On the eve of the Mongol invasion. Golden empire
Jurchen
In the 20s. X century the state of the Khitan, Liao, seized part of the Jurchen tribes and settled them in the area of Liaoyang, calling northeast.
Nyuzhen
The Jurchen (Nyuzhen) are associated with the legendary Sushi tribes that lived in the south of Manchuria. These are the tribes of the Tungus language group, they are also the ancestors of the Manchus. In the X century. these tribes were at the tribal stage of development.
Their appearance and customs amazed the Chinese from the Song dynasty. They were divided into nomadic and sedentary tribes who were engaged in agriculture and breeding of domestic animals, as well as hunting. Nomads moved their leather tents on cows. The sedentary lived in insulated semi-dugouts, given the harsh climate of their habitats from the borders of Korea to the mouth of the Amur. It was an absolutely subsistence economy, where everything needed was produced within the clan, and then - a large family.
The horse was an integral part of a man's life, and his favorite pastime was equestrian competitions, and then drinking and discussing races. The horse was the best dowry. The best horse, along with the slaves, was sacrificed at the funeral of noble persons.
Ordinary members of the community in winter wore caftans made of skins, noblemen wore fur coats made of foxes or sables, and the underwear was made of skins or white canvas. Men wore beards and long hair, which they did not braid in braids, but in their hair they weaved patches of fabric, with pearls or precious stones.
The hair was supported by a ring; the nobility had a ring of gold.
Their appearance seemed extremely repulsive, and their actions were deceitful, cruel and insidious. Rustic, but despising death, hardy and belligerent. At the same time, opponents had the highest opinion of their fighting qualities.
The soldiers had protective weapons, shells that differed from place in the ranks. The bulk fought with bows, armed with swords. The commanders, depending on their rank, had insignia: a mallet, a flag, a drum, a banner and a gold drum.
Armament of the Jurchens. From the excavations of V.E. Medvedev
The forward detachment consisted of riders and horses protected by shells, spearmen. There were twenty of them, "steadfast", followed by 50 archers from bows, protected by light armor, followed by 30 horsemen-archers without protection.
Subsequently, in the Jin empire, the equipment of armored troops was constantly increased, this weapon was later used by the Mongols and the Jurchens who went over to their side, with them it reached the west, to Central Asia and beyond.
The Jurchen cavalry, the flying cavalry, made long campaigns, and the huge rivers, the Amur or the Yellow River, they crossed by swimming, holding on to their horses.
Koreans and Khitan people believed that the basis of their life was war. Which is quite consistent with the situation when there was a disintegration or the beginning of the disintegration of tribal relations and the transition to a neighboring community. The head of the clan and tribe (Boytsile or Tszedushi) was elected at a meeting of all relatives, although this position by the XI century. and became hereditary, it would be more accurate to say - the elections came from one noble family. All issues of war and peace, negotiations, warfare were discussed at the meeting, where everyone could speak with their opinion. All participants sat in a circle and spoke on the issues on the agenda from “lowest” to highest, and the head of the clan chose the “best”, while the author of the proposal was obliged to fulfill it.
This situation persisted even after the creation of the Jurchen empire.
Relations between clans and tribes were regulated by unwritten laws, the first of which was "blood feud". This is how the "wild", according to the Khitan, the Jurchen and the "Nyuzhi of the Eastern Sea" lived in the indigenous places of their habitat. They lived in Primorye, Amur region (RF) and northern Manchuria (PRC).
Creation of a tribal union
At the end of the X century. a war began between the Jurchens and the Khitan in the area of the r. Yala, the Koreans also entered into this strife against the first. Clashes and invasions went on in a continuous series, finally, the advantage was on the side of Liao and Koryo. In such conditions, under the influence of external factors, the Jurchens begin to consolidate the tribes to repel external aggression.
The tribes led by the Shi family began to unite other tribes. Shulu, the son of Suike, from the Wanyan clan, came to power, and he was the leader who became the founder of the "barbaric" potestary education of the Jurchens. Having agreed on peace with the Liao and Koryo empires, he began to carry out "reforms" among his tribes, which could not but cause a reaction from the tribal elite. The Nyuzhen tribes entered the period of transition to a territorial community, which in nomadic societies is often associated with the strengthening of a single leader as a conductor of the ideas of all communities:
“Since other generations still did not follow the decrees and teachings, Shura sent an army against them up to the Qinling and Boshan mountains (White Mountain). Calming the submissive and subduing the disobedient, he entered Subin and Elan and conquered all the places he reached. "
His policy was continued by his son Ugunai, he also began to actively arm the army, acquiring armor and iron. He formally received power from Emperor Liao over the wild Jurchens, but refused to receive the "seal", thereby not becoming an official vassal of the Khitan emperor. Under his successors, the struggle against tribal independence resulted in long wars and battles. Gradually, the "laws" of the Wanyan tribe extended to all Jurchens, and tribal leaders began to be replaced by governors:
"From here came the penalty of thirty horses and thirty cows, paid in the principality of Nui-chzhi for committing murder by someone."
At the beginning of the XII century. the struggle for the "laws of the vanyan" continued, the neighboring Khitan also participated in these strife, and this was their big mistake:
“Here the people of the principality of Nui-chzhi,” it is written in “Jin shi”, “learned the weakness of the Dailiao army.”
This happened during the reign of Yingge (Yengge), who already had 1000 riders in armor:
"With such an army, - it is written in"Stories Golden Empire "- what can not be done!"
The Jurchens decided to take advantage of Liao's weakness at once. But they were overtaken by the Goryeo state, which also understood that the weakened Liao gave the Koreans a chance to become a hegemon in the region. In 1108, they simultaneously attacked the coastal Jurchens on dry land and landed troops from the sea - 5000 Jurchens were taken prisoner, and the same number were killed. Fortresses were built on their lands and Korean colonies were created. The leader of the tribal union Uyasu gathered a council, where it was decided to start a war, to which the militias of all tribes were called up. After stubborn clashes and sieges, Primorye was liberated from the Koreans.
Reconstruction by L.A. Bobrov from the article "Soldiers of the" Golden Empire "in the magazine" PARA BELLVM "
Gold beats iron
The war consolidated forces, and the victory made it possible to start a war with the southern neighbors, the Khitan empire. In 1114, Taizu Agudu came to power, who started a war with Liao. On the river The Yangtze they met with the one hundred thousandth army of Khitan. Most likely, as it happens in history, the number of the enemy was greatly overestimated, since Agudu crossed the river with 3,5 thousand horsemen. The Kidans fled, and the attackers got a lot of prey. In 1115, Taizu declared himself emperor, and named the empire Golden, as opposed to the Iron Empire of the Khitan.
The iron of the Liao empire rusted, the emperor gathered a 270 thousandth army from his Chinese subjects, but was defeated by the Jurchen: from that moment on, Liao's troops could not resist the northern horsemen. In 1120, Liao recognized the imperial dignity of Taizu Khan, but it was too late, the Jurchens took the Khitan capitals and suppressed numerous demonstrations of the conquered. Most of the Khitan fled to the west and east, many remained under the new rule, whole provinces and "generals" (jiangjun) were transferred to the service of the new masters. Those who have entered the service of the Jurchens, such as the Chinese Li Cheng and Kun Yang-jou, or the leader of the huge gang Wang Bolong, and the Khidans, such as Prince Yului Yuidu, are also placed as "generals".
At the same time, Taizu Khan sought to ensure the legitimacy of his power, demanded not to disturb new subjects and ensure security in all the conquered lands.
In 1125, the emperor of the Iron Empire was captured and deposed, about which the allied Song empire was notified, and the Jurchens began a war with which the Jurchens immediately began.
Song's hope that the northern barbarians, having defeated Liao, would stop, did not come true.
At the same time, on the northern border, the Mongol tribes, despite a good relationship with their sister state Liao, conducted trade with the Jin Empire, which was considered as a tribute.
And the threat of defeat hung over Song. The first assault on the capital was repulsed by the commander Li Gang, who organized a reliable defense. But after he was removed from office by intrigues, new conquerors quickly captured the capital of Song - Kaifeng. Here the conquerors created a puppet state, the Chu empire, but after their departure the Sung people seized the territory back, executing the Chinese emperor Zhang Ban-chan.
In 1127, the Emperor of the Song Empire, Qin Tsung (1100–1161), was captured and taken north. It seemed that Song had come to an end, the Jurchens were moving inland. But the emperor's brother, Zhao Gou, revived a dynasty called the Southern Song, and Lin'an (Hangzhou) became the capital.
In 1130, Prince Wushu with a huge army plundered the Song lands beyond the Yellow River, but could not return, since the crossing was blocked fleet... In such conditions, Wushu was attacked by a small elite army (8 thousand) Song. The commander's wife, Liang Hongyu, led the detachment, which was beating drums hard. The Jurchens took them for the drummers of a huge army and went to negotiations, leaving the booty. But Song's rare victories did not change the situation.
In the conditions of the collapse of the authorities, local militias entered the struggle: in the area of the Taihanshan ridge, the Army of Red Armbands operated, in the territory of Hebei, Shanxi - the Army of Eight Words, and the soldiers' faces were embossed:
"Serve the homeland with all our hearts, we swear to destroy the Jin bandits."
Such resistance caused anger on the part of the Jurchens and mass executions.
In 1134-1140. the war on the part of Song was led by the popular and experienced commander, the national hero of China, Yue Fei:
"It is easier to move a mountain than to move Yue Fei's warriors."
Coming from a simple community member's family, and not from the military nobility, at the age of 14 he became a famous archer, mastered the martial art of fighting with a spear. He still fought against the Khitan and achieved success in battles with the Jurchens, capturing a bridgehead in the north of the Yellow River. But at the Sung court, supporters of reconciliation with the invincible Jurchens prevailed. Yue Fei was treacherously captured and executed. At his modern tomb are four tied figures of officials who betrayed the Song and killed the general.
Monument to bound traitors at the grave of Yue Fei, China
In 1141, the border between the Golden Empire and the Chinese state was established:
“From the kingdom of Song, the nobleman Tsao-hsun arrived as an ambassador,” reports “Jin shi”, “with a promise to present 250 thousand lans of silver and 250 thousand pieces of silk fabrics annually, to make the Huai-he river border the river and to keep indestructible oath promises forever from generation to generation. ... In the third month, Emperor Xi-tsun, as a result of reconciliation with the kingdom of Song, sent to this amban Liu-hsien with imperial clothes and a crown, with a jasper letterhead and a letter of enthronement; made the Sung Kan-wan-geu emperor. "
So both the Chinese state of Song and Koryo became vassals to the Jin empire. One could use the adjective "powerful" to this empire, but the coming events will show that this is not so.
Hero of the Chinese people, commander Yue Fei. Later image, XNUMXth century.
In the 40s, a war began on the northern borders of the Golden Empire, it was waged against the Mongol tribes, and in it, oddly enough, the latter won. Of course, this was due to the fact that the Jurchen troops fought with the Song, nevertheless, peace was concluded in 1147, 17 fortifications to the north of the river were ceded to the Mongols. Xininghe (Huangshui). The empire recognized the title of the sovereign of the Mongol state for Khabul Khan (Aolo bozile).
Building a new empire
At the same time, the creation of a new state began, or, more precisely, an early state. The Jurchens, using the Chinese and Khitan experience, create their own power attributes. In 1125, the state Jurchen language was created, and in 1137 Khitan and Chinese were recognized as state languages. External attributes of power were accepted: ceremonial dresses, ceremonial, orders. The Jurchens immediately began to use the Chinese system of government and ideology: astrologers, fortune-telling, the use of poetry in palace ceremonies, an emphasis on instructive stories from the past Chinese history, to which the conquerors were no strangers. Finally, writing an all-China history. At the same time, state higher institutions and the Academy of Sciences were established.
Jin empire map. Source: Cities of medieval empires of the Far East / otv. ed. N.N. Kradin. M., 2018
It must be understood that for such a huge, multi-tribal territory, with a dense sedentary population in the center and in the south, the Jurchen tribal union did not have any mechanisms and systems, and they were forced to borrow them. In the 30s. a unified Chinese system of government was introduced, but the supreme power was in the hands of the Jurchen aristocracy. Despite the administrative division according to the Chinese model, the Jurchen territorial communities remain an important component of the potestar system of the Golden "Empire" and exist in parallel with the local authorities subordinate to the capital. And in 1200, exams were introduced for officials according to the Chinese model, according to sacred books and history. Thus, the "History of the Golden Empire" reports under 1180 that the Jurchen communities of Men'an and Mouke fell into luxury and drunkenness. Meanwhile, despite the fact that all the Chinese, Khitan, Bohans, Tibetans, Tanguts and other ethnic groups of the empire were obliged to serve in the army, the Jurchen cavalry remained the basis of the army. Emperor Shi-Tzu emphasized that the traditional customs of the Nyuncha are being forgotten. Indeed, under the influence of the higher culture of the Chinese civilization, its material and spiritual, officials, and not only they, as the same emperor said, adopt Chinese customs, Chinese language, clothes, and even names and surnames. Bribery and exorbitant spending on officials and the army, which did not meet the needs of the country or the economy, flourished as an obligatory attribute of the bureaucracy, which was not placed under real control.
That is, for a person's consciousness during the period of disintegration of the tribal community and the natural economy of the Jurchens, getting into the "luxurious" world of a sedentary civilization was disastrous. In just some 50 years, the harsh and formidable warriors, under the influence of material wealth, turn into officials, similar to the Chinese, or into ordinary peasants. In 1185, there was an episode when the emperor saw that both his guards and the army had forgotten how to shoot from a bow - and in fact, quite recently, they were desperate horse-archers. And in 1188, it was forbidden to drink wine to officials, one must think, at workplaces, and to the military, on guard.
Undoubtedly, this is the fate of most of the ethnic groups-conquerors of the period of the territorial-neighboring community, if they were inferior in number to the sedentary population. So, the same Bulgars dissolved in the Slavic environment in the Balkans.
And any nomadic ethnic groups, having joined the fruits of civilization, lose their belligerence. The territorial community, at one stage or another, dominated the entire territory of modern China in the XNUMXth century.
The development of such societies is possible only due to external aggression, and such opportunities for the Golden Empire were limited, as before, there was a parity between the three empires of Jin, Song and Xi Xia. Control of the northwestern steppes did not bring such material benefits as the war with the Song. The Jurchens successfully exchanged Chinese slaves for horses. Of course, the Mongols considered the Jurchens as enemies, and the latter, in turn, supported clashes between tribes in the steppe. The Tatar tribe acted on their side, they even captured the son of the Mongol Khabul Khan, Ambagai Kagan, and handed him over to the Golden Empire, where he was brutally executed, his brother, Khutula Khan, who made a campaign against the Golden Empire, became his successor. the army of the Jurchens and the Tatars defeated it, and the Mongol tribal union collapsed in 1160. Nevertheless, the Jurchens periodically raided the Mongolian tribes in order to regulate the population by means of the sword:
"... in Shandong and Hebei, no matter whose house there were Tatar [children] who were bought and turned into little slaves — they were all captured and brought by the troops."
The word "Tatars" was used to refer to all northern barbarians from the Mongol tribes.
And the Mongols made retaliatory raids on them, this is how Yesugei-bahadur, the father of Genghis Khan, acted.
Turtle from the grave of the Jurchen commander. Ussuriysk, RF
At the same time, the Southern Song Empire did not abandon its attempts to regain their lands, but, despite the above information, the Jurchens were superior to them militarily. After another clash, in 1164, Song asked for peace:
"In this sheet, the Sung sovereign, calling himself by name, wrote that he, as a nephew to his uncle, humbly presents a report to the emperor of the great kingdom of Jin, and promised to present two hundred thousand ends of silk fabrics and two hundred thousand lans of silver annually."
In 1204, the Song began a new campaign to the north. Jin, gathering combined troops, defeated the attackers. Already at this time, the Jurchen troops consisted of forces of various ethnic groups, including Tibetan tribes from the west of the empire.
The Songs were defeated and were forced to hand over the heads of the commanders, the initiators of the war with the Golden Empire, Han-to-chou and Sushi-dan.
This was the situation in the Jin Empire on the eve of the Mongol invasion.
Sources and literature:
Rashid ad-Din. Collection of chronicles. Volume I. Book 2. M., 1952.
Goncharov SN Chinese medieval diplomacy: relations between the Jin and Song empires 1127–1142. M., 1986.
History of the East. Vol. III. M., 1993.
History of the Golden Empire / Per. G.M. Rozova, comments. A.G. Malyavkina. Novosibirsk. 1998.
Kychanov EI History of ancient and medieval states bordering on China (from Huns to Manchus). SPb., 2010.
Prokopets S.D. Local traditions of production and evolution of Jurzhen armor plates // Vestnik DVO. No. 3. 2013.
Kradin N.N. A. L. Ivleev History of the Khitan Liao Empire (907 -1125). M., 2014.
To be continued ...
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