud." For the origins of the Mongol people, according to their own beliefs, they trace their lineage back to the white wolf and the white deer. In fact, this is no different from how most ethnic groups identify their belonging through totemic consciousness. The Mongols chose the wolf and the deer as their national totems, and from a modern perspective, we can analyze that this is closely tied to the environment in which their ancestors lived. Wolves and deer are creatures of forests and grasslands. As totems, the white wolf and the white deer were revered by the Mongols as divine beings, and they were also endowed with mysterious and beautiful legends. According to the Secret History of the Mongols, the white wolf and the white deer were the ancestors of Genghis Khan, sent to the world by the will of heaven. They crossed the Tenghis River together and began to multiply at the source of the Orhon River and in front of the mountain of Burengan, giving birth to Bata Khan. The Bata Khan mentioned here is the progenitor of Genghis Khan. In fact, the white wolf and the white deer are called Burtet Tsenar and Khoei Malanler in Mongolian, but they are translated as the white wolf and the white deer in Chinese. As the annotator of the Secret History of the Mongols said, the white wolf and the white deer were merely legendary names, just like how our names may include characters like "Dragon" or "Tiger." According to the famous historical work The History of the Mongols and Turks of the Persian-Mongol Dynasty, a earth-shattering war broke out on the northern grasslands, resulting in the Mongol tribes suffering a heavy defeat. After the massacre, only two men and two women survived. They fled to a dangerous valley called Ergune Kün, where they married and formed two couples. Over generations, their population gradually increased. The legend says that one family was called Nigeus, and the other was called Qiyans. After several generations, they finally returned to the Hulunbuir grasslands where their ancestors lived. It is said that Genghis Khan was a descendant of the Qiyans, the later Mongol tribe. In fact, there are not only a few versions of the legends about the origins of the Mongols, because every ethnic group wants to find its ancestors to trace its roots. When unable to explain its earliest origins, it is understandable that various legends are used to explain it, as the human imagination is boundless. The Mongol region has been the home of various nomadic tribes since ancient times. Since the Xia and Shang dynasties, small and large tribes have roamed across this vast grassland. The history of the rise and fall of these tribes and tribes continued until the early 13th century, when a stable ethnic community—the Mongol people—finally formed. In fact, when it comes to these nomadic peoples, many of them are often lumped together, making it difficult to understand their relationships. For example: the Xiongnu, the Hu people, the Xianbei, the Khitan, and the Jurchen. We can only rely on historical records to untangle the confusion. Let's return to the true origins of the Mongol people. Most scholars in modern and contemporary times believe that the Mongols originated from the Donghu. The Donghu was a general term for various tribes of the same origin, speaking different dialects, and having different names. According to Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, "To the east of the Xiongnu, so it is called Donghu." Between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE, the various Donghu tribes were still in the primitive clan society stage, living a life of "following water and grass, with no fixed residence." By the late 3rd century BCE, the Donghu tribes formed an alliance and constantly invaded westward, opposing the Xiongnu. During the reign of Modun Chanyu (209–174 BCE), the Xiongnu became powerful and launched a punitive expedition against the Donghu, destroying their tribes and looting their people and livestock. The Donghu tribes were ruled by the Xiongnu for three centuries (late 3rd century BCE to late 1st century CE). In 48 CE, the Xiongnu split into the Southern Xiongnu and the Northern Xiongnu, their power declining. The Wuhuan and Xianbei seized the opportunity to rise. The Wuhuan and Xianbei were descendants of the Donghu. In 209 BCE, after Modun Chanyu destroyed the Donghu, some Donghu people settled in the Wuhuan Mountains in the Liao River Basin, while others settled in the Xuan River Basin, hence the names Wuhuan and Xianbei. According to the Book of the Later Han, during the Yongyuan period of Emperor He of the Han Dynasty (89–105 CE), the Han Dynasty defeated the Xiongnu, and the Northern Chanyu fled. The Xianbei people migrated to that area and settled. The remaining Xiongnu people, numbering over 100,000 households, all claimed to be Xianbei. The Xianbei thus rose to power. By the mid-2nd century CE, during the reign of, according to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, "They occupied the former lands of the Xiongnu," controlling a vast area of "12,000 li east to west and 7,000 li north to south" and establishing an unprecedentedly powerful Xianbei tribal military alliance. The leaders of the various tribes governed their respective territories, with clear boundaries. After the death of, the Xianbei tribal military alliance also dissolved. Meanwhile, archaeological discoveries and records in Han texts about the customs and language of the Xianbei people also basically prove the ancestral connection between the Mongols and the Xianbei. In the mid-4th century, one branch of the Xianbei, calling themselves the Khitan, lived in the Xuan River and Lao Haha River basins. The Xianbei people living west of the Xing'an Mountains (now the Hulunbuir region) were called the Shire. The Shire first appeared in the Book of Wei, written as Shiwéi. The Shire shared the same origin as the Khitan, with the Xing'an Mountains as the boundary, "those south of it were called Khitan, and those north of it were called Shiwéi" (Book of the Northern Dynasties, Volume 94, Biography of the Shire). After the 6th century, the Shire people divided into five branches: the Southern Shire, the Northern Shire, the Boshire, the Shende Heng Shire, and the Dashiwere. Each branch further divided into sub-branches. According to the analysis of linguists based on linguistic systems, the various groups active in the Mongol region were divided into two major parts: the Mongolic and Turkic language families. In Turkic historical records, the Shire were called "Dadai" (Tartars). The Kutlug Tablet, erected on the right bank of the Orhon River in 732, records the "Thirty Surnames of the Dadai." The Thirty Surnames of the Dadai may have been the name of a powerful Shire tribe or tribal alliance adjacent to the Turks, whom the Turks used to refer to all Shire tribes. Later, "Dadai" became the general term for the Mongol tribes. Because, "for most of their ancient history, they were conquerors and rulers of most tribes and regions, great, powerful, and fully respected." "Due to their extremely great and respected status, other Turkic tribes, though of different kinds and names, gradually became known by their name, and all were called Tartars" (The History of the Mongols and Turks by Rashid al-Din). Because of the power of the Mongol tribes, the name "Dadai" was gradually replaced by "Mongol," becoming the general term for the Shire tribes. The term "Mongol" first appeared in the Old Book of Tang, referred to as "Mengwu Shire," a member of the Dashiwere, living in the southern region of the Erguna River. These are some of the historical records about the origins of the Mongols. However, the true protagonist we want to discuss, Genghis Khan, what were the origins of his ancestors? Genghis Khan's verifiable ancestors trace back to B?rte Chaghar. Legend has it that he was the fifth son of Alan Khoja and was born by the light of the sun and moon, the son of heaven. This son of heaven was destined for great achievements, and according to historical, even if he did not become an emperor, he would still be extraordinary. B?rte Chaghar did not become the ancestor of the emperor? Of course, all of this is the mysterious aura created by later historians for him. If he were not the ancestor of Genghis Khan, how could this heaven-sent son not have fallen upon him? B?rte Chaghar's mother told his brothers when they were young, "You five are all born from my belly. If you scatter, you will be like an arrow that anyone can break. But if you love each other and work together, like five arrows joined together, no one will be able to break you." After her death, the five brothers were not harmonious. The four older brothers said that the younger brother B?rte Chaghar was quiet and foolish and did not share the livestock with him. The younger brother had to ride a thin horse with a sore tail and go out hunting for a living, even eating leftover meat from wolves. But this fostered a wolf-like character in B?rte Chaghar. He robbed others' livestock, took beautiful women as wives, and captured people from other tribes as slaves. In fact, B?rte Chaghar's behavior was very common among nomadic peoples at that time, which also shows that their customs were still bound by the unavoidable "survival of the fittest" rule. Among B?rte Chaghar's children was one named Huyug, why mention him? Because his great-grandson Khaydu was recognized as the Great Khan in the Mongol tribe. The main reason is that Huyug is also an ancestor of Genghis Khan.