The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire (43 page)

Mongol capital at Beijing
Khubilai Khan built his new imperial capital at the place now occupied by Beihai Park in central Beijing. The Mongols and most foreigners called it Khan Baliq, but the Chinese, who were forbidden to speak Mongolian, called it Tatu.

Orghina Khatun
Rene Grousset,
The Empire of the Steppes
, translated by Naomi Walford (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997).

he seized the courts
Rashid al-Din,
The Successors of Genghis Khan
, translated by John Andrew Boyle (New York: Columbia University Press).

“It was a large tent”
Ata-Malik Juvaini,
Genghis Khan: The History of the World-Conqueror
, translated by J. Boyle (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997).

“The master craftsmen”
Rashid al-Din,
Rashiduddin Fazullah’s
Jami’u’t-Tawarikh:
Compendium of Chronicles
, translated by W. M. Thackson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Department of Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1998).

“she went around like a boy”
Rashid al-Din,
Rashiduddin Fazullah’s
Jami’u’t-Tawarikh.

“make a dash”
Marco Polo,
The Travels of Marco Polo: The Complete Yule-Cordier Edition
, vol. 1, translated by Henry Yule (New York: Dover, 1993).

“People choose bays”
Rashid al-Din,
Successors of Genghis Khan
.

“Many a man fell” Travels of Marco Polo
.

acted like a man
Hansgerd Göckenjan and James R. weeney,
Der Mongolensturm: Berichte von Augenzeugen und Zeitgenossen 1235–1250
(Graz: Verlag Styria, 1985).

Mongol princess
Gian Andri Bezzola,
Die Mongolen in Abendländischer Sicht: 1220–1270
(Bern, Switzerland: Francke Verlag, 1974).

Spalato Der Mongolensturm
.

many women fought Ibid.

“young and handsome” Travels of Marco Polo. 122
“When both had taken”
Ibid.

Numerous reports maintain
Michal Biran,
Qaidu Khan and the Rise of the Independent Mongol State in Central Asia
(Richmond, UK: Curzon, 1997).

incestuous relationship
Rashid al-Din,
Rashiduddin Fazullah’s
Jami’u’t-Tawarikh.

“She chose him herself”
Ibid.

Qaidu Khan decided to try a deception… “illness into dysentery”
Ibid.

He was buried… “stirring up sedition and strife” Ibid.

Novel Walther Heissig, “Tracing Some Oral Mongol Motifs in a Chinese Prosimetric Ming Novel of 1478,”
Asian Folklore Studies
53 (1996): 238. The novel was titled
Hua Guan Suo zhuan
(The Story of Hua Guan Suo).

“When our great ancestor”
Hidehiro Okada, “Dayan Khan as Yüan Emperor: The Political Legitimacy in 15th Century Mongolia,”
Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient
81 (1994): 51.

Divine Demon Dancing Girls … “place full of obscenity”
George Qingzhi Zhao,
Marriage as Political Strategy and Cultural Expression
(New York: Peter Lang, 2008).

Erdeni-yin Tobci Geschichte der Ost-Mongolen und ihres Fürstenhauses, verfasst von Ssanang Ssetsen Chungtaidschi der Ordus
, translated by Isaac Jacob Schmidt (Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1820).

Altan Tobci
The version most often used in this book is the bilingual Mongolian-English edition, Charles Bawden, trans.,
The Mongol Chronicle Altan Tobŭi
(Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1955).

Erdeni-yin Tobci
The version most often used in this book is the bilingual Mongolian-German edition prepared by command of the Russian tsar Alexander II in 1827 and published two years later as the first Mongolian book translated into a European language.
Geschichte der Ost-Mongolen und ihres Fürstenhauses, verfasst von Ssanang Ssetsen Chungtaidschi der Ordus
, translated by Isaac Jacob Schmidt (Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1829).

killed the last ruling descendant of Khubilai Khan
Hidehiro Okada, “Mongol Chronicles and Chinggisid Genealogies,”
Journal of Asian and African Studies
27 (1984): 151.

the ceremony Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-
Tawarikh:
Compendium of Chronicles
, translated by W. M. Thackson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Department of Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1998).

“She is the wife of your son”
The
Altan Tobŭi
identifies her as the son’s wife, but the
Erdene-yin Tobŭi
identifies her as the wife of Elbeg’s brother. The two accounts are not necessarily in disagreement since “son” and “younger brother” are often used interchangeably for junior males in the same clan. The account here combines the two texts.

friendly access to senior women
Lawrence Krader,
Social Organization of the Mongol-Turkic Pastoral Nomads
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1963).

Even to bring milk
Hidehiro Okada, “Outer Mongolia in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,”
Journal of Asian and African Studies
5 (1972): 70.

dead rabbit
In a Tibetan chronicle, the source of the khan’s problem is a monkey spirit that then led him astray. The story was presented seemingly as an excuse to denounce women and the men who love them. Georg Huth, trans.,
Geschichte des Buddhismus in der Mongolei: Aus dem Tibetischen des Jigs-med nam-mk’a
(Strassburg: Karl J. Trübner, 1892).

“when a khan behaves like a commoner”
Hidehiro Okada, “The Bilig Literature in Chinggis Qaran-u Cadig,”
Mongolica
6 (1995): 459.

Elbeg Khan was about to commit a crime … The turmoil resulting from the Great Khan’s terrible deeds
The quotes combine the accounts given in the
Altan Tobŭi
§ 3–65, and the
Erdeni-yin Tobŭi
.

“It is told”
W. M. Thackson, trans.,
Mirza Haydar Dughlat’s
Tarikh-I-Rashide:
A History of the Khans of Moghulistan
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1996).

important titles
Frederick W. Mote, “The T’u-mu Incident of 1449,”
Chinese Ways in Warfare
, edited by Frank A. Kierman Jr. and John K. Fairbank (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974).

“If it is a girl… It is a girl.” Altan Tobŭi
§ 95.

“Do you already begin to fear”
Henry H. Howorth,
History of the Mongols from the 9th to the 19th Century
(London: Longmans, Green, 1876).

“dragged his body up into a tree”
Ibid. The killing of Esen was placed in the year 1452 in
Erdeni-yin Tobŭi
, but in 1454 in the Ming records.

Beg-Arslan
was also known as Begerisün, Birirsen, Begersen, Begersün, Bigirsen, and Pai-chia-ssu-lan.

He “stayed absent from” her
Charles Bawden, trans.,
The
Mongol Chronicle Altan Tobŭi
(Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1955), § 93.

“elder brother” Altan Tobŭi, §
85.

deel
embroidered with gold
Ibid., § 100.

“If I receive”
Igor de Rachewiltz, trans.,
The Secret History of the Mongols
(Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2004), § 238.

“In the blue sky”
Quote adapted from the translation of Gombojab Hangin, “The Mongolian Titles Jinong and Sigejin,”
Journal of the American Oriental Society
100 (1980): 256.

“in peace and harmony” Erdeni-yin Tobci
as compiled by Isaac Jacob Schmidt in
Geschichte der Ost-Mongolen und ihres Fürstenhauses, verfasst von Ssanang Ssetsen Chungtaidschi der Ordus
(Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1829).

“They declared themselves sworn friends and loved each other” Secret History
, § 117.

disguised as Mongol bandits
Frederick W. Mote, “The Ch’eng-hua and Hung-chih Reigns, 1465–1505,” in
The Cambridge History of China
, vol. 7,
The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644, Part I
, edited by Frederick W. Mote and Denis Twitchett (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988).

“They marry by succession their stepmothers”
Henry Serruys,
The Mongols and Ming China: Customs and History
(London: Variourum Reprints, 1987).

“The houses of the Tartars”
Edward Gibbon,
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
(London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1910).

female in-law had a senior position
Lawrence Krader,
Social Organization of the Mongol-Turkic Pastoral Nomads
(Blooming-ton: Indiana University Press, 1963).

Ismayil confronted the Great Khan Erdeni-yin Tobci
.

“I myself am not in good health … the khan became
enraged”
Charles Bawden, trans.,
The Mongol Chronicle Altan Tobŭi
(Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1955), § 98.

Jamuka
Igor de Rachewiltz, trans.,
The Secret History of the Mongols
(Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2004), § 201.

“Have I enmity towards your kin?” Altan Tobŭi
, § 98.

the prince began to style himself as the Great Khan
Chinese reports assert that Bayan Mongke claimed the title of Bayan Mongke Khan this time rather than Bolkhu Jinong, but few people recognized the young man’s change of title. According to the
Erdeni-yin Tobci
, he held the title for two years, but Mongolian lists of Great Khans rarely include his name.

that he might escape Altan Tobŭi
, §§ 99–100.

“I will not go to you” … “the right to speak to me this way” Altan Tobŭi, §
102.

sickness
Charles Bawden, trans.,
The Mongol Chronicle Altan Tobŭi
(Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1955), § 101;
hunchback-like growth: Erdeni-yin Tobci
.

“there was suffering”
Johan Elverskog,
The Jewel Translucent Sutra: Altan Khan and the Mongols in the Sixteenth Century
(Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2003), lines 45–48.

“O God! O Sky! O Earth!”
Rashid al-Din,
Rashiduddin Fazullah’s
Jami’u’t-Tawarikh:
Compendium of Chronicles
, translated by W. M. Thackson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Department of Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1998).

“Queen Manduhai the Good”
Charles Bawden, trans.,
The Mongol Chronicle Altan Tobŭi
(Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1955), § 101.

“The Queen has no helmet”
Ibid., § 102.

“When it was wet”
Igor de Rachewiltz, trans.,
The Secret History of the Mongols
(Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2004), § 214.

“protected her jewel-like son”
Johan Elverskog,
The Jewel Translucent Sutra: Altan Khan and the Mongols in the Sixteenth Century
(Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2003), lines 45–64.

They sometimes imported horses
Denis Twitchett and Tilemann Grimm, “The Cheng-t’ung, Ching t’ai, and T’ien-shun Reigns, 1436–1464,” in
The Cambridge History of China
, vol. 7,
The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644, Part I
, edited by Frederick W. Mote and Denis Twitchett (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988).

The instability of the horse trade
Morris Rossabi, “The Ming and Inner Asia,” in ibid.,
Part II
–55.

True civilization for the Chinese
Hidehiro Okada, “China as a Successor State to the Mongol Empire,” in
The Mongol Empire and Its Legacy
, edited by Reuven Amitai-Preiss and David O. Morgan (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1999).

five types of bait
Ying-shih Yü,
Trade and Expansion in Han China
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967).

Wang Yue proposed
Alastair Iain Johnston,
Cultural Realism: Strategic Culture and Grand Strategy in Chinese History
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995).

“to dare to penetrate”
Ibid.

“I braved the snow”
Yuan-Chu Lam, “Memoir on the Campaign Against Turfan: An Annotated Translation of Hsü Chin’s
P’ing-fan shih-mo
written in 1503,”
Journal of Asian History
42 (1990): 159.

“When the unfortunate Mongols”
Dimitrii Pokotilov,
History of the Eastern Mongols During the Ming Dynasty from 1368–1634
, translated by Rudolf Leowenthal (Chengtu: Chinese Cultural Studies Research Institute, West China Union University, 1947).

he sighed in regret
Denis Twitchett and Frederick W. Mote, eds.,
The Cambridge History of China
, vol. 7,
The Ming Dynasty
,
1368–1644, Part I
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988).

pornography
Ibid.

“thirsty for its tastiness”
The butter soup story is from Charles Bawden, trans.,
The Mongol Chronicle Altan Tobŭi
(Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1955), §§ 109–10.

“If a piece of food is given”
Giovanni DiPlano Carpini,
The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars
, translated by Erik Hildinger (Boston: Branden, 1996).

“Why is the ground shaking?”
Most of the material in this chapter is taken from Charles Bawden, trans.,
The Mongol Chronicle Altan Tobŭi
(Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1955), §§ 107–88.

incense holders Erdeni-yin Tobci
, as compiled by Isaac Jacob Schmidt in
Geschichte der Ost-Mongolen und ihres Fürstenhauses, verfasst von Ssanang Ssetsen Chungtaidschi der Ordus
, (Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1829).

“It is necessary to accept hard and inconvenient advice”
Walther Heissig, “A Contribution to the Knowledge of Eastmongolian Folkpoetry,”
Folklore Studies
9 (1950): 158.

she died soon thereafter
Siker died at Seremeger on the Sira Mören.
Altan Tobŭi
, § 109.

“the government was rectified and humanity was united” Altan Tobŭi
, §123.

“peace, unity and prosperity spread throughout all the people.” Erdeni-yin Tobci
.

“give us gold, silver, and silk”
Talat Tekin,
A Grammar of Orkhon Turkic
, Uralic and Altaic Series, vol. 69 (Bloomington: Indiana University Publications, 1968).

Tonyukuk
Talat Tekin, Ibid.

“He has come saying he will rule our country” Altan Tobŭi
, §113.

“May you heaven” Altan Tobŭi
, §114.