Northern Yuan

Northern Yuan Dynasty From the 15th century onwards, the Dynasty was also known as The Six Tumen Mongols and the Four Tumen Oirats Умард Юань Дөчин дөрвөн хоёр (The Forty and the Four)
1368–1374
The Tumens of Mongolia Proper and relict states of the Mongol Empire by 1500
Capital	Shangdu (1368-69) Yingchang (1369-70) Karakorum(1371-88)
Common languages	Mongolian
Religion	Shamanism (Animism) later Buddhism
Government	Absolute monarchy
Khagan
Legislature	Yassa Customary rules
Historical era	From the late middle ages to the early modern era
• Expulsion of the Mongols from China to Mongolia	September 1368
• The murder of Togus Temur marked the rise of the Oirats.	1388
• Batumongke Dayan Khan reunited the some Mongols	1483-1510
• The death of the last Borjigin Emperor Ligden Khan	1634
• Disestablished	1374
Preceded by Succeeded by File:White Sulde of the Mongol Empire.jpg Yuan Dynasty Alliance of the Four Oirats Northern Khalkha Qing Dynasty Qara Del

Northern Yuan Dynasty (The Forty and the Four tumens in Mongolian chronicles) or the Bei Yuan Chao refers to the Mongol regime established in Mongolia after the expulsion of the Yuan Dynasty from the Ming Dynasty in 1368. It ruled northern regions of China including modern day Beijing until its collapse in 1374, after which a portion of the Mongols returned to the Gobi Desert and Modern-day Mongolia though some sources claim that Northern Yuan Dynasty ended in 1388, when Toghus Temur was murdered near the Tuul River. It's sometimes referred to as Mongolian Khaanate or Mongolian khanate in modern sources.

History

The Great Khan's return to Mongolia (1368-1388)

SomeMongols under the Great Khan Kublai Khan (r.1260-94) of the Mongol Empire (1206-1368), a grandson of Genghis Khan (r.1206-27), had conquered all of China in 1276 and destroyed the last Chinese resistance in 1279. After, the Mongols under the leadership of Kublai Khan conquered all of China in 1276, Kublai Khan declared himself as the Emperor of China and established the Yuan Dynasty. Kublai Khan and his descendants ruled China for less a century, however, the Mongols dominated North China for more than 140 years. When the indigenous Chinese people in the countryside suffered from frequent natural disasters such as droughts, floods and the ensuing famines since the late 1340s, and the government's lack of effective policy led to a loss of the support from people. The collapse of the Yuan Dynasty was also caused by extensive struggle between the Mongol Khanates for land and had bankrupted the coffers of China. In 1351, the Red Turban Rebellion started and grew into a nationwide turmoil. Eventually, Zhu Yuanzhang, a Chinese peasant established the Ming Dynasty in South China, and sent an army toward the Yuan capital Dadu (present-day Beijing) in 1368. Toghan Temür (r.1333-70), the last ruler of the Yuan, fled north to Shangdu (located in present-day Inner Mongolia) from Dadu in 1368 after the approach of the forces of the Míng Dynasty (1368–1644). He had tried to regain Dadu, but eventually failed; he died in Yingchang (located in present-day Inner Mongolia) two years later (1370). Yingchang was seized by the Ming shortly after his death.

Many Mongols were massacred following the establishment of the Ming Dynasty and some Yuan remnants retreated to the newly established Northern Yuan Dynasty after the fall of Yingchang to the Ming Dynasty in 1370, where the name Great Yuan was formally carried on, known as the Northern Yuan. Of the Mongols that stayed in Ming Dynasty, many had already been sinicized and managed to escape the turmoil of a newly established dynasty; the Ming Dynasty. The Northern Yuan rulers also butressed their claim on China and the myth that the Ming were 'really' Mongols. According to an oral tradition one of the Ming Emperor was a child of Toghan Temur's queen. The Northern Yuan rulers held tenaciously to their title of Emperor (or Great Khan) of the Great Yuan (Dai Yuwan Khaan - Их Юань Хаан).

The Ming army pursued the Northern Yuan forces into Inner Mongolia and Hebei in 1372, but were defeated by the latter under Ayushridar (r.1370-78) and Köke Temür (d.1375). In 1375, Nahacu, a Mongol official of Biligtu Khan (Ayushridar) in Liaoyang province invaded Liaodong with aims of restoring the Mongols to power. Although he continued to hold southern Manchuria, Nahacu finally surrendered to the Ming Dynasty in 1387-88 due to famines. The Yuan loyalists under the Kublaid prince Basalawarmi in Yunnan and Guizhou were also destroyed by the Ming in 1381-83.

They Ming tried again in 1380, ultimately winning a decisive victory over Northern Yuan in 1388. About 70,000 Mongols were taken prisoner, and the Mongol capital Karakorum was sacked and ruined in 1380. It effectively destroyed the power of the Khagan's Mongols for a long time, and allowed the Western Mongols to become supreme.

Rise of the Oirats (1388-1478)

In 1388, the Northern Yuan throne was taken over by Yesüder, a descendant of Arik Böke (Tolui's son), instead of the descendants of Kublai Khan. After the death of his master Togus Temur (r.1378-88), Gunashiri, a descendant of Chagatai Khan, founded his own small state Qara Del in Hami. The following century saw a succession of Chinggisid rulers, many of whom were mere figureheads put on the throne by those warlords who happened to be the most powerful. From the end of the fourteenth century there appear general designations for Mongolia such as period of the small kings. On one side stood the Oirats (or Western Mongols) in the west against the Eastern Mongols. While the Oirats drew their side to the descendants of Arik Boke and other princes, Arugtai of the Asud supported the old Yuan khans. Another force was the House of Ogedei who briefly attempted to reunite the Mongols under their rule.

Periods of conflict with the Ming Dynasty intermingled with periods of peaceful relations with border trade. In 1402, Örüg Temür Khan (Guilichi) abolished the name Great Yuan; he was however defeated by Öljei Temür Khan (Bunyashiri, r.1403-12), the protege of Tamerlane (d.1405) in 1403. Most of the Mongol noblemen under Arugtai chingsang sided with Oljei Temur. Under Yongle (r.1402-24) the Ming Dynasty intervened aggressively against any overly powerful leader, exacerbating the Mongol-Oirat conflict. In 1409 Oljei Temur and Arugtai crushed a Ming army, so that Yongle personally attacked the two on the Kherlen River. After the death of Oljei Temur, the Oirats under their leader Bahamu (Mahmud) (d.1417) enthroned an Arik-Bokid, Delbeg Khan in 1412. Although, the Ming encouraged the Oirats to fight against the Eastern Mongols, they withdrew their support when the Oirats became powerful. After 1417 Arugtai became dominant again, and Yongle campaigned against him in 1422 and 1423. Bahamu's successor Toghan pushed Arugtai east of the Greater Khingan range in 1433. The Oirats killed him in the west of Baotou the next year. Arugtai's ally Adai Khan (r.1425-38) made a last stand in Ejene before he was murdered too.

Toghan died in the very year of his victory over Adai. His son Esen (r.1438-54) brought the Oirats to the height of their power. Under his Chinggisid puppet khans, he drove back the Moghulistan monarchs and crushed the Three Guards, Qara Del and the Jurchen. In 1449 he captured the Ming Emperor Zhengtong, bringing about a wholescale collapse of the Ming northern defence line. Esen and his father ruled as taishis of Chinggisid khans but after executing the rebellious khan Tayisung (r.1433-53) and his brother Agbarjin in 1453, Esen took the title khan himself. He was, however, soon overthrown by his chingsang Alag. His death broke up the role of the Oirats until they revived in the early 17th century.

From Esen's death to 1481 different warlords of the Kharchin, the Belguteids and Ordos fought over succession and had their Chinggisid Khans enthroned. The Mongolian chroniclers call some of them the Uyghurs and they might have some ties with the Hami oasis. During his reign, Manduulun Khan (1475-78) effectively won over most of the Mongol warlords before he died in 1478.

Restoration (1479-1540)

Manduul's (Manduulun) young khatun Mandukhai made a boy named Batumongke, descendant of Chingis Khan, Khagan. The infant khan Batumongke took the title Dayan meaning universal or whole in Mongolian in 1479. Mandukhai and Dayan Khan overthrew Oirat supremacy. At first the new rulers operated with the taishi system. The taishis mostly ruled the Yellow River Mongols. However, one of them killed Dayan Khan's son and revolted when Dayan Khan appointed his son jinong over them. Dayan Khan finally defeated the southwestern Mongols in 1510. Making his another son jinong, he abolished old-Yuan court titles of taishi and chingsang. Because the Ming Dynasty closed border-trade and killed his envoys, Dayan invaded China and subjugated the Three Guards, tributaries of the Ming.

He reorganized the Eastern Mongols into 6 tümens (literally "ten thousand") as follows.

Left Wing: Khalkha, Chahar and Uriankhai
Right Wing: Ordos, Tümed and Yöngshiyebü (including Asud and Kharchin)

They functioned both as military units and as tribal administrative bodies who hoped to receive taijis, descended from Dayan Khan. Northern Khalkha people and Uriyankhan were attached to the South Khalkha of eastern Inner Mongolia and Doyin Uriyangkhan of the Three Guards, respectively. After the rebellion of the northern Uriankhai people, they were conquered in 1538 and mostly annexed by the northern Khalkha. However, his decision to divide the Six tumens to his sons, or taijis, and local tabunangs-sons in law of the taijis created a decentralized system of Borjigin rule that secured domestic peace and outward expansion for a century. Despite this decentralization there was a remarkable concord within the Dayan Khanid aristocracy.

Decline (1540-1635)

By 1540 new regional circles of Chingisid taijis and local tabunangs (imperial son-in law) of the taijis emerged in all the former Dayan Khanid domains. The Khagan and the jinong (crown prince) had titular authority over the western 3 tumens. Darayisung Gödeng Khan (r.1547-57) had to grant titles of khans to his cousins Altan, ruling the Tumed and Bayaskhul, ruling the Kharchin. The dencentralized peace among the Mongols was based on religious and cultural unity created by Chinggisid cults.

Temple at Erdene Zuu monastery established by Abtai Khan in the Khalkha heartland in the XVI century

A series of smallpox epidemics and lack of trade forced the Mongols to repeatedly plunder the districts of China. In 1571 the Ming opened trade with the 3 Western Tumens. The large-scale conversion to Buddhism in the Three Western Tumens from 1575 on, built on the amity of the Chinggisids. Tumen Zasaghtu khan appointed a Tibetan Buddhist chaplain of the Karma-pa order. In 1580 northern Khalkha proclaimed their leading Dayan Khanid prince, Abtai Khan, a khan.

In the 17th century, the Mongols came under the influence of the Manchu, who founded the Later Jin Dynasty (Qing Dynasty). The princes of Khorchin, Jarud and southern Khalkha Mongols made a formal alliance with the Manchus from 1612 to 1624. Resenting this suborning of his subjects, Ligdan Khan, the last Khagan in Chahar, unsuccessfully attacked them in 1625. He appointed his officials over the tumens and formed an elite military band to coerce opposition. The massive rebellion broke out in 1628. The Chahar under Ligden defeated their combined armies and the Manchu auxiliary at Zhaocheng but fled a large Manchu punitive expedition. Ligden died on his way to Tibet to punish the dGe-lugs-pa order in 1634. His son, Ejei Khan, surrendered to the Manchu and gave the great seal of the Yuan Emperor to Hong Taiji the next year (February 1635), ending the Northern Yuan.

See also

• Borjigin
• List of the Emperors of the Post imperial Mongolia or the Northern Yuan
• Mongol Empire
• Yuan Dynasty