The Historic Feats of Genghis Khan Masters SEC Guided Research
Dai YY
28-Jan-2015
Outline
Ⅰ.Introduction
Thesis statement: The story of Genghis Khan has left a deep impression on Mongolia and today. He is recognized as the first of the Millennium great man of military strategist and pioneer in the world.
Ⅱ.Genghis Khan's military thought and command art
A. Important posiion
B. Big influence
Ⅲ. Genghis Khan unified the tribes of Mongolia Plateau
A.Established the kingdom of Mongolia
B.Founded the written words
C.Created the law
Ⅳ. Genghis Khan is a great pioneer
A.Realized the unification in most parts of North China
B.Created the condition for the unification of China
Ⅴ.Genghis Khan’s western expedition opened up the roads from East to West
A.Economy
B.Culture
The Historic Feats of Genghis Khan
Ⅰ. Introduction
China is one of the four ancient civilized countries in the world. People of all ethnic groups, are hard-working and intelligent. Mongolian conqueror Genghis Khan, rose from a grassland shepherd to become the “world emperor”. He was the god of war shocked the world, his horses hooves were like hurricanes across Central Asia and Eastern Europe. He and his descendants established the most powerful Mongolian emp ire. Genghis Khan not only has an important position in China’s history, but also had a worldwide impact, his reputation and influence is far more than Napoleon and Alexander (Feng, 2009). His military thought and command art have occupied an important position and had a big influence on the world. Also, he realized the unification in most parts of North China and created the conditions for the unification of all of China. His western expedition opened up the roads from East to West and promoted the dev elopment of the world’s economy, culture, science and technology.
Ⅱ. Genghis Khan’s military thought and command art
Genghis Khan took cities and seized a lot of territory. His real strength in wisdom and knowledge was more than brute courage in hand. Wars made Genghis Khan incorruptible, no war no Genghis Khan. He was used to war or fighting. He had a special talent of contriving; even though he could not read or write, and never read the Art of War by Sun Zi. Each conquest he launched with wisdom and courage.
Genghis Khan created the perfect military performance and could be known completely as St. Soldier. If anything, the words of Wu Sun, one of the famous writers of Chinese history, about the theory of the military was broad and profound, c ausing worldwide attention, while Genghis Khan’s sword was unique in military strategy and activities which shocked the world. Hart (2010) writes that, in the Middle ages, Genghis Khan’s strategy is the best example from the East. In the thirteenth century, this strategy was very fruitful for western development. It was so brilliant because the Mongols were the best teachers for European knights and gave them useful lessons in strategy. Genghis Khan was good at strategy and warfare methods. Northern nomadic hunting life made him accumulate a lot of combat experience for the war and let him master the use of the art of military.
But where did this military genius come from? Around 1200, the Mongols as yet had no real military infrastructure (Hoang, 1991). In 1206, the clans which traditionally organized the family-style population of the Noyans were made up a strictly numerical militarized system. Genghis Khan published a series of institutions to consolidate the army. The Mongolian soldiers respected and obeyed the armed forces. Being a methodical leader, Genghis Khan found the decimal system clearly appealing to his military organization which made it easy to pass the orders immediately. Genghis Khan paid more attention to military training. Staging a massive hunt each year and letting young people learn how to shoot an arrow, ride a horse and wrestle. According to these kinds of training made them become courageous.
One of the keys to make him successful was the logistics support capacity. They built a lot of stations, every 30 miles you could find one. For example, more than 400 horses would be posted standing ready for the use of the messengers. As
for equipment, the cavalryman wore chain mail and helmets, golden shield in hand; the infantry used cutlass, bows and arrows.
Genghis Khan’s famous expedition was against the Jinguo, the conqueror prepared as for a holy war because his great grandfather Khan Ambaqay, who was betrayed by Tartat and nailed like common malefactors on the wooden cross by the king of Jinguo , Xizong (Grousset, 1966). King of Jinguo, named Wanyan Yong, he was born in 1168, died at September 11,1213. He became the seventh emperor of Jinguo in 1208. He didn’t know any ways of organizing the countries or the army, the only thing he knew was to save money. He didn’t know the difference between right and wrong. This time Genghis Khan adopted offensive warfare, played on the spacious place and stunned by the suddenness of his attack, the Battle of the Badger Mouth was the decisive war between Mongolia and Jinguo. It happened in August, 1211, at Badger Mouth, now at Hebei province. The Mongolian army amassed 100,000, over 90% of the available forces in Mongolia for the offensive force in the expedition against 400,000 soldiers of Jinguo. At first, Jinguo took up defensive positions on high ground overlooking the land, Wanyan Yong was so proud that sent one person to Genghis Khan and told him the good information. Genghis Khan was shocked because he didn’t k now they were coming right now. Fortunately, he knew and changed the methods of tactic. About Jinguo, the prime minister suggested Wanyan Yong mustered all of his troops coming to this place, however, Wanyan Yong thought it was unnecessary. Genghis Khan found the fatal flaw in the layout by Jinguo, and immediately separated the army into three parts, 80,000 soldiers in the middle, left and right 10,000 soldiers(Bao,2007). In the present situation, all the soldiers had to develop their capabilities to the maximum. Mongolian was so fast and ferocious and took the army flag of Jinguo which made most of Jinguo’s soldiers
flee in panic. Unfortunately, their troops in support did not show up. Nearly 200,000 of Jinguo’s soldiers were injured or died, while only 20,000 Mongolian soldiers were affected. At last, they won an outright victory and this battle turned around the table between Jinguo and Mongolia.
This early battle demonstrated Genghis Khan’s adaptability. Genghis Khan’s military thought had a great impact worldwide. During World WarⅠGermany sent every soldier a booklet about the strategy of command by Genghis Khan, even though some people didn’t like him, the Germans still studied it very hard and it worked
well(Al-Juwayni, 2005).
Ⅲ. Genghis Khan unified the tribes of the Mongolia Plateau
Since the disasters that ended the reign of Khan Qutula, there has been no Mongol monarchy. In the thirteenth century, there were many independent tribes, they fought to gain people, animals, and properties. Constant wars took away the innocent life, hindered the development of society and left Mongolia very poor. Mongols felt the necessity of a leader to establish the Kingdom of Mongolia. They thought Temujin would fill the role because of his princely origins, remarkable balance, and relations with his allies. In 1206, they proclaimed Temujin king under the name of Genghis Khan and unified the tribes of the Mongolia Plateau.
Mongolians didn’t have their own written language. They used the grass knot and carved wood to transmit information. It blocked orders from passing accurately and effectively. Genghis Khan knew this was the huge problem and was troubled deeply. When he killed the king of Tayang, he captured a man named Tatatungo who charged the official seals. When he knew the effect of the seal, he asked
Tatatungo to stay with him and carve the seal for him. Tatatungo was a linguist, so Genghis Khan asked him to use Uighur character transliterating Mongolian. As a result of adopting the written word, Genghis Khan published the law of Mongolia called Yasak. He changed the history of having no written words in Mongolia.
Before the unification of Mongolia, they did not have their written words and certainly did not have a law. Due to his hardworking, Genghis Khan became the emperor of Mongolia from a herdsman. On the endless and brief process, he deeply realized the social order was disrupted and public security worsened. Even though, Mongolia had their own rules and morals, they still lived in a rough part of the kingdom. Genghis Khan knew that meant the birth of law to keep the country together and place order and discipline. So he asked his adviser Tatatungo to come up with the Yasak, a code of law to maintain the order of his citizens. Yasak said slavery of fellow Mongols was forbidden; nobody was allowed to bathe in a running stream; any soldier that abandoned his military duties was to be executed. While Yasak did not take shape in a short time, it made many positive effects to Mongolia such as political power, stable social order and awareness of the law. By doing this Genghis Khan showed consideration for his people. It is possible to infer that he was a thoughtful leader as well as a conquering general.
Ⅳ. Genghis Khan is a great pioneer
In the first chapter of Romance of the Three Kingdoms it is written, “The general trend under heaven is that there is bound to be unification after prolonged division and
division after prolonged unification.” This means that the development of people or things are certainly going to be changed inevitability. That is the rule of development and the destiny. After the Tang dynasty, China was a much more fragmented society. Both the West and North ethnic minorities established the empires of Liao, Jin, and Xixia. Each belligerent fought for power, territory and fortune so that caused many innocent people to die, the large tracts of territory became abandoned. The development of China’s economy was blocked, especially in the North. Genghis Khan wanted to develop the economy of North China. In the spring of 1205, he sent an army to enter the west of Xixia in order to sound out information and pillage(Yang, 1997). In 1224, it was the fifth time that Genghis Khan attacked Xixia and completed its successful destruction. It was so important to take Xixia that even when Genghis Khan died in July of 1227 at Qingshui town, the Mongols didn’t send out an obituary until the emperor of Xixia surrendered. Xixia was not the only rival for the Mongols. They also struggled against the state of Jingou.
By the time Genghis Khan was ready to eliminate Jinguo, the Golden Age had passed. They are mired by political corruption, poor economy, and scheming against each other, so it is the best time to conquer the territory. The first stage was from 1211 to 1217, Genghis Khan commanded a part of the Mongolia army by himself to attack Jinguo. The second stage was from 1217 to 1229, Muhuali, one of the greatest generals under Genghis Khan, received the order from Genghis Khan to charge most parts of the army to battle the Jinguo. The third stage was from 1230 to
1234, Ogedei, the third son of Genghis Khan, worked with Tolui clearing the area of the Jinguo forces and taking several cities. The Mongols destroyed the Jinguo with the fall of Caizhou in February 1234 and realized the unification in most parts of North China. The struggling of Genghis Khan, prepared the condition for the unification of China. Though it would take another 40 years, in 1279, the grandson of Genghis Khan, Kublai, became the founder of the Yuan dynasty in Mongolia and China, when the last stronghold of the Southern Song fell.
Ⅴ.Genghis Khan’s western expedition opened up the roads from East to West Khwarezm is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya River delta in western Central Asia. Between 1215 and 1217, Mongolia and Khwarezm had a good relationship with each other and proposed free trade(Weatherford, 2004) .In 1218, a Mongolia caravan loaded with gold, silver, silk and fur to Khwarezm, where they arrived at Farab, a Central Asian ghost town along the Silk Road, now in Kazakhstan. Before they started trading in the city, their goods were detained by the general of Farab who claimed that those Mongols were spies and ordered execution of all people of the Mongolia caravan, but one Mongolian ran out of the city and escaped back to Mongolia. Genghis Khan knew the information and sent another group of people to talk with King of Khwarezm. Emissaries were killed. Genghis Khan was very angry and decided to launch the first western expedition . He headed the troops which included one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers to resist Khwarezm. Khwarezm had four hundred thousand picked troops, however, they didn’t have a
good leader. Inside the country were two types of people, one belonged to the King, while the other side belonged to the mother of the King. The governors were also scheming against each other, so the soldiers of Khwarezm were confused. This was a war of self-defense; as time went on, it developed into a brutal and destructive conquest. In 1225, Genghis Khan succeeded and gave all the conquered territory to his four sons.
The second western expedition was from 1235 to 1244, Ogedei nominated Batu as a guide for half a million of soldiers(Ran, 2011). They conquered two cities in Russia, Moscow and Kiev. Then, launched Hungary and Venice. In 1241, the North army of Mongolia fought with the Polish army at Legnica. All over Europe was shock and fear. They tried to attack more places, but got the information that Ogedei Khan, the third son of Genghis Khan, died.
The third western expedition was from 1253 to 1260, their first aim was to eliminate Mulahida, now in northern Iran(Lange, 2003) In 1257, Mongolia captured Baghdad and killed eight hundred thousand people. They tried to attack Egypt, but got the information that Mongke Khan, the eldest son of Genghis Khan’s teen-aged son Tolui, died.
Wars always destroy the development of economy and culture, this is the law of history since the dawn of humans. In the negation of wars’ destruction, there still were some positive sides, such as the removal of some obstacles in the way of the western expedition that allowed Asia, Europe, and Africa to exchange information easil y. China’s gunpowder, compass, paper-making, printing, paper money, and
post system spread west. While western medicine, agricultural products, textiles, science and technology came across Asia. Genghis Khan’s army with the advanced culture of the East came to conservative Europe, waking all the people
up(Wang,2007). Because of Genghis Khan’s pushing and stimulation, Europe gradually began to pay attention to trade and technology. The great empire of Mongolia took a vast territory on Earth, and their descendants began to integrate the human civilization. For transportation, one Chinese scholar Deshan said, the international road was a product of Genghis Khan and his descendants, the first western expedition built the foundation of Mongolia across the Eurasian; the second western expedition opened the international road, called Kipchak Road; the third western expedition opened the road from China to Persia(De Shan, 2006). Anyway, Genghis Khan and his people established a big empire, it had a great impact on China and world history, opened the road for accelerating the economy, culture, and trade from east to the west. He not only rewrote the history of the world, but also changed the border of many countries. He did a lot of meaningful things for Mongolia.
Ⅵ. Conclusion
You should not remember Genghis Khan for his military action only, there still are many legacies you should consider, such as the conquest of creating written words and law which accelerated economic growth and strengthened civilization construction. History knows only two kinds of war, just and unjust. It was hard to decide Genghis Khan’s battle quality. Some people think Genghis Khan was a
homicidal maniac who loved to invade other countries. However, historical contributions always go with cruel war and enslave various nationalities. We cannot judge from a person’s personality and behavior, while we also need to consider the historicity of the social system and the characteristics of times. As the earth existed, we do not know how many brave people have swept the continent, most of them captured a lot of territories, however, no one can compare with Genghis Khan. He is more outstanding than European conquers. We cannot use a normal measure to judge him, the only thing we can use is longitude and latitude
References
Al-Juwayni, M., & Boyle, J. (2005). Shi jie zheng fu zhe shi (Di 1 ban. ed.). Nanjing: Jiangsu jiao yu chu ban she.
Bao, L. (2007). Meng gu di guo Kai chuang di guo (Di 1 ban. ed.). Hefei: An hui wen yi chu ban she.
De, S., & Wu, R. (2006). Menggu zu gu dai jiao tong shi (Di 1 ban. ed.). Shenyang Shi: Liaoning min zu chu ban she.
Feng, C. (2009). Chengjisihan zhuan (Di 1 ban. ed.). Beijing: Zhongguo san xia chu ban she.
Hoang, M.(1991). Genghis Khan.New York: New Amsterdam
Grousset, R. (1966). Conqueror of the World. New York: Orion Press.
Genghis Khan. (2009, January 1). Retrieved January 17, 2015, from
https://www.doczj.com/doc/db16194601.html,/topics/genghis-khan
Hart, B., & Niu, X. (2010). Zhan lue lun: Jian jie lu xian (Di 1 ban. ed.). Shanghai: Shanghai ren min chu ban she
Lange, B. (2003). Genghis Khan. Philadelphia: Chelsea House.
Ran, P. (2011). Sheng er wei wang: Menggu da di Chengjisihan de cao yuan chuan qi (Chu ban. ed.). Taibei Shi: Mai tian chu ban.
Weatherford, J. (2004). Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. New York: Crown.
Wang, Z. (2007). Ma bei shang de xi yu (Di 1 ban. ed.). Guangzhou: Hua cheng chu ban she.
Yang, D. (1997). Yi dai tian jiao. cheng ji si han. tie mu zhen (Di 1 ban. ed.). Ha mi bin: Ha mi bin chu ban she