China Through the Ages: History of a Civilization by Franz Michael

Author:Franz Michael [Michael, Franz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, Asia
ISBN: 9780865317253
Google: eERwAAAAMAAJ
Publisher: Avalon Publishing
Published: 1986-11-03T07:03:57+00:00

Eleven

The Mongol Empire

STEPPE SOCIETY WAS always mercurial. The nomad life of constant movement from summer to winter pastures and back again demanded capable leadership for organized migration by whole communities. Clashes over pasture rights were common. The nomads were armed people; the leader who could guarantee protection as well as conquest could rapidly increase his following; conversely, if he failed, his following would break up. This importance of leadership and its success in warfare can explain the rapidity with which steppe empires rose and fell apart.

The Mongol empire, the greatest of these steppe empires and the largest of all land empires in history, was forged by one leader in a few decades through the unification of all the steppe people in Central Asia under one clan. The empire was created in one generation; it broke apart two generations later, first splitting into four separate empires, each of which collapsed when its military cohesion ended.

These steppe empires depended on relationships to the settled agricultural world across their economic and political frontiers. Whether by trade or tribute, a regular exchange of animals and animal products in return for grain, textiles, and the work of craftsmen complemented the economies and life-styles of the nomadic and the sedentary societies in time of peace. When the steppe tribes were divided and the government of the sedentary world of China was strong, Chinese dynasties could reach out into the steppe and dominate the tribal groups. When the dynastic rule in China was weak or disintegrating, and steppe societies were united, nomad conquerors could invade China and set up their conquest dynasties over Chinese society. Neither side could change the other's economy or polity: The steppe remained tribal; China, bureaucratic, though they affected and influenced each other.

The Northern Chinese empires of the Khitan-Liao, the Tangut-Hsi Hsia, and the Jurchen-Chin could be called "amphibious" empires. Half their states and indeed their roots were in their nomad steppe or forest origins and the other half in their acculturated Chinese civilization. They had moved into China not only by conquest, but also by administrative transformation. They had mastered Chinese government and administrative methods, had taken Chinese officials into their political structure, and had learned and come to profess Chinese political ideology. Even though these empires had embraced Buddhism, the Confucian concepts of sanction for authority of the ruler and the standards of officialdom had become a mainstay of their polity. The more Chinese they had become, the better the chance of their successful rule over Chinese people and their territory. The chief danger to their rule came from across the frontier, from new waves of tribal people who in their turn were attracted by the high rewards of conquest of Chinese territory.

The Mongol case was altogether different. The Mongols were steppe people par excellence; they detested agricultural labor for themselves and believed in the freer life of the steppe, of animal husbandry, and of the warrior. Their primary goal was the creation of a great steppe empire that would extend its conquests in all directions to neighboring countries.

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