Originally Posted by
Suzaku
Queen Manduhai is one of my favorite historical characters in history. She sacrificed everything, including the man she loved, to protect a dying empire. Although historians mark the end of the Yuan Dynasty at the point where the Mongolians left inner China, many Mongolians did not recognize that as the end of the dynasty – to them they were merely in exile and will reclaim their power over China one day. Like the sentiments of people in Southern Song era that dreamed of reclaiming their lost land in Northern Song era.
To protect the dynasty and legacy of Genghis Khan, Queen Manduhai married the final descendant of Genghis Khan, protected him, raised him, taught him, and forged an empire with him. Queen Manduhai chose the title Dayan Khan (Great Khan of Great Yuan) for the child khan (who was 8 years old at the time), and led a series of military campaigns, which reunited the Mongolian empire. Instead of keeping Dayan Khan as a puppet, Queen Manduhai remained loyal to Dayan Khan and taught him everything about war and ruling as Khan.
Manduhai’s story begins when was sixteen and married Manduul Khan (who was 25 years older than her). Manduul Khan was one of the few descendants of Genghis Khan. At the time, there were only two other member of the Borijin clan, the “Golden Prince,” a descendant of Genghis, and Une-Bolod descendant of Khasar (Genghis’s brother).
Manduul Khan had no sons of his own and named the Golden Prince as his heir. Ismayil, one of the warlords, instigated a conspiracy and spread rumors about an affair between the Golden Prince and Manduul Khan’s first wife, Yeke Qabartu. The end result was the death of Manduul Khan, the disappearance of Yeke Qabartu, and the Golden Prince fleeing, leaving behind his wife and male child (Batu Mongke aka Dayan Khan). The Golden Prince later met his demise at the hands of bandits.
Because of the death of both the Khan and the heir, Manduhai found herself to be a widowed queen whose hand in marriage will provide anyone with legitimacy to declare himself Khan. (It is Mongolian tradition for the succeeding Khan to take the dead Khan’s wife and herd as his own.) At the time, Manduhai could have chosen to married Ismayil or Une-Bolod (a general under the dead Manduul Khan) and continue living peacefully as Queen or taken Batu Mongke (the Golden Prince’s child) and surrendered to the Ming Dynasty.
Instead, Manduhai married Batu Mongke (the Golden Prince’s child) and declared him as Dayan Khan. Dayan Khan was 8 years old. In doing so, she rejected the marriage proposal from Une-Bolod, the man whom she was rumored to love. Although Une-Bolod was rejected, he remained loyal to Queen Manduhai and Dayan Khan.
Queen Manduhai had the military support of her supposed lover Une-Bolod, but she really had no land under her influence. The late Manduul Khan was a puppet under the control of one southern warlord, Beg-Arslan. So both Manduul Khan and Queen Manduhai were really only Khan and Khanate in name; hence, Queen Manduhai must win her own land on the battleground. After she declared Dayan Khan as Khan of Yuan, she took to the battlefield and defeated the Oirat – thereby reuniting the east and west.
Dayan Khan was abandoned by his own father and he was tossed from person to person across the desert before Queen Manduhai rescued him. So it was said that Dayan Khan was so weak and sick at first that he wasn’t able to ride a horse – Queen Manduhai fashioned a basket like contraption to hold Dayan Kahn and rode with him into battle. Probably this was Queen Manduhai’s promise to Dayan Khan that they will live and die together, whatever the circumstances.
And for the next thirty five years, Queen Manduhai and Dayan Khan fought by each other side and defeated Beg-Arslan, a major warlord south of the Gobi, and Ismayil. (Queen Manduhai was also fought several campaigns when she was pregnant with Dayan Khan’s child.) With Ismayil dead, Dayan Khan avenged his father and rescued his mother who became Ismayil’s wife.
Against the backdrop where child khans were kept as puppets and rose and fell faster than chroniclers can keep track of, it only exemplifies the loyalty that Queen Manduhai has towards Dayan Khan and Yuan. After Queen Manduhai gave birth to her first son, she could have disposed of Dayan Khan, named their son as Khan, and continue to rule, but she remained loyal to Dayan Khan.
From a distant corner north of the Gobi Desert, they built an empire that stretched from the Siberian tundra in the north, across the Gobi, to the edge of the Yellow River and south of it into the Ordos. The lands extended from the forests of Manchuria in the East past the Altai Mountains and out onto the steppes of Central Asia. (according to Wiki). They brought a new level of unity and structure to Mongolia and arguably brought post Yuan to its greatest heights after leaving mainland China.
Didn’t mean to go on and on, but as I said I really heart Queen Manduhai. After the death of Manduul Khan, Manduhai was without a husband, without land, and without any men loyal to her – against all these odds she displayed immense courage and wisdom and remained loyal to the last remnants of the Yuan Empire, saved it from imminent destruction, and restored it to new heights.