History of Mongolia - Mongol Period - The Forty and The Four

The Forty and The Four

By 1368 the Mongols who established the Yuan Dynasty a century ago had been expelled from China to Mongolia. The Mongol regime after this time until the 17th century is often referred to as the Northern Yuan Dynasty, or the Forty and the Four (Дөчин дөрвөн хоёр), meaning the forty Tumens of the Mongols and the four Tumens of the Oirats. A long period of feudal separatism and rivalry for the Khaan's throne started in Mongolia by the early 15th century. The military strength of the Mongols during the Yuan dynasty was that they were able to mobilise an army of 400,000 warriors (40 tumens). Assuming that an average household consisted of 4 people and every adult man was a warrior, it can be estimated that the Mongol population in the Yuan Dynasty counted at least 1,600,000 people. However, the amount of 40 tumens remained only in the name of the Mongols after the fall of the Yuan Dynasty as only 6 tumens were able to retreat to Mongolia and the remaining 34 tumens were lost to the Chinese Ming Dynasty. These 6 tumens were grouped into the 3 tumens of the left wing ruled by Khaan of Mongolia and the 3 tumens of the right wing ruled by Jinong, vassal of the Khaan.

The Oirats constituted another 4 tumens. They stayed in Mongolia proper during the Yuan Dynasty and sided Ariq Böke, Kaidu and Nayan in their anti-Kublai struggle. By the 15th century the Oirats occupied the Altay Mountains region. The Oirats were ruled by a Taishi who was a vassal of the Khaan.

The first half of the 15th century saw a rivalry of Oirat Taishis for the throne of the Khaan and the second half of the 15th century saw a separatist movement of the Taishis in the right wing tumens. Togoon Taishi of Oirat eventually increased his power in the Mongol court and these achievements were tightened under his successor Esen Taishi. Mongolia was effectively unified under the power of the Oirat Taishi. Esen Taishi led active diplomatic exchanges with Ming China to achieve favourable trading conditions. When diplomacy failed to reach the goal, he led a military campaign in 1449, in which a 500,000 Ming army was defeated by a 20,000 Oirat army, the Ming Emperor was captured and Beijing was besieged. Shortly after this event Esen Taishi defeated the nominal Khaan Togtobuh in their conflict and became a self-declared Khaan. During his retreat, Togtobuh was caught and assassinated by his ex-father-in-law for an earlier humiliation of his daughter as she was divorced and returned to her parents. The reign of Esen Taishi was short, less than a year—his rivals rebelled and overthrew him in 1454.

Mongolia was once again unified under queen Mandukhai the Wise and Batmönkh Dayan Khaan, who subdued the Taishis. Queen Manduhai defeated the Oirats when Batmönkh was still a child. Later Batmönkh subdued the Taishis of the right wings as they refused to accept a suzereign over them—son of Dayan Khaan sent there as a Jinong. After this event, Batmönkh moved his residence from Khalkha to Chaharia, to a proxime neighbourhood to the right wings for tighter control over them. Since then, the Khaans of Mongolia resided in Chaharia up to 1634. The left wing tumens under Dayan Khaan were Khalkha, Chaharia and Urianhai, and the right wing tumens were Ordos/Tümed, Yunshiyebu and Kharchin/Khorchin.

Dayan Khaan was succeeded by Bodi Alagh Khaan whose power was however assumed by his uncle Bars Bolud Jinong as a regent due to the Khaan's young age. As he grew up, Bodi Alagh claimed back his throne and the Jinong yielded.

During the reign of Darayisung Gödeng Khaan and his successor Tümen Jasagtu Khaan, the right wings rose in the 16th century under a local lord Altan (son of Bars Bolad Jinong) who assumed the title of Khan. In order to maintain the unity of the country by peaceful means, Tümen Jasagtu Khaan initiated a Representative government with equal participation of the representatives of the left and right wings. The right wings rivalled with the Oirats for possession of Kukunor (Qinghai and Altan Khan, who appointed his son as a ruler of Kukunor, defeated the Oirats in 1552. Altan Khan attacked Ming China, but he stopped the raids in 1571, and signed a peace treaty with the Ming court. To achieve favourable conditions in the peace treaty with the Ming Dynasty, Altan Khan occasionally threatened that he may ally with Tümen Khaan to attack China. Altan Khan established the city of Hohhot in 1557. Hutuhtai Secen Hongtaiji of Ordos defeated the Torghuts at the river Irtysh around 1560s.

Abtai, the ruler of Khalkha, conquered the Oirats in 1570s, but the latter rebelled in 1588. The Oirats, in turn, were busy in struggle with Moghulistan for trade routes.

Tümen Jasagtu Khaan was succeeded by Buyan Sechen Khaan who claimed having possessed the "seal of the ancient Taizong Khaan". Buyan's grandson Legdan ascended the throne in 1603. He initiated translation of major Buddhist scriptures into the Mongolian language. By his time, the authority of the Mongolian Khaan had declined to such a degree that Legdan Hutuhtu Khaan came to be known as "Khaan of Chaharia". The failure of his attempts of unification of Mongolia by peaceful means led him to shift to forceful methods. However, this in turn alienated the local lords of Inner Mongolia from him even farther.

The striving of the Mongols to improve their life led naturally to an increase in the number of their livestock. In the extensive livestock husbandry, on which the medieval Mongolian economy was based, an excess number of livestock required either expansion of the pastures, which may imply conquest of new territories, or exchange of the excess animals and livestock products for products of settled civilisations unavailable in the unsophisticated Mongolian economy. For example, they would be able to wear clothes made of hides and wool in cold seasons, but would certainly need clothes from silk or light fabric in summer. However, the ban on trade with the Mongols by the Ming administration was a reason for armed conflicts. Moreover, there were frequent attempts to offer low prices for the livestock products or to supply low quality reject goods to the Mongols. Thus in protest, there were cases that Mongol traders burned their reject Chinese purchases in front of the Ming officials during the rule of Esen. Also the Ming administration often issued extremely low import quotas for trade. They banned selling metal products to the Mongols in suspicion that metal would be remoulded into weapons; however, metal products such as kettles were vitally important in the every day life of the herders.

Cities in Mongolia were completely destroyed during Chinese raids in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. Thus there was no division of labour between urban and rural economies that was characteristic in other cultures. Some attempts of diversification of the economy were undertaken in the 16th and 17th centuries in peripheral Mongol domains but not in Northern Khalkha. Thus Altan Khan made Chinese grow grain around the city of Hohhot. Erdeni Batur Hongtaiji attempted to develop cereal and horticulture production in Dzungaria using imported Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Chinese and Taranchis. However, these initiatives mainly or exclusively served the ruling classes and the mass of the Mongol commoners received little or no benefit from them.

By the end of the 16th century, several Khanlyk dynasties developed in Khalkha. As Dayan Khaan divided Mongolia to his 11 sons, Northern Khalkha (approximately the territory of modern Mongolia) was given to his youngest son Gersenz Hongtaiji and Southern Khalkha was given to Alchibolad. Northern Khalkha was further divided to Gersenz's 7 sons. The most powerful of Gersenz's grandchildren Abtai received the title of Khan from the Dalai Lama, and his son Eriyehii Mergen Khan founded the dynasty of the Tushiyetu Khans, who ruled the central heartland of Northern Khalkha. Greatgrandson of Gersenz Sholoi solicited the title of Khan from Dalai Lama during his visit to Tibet and initiated the dynasty of Secen Khans in the east of Khalkha. Another great-grandson of Gersenz Laihur assumed the title of Khan and his son Sumbadai founded the dynasty of the Zasagtu Khans ruling the west of Northern Khalkha. Laihur's cousin Ubashi Hongtaiji separated from the Zasagtu Khan and initiated the dynasty of Altyn Khans of Khotgoid. The title Altyn Khan was given to him by the Russian authorities.

In the beginning of the 17th century, the Khoshut tribe of Oirat migrated to Kukunor and Torghuts migrated to the basin of the river Volga becoming the Kalmyks. Khara Khula of Choros clan unified the Oirats by 1630s and his son Erdeni Batur Hongtaiji established the Zunghar Khanate in 1634. The title of Hongtaiji was given to him by Dalai Lama.