#xi xia

[moononmyfloor]

Homage to Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage in Young Blood 2 (大宋少年志2)

From the show's Weibo

Western Xia Bald hairstyle, Taoist Lotus Crown, Men wearing zanhua, Song dynasty pearl makeup and Su embroidery

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More posts by me

[thejackmeister-mongolhistory]

CHINGGIS KHAN AND GURBELCHIN-GOA, 1227

One of the most infamous stories around the death of Chinggis Khan was that relating to the Tangut princess Gurbelchin. Popular in 16th-18th century Mongol accounts (so nothing contemporary to his death), the story goes that after defeating the Tangut Kingdom (in modern Gansu and Ningxia, northwestern China), Chinggis Khan took the wife or daughter of the Tangut King to be his concubine. Gurbelchin (meaning 'lizard-like beauty,' I am told) was said to be extraordinarily beautiful, taking the Khan off guard. She was however, as beautiful as she was angry with Chinggis Khan for the destruction of her people, and she vowed her revenge. What followers normally takes two variations: she convinces the Mongols to let her bathe alone, or with Tangut attendants, before she has to sleep with the Khan, and uses this as an opportunity to smuggle a knife or piece of metal into the ger with her. After sleeping with him, she uses the hidden weapon to kill or critically injure Chinggis, then escaping and flinging herself into the Yellow River. In the other, much for graphic version, she hides the piece of metal within her sexual organ, and when Chinggis Khan goes to perform intercourse with her, he suffers an horrific injury to his member. Many Mongols today consider this version to be a story spread by the non-Chinggisid Oirats to humiliate the Khan's memory. For more on this, and versions of Chinggis Khan's death, see my video on it here: https://youtu.be/hzhY3accFZM

[picturesofchina]

An Imperial tomb of the Western Xia dynasty near Yinchuan, Ningxia

[thejackmeister-mongolhistory]

FALL OF THE TANGUT, 1227

The Tangut Kingdom (the Xi Xia Dynasty) had submitted to the Mongol Empire in early 1210 after a short invasion, and spent some years fighting alongside their new masters against the Jin Dynasty. But, internal resentment at serving the Mongols, the expensive warfare and then Mongol demands to send troops to aid in the Mongol invasion of Khwarezm led to the Tangut seeking peace with the Jin Dynasty in 1223, while Chinggis Khan was absent in Central Asia. When Chinggis Khan returned to Mongolia in 1225, he gave the Tangut a chance to save themselves, by sending a royal hostage to reaffirm their vassalage. In most accounts, the Tangut fail to comply, although a few surviving Tangut documents describe them sending the Tangut King's young heir, who was promptly killed by the Mongols. Nevertheless, Chinggis ordered an invasion of the Tangut Kingdom, departing Mongolia at the end of 1225 and arriving in Xi Xia in early 1226. Swiftly but methodically, the Tangut Kingdom was overrun, their cities and districts falling one by one, leaving their capital, Zhongxing (modern Yinchuan) isolated. As Zhongxing was invested, Chinggis Khan fell ill, and would succumb to illness in late August 1227 most likely in the Liupan mountains. His final orders were to keep his death a secret until after the fall of the Tangut capital, to ensure his death would not give the defenders renewed heart. The final Tangut King submitted in July or August 1227, and upon exiting the capital (perhaps making his way to Chinggis' camp, where he was left standing outside the Khan's ger for three days), was killed, and Zhongxing sacked. Thus, the Tangut Kingdom died alongside Chinggis Khan, a great bloody send off for history's greatest conqueror. You can learn more about the fall of the Tangut Kingdom in my recent video on the topic: youtu.be/ruyFqgY4Jog

[thejackmeister-mongolhistory]

The Secret History of the Mongols: Fall of the Tangut

Continuing our series on both primary sources and coverage on the Tangut Xi Xia, in this video we spend some time with the Secret History of the Mongols,  and look at how the Mongols remembered the fall of this enemy. Included is its helpful description of Chinggis Khan's own demise! 

 The Mongol Destruction of the Tangut Kingdom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruyFq... 

 Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/jackmeister 

 SECRET HISTORY TRANSLATIONS AND SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS:

 The Secret History of the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century. Translated by Igor de Rachewiltz. Edited by John C. Street. University of Wisconsin: Madison, 2015 https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.... See Chapter 12, page 185/section 265. The Secret History is generally quoted by section rather than page number, but in these videos I use the page number as I figure it's easier for people to track that down. de Rachewiltz's translation is essentially the gold standard. This free edition does not include his extensive commentary, unfortunately, but still serves as a reliable and faithful companion.

 The Secret History of the Mongols: For the First Time Done into English and out of the Original Tongue and Provided with an Exegetical Commentary. Translated by Francis Woodman Cleaves. London: Harvard University Press, 1982. http://altaica.ru/SECRET/cleaves_shI.pdf  Probably the translation I'd least recommend, a difficult and hard to read version 

 The Secret History of the Mongols: The Origin of Chingis Khan (Expanded Edition) An adaption of the Yüan Ch’ao Pi Shih, Based Primarily on the English Translation by Francis Woodman Cleaves. Translated by Francis Woodman Cleaves. Cheng and Tsui Company: Boston, 1984. https://books.google.ca/books?id=GKCt...  an adapted and edited version of Cleaves' translation. This isn't quite the full text, but provides some background and a comparison to the other editions.

 The Secret History of the Mongols: The Life and Times of Chinggis Khan. Translated by Urgunge Onon. RoutledgeCurzon Press: Abingdon, 2001. https://jigjids.files.wordpress.com/2... and_times_of_chinggis_khan1.pdf.  Perhaps the most readable translation, Onon is a native Mongolian speaker whose particular dialect (Da'ur) is closest to the 13th century Mongolian. He provides more notes than the other open access versions (not nearly as much of de Rachewiltz's full version though). 

 A part of de Rachewiltz's notes to the Secret History provided by Google Books: https://books.google.ca/books?id=zfKB... 

 Links to transliterations of the Secret History into Mongolian (in latin alphabet), and some translations in Chinese, Bulgarian, Czech, Russian and French: http://altaica.ru/e_SecretH.php 

 For those of you really in the mood for a challenge, here's the first chapter in Middle Mongolian, written phonetically in Chinese characters (the only version which survived to the modern day was written in that manner: bless the poor souls who translated that!) while also transcribed in traditional Mongol script, alongside romanizations of both.  http://www.linguamongolia.com/The%20S...

And here's a comic by Mongolian artist E. Otgonbayar Ershuu illustrating the first and a part of the second chapter of the Secret History. His intention was to do the entire work, but I am not sure if the project is still ongoing. The comic is in German, but it shouldn't be hugely difficult to figure out if you're already familiar with the Secret History. You can come to me if you need a English translation of a page, since I can read German. http://mongolian-art.de/01_mongolian_art/gallery_comic_secret_history_mongols/index.htm

[thejackmeister-mongolhistory]

“After he had plundered the Tang’ut people and, making Iluqu Burqan [the Tangut King] change his name to Sidurqu, had done away with him, and after having exterminated the Tang’ut people’s mothers and fathers down to the offspring of their offspring, maiming and taming, Chinggis Khan gave the following order: ‘While I take my meals you must talk about the killing and destruction of the Tang’ut and say, ‘Maimed and tamed, they are no more.’"

-The Secret History of the Mongols, de Rachewiltz translation, page 188, on the destruction of the Tangut Kingdom.

[picturesofchina]

Prehistoric faces and 11th-12th century Western Xia writing carved into the rock of the Helan Mountains, near Yinchuan, Ningxia

[thejackmeister-mongolhistory]

New video!! The Campaigns of Mukhali, top general of Chinggis Khan who maintained the wars against the Jurchen Jin while Chinggis was in Central Asia.