Jurchen unification | |||||||
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Part of the Ming-Qing transition | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Jurchens loyal to Nurhaci | Jianzhou Jurchens Haixi Jurchens Wild Jurchens | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Nurhaci | Nikan Wailan Baindari Bujantai Gintaisi |
The Jurchen unification were a series of events in the late 16th and early 17th centuries that led to the unification of the Jurchen tribes under the Jianzhou Jurchen leader Nurhaci. While Nurhaci was originally a vassal of the Ming dynasty who considered himself a local representative of imperial Ming power, [1] he also had a somewhat antagonistic relationship with the Ming due to Ming's involvement in events early on in his life that led to the death of his father and grandfather combined with his own increasing ambition.
From 1583 to the early 1600s, Nurhaci led a series of military and influence campaigns that led to the unification of the majority of the Jurchen tribes. In 1616, Nurhaci established the Later Jin dynasty and ruled as its founding khan, and he renounced Ming overlordship with the Seven Grievances in 1618. After his death in 1626 his son Hong Taiji proclaimed the Qing dynasty by renaming the dynasty "Great Qing".
The Ming dynasty founder sent military commissions to gain control of the Jurchen tribes. After the dissolution of the Nurgan Regional Military Commission in the 15th century, the Ming dynasty adopted a political strategy of divide and rule for different Jurchen tribes. The Ming categorized the Jurchens into three groups, the Jianzhou Jurchens, the Haixi Jurchens, and the Wild Jurchens.
The Jianzhou were primarily composed of three tribes, the Odoli, Huligai, and Tuowen. The Haixi were dominated by the Hulun confederation composed of four tribes, the Ula, Hada, Hoifa, and Yehe. Not much is known about the Wild Jurchens except for the existence of a Donghai tribe among them.
The Hulun confederation was dominated by the head of the Hada tribe, Wang Tai, from 1548 onward. As hegemon he created alliances with both Jurchens and Mongols, eventually assuming the title of khan. Under Wang Tai, the Hulun expanded their territory at the expense of the Jianzhou. His rule was based upon personal prestige, and when he died in 1582, his son lost control of the confederation. Power over the Hulun passed from the Hada to two brothers of the Yehe tribe. At this point the Ming intervened and decided to open separate markets to divide and weaken their authority over the Hulun. This inadvertently led to the rise of the Jianzhou Jurchens. [2]
The Jianzhou chieftain Wang Gao (王杲) had been hostile to the Ming for some time and frequently assaulted Ming cities with Mongol allies. After he killed the Ming commander at Fushun in 1573, the Ming counter-attacked and drove Wang north into the lands of the Hada, where he was captured by Wang Tai, leader of the Hulun alliance, who handed him over to the Ming general Li Chengliang. Li had him executed in 1575. [3]
The death of Wang Gao provoked a power struggle among the Jianzhou tribes. Previously subordinates of Wang Gao, Giocangga and his son Taksi secretly allied themselves with Li Chengliang to enhance their power. [4] In 1582 Wang Gao's son Atai (阿台) raided Ming lands. Ming sent a punitive expedition with the support of Giocangga and Taksi. [4]
During the assault on Atai's fort, both Giocangga and Taksi were killed by another Jurchen ally of the Ming, Nikan Wailan. [5] The Ming claimed it was an accident and refused to hand over Nikan Wailan over to Taksi's son, Nurhaci, although they did provide him with some gifts and investiture as reparation. [6]
Nurhaci grew to be a promising leader. He was talented in mounted archery as a youth and was proficient in the Jurchen, Mongol, and Chinese languages. [6] During much of his early life he officially considered himself a guardian of the Ming border and a local representative of Ming imperial power. [1]
Early in 1583, Nurhaci obtained from Ming general Li Chengliang the right to succeed his father as a minor Jurchen chieftain. [4] He went to war with Nikan Wailan and forced him to flee to the Ming dynasty, where he was eventually executed. Nurhaci continued to expand his influence by steadily wiping out smaller tribes while at the same time currying favor with the Ming. In 1589, he endeared himself to the Ming by rescuing several kidnapped Chinese and delivering them to Ming authorities, an act which earned him the title of assistant commissioner-in-chief. [1]
He consolidated his relationship with the Ming by personally leading tributary missions to the Ming court until 1611, [7] and was seen in by the Ming a loyal subject. [8] He returned Ming captives back to the proper authorities, and even offered to fight against the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598). His offer to fight against the Japanese was denied due to misgivings from the Koreans, [9] but the Ming awarded Nurhaci the title of dragon-tiger general (龍虎將軍) along with the Hada leader. [10]
In 1587, Nurhaci founded a new capital at Fe Ala. By 1591, he controlled a swathe of territory stretching from Fushun to the Yalu River. His aggressive tactics against other Jurchen tribes were fueled by the high status that the Ming had given him, [8] and his success provoked a combined assault by nine tribes composed of Hada, Ula, Hoifa, Khorchin Mongols, Sibe, Guwalca, Jušeri, Neyen, and the Yehe. The 30,000 strong coalition forces were defeated in 1593. [11]
As of 1599, Nurhaci had control over the Hada, but allowed the Ming to invest their leaders with titles. Nurhaci also worked to unify the Jurchens as a people by tasking Erdeni Baksi and Dahai Jargūci with adapting the Mongol script to the Jurchen language. He also created the Eight Banners army system that would characterize Manchu military organization for the majority of their history. In 1601 he dispensed with pretenses and subjugated the Hada. The Hoifa followed in 1607 and a campaign against the Ula was begun in 1608. [12]
In 1603 the Jianzhou capital was moved to Hetu Ala due to water problems at the previous site. In 1605, Gwanghaegun of Joseon sent an expedition north which destroyed the Jurchen Holjaon tribe. The majority of Jurchens however ended up as part of Nurhaci's realm. The Wild Jurchens were defeated in 1611 and the Ula were incorporated in 1613. [12]
The last major Jurchen tribe, the Yehe, would not be subjugated until 1619, three years after Nurhaci declared himself khan of the Later Jin dynasty (or Amaga Aisin Gurun in Manchu). Meanwhile, he announced the Seven Grievances in 1618 and openly renounced Ming overlordship and started to fight against the Ming. The Yehe joined the Ming in fighting Nurhaci at the Battle of Sarhū, but they were defeated, and finally subjugated at the Battle of Xicheng a few months later. [13] The Later Jin dynasty is considered the precursor to the Qing dynasty which would later conquer the Ming dynasty.
The Manchus are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and Qing (1636–1912) dynasties of China were established and ruled by the Manchus, who are descended from the Jurchen people who earlier established the Jin dynasty (1115–1234) in northern China.
Jurchen is a term used to collectively describe a number of East Asian Tungusic-speaking people. They lived in northeastern China, also known as Manchuria, before the 18th century. The Jurchens were renamed Manchus in 1635 by Hong Taiji. Different Jurchen groups lived as hunter-gatherers, pastoralist semi-nomads, or sedentary agriculturists. Generally lacking a central authority, and having little communication with each other, many Jurchen groups fell under the influence of neighbouring dynasties, their chiefs paying tribute and holding nominal posts as effectively hereditary commanders of border guards.
Giocangga was the son of Fuman and the paternal grandfather of Nurhaci, the man who unified the Jurchen peoples and founded the Later Jin dynasty of China. Both he and his son Taksi attacked Atai's fort, which was being besieged by a rival Jurchen chieftain Nikan Wailan, who promised the governance of the city to whoever would kill Atai. One of Atai's underlings rebelled and murdered him. Both Giocangga and Taksi were killed by Nikan Wailan under unclear circumstances. Giocangga, Taksi and Nikan were all under command of Li Chengliang.
The Seven Grievances was a manifesto announced by Nurhaci, khan of the Later Jin, on the thirteenth day of the fourth lunar month in the third year of the Tianming era of his reign; 7 May 1618. It effectively declared war against the Ming dynasty.
The Jianzhou Jurchens were one of the three major groups of Jurchens as identified by the Ming dynasty. Although the geographic location of the Jianzhou Jurchens changed throughout history, during the 14th century they were located south of the Wild Jurchens and the Haixi Jurchens, and inhabited modern-day Liaoning and Jilin provinces in China. The Jianzhou Jurchens were known to possess an abundant supply of natural resources. They also possessed industrial secrets, particularly in processing ginseng and the dyeing of cloth. They were powerful due to their proximity to Ming trading towns such as Fushun, Kaiyuan, and Tieling in Liaodong, and to Manpojin camp near Korea.
Hūlun gurun was a powerful confederacy of Haixi Jurchens tribes in the late 16th century, based primarily in modern Jilin province of China.
Li Chengliang or Lee Seong-ryang, courtesy name Ruqi (汝契), art name Yincheng (引城), was a Ming dynasty general.
Taksi or posthumously titled as Emperor Xuan was a Jurchen chieftain and father of Nurhaci, founder of the Later Jin dynasty, and the fourth son of Giocangga. A member of the House of Aisin-Gioro, he was killed in an attack on Gure by a rival Jurchen chieftain Nikan Wailan in 1583.
Möngke Temür or Dudu Mengtemu (1370–1433) was a Jurchen chieftain of the Odoli tribe, one of the three tribes of the lower Sunggari river valley in Manchuria. In the 1380s the tribe migrated southward towards the lower valley of the Tumen River and settled in Womuho . As a distant ancestor of the Aisin Gioro clan which founded the Qing dynasty, Möngke Temür was accorded the posthumous name Emperor Yuan (原皇帝) and the temple name Zhaozu (肇祖) by the Shunzhi Emperor of the Qing dynasty. His son was Cungšan.
Nara is a clan name shared by a number of royal Manchu clans, sometimes also transliterated as Nalan or Nalland. The four tribes of the Hūlun confederation (扈倫四部) – Hada, Ula, Hoifa and Yehe – were all ruled by clans bearing this name.
The Haixi Jurchens were a grouping of the Jurchens as identified by the Chinese of the Ming dynasty. They inhabited an area that consists of parts of modern-day Jilin, Heilongjiang, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia in China.
Baindari was a Jurchen beile (chieftain) of the Hoifa tribal confederation.
Nurhaci, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizu of Qing, was the founding khan of the Jurchen-led Later Jin dynasty.
Manchuria under Ming rule refers to the domination of the Ming dynasty of China over the greater region of Manchuria, including today's Northeast China and Outer Manchuria. The Ming rule of Manchuria began with its conquest of Manchuria in the late 1380s after the fall of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty, and reached its peak in the early 15th century with the establishment of the Nurgan Regional Military Commission. With the dissolution of the Nurgan Regional Military Commission the Ming power waned considerably in Manchuria. Starting in the 1580s, Nurhaci, the Jianzhou Jurchen chieftain who had been a Ming vassal, began to take control of most of Manchuria over the next several decades, and in 1616 he established the Later Jin and openly renounced Ming overlordship with the Seven Grievances. The Qing dynasty established by his son Hong Taiji would eventually conquer the Ming and take control of China proper.
The Later Jin, officially known as Jin or the Great Jin, was a Jurchen-led royal dynasty of China and a khanate ruled by the House of Aisin-Gioro in Manchuria, as the precursor to the Qing dynasty. Established in 1616 by the Jianzhou Jurchen chieftain Nurhaci upon his reunification of the Jurchen tribes, its name was derived from the earlier Jin dynasty founded by the Wanyan clan which had ruled northern China in the 12th and 13th centuries.
This is a timeline of the Jurchens.
This is a timeline of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912).
Nikan Wailan was a Jurchen leader affiliated with the Ming dynasty and a rival of Nurhaci.
Yangginu was a Jurchen chieftain of the Yehe Nara clan. Yangginu and his brother Cinggiyanu were either the sons or grandsons of the Yehe chief Cukungge, who was executed by the Hada chief Wangji Wailan during an invasion. Yangginu and his brothers were made wards and vassals of the Hada Khan Wan, who had conquered a wide swath of territory and formed the Hulun confederation. Inheriting the eastern half of the Hada territory, Yangginu secured a marriage with a Mongol noblewoman and eventually gained the clan's independence from Wan, who died soon afterwards. Along with his brother and Mongol allies, he invaded the Hada in 1583, but was ambushed and killed by the Chinese general Li Chengliang, an ally of the Hada.
Wan was a Haixi Jurchen chieftain, a self-proclaimed Khan, and leader of the Hūlun tribal confederacy. A member of the Nara clan and leader of the Hada tribe, he succeeded his uncle Wangju-wailan as beile of the Hada. He was a skilled political leader and the most powerful Jurchen leader of his era, establishing dominance over the Ula, Yehe, and Hoifa tribes, which he organized into the Hūlun tribal confederation. His power waned late into his rule, and the Yehe and Ula broke off from the Hūlun under the leadership of Yangginu. Wan died soon after and was succeeded by his son Hûrhan.
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