Rise and Fall of the Mongolian Empire

"I'm Chinese. Chinese people speak the Chinese language. The British Empire was the biggest empire that has ever existed.". These seem to be common sense, but are perhaps all widely-spread myths.

In the 13th century, there emerged a great empire in Asia, the Mongolian Empire. Its territory was second only to that of the later-established British Empire. Unlike Great Britain, which claimed sovereignty mainly by having navigators explored new lands where there were no residents, Mongolians acquired new soil only by conquering. How did they do that? Why did they finally lose the might? What were the influences they left on today's world?

At that time, there were several tribes to the north of the Chinese regime. The strongest of all was the Mongolian people, led by Temujin, which literally means iron rod. The Mongolian people soon eliminated all the other peoples by literally ethnic cleansing and Temujin awarded himself the title, Genghis Khan. Khan means the lord. Genghis means everywhere. So Genghis Khan means the lord of the world, representing his ambition. The secret of the empire's success was the talents of their leader, the Khan, the bravery, solidarity and military training of the soldiers and the people's cruelty towards their enemies.

The Mongolian people made a living by hunting and raising sheep. All males learned horsing and shooting in their childhood and every one of them was automatically recruited as a soldier when they were adults. The troops were led by Tens, Hundreds, Thousands and Tens Thousands. When a commander uttered a command, a Ten Thousand led his ten thousand men, and successively a Thousand, a Hundred and a Ten led their men. As a result, the whole army were just like one extremely mighty man rather than ten thousand independent men with different wills.

The cruelty of the Mongolian people was horrible. They had a principle that if they attacked a city and the enemy resisted, all the living would be slaughtered. The victims included all the officers, soldiers, civilians and animals. They would then annihilate the whole city and use the body to plant grass to feed their sheep. Otherwise, they would have "mercy" to the children and women, who were used as their slaves. One of their most infamous tactics was to drive the civilians in front of their army to attack a city. These civilian refugees usually contained some relatives or friends of the defending forces. If the defending force wanted to save the civilians, then they must open their gate, and the Mongolian troops got into the city with the civilians at once and the city was lost. Otherwise, they had to shoot the Mongolian troops along with the civilians.

The Mongolian Empire then conquered most of the Asian countries, including China and Qing (which was called Jin at that time, and reigned over China later as the last imperial dynasty of China), and almost half of the European countries including Russia and Poland. The empire almost defeated all Islamic powers in the Middle East, which if really had accomplished, there would be no Islam today. At its peak time, its land territory was 33.0 million square kilometres, accounting for 22.14% of the global land territory, second only to that of the Britain Empire, which was 33.7 million square kilometres, slightly bigger. Whereas Nazi Germany only covered an area of 6.4 million square kilometres. Some historians even believe that the Mongolian Empire was actually even larger than is generally accepted, and bigger than the British Empire.

No ancient emperor could govern all of the land, so the conqueror authorized his sons to adminitrate part of the land as sub-countries. Unfortunately, after his death, for the throme, these sub-countries went to war and were never reunified again. According to statistics, there were twelve Khans in China during the 90 years of reign. The first and the last Khan reigned for 30 years seperately. The rest ten Khans reigned for another 30 years all together! This means nearly all of the Khans were victims of the regime, who were killed by their relatives. I think it was the violent and combative nature of the Mongolian people that caused the collapse of such an invulnerable empire.

When we refer to the Chinese people, we are usually referring to a particular people in China, Han; when we talk about the Chinese language, we are usually talking about the Han's languages. But am I Han? Is Mandarin a Han language? I'm really not sure. During the reign of the Mongolian Empire, it's estimated that 90 per cent of the Han population were massacred. Genghis Khan and his heritors raped women everywhere. When the empire reigned over China, every one Mongolian person possessed several dozens of Han people. When a Han bribe got married, before she lost virginity, she had to sleep with her Mongolian master. Some couples killed their first child because they refused to raise a Mongolian, their enemy, up, but most did not. Scientists say that in today's Asia and Russia, most men's Y chromosomes are identical to that of Genghis Khan. Some Mongolian people integrated into the Chinese society and became Chinese citizens after the fall of the empire. They were called Chinese Mongolians. One of my cousins is because her mother is.

During the reign, some northerners integrated into the Mongolian people who didn't speak the Han languages. The Mongolian spoken language greatly influenced the Han and the Qing. As a result, all the northern dialects' pronunciation shifted dramatically and finally lost most phonemes (for example most of today's northerners cannot pronounce B, D and V correctly.). Today's northern dialects are obviously of Mongolian and Manchu features (For example, there's no difference between "力" and "利") and share a great number of words with Mongolian and Manchu. The most convincing of all, there are a number of different Han languages in Southern China, while all the Han dialects in Northern China are mutually intelligible because people of all these regions integrated into the Mongolian people.

History is a great joker. When the Mongolia Empire was emerging, China was at war with Qing. A general composed a very famous patriotic poem, which carried his hatred towards the foreign invaders and his determination to defeat them.

怒发冲冠，凭阑处、潇潇雨歇。抬望眼、仰天长啸，壮同激烈。三十功名尘与土，八千里路云和月。莫等闲、白了少年头，空悲切。
靖康耻，犹未雪；臣子憾，何时灭。驾长车踏破、贺兰山缺。壮志饥餐胡虏肉笑谈渴饮匈奴血。待从头、收拾旧山河。朝天阙。

Now it is still heard in China's schools in -- guess what language -- Mandarin, which is the lingua franca of northern dialects, in other words, our enemies' language. How funny!

Before the reign of the empire, Han believed that there was a god in the heaven that blessed them from starvation. They were gratitude to this god and called him the Kitchen Lord. In ancient Han's tradition, a dynasty's beginning was marked by the construction of two altars. One of them was for the Kitchen Lord, the other for their ancestors. The end of a dynasty was marked by the destruction of these altars. Therefore, literal meaning of another Han word for country was the "Altars of Kitchen and Ancestors". During the reign, however, the Han people were completely spiritually defeated because they forsook their ancestors and began to worship living Mongolian masters as the Kitchen Lord. Under the slavery, no Han was allowed to own any weapons, not even a kitchen knife. The Mongolian who possessed the Han owned a kitchen knife, which was shared by several families. They went to their master periodically to be granted the kitchen knife temporarily and cooked for other families. Because if the master refused to give them the knife, they had to suffer starvation, they all called the master Kitchen Lord. Furthermore, Han were regarded as animals that didn't have the right to have a family name, so none of them had.

Over the history, countless ambitious politicians tried to establish an everlasting empire by force. The Great Britain, Mongolia, France led by Napoleon, Nazi Germany, Japan ... all fell. I bet the next one, if ever exists, will too. Moreover, virtually no one can be sure of their precise racial identity. Nevertheless, the world has been witnessing the cooperation and prosperity of European countries that is as solid as a nation, though they were at hostile war with each other in the history. Wisdom to recognize and realize common interest, rather than force, works. I believe that the future union that will eventually unify the globe will be based on such wisdom.

Thank you.

Rise and Fall of the Mongolian Empire

It's in the correction box. Thanks for your help.
Correction guide: because the article has over 1500 words, you should divide it into several parts and submit them separately.

History is a great joker. When the Mongolian Empire was emerging, China was at war with Qing. A general composed a very famous patriotic poem, which carried his hatred towards the foreign invaders and his determination to defeat them.

怒发冲冠，凭阑处、潇潇雨歇。抬望眼、仰天长啸，壮同激烈。三十功名尘与土，八千里路云和月。莫等闲、白了少年头，空悲切。 靖康耻，犹未雪；臣子憾，何时灭。驾长车踏破、贺兰山缺。壮志饥餐胡虏肉笑谈渴饮匈奴血。待从头、收拾旧山河。朝天阙。

Now it is still heard in China's schools in -- guess what language -- Mandarin, which is the lingua franca of northern dialects, in other words, our enemies' language. How funny!

Before the reign of the Mongol empire, Han believed that there was a god in the heaven that blessed them from starvation. They were grateful to this god and called him the Kitchen Lord. In ancient Han tradition, a dynasty's beginning was marked by the construction of two altars. One of them was for the Kitchen Lord, the other for their ancestors. The end of a dynasty was marked by the destruction of these altars. Therefore, the literal meaning of a Han word for country was the "Altars of Kitchen and Ancestors". During the reign, however, the Han people were completely spiritually defeated and, consequently, they forsook their ancestors and began to worship living Mongolian masters as the Kitchen Lord. Under slavery, no Han was allowed to own any weapons, not even a kitchen knife. The Mongolian who possessed the Han owned a kitchen knife, which was shared by several families. They went to their master periodically to be granted the kitchen knife temporarily and cooked for other families. Because if the master refused to give them the knife, they had to suffer starvation, they all called the master Kitchen Lord. Furthermore, Han were regarded as animals that didn't have the right to have a family name, so none of them had one.

Throughout history, countless ambitious politicians have tried to establish an everlasting empire by force. Great Britain, Mongolia, France led by Napoleon, Nazi Germany, Japan, etc. ... all fell. I bet the next one, if it ever exists, will too. Moreover, virtually no one can be sure of their precise racial identity. Nevertheless, the world has been witnessing the cooperation and prosperity of European countries which is as solid as a nation, even though they were hostile and at war with each throughout their history. The wisdom of recognizing and realizing common interests, rather than force, works. I believe that the future union that will eventually unify the globe will be based on such wisdom.

Rise and Fall of the Mongolian Empire

It's in the correction box. Thanks for your help.
Correction guide: because the article has over 1500 words, you should divide it into several parts and submit them separately.

"I'm Chinese. Chinese people speak the Chinese language. The British Empire was the biggest empire that has ever existed." These seem to be common sense, but are perhaps all widely-spread myths.

In the 13th century, there emerged a great empire in Asia, the Mongolian Empire. Its territory was second only to that of the later-established British Empire. Unlike Great Britain, which claimed sovereignty mainly by having navigators explore new lands where there were no residents, Mongolians acquired new soil only by conquering. How did they do that? Why did they finally lose the might? What were the influences they left on today's world?

At that time, there were several tribes to the north of the Chinese regime. The strongest of all was the Mongolian people, led by Temujin, whose name iterally means “iron rod”. The Mongolian people soon eliminated all the other peoples by literal ethnic cleansing, and Temujin awarded himself the title, Genghis Khan. Khan means “lord”. Genghis means “everywhere”. So Genghis Khan means “the lord of the world”, representing his ambition. The secret of the empire's success was the talents of their leader, the Khan, the bravery, solidarity and military training of the soldiers, and the people's cruelty towards their enemies.

The Mongolian people made a living by hunting and raising sheep. All males learned horsemanship and shooting in their childhood and every one of them was automatically recruited as a soldier when they were adults. The troops were led by Tens, Hundreds, Thousands and Tens Thousands. When a commander uttered the command, a Ten Thousand led his ten thousand men, and successively a Thousand, a Hundred and a Ten led their men. As a result, the whole army were just like one extremely mighty man rather than ten thousand independent men with different wills.

The cruelty of the Mongolian people was horrible. They had a principle that if they attacked a city and the enemy resisted, all the living would be slaughtered. The victims included all the officers, soldiers, civilians and animals. They would then annihilate the whole city and use the bodies as fertilizer to grow grass to feed their sheep. They would otherwise have "mercy" on the children and women, who were to be used as their slaves. One of their most infamous tactics was to drive the civilians in front of their army when attacking a city. These civilian refugees usually contained some relatives or friends of the defending forces, who, if they wanted to save them, then had to open their gate, and the Mongolian troops got into the city with the civilians at once and the city was lost. Otherwise, they were forced to shoot the civilians along with the Mongolian troops.

The Mongolian Empire went on to conquer most of the Asian countries, including China, and Qing (which was called Jin at that time, and reigned over China later as the last imperial dynasty of China), and almost half of the European countries including Russia and Poland. The empire nearly defeated all the Islamic powers in the Middle East, which, had it really been accomplished, would have resulted in there being no Islam today. At its peak, the Empire's land territory was 33.0 million square kilometres, accounting for 22.14% of the global land mass, second only to that of the British Empire, which was 33.7 million square kilometres, slightly bigger, whereas Nazi Germany only covered an area of 6.4 million square kilometres. Some historians believe that the Mongolian Empire was actually even larger than is generally accepted, and bigger than the British Empire.

No ancient emperor could govern all that land, so the conqueror authorized his sons to administrate parts of the land as sub-countries. Unfortunately, after his death, these sub-countries went to war for the throne and were never reunified again. According to statistics, there were twelve Khans in China during the 90 years of their reign. The first and the last Khan reigned for 30 years each. The other ten Khans reigned for another 30 years all together! This means nearly all of the Khans who were victims of the regime were killed by their relatives. It may have been the violent and combative nature of the Mongolian people that caused the collapse of such an invulnerable empire.

When we refer to the Chinese people, we are usually referring to a particular people in China, the Han; when we talk about the Chinese language, we are usually talking about the Han's languages. But am I Han? Is Mandarin a Han language? I'm really not sure. During the reign of the Mongolian Empire, it's estimated that 90 per cent of the Han population were massacred. Genghis Khan and his heritors raped women everywhere. When the empire reigned over China, every single Mongolian person possessed several dozens of Han people. When a Han bride got married, before she lost her virginity, she had to sleep with her Mongolian master. Some couples refusing to bring a Mongolian, their enemy, up, killed their first child, but most did not. Scientists say that in today's Asia and Russia most men's Y chromosomes are identical to that of Genghis Khan. Some Mongolian people integrated into the Chinese society and became Chinese citizens after the fall of the empire. They were called Chinese Mongolians. One of my cousins is, because her mother is.

During their reign, some northerners integrated into the Mongolian people, who didn't speak the Han languages. The Mongolian spoken language greatly influenced the Han and the Qing. As a result, all the northern dialects' pronunciation shifted dramatically and finally lost most of their phonemes. For example, most of today's northerners cannot pronounce B, D and V correctly. Today's northern dialects have obvious Mongolian and Manchu features. There's no difference between "力" and "利" for example, and they share a great number of words with Mongolian and Manchu. The most convincing of all: there are a number of different Han languages in Southern China, while all the Han dialects in Northern China are mutually intelligible because people of all these regions integrated into the Mongolian people.