Mongol Conquerors Research Articles

Апокалипсис XIII в.: первое столкновение русских с монголами сквозь призму средневекового миропонимания

Research objective: The idea has already been expressed that the eschatological image of the Mongols of Russian annalists, recorded in the Tale of the Battle on the Kalka River of 1223, after some time, through the reports of Dominican Julian and testimony of Archbishop Peter at the Council of Lyons in 1245, influenced the apocalyptic character of the Mongols’ Great Western Campaign in Latin Europe. However, it remains unstu­died why the Russians turned to the terrifying eschatological apocrypha. In the presented study we are going to deal with this question. Research materials: The research is based on a wide range of published original and translated sources of the thirteenth–fourteenth centuries, written in Russian, Latin, French, Arabic, Persian, Syriac and Armenian, as well as the opinions of scholars expressed in literature on related fields. Results and the novelty of research: The appeal of Russian chroniclers to eschatological apocrypha is extremely rare. Before the Tale of the Battle on Kalka, the chronicler refers to the Revelations of Pseudo-Methodius only once, in a chronicle entry about the plundering of Kiev monasteries by the Cumans in 1096. Comparison of these messages, the historical background of the described events, evidence of literary texts, travel reports, chronicles and diplomatic material shows that the Russian writers took upon themselves the responsibility to make a comparison with the Last Times only when a complex of causes formed such a mosaic that it left no other explanation. At the same time, the most important role in the eschatological character of the Tale of the Battle on Kalka was not only caused by the bitterness of the defeat, the demise of many princes and warriors and the desolation of Novgorod Svyatopolchich, but also by the diplomatic rhetoric carried by the Mongol conquerors “from sea to sea”, the warlords of the khan and the people who came from the deep depths of Inner Asia to rule the whole world.

Первые вызовы русских князей к монгольским правителям: 1242–1243 годы

Research objectives: The article aims to reveal the time, circumstances and consequences of the first demands of Mongol conquerors to the main Russian princes to visit the residence of Batu. Research materials: The texts of Old Russian chronicles – Hypatian, Laurentian, First Novgorod and others, Vita of Mikhail Chernigovskiy, “History of the Mongols” by John of Plano Carpini. Results and novelty of the research: It is established that at the end of 1242 – the beginning of 1243 the demands to visit the residence of Batu (who just returned from the campaign in Central Europe) were received by all three of the strongest Russian Princes – Yaroslav Vsevolodich, Mikhail Vsevolodich and Daniil Romanovich. The decision to leave the Russian princes in their possessions at that moment was not accepted yet, and the possibility of the earlier employed Mongol regime of direct control remained. Mikhail and Daniil shied away from the visit, while Yaroslav came to Batu and received an all-Russian ‘seniority’. These events predetermined the establishment of a model of rule in Rus’ through local rulers.

АНУШ-ТЕГИН КАК ЭПОНИМ ХОРЕЗМИЙСКОЙ ДИНАСТИИ В МУСУЛЬМАНСКИХ ИСТОЧНИКАХ

In this article, the author analyzes the formation in Muslim literature of the twelfth — thirteenth centuries of the eponym of the dynasty of Khorezm rulers, whose power in this region begins in 1097 and ends in the era of the Mongol invasion. We are discussing the Anushteginid dynasty and the father of the first Khorezmshah, Qutb ad-Din Muhammad, after whom this dynasty was named by researchers. According to medieval Muslim historians, Anush-tegin or Nush-tegin Garcha/Garja himself never ruled Khorezm, but his descendants not only managed to gain a foothold in these lands, but also created one of the most powerful Muslim states of the Middle East, which was destroyed only by the Mongol conquerors. Despite the close attention to the power of the Khorezmshahs in the research environment, which has been reflected in numerous special works, to this day we do not see in Russian and foreign literature a single study devoted to the ancestor of the Anushteginid dynasty, or rather, the analysis of the description of his biography in Muslim sources. Researchers, relying mainly on reports on this subject by the historian of the first half of the thirteenth century, Ibn al-Asir, broadcast his story about Anush-tegin, often not taking into account the nature and volume of information about this eponym as part of earlier sources. We will also attempt to understand what Muslim authors of the twelfth century write about Anush-tegin, how fully his biography is reflected in these texts in comparison with ‘al-Kamil fi-t-Tarikh’ by Ibn al-Asir, and what is the specificity of their description of the biography of the ancestor of the Khorezm rulers. In addition, we will try to consider what pre-Mongol texts Ibn al-Asir and subsequent historians could rely on in their reconstructions of the history of Anush-tegin’s life and work, as well as what contradictions in this case could arise between individual authors. We hope that this work will be useful to specialists in the history of the Middle East in the pre–Mongol period, as well as to researchers of Muslim historical literature of the twelfth-thirteenth centuries.

The Thunder from the East: Batu’s Invasion in the European Medieval Book Miniatures

The article deals with the medieval book miniatures illustrating the invasion of Batu's armies in Europe in 1236–1242. Bearing in mind the postulated high symbolism of Medieval fine art, the author is interested in the figurative code of miniatures, in which the attitude of Europeans to the Mongol conquerors should be encoded. In this regard, a study of the related manuscripts, executed in different centuries, from the mid–13th to the mid–16th centuries, in the different lands of Western, Central Europe and Rus’. Somehow, despite the fact that, at first glance, these traditions are not genetically related to each other in any way, they demonstrate the same patterns of development.

Reflection of Mongolian imperial ideas in the medieval Byzantium sources

The article uses materials of Byzantine historical works of the XIII-XIV centuries to further develop the author’s work in the sphere of Imperial ideology of the medieval Mongols. The special geopolitical position of Byzantium, as well as controversies among descendants of Genghis Khan, have caused peculiarities of its relations with the Mongol Empire, and later with the states of Juchids and Khulaguids, and allowed it to remain independent. Byzantine historians described the Mongols from the position of external observers, so their information is relatively scarce, but important for understanding the goals of the Mongol conquerors in the region and their views on the world order. Analysis of information provided by George Pachymeres, Nicephorus Gregoras, and other Byzantine intellectuals suggests that the Mongol leaders demonstrated considerable flexibility in their foreign policy and did not show any claims to world domination. The sources also reproduce a number of stories concerning the Mongols, which are also known from the Christian historiography of the South Caucasus and the Middle East, in particular, they speak out the idea of nomads who invaded the cultural lands as a “scourge of God”, but they are still far from an eschatological interpretation of the Mongol invasion and do not interpret it in terms of “the whole world”. They do not express thoughts about the need to submit to this inevitable evil. Byzantine authors describe quite accurately the goals of Mongol conquest campaigns and diplomatic activities of the Mongol leaders. It can be assumed that relations between Byzantium and the Mongol states were built on an equal basis, or the Byzantine authors carefully avoided any hints of inequality in their works. The image of Genghis Khan drawn in the analyzed sources does not contain anything messianic or heroic; moreover, not all authors know who exactly was a founder of the Mongol Empire, and they attribute the leadership of Genghis Khan’s military campaigns to his descendants. Thus, the Mongol “imperialism” in the Byzantine sources is very poorly traced, which, however, does not detract from their value in reconstruction of the mental climate of the Mongol Empire and its historical successors.

Chinese Language and Confucianism as an Instrument of Mongolian Adaptation in China during Yuan Epoch (13th–14th Centuries)

The article is devoted to the topic of the acculturation of the Mongol conquerors in China after the conquest by the first heirs of Genghis Khan and the creation of the Yuan Empire — the Mongol state in China. The history of China in the 13th-14th centuries, when the country was conquered by its neighbors, is a vivid example of the relationship between a nomadic and a centuries-old sedentary ethnos. At that time, the Chinese language and the teachings of Confucius became instruments for the acculturation of the Mongols. Having conquered China, the Mongol rulers were forced to master the Chinese culture to most effectively rule the country. As a result, the Yuan era was marked by intense cultural contacts, which makes it possible to trace the changes in the objective parameters of the Chinese language. However, the Mongolian influence itself played only a complementary role in the long process of interaction of the Chinese language with the languages of the steppe peoples of Central and East Asia.

Daoists, the Imperial Cult of Sage-Kings, and Mongol Rule

Abstract This article demonstrates the central position that Daoists occupied in the representations of state power in north China under Mongol rule. In the mid-thirteenth century, Daoist Master Jiang Shanxin and his disciples, under Khubilai Khan’s patronage, actively rebuilt several temples of Confucian sage-kings in southern Shanxi province. Jiang Shanxin’s lineage was a product of dynamic interactions between the Mongol conquerors and local Chinese Daoists in which the two found common ground in sage-kings worship that had served to strengthen imperial legitimacy in previous dynasties. The strong Mongol-Daoist alliance in reordering the empire’s ritual space resulted in not just the revival of but also the creation of new ritual precedents for the Chinese imperial cult of sage-kings.

Антимонгольская коалиция Джалал ад-Дина Манкбурны и ее судьба

After the defeat of the Khorezm state in the war with the Mongols in 1219–1221, its last ruler, Jalal ad-Din Mankburny tried to gain a foothold in Northern India, but then left the region. The beginnings of his own state within Iran and the South Caucasus is accompanied by active diplomatic activity, in order to, among other things, create the coalition of various states of the Middle East and Asia Minor. Besides fighting Caliph al-Nasir for dominance in the lands of Iraq Persian, Khorezmshah was actively looking for allies to fight the Mongol threat. The author traces the fate of the anti-Mongol coalition, actively forged by Jalal ad-Din Mankburny until his death in 1231. Besides the history of this Alliance and various political leaders of the Middle East and Asia Minor participation in , the author also focuses on the confrontation with the Mongol conquerors and, as the apogee of this struggle, on the battle of Isfahan in 1227. Another important goal of this study is to identify the causes of this coalition’s collapse, the defeat of the Khorezm state after the battle of Yassa-Chamana and the death of Jalal al-Din Mankburny himself. This study is the first research, focusing on this topic in Russian Asian studies.

The Mongols and the Islamic World: From Conquest to Conversion by Peter Jackson

Reviewed by: The Mongols and the Islamic World: From Conquest to Conversion by Peter Jackson Morris Rossabi The Mongols and the Islamic World: From Conquest to Conversion by Peter Jackson. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017. Pp. xx + 614. $40.00 cloth, $40.00 e-book. One of Professor Peter Jackson's objectives in Mongols and the Islamic World is to refute outlandish assertions that have sprung up after a legitimate attempt to reevaluate the position of the Mongols in history. In the 1980s, specialists sought to offer a balanced appraisal of the Mongols rather than the popular image of savage and barbarian interlopers who devastated much of Asia. Without ignoring the massacres and destruction the Mongols engendered, scholars of their history also write about the Mongols' roles in promoting contacts among Eurasian civilizations, constructing capital cities in Daidu (or Beijing) and Tabriz, supporting the arts, and restoring the old Silk Road trade. Unlike popularizers, who actually perform very useful services, vulgarizers go beyond these interpretations, perhaps to attract wider audiences. They claim that Chinggis Khan (d. 1227) played a role in the making of the modern world, believed in religions toleration, supported women's rights, and ruled via democratic practices; Chinggis Khan allegedly transmitted his policies and practices to his descendants. Perhaps an even more extraordinary claim is that the rampages and destruction of the Mongol invasions scarcely differed in scale from the killings and damage in the contemporaneous conflicts in Europe. Such conceptions have gained currency among the general public, as well as with a few policy makers, students, and even deans of prestigious business schools. Jackson performs a signal service in demolishing these myths. He shows that the Mongol invasions were more devastating than the medieval European wars of the same time. Chinggis Khan ordered appalling massacres. When his favorite grandson died in a battle at Bamiyan, he "ordered his troops to kill every living creature and decreed that nobody should ever live there [after the city fell]" (p. 158). Both resistance and submission could lead to annihilation. On other occasions, the Mongols killed captured adult males and enslaved women and children. Bloodbaths persisted in the campaigns of Chinggis's grandson [End Page 244] Hülegü (d. 1265) in Central Asia and Iran. The Persian accounts no doubt exaggerate the figures for people killed, but after carefully sifting the evidence, Jackson labels some of the incidents as "slaughters" (pp. 157, 170). Forcible migrations of the subjugated contributed to the economic catastrophes. The battles and conquests also damaged considerable amounts of land, and the Mongol pastoralists were not careful about agricultural land. Nor were they solicitous of irrigation complexes. The economies of the regions they conquered eventually recovered, and commerce, which the Mongols favored, revived rapidly. Jackson also dispels myths concerning the Silk Road commerce. He suggests that overland trade was not always safe, and merchants and caravans still encountered perils in undertaking long-distance commerce. Conflicts among the various khanates also, on occasion, impeded such trade. Yet other researchers, citing the travels of Genoese merchants, the Nestorian Rabban Şawma (d. 1294), and Marco Polo (1254–1324), note that travel across Eurasia continued despite the hazards.1 Jackson then challenges the Mongols' vaunted policy of religious toleration. He cites numerous instances of Mongol purges directed at specific religions. The Ilkhan Ghazan (r. 1295–1304), who converted to Islam, initiated an assault on Buddhism, ordering the destruction of Buddhist images, converting Buddhist temples into mosques or madrasas, and compelling Buddhist monks to accept Islam. The Ilkhan Abū Saʾid (r. 1316–1335) destroyed Christian churches in his capital city in Tabriz. In 1280, Khubilai Khan (1215–1294), who relied on Muslims for their administrative and financial skills, nonetheless forbade circumcision, the Muslim method of slaughtering animals, and the recitation of prayers five times a day. Jackson also points out that the Mongol conquerors of West Asia burned down or damaged mosques, although, unlike the Christians in Spain and other regions, they did not convert mosques into churches. They also destroyed mausoleums, shrines, madrasas, and libraries, which housed Islamic and Christian texts. As Jackson writes, "the new masters of Asia did not simply permit the observance of all faiths...

ОПИСАНИЕ СУДЬБЫ ГОРОДОВ ХОРАСАНА И МАВЕРАННАХРА В ГОДЫ МОНГОЛЬСКОГО НАШЕСТВИЯ В АРАБО-ПЕРСИДСКИХ ГЕОГРАФИЧЕСКИХ СОЧИНЕНИЯХ

The Mongol-Khorezm war of 1219–1221 is widely considered an important milestone in the history of the Middle East, and its consequences are largely noticeable in the subsequent fate of neighboring regions. Almost the main blow from the Mongol invasion fell on the lands of Khorasan and Transoxiana, where many large and small cities fully experienced all the horrors of Genghis Khan’s army advance. The fate of these localities and their inhabitants has long been the object of researchers’ attention, but scientists are till reconstructing those events, relying mainly on the Arab-Persian historical writings of the 13th century, as well as some later written monuments. In this article, we would like to draw attention to the Arab-Persian geographical texts of the Mongol invasion era and domination in the Middle East. Such texts were relatively little used by researchers to build a picture of the Mongol-Khorezm war of 1219–1221 and especially for the analysis of what became of the cities of Khorasan and Transoxiana and their inhabitants after the invasion of the Mongol conquerors. In this study, we do not aim to analyze the entire variety of Arab-Persian geographical works of the time, but provide only individual examples in order to demonstrate the informational potential of those sources. In part, we would like to return to the problem of the fate of the inhabitants of the cities captured by the Mongols during the war with Khorezm, but more importantly, to draw attention to certain Arab-Persian geographical texts, supplementing the information of the actual historical texts, both the earliest and belonging to the corpus of the Mongol court historiography. The author hopes to stimulate research interest both to the individual works cited in this publication, and in General in Arab-Persian geographical texts.

INFORMATION ABOUT GEORGIAN KINGDOM IN THE WORK AN-NASAVI

The Khwarazmian conquest and domination within the South Caucasus had a major impact on the political history of the region, which reduced the influence of the Georgian Kingdom – the strongest political entity in these lands. Experts claim that military and political activity of Jalal ad-Din Manguberdi in this region is the main reason why he joined the Mongol Empire in 1230s’ without resisting the Mongol conquerors. One of the most valuable sources, describing the Khwarazmian invasion to the East Caucasus and the history of Jalal ad-Din Manguberdi’s empire in 1225-1231, is the work of an-Nasawi “Sirat as-sultan Jalal ad-Din Manguberdi”. This historical source is important for understanding the features of political development of the Georgian Empire as the main political opponent of the Khwarazmian kingdom. However, there has been no special study of an-Nasawi’s work as a source on the history of the Georgian kingdom nor in domestic neither in foreign oriental studies. This paper intends to analyze not only the amount of information, provided by an-Nasawi on the Kingdom of Georgia in the course of his description of the Khwarazmian conquest in the South Caucasus, but also some features of said description, and author’s characteristics. Special attention is paid to those lacunas in the description of the South Caucasus, which can be observed in an-Nasawi’s work compared to other historical sources (in the Arabic-Persian, Georgian and Armenian languages). It is equally important to understand the extent to which the author pays attention to the detailed description of the political and military opponent of Jalal ad-Din Manguberdi’s empire, which is the Kingdom of Georgia. It is also important to find out how an-Nasawi pictured and how he reflected in his work the war between Khwarazmian kingdom and the Georgian Empire: as a conflict over territories and spheres of influence or as a religious, even inter-ethnic one.

GENEALOGICAL STELES IN NORTH CHINA DURING THE JIN AND YUAN DYNASTIES

Using both long forgotten and newly available steles from North China, this article looks at these ancient monuments to explore the rise and evolution of an epigraphic practice under Jurchen and Mongol rules (1127–1368). In particular it looks at steles erected to record genealogical information (calledxianyingbeiin general) in north China during the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, which was a new usage for the stele in the area. The article's main aim is to demonstrate how cultural integration among different social strata was triggered by the invasions of the Jurchen and Mongol conquerors, which in turn led to the formation of a new and legitimate way to compile family genealogies in north China.

Further Remarks Apropos of the 'Ba'-rom-pa and the Tanguts

The 'Ba'-rom-pa subsect of the Tibetan Buddhist Bka'-brgyud-pa sect played an instrumental role in establishing the cult of Mahākāla at the court of the last Tangut emperors. The cult was a major element in ritual Tibetan Buddhist practices utilised to empower these Tangut emperors in the mundane world. It is from this tradition that the practice of propitiating Mahākāla came to be adopted by the Tangut state's Mongol conquerors. Over the last several years, a number of new sources have become available that detail aspects of the 'Ba'-rom-pa role at the Tangut court. Using them allows for a deeper understanding of the life of Ti-shrī Ras-pa, the last Tibetan imperial preceptor at that court, and of his place in the transmission of teachings that included the explicitly power-oriented Mahākāla instructions transmitted by Rtsa-mi lo-tsā-ba. These sources also cast new light on the existing accounts of the Mongol siege of the Tangut capitol, from a Tibetan perspective, and permit us to make some reasonable i...

Islamic Art (review)

120 Reviews speech in the Canterbury Tales' is less focussed as an essay, perhaps because stories about saints do not have such a primary function for Chaucer as they do for Christine de Pisan. The essay of Jo Ann McNamara, 'The need to give: suffering and female sanctity in the Middle Ages' matches that of Vauchez in breadth of scholarship and vision. She looks at the way in which communities of religious women were gradually transformed from being centres of active care-giving to being relatively impoverished communities in which women pursed a vocation of spiritual purification on behalf of the wider community. In a restrictive society, ambitious women turned to setf-imposed deprivation to continue to be the caregivers of society. The essays of John Coakley, 'Friars as confidants of holy women in medieval Dominican hagiography', Elizabeth Robertson, 'The corporeality of female sanctity in The life of Saint Margaret' and indirectly that of Richard Kieckheffer 'Holiness and the culture of devotion: remarks on some late medieval male saints' all draw attention to the differences between male and female saints. Here is a subject worthy of a volume on its own. As with so many volumes that emanate from conferences, this coUection is a mixed bag. It contains sufficient treasure, however, for it not to be missed. Constant J. M e w s Department of History Monash University Brend, Barbara, Islamic Art, London, British Museum Press, 1991; paper; pp. 240; 105 colour and 60 black and white illustrations; R.R.P. AUSS49.95 [distributed in Australia by Thames and Hudson]. Early eighth-century Islamic traditions were evolved by the architects and artists of the conquered Byzantine principalities surrounding the Mediterranean and those of the Persian Sassanid empire extending from Iraq to Central Asia. Later on, the symphony of blue and white ornamentation on tiles bonowed from the Chinese and the stone carvings of the Indians bestowed on the Islamic monuments brilliance and glamour of indescribable beauty and delicacy. The arrangements of arch forms, domes and minarets in conjunction with geometrical patterns, vegetal ornamentations and different calligraphic styles in their mosques, khanqahs (stiff monasteries) and madrasas (seminaries) were, however, dictated by their own religious needs to demonstrate the Oneness and omnipotence of the Divine Almighty. Only a few specimens of Islamic metal work, pottery, jade, jewels, ivory, arts of the book, paintings,textiles,carpet and wood carvings have survived in museums and private collections. Nevertheless they go a long way towards showing cross-cultural influences from the artistic traditions of both east and west Reviews 121 Barbara Brend in her book traces historically the period styles and individual media of Islamic art and architecture over 1200 years. Starting with the legacy of the Umayyads, who ruled from 661 to 750, and their successors the 'Abbasids, who were overthrown by the Mongol conquerors in 1258, she goes on to describe the distinctive features of Islamic art in the lands of the West (Egypt North Africa and Spain), and in the regions ruled by Turks extending from Transoxiana to Western Iran and Anatolia. Before describing the majestic tile work on the monuments of the Mongols in Tabriz, Samarqand and Shahr-i Sabz and the fourteenth and fifteenth century Persian paintings of the Mongols, who had converted to Islam, she picks up some of the architectural monuments in Aleppo and Cairo which were built by the rulers of the dynasties who ruled over Northern Mesopotamia, Syria and Egypt in the wake of the expulsion of the Crusaders from the region. She then discusses the artistic achievements of the Safavids and Qajars of Iran and those of the Ottomans both in the east and also west of the Bosphoras. Her last chapter deals with the development of Islamic art in the Indian environment under the Sultans of Delhi and the Mughal emperors. In her conclusion she points out the Western interest in Islamic patterns in passing. Barbara Brend, who is a lecturer for the British Museum and British Library, has developed a knack to explain complex artistic concepts to lay visitors. Whtie summarizing from the standard works on the subject she brings to bear upon her book her sktil of simplifying controversial issues for general...

Cremation in Sung China

DISPOSING OF THE DEAD arouses feelings of love, dread, anxiety, and pain. Despite these common human responses, different peoples learn to give form to their emotions in widely divergent ways and thus are often repelled by what others do. The Chinese abhorred some customs of their neighbors and ethnic minorities, such as the Tibetan practice of exposing corpses and the Muslim practice of burying without a coffin. They would surely have been just as horrified by the medieval European practice of dividing bodies. Europeans in China were often made uncomfortable by the northern Chinese practice of keeping encoffined bodies in the courtyard for decades or the southeastern Chinese practice of exhuming bodies after a few years to clean the bones and place them in urns. These culturally constructed emotional responses to the handling of the dead body do not change easily. In the summer of 1988, the Chinese press carried articles showing that the government had not yet succeeded in its forty-year campaign to replace burial with cremation. For instance, the five children of a deputy chairman of a county party committee had within two days of his death buried him in a hillside grave that took up ninety square meters. They did this although party leaders had tried to keep them from removing the body from the hospital and had then visited their home to insist on cremation. After five weeks of pressure from many party and government officials, the family relented, and the water-logged coffin was exhumed as several hundred villagers watched.' In this essay, I examine a counter-example in the history of Chinese mortuary practice, a case in which customs did change. Beginning in the tenth century, many people willingly gave up the long-established custom of burying bodies in coffins to follow the practice introduced by Buddhist monks of cremating bodies and either scattering the ashes over water, storing them in urns aboveground, or burying the urn in a small grave. Throughout the native Sung (960-1297) dynasty and its successor, the alien Yuan (1215-1368) dynasty founded by the Mongol conquerors, cremation flourished despite strong objections on the part of the state and the Confucian-educated elite.2 Historians of the West have shown that changes in

Cremation in Sung China

DISPOSING OF THE DEAD arouses feelings of love, dread, anxiety, and pain. Despite these common human responses, different peoples learn to give form to their emotions in widely divergent ways and thus are often repelled by what others do. The Chinese abhorred some customs of their neighbors and ethnic minorities, such as the Tibetan practice of exposing corpses and the Muslim practice of burying without a coffin. They would surely have been just as horrified by the medieval European practice of dividing bodies. Europeans in China were often made uncomfortable by the northern Chinese practice of keeping encoffined bodies in the courtyard for decades or the southeastern Chinese practice of exhuming bodies after a few years to clean the bones and place them in urns. These culturally constructed emotional responses to the handling of the dead body do not change easily. In the summer of 1988, the Chinese press carried articles showing that the government had not yet succeeded in its forty-year campaign to replace burial with cremation. For instance, the five children of a deputy chairman of a county party committee had within two days of his death buried him in a hillside grave that took up ninety square meters. They did this although party leaders had tried to keep them from removing the body from the hospital and had then visited their home to insist on cremation. After five weeks of pressure from many party and government officials, the family relented, and the water-logged coffin was exhumed as several hundred villagers watched.' In this essay, I examine a counter-example in the history of Chinese mortuary practice, a case in which customs did change. Beginning in the tenth century, many people willingly gave up the long-established custom of burying bodies in coffins to follow the practice introduced by Buddhist monks of cremating bodies and either scattering the ashes over water, storing them in urns aboveground, or burying the urn in a small grave. Throughout the native Sung (960-1297) dynasty and its successor, the alien Yuan (1215-1368) dynasty founded by the Mongol conquerors, cremation flourished despite strong objections on the part of the state and the Confucian-educated elite.2 Historians of the West have shown that changes in

The Re-Evaluation of Chinggis Khan: Its Role in the Sino-Soviet Dispute

The history of Mongolian nation current in world has not been written by Mongols, but by unsympathetic aliens who were directly or indirectly victims of Mongol conquerors. Traditionally, in China, Mongols have had a bad press, and more recently Russians have been particularly bitter in castigating Chinggis Khan and Mongol Empire. In west also a re-'evaluation of of Chinggis Khan in world history is long overdue. For decades past, Mongolian Communist Party maintained a negative attitude toward Mongol national hero. Today stands in a very delicate position between People's Republic of China and Soviet Union. The of Chinggis Khan in history is one of many points of contention between Moscow and Peking, and recently a re-evaluation of Chinggis Khan has occurred in both Russian sphere of Outer and Chinese sphere of Inner Mongolia, but with differing reactions in both places. Generally, Chinggis Khan has been condemned by Marxists as the chief of a fuedal clique who obstructed development of Mongolian people and whose role in world history was that of an imperialist. More recently, he has been appraised by Mongolian scholars in both Inner and Outer and by those in exile as having played a constructive as the builder of a united Mongolia and a distinguished statesman who contributed to development of Mongolian culture in areas of law, literature and so forth. Re-evaluation of Chinggis Khan in Mongolian People's Republic The particular occasion which prompted re-evaluation of Chinggis Khan, as well as controversy and purge that ensued thereafter, was 800th anniversary of birth of Mongol hero.' Since there is a strong sense of nationalism among Mongols, it was no surprise that such a re-evaluation should emerge even in face of Russian sensitivities on problem. Factors which facilitated this development were moderation of Soviet policy in Outer in conjunction with de-

The Role of the Military in Chinese Government

ONE of the significant differences which distinguish good governments from bad is the subordination of military power to political power and of military personnel to political personnel. The military mind tends to be narrow and irresponsible. Militarists may be experts, but their expertise often prevents them from giving due weight to interests other than military. Military power, unless kept in its proper place, usually runs amok and takes the whole country with it. Up to very recent times, China was signally free from military domination. The strength of the civilian tradition in Chinese government may be illustrated by some of the greatest military upheavals of the last seven centuries. The Mongol conquerors who founded the Yuan Dynasty never rid themselves of the military nature of their organization. Weakness soon followed their initial successes and persisted throughout the dynasty-a short one of barely three generations. Benefiting by the experiences of the Yuan, the Ming and the Manchu founding emperors, although all of them were primarily military-minded, installed civilian regimes as soon as their conquests had ended. It was due to the strength of the tradition of civilian rule that some of the greatest military commanders of the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties were in origin scholars, who, when their campaigns were over, at once resumed civilian status.' The misfortune of modern China is that, at the time of the multitude of paper reforms which enshrouded the country in the first decade of this century, she should have entertained a serious liking for the military institutions of Prussia and Japan. The Prussian tradition had been adopted wholeheartedly by the receptive Japanese samurai when the Japanese looked to the West for instruction. When the time came for China to look abroad, she adopted the military institutions of Japan and Germany.