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The Mongols and the Yuan

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Title: The Mongols and the Yuan


1
The Mongols and the Yuan
  • Barfield, Thomas, The Perilous Frontier,, Ch. 6,
    "The Mongol Empire, pp 164-222 OR
  • Observations on Marriage and Inheritance
    Practices in Early Mongol and Yuan Society with
    particular reference to the Levirate in
    Holmgren, Jennifer, Marriage, Kinship and Power
    in Northern China, Part III, pp 127-192.
  • http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_empire

2
The Mongols and the Yuan
  • The Mongols
  • Mongol Practices
  • The Rise of Genghis Khan
  • The Mongol Empire
  • Mongols and the Jin (Gold) Dynasty
  • Mongols and Xi Xia (Western Xia)
  • Political Succession in the Mongol Empire
  • Conquest of China
  • The Yuan Dynasty
  • Mongolorization of China
  • The End of the Yuan
  • Powerful Mongolian Women

3
The Mongols
  • The Mongols were first mentioned by the Chinese
    during the Tang dynasty.
  • At first it was applied to a small and still
    insignificant tribe in the area of the Onon
    River.
  • They had little independent power as their
    confederation had been destroyed by the Jurchen
    and other nomadic attacks.
  • After a civil war the Mongols became so
    fragmented that they no longer had a khan.
  • In the 13th century it grew into an umbrella term
    for a large group of tribes united under the rule
    of Genghis Khan.
  • After the fall of the empire, the Mongols were
    assimilated into local populations and many of
    their descendants adopted local religions for
    example, the western Khanates adopted Islam.

4
Mongol Practices
  • Mongols usually herded horses, cattle, camels,
    sheep, and goats.
  • Milk was taken from all of these animals,
  • Sheep and goats were killed for meat.
  • The sheep and camels were the main producers
    fiber for clothing and shelter, but hair from all
    the animals was used in different ways.
  • Horses were ridden and the cattle and camels were
    used for transportation.
  • When lineages became large they would be divided
    and become smaller ones.
  • The system of inheritance gave each son a portion
    as he married but the youngest son did not
    receive his share until after the mothers death.

5
Mongol Practices (2)
  • The womens ties with her natal/birth family was
    weakened by the payment of bride-price through
    years of labour or goods.
  • Cross-generational marriages were permitted.
  • Levirate was the preferred form of marriage for
    all classes of Mongol society.
  • Wealthy women did not need levirate remarriage
    as she can support herself and her children
    without the help of a new husband.
  • Remarriage of the widow may mean more children
    and so her first husbands inheritance might have
    to be shared with the other children and the
    inheritance of the youngest son of the first
    husband would be less.
  • Senior wives of men of influence tended to remain
    in the husbands family as unmarried heads of
    independent units.

6
The Rise of Genghis Khan
  • Genghis Khan (Temüjin) (1167-1227) was born at a
    time when the steppe was in chaos.
  • Genghis used his dowry of his principal wife,
    Borte, to get started.
  • She later gave birth to four sons.
  • He entered tribal politics at the age of 16.
  • In 1190, the leaders of his tribe elected him
    khan of the Mongols.
  • At the age of 40, he was the master of all the
    tribes of Mongolia (about the size of Alaska).
  • He molded the different tribes into a single
    people building an army, imposing uniform laws,
    and establishing a written language.
  • He set out to conquer the world and built an
    empire of 13.8 million square miles with more
    than 100 million people.

7
The Rise of Genghis Khan (2)
  • He created an empire by organizing a personal
    following rather than depend on tribal loyalties
    -- his army was commanded by men who owed
    personal loyalty to him while members of his
    lineage were excluded from major positions.
  • He distrusted his patrilineal relatives and put
    about a dozen of them to death almost anyone
    who had a claim to the throne.
  • This distrust was based on
  • The desertion of his family at the death of his
    father
  • The desertion of those who had elected him khan.
  • Disputes with his relatives after he became
    supreme leader.
  • When he became master of Mongolia the highest
    positions in his army went to his most loyal
    commanders.

8
The Rise of Genghis Khan (3)
  • Genghis wanted to control the steppes and allied
    with his neighbors.
  • When the leader of the Uighur joined the Mongols
    he was welcomed as a 5th son and promised a
    daughter in marriage.
  • The Uighur oases remained autonomous throughout
    his reign.
  • The Mongols had tried to exploit China but the
    Jurchen Jin ? refused to pay instead they fought
    the Mongols until the Jin was destroyed.
  • The conquest of China was not a goal but a result
    of their having completely destroyed the Jin
    which they wanted to extort.
  • Invasions of the Tangut state of Xi Xia in 1207
    and 1209 were also aimed at gaining loot.
  • The Tangut king provided the Mongols with camels,
    woolen cloth and hunting falcons he also pledged
    to send troops in future wars.
  • He married a daughter to Genghis.
  • Xi Xia was destroyed as it did not honor its
    commitments.

9
Map of Asia and Europe c. 1200Eve of Mongol
Expansion
10
Map of Europe and Asia, 1206, 1294
11
The Mongol Empire Under Khubilai
12
The Mongol Empire
  • The Mongol military strategy, included the
    killing of the entire population unless they
    surrendered.
  • The Mongol Empire (1206-1405) that they built was
    the largest land empire in history, covering over
    33 million km² (12 million square miles) with an
    estimated population of over 100 million people.
  • It covered most of the territories from East Asia
    to Central Europe including Central Asia, parts
    of North Asia, Eastern Asia, Southeast Asia, the
    Middle East, Eastern Europe and Central Europe.
  • It established commercial and political
    connections between the East and the West
    before the Mongol Empire people in China had
    never heard of Europe and the people of Europe
    had never heard of China.

13
The Mongol Empire (2)
  • After the death of Genghis Khan, the empire was
    divided among his four sons, with his third son
    as the supreme Khan.
  • By the 1350s, the separate khanates drifted away
    from each other, becoming the Il-Khans Dynasty
    based in Iran, the Chagatai Khanate in Central
    Asia, the Yuan Dynasty in China, and what would
    become the Golden Horde in present day Russia,
    Ukraine, Kazakhstan and most of European Russia.
  • The last Khan, the ruler of India, was killed by
    the British in the early 20th century.

14
The Mongols and the Jin (1115-1234)
  • Between 1135 and 1147, the Mongols continuously
    harassed the Jin (Gold) ? northern frontiers.
  • The Jin had a large and effective army but they
    were in a border war with the Western Xia (Xi
    Xia) and with the Song.
  • In 1210, Genghis Khan broke off tributary
    relations with the Jin (Gold) that had been in
    existence for 5 years.
  • In 1214, he attacked the Jin who then offered
    gold, silver, horses, slaves, and a princess and
    the Mongols left.
  • During the third invasion, in the fall of 1213,
    the Mongols surrounded the Jin capital but could
    not take it so the Mongols turned south raiding
    all over the north China plain -- eastward
    through Shandong, south to the Yellow River and
    west through Shansi.

15
The Mongols and the Jin (2)
  • The Mongols surrounded Zhongdu in 1214 and in
    1215 the city was deserted by its commanders and
    fell to the Mongols.
  • The Jin negotiated a peace settlement and the
    emperor gave the daughter of his predecessor in
    marriage to Genghis together with horses, gold
    and silk.
  • The Mongol army again withdrew from China.
  • The Jurchen emperor felt vulnerable to Mongol
    pressure in Zhongdu and decided to move to
    Kaifeng, the former Song capital.
  • When the Jin court fled southward to Kaifeng,
    Genghis thought that they were regrouping so he
    attacked again.
  • Jin had no choice but to surrender.

16
The Mongols and the Jin (3)
  • Although it had surrendered, the city was sacked
    with great loss of life and whole sections were
    reduced to ash.
  • Large numbers of Chinese, Qidan and Jurchen
    troops fell into Mongol hands and many became
    important as military leaders and administrators
    for the Mongols.
  • Under their influence, the Mongols began to be
    responsible for governing China.
  • But, Genghis himself was no longer interested in
    China and the Mongol army returned to the steppe
    to campaign against other nomads.
  • It left an occupying force of 20,000 Mongols
    together with a larger army of Chinese, Jurchen
    and Qidan in China.

17
The Mongols and Xi Xia
  • Genghis died in 1227 while battling against the
    Xi Xia for breaking treaty agreements.
  • Unfortunately, he was dying but he ordered that
    Xi Xia be wiped from the face of the earth for
    having insulted him.
  • The Mongol soldiers diverted water from a nearby
    canal to create a flood that forced the city to
    surrender.
  • Obedient to the dying wish of Genghis, the
    Mongols leveled whole towns in Xi Xia, killing or
    enslaving the inhabitants.

18
Political succession in the Mongol Empire
  • The Mongols did not have a firm fraternal/lateral
    succession it was both a legal and political
    struggle.
  • Each faction would present a case for itself and
    point up the defects in their rivals.
  • The right to rule also had to be maintained by
    military power to defeat any rivals.
  • Military success always justified irregular
    successions.
  • Therefore, the Mongols had problems in passing a
    united empire to the grandsons of the founder.

19
Political succession in the Mongol Empire (2)
  • Genghis did not name a successor until 1218 when
    he was reminded that even great conquerors die.
  • He was going to name his eldest son, Jochi ??
    (c.1185-1227), as his successor but his second
    son (Chaghadai) objected as their mother, Borte,
    had been kidnapped and had returned pregnant so
    Jochis paternity was in doubt.
  • Genghis made it clear at a tribal meeting that
    Jochi was his legitimate first born son but in
    order not to split the empire he would not name
    either of the first two sons as successor but
    would name his third son, Ögedei as his
    successor.
  • Genghis gave Jochi the westernmost part of the
    empire, then lying between Ural and Irtish rivers
    -- the lands in the west up to as far as the
    hooves of Mongol horses had trodden'.
  • Following the Mongol custom, Genghis Khan
    bequeathed only four thousand original Mongol
    troops to each of his three elder sons and
    101,000 to Tolui, his youngest son.

20
Political succession in the Mongol Empire (3)
  • Jochi left his descendants with the least
    territory but after the defeat of the Jin, his
    brother, Ögedei, sent the Mongol army west to
    help Jochis heir, Batu, to conquer a huge area
    of the Russian steppe and establish a khanate
    equal to any in the empire.
  • Jochis descendants extended their empire mostly
    with the help of troops from the defeated
    populations which happened to be Turkish.
  • This was the chief reason why the Golden Horde
    acquired a Turkish identity.
  • Jochi's inheritance was divided among his sons
    Orda and Batu, who founded the White Horde and
    the Blue Horde.
  • Chaghadai, the second son, was given Central Asia
    and Iran.
  • Toloui, the youngest son, got the Mongol
    heartland.

21
Political succession in the Mongol Empire (4)
  • Ögedeis election as Khan raised him and his line
    to a position of superiority but Toloui had
    inherited his fathers personal forces which made
    him very powerful.
  • Ögedei was the last of the brothers to die in
    1241 opening the succession of the Great Khan to
    contenders.
  • The problems were that
  • His successors had not been given dynastic
    succession rights by Genghis khan.
  • Should succession remain in in Ögedeis line if
    it did, should Ögedeis choice of successor be
    respected?
  • According to fraternal succession, the throne
    should go to Jochis sons, who were the most
    senior heirs of the next generation.
  • If there was a problem about Jochis legitimacy,
    then it should go to Chaghadais sons.
  • After which, Tolouis sons should be considered.

22
Political succession in the Mongol Empire (5)
  • Ögedeis sons pushed for their rights but if they
    got them then the pattern would remain within
    their line and it would exclude everyone
    descended from the other three sons of Genghis
    Khan.
  • Ögedei had initially chosen his third son as
    successor but when the latter died he had named
    the heirs son, his grandson Shiremun. By doing
    so, he disinherited his eldest son, Guyuk.
  • After his death, his principal wife, Toregene,
    became regent for five years while the succession
    was being decided.
  • Guyuk rushed to the capital when he heard of his
    fathers death.

23
Political succession in the Mongol Empire (6)
  • Toregene wanted her son, Guyuk, to succeed and as
    regent she had access to the treasury.
  • She distributed gifts to influential people to
    buy support for Guyuk.
  • She issued decrees that deprived her opponents of
    office enabling her to rule directly.
  • By the time the council was convened, Guyuk was
    preeminent and was enthroned.
  • He accepted and said that in the future
    succession would be limited to Ögedeis
    descendants.
  • Batu, heir to Jochis line, refused to attend the
    council though he did send his brothers.

24
Political succession in the Mongol Empire (7)
  • Guyuk wanted to increase his personal powers and
    executed his mothers advisors after her death.
  • He interfered in the succession politics of the
    Chaghadai line by annulling the wishes of his
    uncle to name the grandson as successor.
  • Instead, Guyuk named Chaghadais surviving son
    who was not popular.
  • He tried to reduce the power of the Toloui line
    by reducing the number of imperial troops under
    its command.
  • Under the leadership of Tolouis widow, Beki, the
    family had outwardly given complete support to
    Guyuk and made no protest over losing their
    military units.
  • Behind the scenes, Beki quietly befriended many
    of Guyuks opponents, building political support
    for her sons.

25
Political succession in the Mongol Empire (8)
  • Guyuks greatest problem was in dealing with Batu
    who commanded a powerful army in the west.
  • Guyuk organized the armies of the east and
    planned to attack Batu -- Beki warned Batu.
  • Civil war might have started but Guyuk died in
    1248 after ruling for only two years.
  • There was now another succession struggle.
  • Guyuks widow became regent but she was unable to
    maintain authority as Guyuk had power for only
    two years.
  • Guyuks two sons were both young and were
    competing with their cousin Shiremun grandson
    of Ögedei.
  • Batu called for a Council in the west as he had
    gout and could not travel but the sons of Ögedei,
    Guyuk, and Chaghadai refused to participate
    arguing that a legal one could only be held in
    the Mongol heartland.

26
Political succession in the Mongol Empire (9)
  • Beki, widow of Touloui, saw her opportunity to
    gain the throne for sons.
  • She told them to travel to Batus camp where he
    declared her son, Mongke, his choice for Great
    khan.
  • Batu said that Guyuks succession was a
    usurpation as Ögedei had named his grandson,
    Shiremun, as his choice for the Great Khan.
  • Batu said that the throne could not be left to
    Ögedeis descendants because they were too young.
  • Batus support of Mongke was critical as Batu had
    more of a right to the throne than Mongke as he
    was the senior descendant of Genghis.
  • Batu renounced his rights and in exchange he got
    full autonomy in the west.

27
Political succession in the Mongol Empire (10)
  • Mongke succeeded as Khan and had the regent,
    Guyuks widow, placed in a sack and drowned.
  • He also had supporters of the Ögedei line put to
    death.
  • Political succession problems continued during
    the Yuan dynasty although the new khan must be a
    male member of the house of Genghis Khan, meaning
    his four sons by his principal wife and their
    descendants.
  • Nine khans ascended the throne after Khubilai
    Khan resulting in bureaucratic turnover and
    reversals of state policies.

28
Conquest of China
  • After Ögedei, (1186-1241), the third son of
    Genghis Khan, succeeded his father he continued
    the expansion of the empire that Genghis had
    begun.
  • During his reign, the Mongols attacked Europe,
    completed the destruction of the Jurchen Jin
    empire and began to war against the Southern
    Song.
  • After the fall of the Jin, Ögedei appointed a
    Yelu to set up proper administration.
  • At first, Ögedei wanted to eliminate all the
    farmers whom he thought were useless as soldiers.

29
Conquest of China (2)
  • Yelu convinced him that if the farmers were
    allowed to farm they would produce annual
    revenues of a half million ounces of silver,
    400,000 bags of grain, and 80,000 pieces of silk.
  • Under Ögedeis leadership, the Mongols also
  • controlled Persia, almost all of Russia, Hungary
    and Poland.
  • Stabilized and re-established the Silk Road.
  • His death in 1241 ended the Mongol invasion of
    Europe as the commanders returned to Mongolia for
    election of the new Khan.
  • After a five-year regency of his widow, Toregene,
    his son Guyuk, succeeded him but only ruled for
    two years.
  • Möngke (1208-1259), his nephew, succeeded Guyuk
    as the fourth great Khan.
  • Möngke had participated in the campaigns against
    Europe and Russia.

30
Conquest of China (3)
  • He was the civil administrator for Ogodei.
  • In 1254, Mongke increased raids on the Song
    northern border and Song frontier officials were
    invited to defect.
  • In 1256, he used the excuse that the Song had
    imprisoned Mongol envoys and took personal
    command of the invasion of Southern Song.
  • While conducting the war in Sichuan, he had
    dysentery and died this stopped the war against
    the Song for 20 years as the Mongols had to
    return to the homeland to elect the Great Khan.

31
Conquest of China (4)
  • Möngke had not provided for his succession and
    his brothers were split.
  • Eventually, his brother Khubilai was elected to
    succeed him (r.1260-1294).
  • He had been assigned to conquer China.
  • He conquered the Southern Song and established
    the Yuan Dynasty in 1271.
  • The Yuan was the first dynasty of non-Han origin
    to rule all of China.

32
Conquest of China (5)
  • During the invasions, Khubilai made a silk banner
    with a message telling the people that their
    lives would be spared if they surrendered.
  • When Kublai Khan (r.1260-94) succeeded as great
    Khan, he brought an end to misrule in China.
  • His wife, Chabi, was his adviser and prevented
    him from converting farmland to grazing land so
    as not to alienate his Chinese subjects.
  • She was a fervent Buddhist, preferring Tibetan
    Buddhism.
  • He wanted to expand into Japan but he was twice
    defeated.
  • His chosen successor died early and he was
    succeeded by his grandson.

33
The Yuan dynasty
  • Kublai saw himself as a Chinese emperor as well
    as a kaghan (supreme khan) of the steppe.
  • Politically, the system created by Khubilai was a
    compromise between Mongolian and the Chinese
    system.
  • There was a large gap between the Mongolian
    elites and the Chinese.
  • All Mongolian imperial relatives and meritorious
    retainers enjoyed hereditary, political, economic
    and military privileges.
  • The Mongolian elite found little incentive to
    learn Chinese.
  • The Mongols, at first, ignored the Chinese
    administrators and instead hired foreigners from
    western and central Asia to serve as officials.
  • In place of a dual organization, the Mongols
    employed a single system of government with a
    hierarchy of ranked ethnic preference groups to
    maintain their control.

34
The Yuan Dynasty (2)
  • There were four categories
  • Mongols,
  • se-mu (western and central Asians)
  • Hanren ?? (northern Chinese, Manchurians and
    Koreans)
  • Nanren ?? (southern Chinese)
  • Population according to the 1290 census was
  • Mongols 1 million
  • Se-mu Same
  • Hanren 10 million
  • Nanren 60 million

35
The Yuan dynasty (3)
  • The Mongols and their se-mu allies held about 30
    of all official positions, including most of the
    top military and civilian offices.
  • They also had a virtual monopoly on positions in
    the Imperial Guard from which officials are
    promoted.
  • Even when the civil examination was revived, the
    percentages of degrees awarded remained the same
    as the Mongols and the se-mu got easier tests.
  • Chinese dynasties believed in a self-sufficient
    state and placed the farmer on a higher plane
    than that of the merchant.
  • Merchants were usually forbidden from taking
    imperial examinations to enter the government.
  • A powerful class was thus excluded from political
    power and lived under the threat of confiscation
    of their assets by the state.

36
The Yuan Dynasty (4)
  • The Mongols and other nomads of the steppe held
    the opposite view as they profited by the
    exchange of products.
  • They encouraged merchants to visit their
    territories and provided protection for their
    caravans.
  • While Chinese governments saw international trade
    as a drain on resources, the nomads saw it as a
    way to create wealth.
  • The safe transit of goods throughout Mongol
    territory was a major stimulation to new trade
    and the development of communications.
  • Roads were built so that news and important
    people could travel rapidly across the vast
    empire using a system of post stations with fresh
    horses and relays of riders.
  • The Mongols thought of these as the most
    important elements in holding their empire
    together.

37
Mongolorization of China
  • The Mongols were concerned that their tribal
    people would be sinified as they were a small
    minority and no longer nomadic.
  • They passed laws to force the Chinese population
    to adopt Mongol practices.
  • In 1272, levirate practice was made mandatory for
    the Chinese unless there was one of the following
    conditions
  • If the widow and her dependents could form a tax
    unit
  • If she and her dependents had lived with her own
    parents that is, if the husband had joined her
    family to continue her family line.
  • If she made a public vow not to remarry if she
    broke that law, her marriage was dissolved and
    she was given to a relative of her husband.
  • Application of the law was later restricted to
    the marriage of the widow to an unmarried brother.

38
Mongolorization of China (2)
  • In 1303, it was decided that the assets of a
    widow or divorcee be controlled by the family of
    her late husband.
  • But, she could not be divorced without cause.
  • Widow remarriage was difficult as she no longer
    had a dowry.
  • She could not return to her family as they might
    not be able to support her and her dependents.
  • Therefore, she had to either practice levirate or
    remain a widow within her husbands family this
    would be in line with Mongol practice.
  • Filial piety therefore changed from daughters
    taking care of their own parents to
    daughters-in-law remaining to care for their
    in-laws.

39
Mongolorization of China (3)
  • The Yuan legacy of widow chastity, living with
    the in-laws, self-mutilation, and immolation
    influenced the Ming.
  • The Ming dynasty abolished the law on the
    enforced practice of levirate but retained the
    law that allowed the late husbands family to
    control the widows assets.
  • The economic situation continued to discourage
    widow remarriage.
  • Yuan and Ming law forbade anyone but the widows
    parents to command her to remarry.
  • This was done to protect the widow who no longer
    had any assets and could be forced by the in-laws
    into an unacceptable remarriage.
  • Her in-laws could still make her life miserable
    so she would willingly leave her assets and
    remarry.
  • Ming society, saw widow suicide as the highest
    form of virtue.

40
The End of the Yuan Dynasty
  • The Mongols were the elite group of the empire
    but the condition of ordinary Mongols declined.
  • The Mongols also had financial problems due to
    its military expenditures, large imperial grants
    and other court expenses.
  • Nine khans ascended the throne after Khubilai
    Khan resulting in bureaucratic turnover and
    reversals of state policies.
  • Large Mongol garrisons were established within
    China, and it became difficult for the Mongol
    troops to be self-sustaining as they did not have
    loot as an additional economic benefit.
  • The government initially granted land and slaves
    to work it so that the Mongols could devote
    themselves to their military obligations.
  • But the allotments were inadequate to support the
    Mongols and pay the expense of military duty.
  • By the middle of the 14th century, the Mongol
    troops could not suppress the rebellions that had
    broken out.

41
The End of the Yuan (2)
  • As the Mongols in China became sinicized, they
    lost influence among the Mongols in the rest of
    the Mongol Empire within China, the people were
    bitter about the problems of succession and
    famine.
  • The Mongols saw the Yuan rulers as too Chinese
    and the Chinese saw them as Mongols.
  • Bandits roamed the country without interference
    from the weak Yuan armies and rebellions arose.
  • After the reign of Kubilai khan, there was
    factionalism at court, coups, murders, poisonings
    and purges.
  • By the 1320s imperial politics revolved around a
    series of strongmen who seized power and
    controlled the government until they were
    suddenly replaced by rivals.

42
The End of the Yuan (3)
  • Short-term conflicts in court diverted the
    governments attention from problems in the
    province such as misrule, famine, and peasant
    discontent.
  • In the 1330s rebellions erupted in several
    regions in south and central China.
  • In 1344 the yellow River flooded and altered its
    course to the north, bringing immediate ruin to
    6,000 square miles of agricultural land and
    putting the Grand Canal out of action.
  • In 1351, a major rebellion broke out by a group
    known as the Red Turbans but they were suppressed
    by 1354.
  • Out of the chaos rose Hongwu Emperor (1368-98),
    founder of the Ming dynasty.

43
The End of the Yuan (4)
  • Based in the south, the Ming forces moved against
    rival warlords and in 1368 seized Beijing and the
    Yuan court fled and returned to Mongolia.
  • The Ming emperor encouraged the surrender of
    Mongol military units left in China and
    incorporated them into his army.
  • He also encouraged the assimilation of large
    numbers of foreigners.
  • Much of the Ming state structure was inherited
    from Manchurian and Mongol models.
  • Finally the Mongols were driven back to Mongolia
    by the founder of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
  • In the 17th century, the Mongols were attacked by
    the Manchu and surrendered.

44
The Manchus and the Qing Dynasty
  • Barfield, Thomas, The Perilous Frontier, Ch. 7,
    "Steppe Wolves and Forest Tigers," pp.  250-294
    OR
  • Pamela Crossley, Thinking about Ethnicity in
    Early Modern China, Late Imperial China 11.1
    (1990)
  • Rawski, Evelyn S., Imperial Women in The Last
    Emperors, pp. 127-159 OR
  • Lee, Lily Xiao and Stefanowska, A.D.,
    Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women The
    Qing Period, 1644-1911

45
Powerful Mongolian Women Borte
  • Borte, was married to Genghis Khan at the age of
    14 and gave birth to four sons and five
    daughters.
  • She received a sable coat for her dowry and
    Genghis gave it away to gain an ally.
  • She had been abducted by Merkits and held captive
    for several months, returning pregnant.
  • She gave birth to the eldest son, Jochi (d.1227),
    whom Genghis treated as his own son but there was
    always a question as to whether he was the son of
    Genghis.
  • She was named empress of the Mongolian Empire and
    was often shown as a beautiful woman dressed in a
    white silken gown, with gold coins in her hair,
    holding a white lamb, and riding a white horse.

46
Powerful Mongolian Women Borte (2)
  • Jochi was given lands in the Siberian steppes and
    never expanded his empire he was always
    respectful to Genghis.
  • His descendants later ruled the area called the
    Golden Horde (1378-1440s) in present day Russia.
  • When Genghis died, his empire was divided among
    his other three sons
  • Chagatai (d.1241) was considered a hothead and
    was given Central Asia and northern Iran.
  • Ogodei, the third eldest was made Great Khan and
    was elected supreme Khan and given command over
    his brothers.
  • Toloui, the youngest was given the Mongol
    homeland.

47
Powerful Mongolian Women Toregene
  • According to Mongol custom, when a male head of
    household died, his widow would administer his
    estate and assume his authority until the eldest
    son came of age.
  • She would act as regent of the empire until a new
    male head of the imperial family could be
    officially confirmed.
  • No one challenged her powers as they were seen as
    transitory in nature and her more unpalatable
    policies could be changed at a future date.
  • She engineered the enthronement of her son Guyuk
    (r.1246-8) and had to overcome a lot of
    opposition as
  • Ogodei had already named his grandson, born of
    his third son.
  • Guyuk had made powerful enemies among his fellow
    princes.
  • The decision was not reached for 4.5 years but
    Guyuk was finally named ruler in 1246 and ruled
    for 2 years until his death.

48
Powerful Mongolian Women Toregene (2)
  • While regent for five years, she was known as
    ruthless but effective in the exercise of power.
  • Ögedei Khan's favorite son was from another wife,
    and he had nominated this sons son to succeed
    him.
  • Töregene opposed the choice in favor of her
    eldest son, Güyük, but was unable to persuade
    Ögedei to change his selection.
  • Some say that encouraged she Ögedei to drink to
    hasten his death and when this plan was taking
    too much time she or her sisters eventually used
    poison.
  • Immediately upon her ascension as regent, she
    appointed her favorites to high positions in the
    imperial household but it took her over four
    years to ensure the succession of her son, Güyük.

49
Powerful Mongolian Women Sorghaghtani Beki
  • Sorghaghtani Beki (d.1252), was a daughter-in-law
    of Genghis Khan and mother of his grown
    grandsons.
  • She presided over her familys fortunes and
    raised four sons Mongke, Khubilai , Huglegu,
    and Arigh Boke all became kings.
  • She made sure that her sons were literate and
    taught them basic political principles
  • She did not exploit her Chinese subjects nor
    plunder the region.
  • She recognized that tax revenues would increase
    if she promoted, instead of interfered, with the
    native agrarian economy.
  • She had a policy of religious toleration which
    influenced her sons.
  • She was a Nestorian Christian but contributed
    funds and other support to Buddhist, Daoist, and
    Islamic religions.
  • She recruited several Chinese advisers to come up
    with suitable methods to regulate her Chinese
    subjects.

50
Powerful Mongolian WomenSorghaghtani Beki (2)
  • She created an image of loyal and unselfish
    service to the empire for her husbands line
  • Her family remained officially neutral in all
    disputes and accepted the decisions.
  • They always cooperated with the reigning khans
    and supported their campaigns of conquest.
  • This reputation for loyalty was later used as to
    show their qualifications for, and moral right,
    to the empires highest office.
  • She first led the fight for her son, Mongke (r.
    1251-1259), to succeed.
  • Without her, the sons would not have replaced the
    house of Ogodei as the main Mongolian royal line.

51
Powerful Mongolian WomenSorghaghtani Beki (3)
  • She was given the title of empress in 1310
    (d.1252) and both Muslim and Christian historians
    speak highly of her
  • If I were to see among the race of women another
    woman like this, I should say that the race of
    women was far superior to that of men
  • Among the Tartars this lady is... more powerful
    than anyone else except the khan of the Golden
    Horde
  • She was extremely intelligent and able and
    towered above all the women in the world.
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