history

introduction

In recorded history there have been three truly great men from the far east.

The first was Prince Gautama Siddhartha, son of the Rajah of the Sakya in Nepal, born c.563 BC. We know him as Buddha. At the age of 30, distressed by human suffering, he abandoned life at court, his wife and earthly ambition and, living an ascetic life, embarked on a quest for enlightenment through meditation. His years of austerity and mortification showed him the contemplative life to be the perfect way to self-enlightenment. Teaching for 40 years, he affirmed the existence of a path leading to deliverance from the universal human experience of suffering. He taught that life is painful, pain originates in desire, pain is ended by ending desire, the way to this is through right living. The goal is 'nirvana', extinguishing the fires of all desires and absorption of the self into the infinite.

The second was Confucius, K'ung Fu-tse, born into impoverished Chinese aristocracy in 551 BC in Shandong Province, China. A government official, in 501BC he was appointed governor of Chung-tu. His ideas for social reform made him popular with the people but his successful career attracted jealousy and led to a breach with the ruler. With a company of disciples he became an itinerant sage. In 485BC he returned home to spend his final years teaching. He emphasised moral values and ethical conduct as the basis of social and political order at all levels of society. He urged the practical virtues of benevolence, reciprocity, respect and personal effort interpreted pragmatically, with regard to individual circumstances rather than as a set of rules. Until recently Confucianism remained the state religion of China.

The third great man of the east was Temujin, the personal name of Genghis, or Chinggis, Khan. Son of a Mongol chief, he was born in 1162 in Deligun Bulduk on the Onon river in Mongolia. He was never influenced by the passive philosophy of Buddhism nor by the rigid doctrines of Confucianism.

early years

When Temujin was 9 years old his father was murdered by Tatars and his family exiled from their tribe. He was enslaved by his enemies, the Tayyichi'ut clan, but managed to escape. At 13 he was called to succeed his father and faced a long, hard struggle against hostile tribes to establish his authority. Continued success stimulated his ambition and he spent 6 years subjugating the Naimans between Lake Balkhash and the Irtysh river, and in conquering Tangut, south of the Gobi desert. From these beginnings Temujin grew into one of the most charismatic, successful and powerful leaders the world has known.

destiny

Temujin was elevated as Khan by his own tribe in 1189. In 1206, Mongol nobles and commanders of Mongol cavalry, gathered on the Kerulen river, confirming him as Khan of all the Mongols. He took the name Genghis Khan, meaning Universal Ruler or Very Mighty Ruler. Between 1211 - 1225 he overran the empire of North China, conquered the Kara-Khitai empire from Lake Balkhash to Tibet, attacked the empire of Khwarezm, bounded by the Jaxartes, Indus, Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea, took Bokhara, Samarkand, Kwarezm and other major cities, and returned home. His armies penetrated northwards from the Caspian, through Georgia, into southern Russia and the Crimea. Another of his generals completed the conquest of all northern China except for Honan.

genghis the man

Genghis valued loyalty and was good at building alliances. In matters of punishment and reward he was known to be strict, fair and generous. He was ruthless, but tolerant; merciless, but also merciful. Although he has become a byword in popular thinking for pitiless and wanton cruelty this is unfair, his armies rarely used torture and he never fought a war without first declaring it. In their Russian and Chinese campaigns the Mongols under Genghis always delivered a full warning to their intended foe: 'Give in and we will spare you, otherwise we will fight you to the death and give no quarter.' History records that they usually kept their word.

the mongols

Mongols worshipped the Sky God, together with the spirits inhabiting the sun, moon, stars, mountains, water, trees and all natural things. As shamanists they had no church, worship was immediate communication between the individual and the world of nature. They believed that each soul was linked directly to heaven and each individual was the centre of their own universe. Heaven was their guide, under it they were born free and equal. The universe to which Genghis and the Mongols gave allegiance was not bound by geographical limits. That is how two million Mongols, with 129,000 horsemen, established the largest land empire in world history. The Mongols came to consider their tents as the universe.

genghis the strategist

Genghis Khan is regarded by many as the greatest strategist the world has seen. A military genius using, and improving on, ideas and techniques, he stands above Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Attila and Napoleon. At its greatest, the Mongol empire stretched from Java and Korea in the east to Poland in the west, from the Arctic Ocean in the north to Persia in the south. It included Beijing, Hanoi, Baghdad, the Holy Land, Moscow and Vladivostok.

Genghis achieved this in a number of ways. Firstly, he kept his word and his agreements. Secondly, he valued and inspired loyalty. He used a system of sworn brotherhood, a bond that only death could sever. Between the start of his ascendancy and his death in 1227 not a single one of the generals with whom he built his empire had to be executed, not one betrayed him.

Thirdly, he built alliances, through marriage and by feudal patronage or friendship.

Genghis kept his armies on the move, with external enemies to unite them they had neither the time nor the inclination to fight each other. His campaigns were planned precisely and executed brilliantly. His generals were expert at siege warfare, bridge-building, and lightning strikes. They were masters of deception, espionage and psychological warfare. Field intelligence played a crucial role in his campaigns, enabling him to mount flank attacks with flying columns of cavalry to encircle the enemy, block escape and synchronise his cavalry with signals from smoke, lanterns and flags.

skills

The horsemanship of the Mongol cavalry is unrivalled in the history of war. Mongol archers conquered the world from the backs of their horses, wielding bows with a drawing strength of 75 Kilos (166 lbs.), accurate over 185 - 215 metres (six to seven hundred feet). They could shoot accurately at full gallop and often slept in the saddle.

Iron discipline and matchless speed were not the only reasons for the Mongols' success in their wars of conquest, it also owed much to their collaboration with foreigners. At one point Turks outnumbered actual Mongols in the Mongol armies.

The Mongols demonstrated high levels of leadership, innovative strategy, creative tactics, co-ordination, analysis, risk-taking, team-work, flexibility, ruthlessness, competitive instinct, communication, the ability to manage change, infinite resourcefulness, determination, toughness and flexibility.

tolerance

Genghis was a shamanist who lacked religious fervour, he believed in the right to worship freely and promoted a policy of religious tolerance. According to Gibbon, the historian, 'The Catholic Inquisitors of Europe might have been confounded by the example of a barbarian who anticipated the lessons of philosophy and established by his laws a system of pure theism and perfect toleration.' This was unique for the time and still unusual now. The Turkish Uigurs voluntarily submitted and from them the Mongols derived their civilization, their alphabet and their laws. The Mongols, under Genghis and his successors, demonstrated receptive, pragmatic and flexible attitudes which resulted in them learning much that was a source of great strength to them while establishing and administering their empire.

legacy

Genghis was a chieftain, a warrior, a conqueror and an emperor, he was also a wise and able administrator and ruler. He conquered empires stretching from the Black Sea to the Pacific and organised them into a state of some permanence on which his successors were able to build.

He was a far-sighted leader and a born diplomat who understood the wishes of his people and led them skillfully during his lifetime. Before Genghis the Mongols lacked a clear sense of their identity as one people. He gave them an identity that has endured to this day. After his death in 1227, his influence continued for another 150 years. For those times this was extraordinary.

The Mongols linked Asia and Europe with horse relay stations to speed communication between the most important places on the two continents. It was possible for news to travel 6,500 kilometres (4,000 miles) in 40 days, urgent messages could be transmitted by express courier at over 320 kilometres (200 miles) a day. They established the trans-continental road between east and west. For the first time in a thousand years humans could travel in relative safety and trade goods, cultural objects and influences could be easily exchanged.