The Üjümüčin Office for Astral Divination at the Mongol Court and the Western Asian Astrologers

Abstract

The period of the Mongol Yuan dynasty was one of the renaissance of commercial and cultural exchange along the Silk Road. One of the factors in the exchange was the transmission of astral science from the Arabic and Persian world into Yuan China. This paper deals with a less known facet of this exchange the transformation of the experts in the astral science and horoscopy into tribes within Mongol society following the demise of the Yuan dynasty. After the fall of the Yuan, the descendants of the Persian and Arab astrologers evolved into the tribe known as the Üjümüčin. The word Üjümüčin derives from the older Mongol üjemerčin (兀翻慅兒榍), a translation of the Chinese term “yin yang”, originally implying “astrologers”. This process of transformation of the western Asian “astrologers” into a nomadic tribal group is one characteristic example of the cultural exchanges and transformations along the Silk Road.