Пусянь Ваньну
Jan. 5th, 2007 08:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amagnum"Проза", да еще на английском языке. Для знатоков и буквоедов. Статья про главного героя из "Кембриджской Истории Китая". Как все было на самом деле.
The loss of Manchuria: Yeh-lu Liu-ko and Pu-hsien Wan-nu
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The Manchurian homelands of the Jurchens, where many of them still lived, and, in particular, the comparatively prosperous region of Liao-tung, could have been an area for retreat for the Chin government. Indeed, a Jurchen minister had advised Hsuan-tsung to withdraw from the Central Capital (Peking) to the Eastern Capital (Liao-yang) instead of K’ai-feng. However, whereas the Liao-tung region was still under the firm control of Chin when the Mongols attacked in 1211, northern and central Manchuria had already been lost because of the insurrection of Yeh-lu Liu-ko. Liu-ko was a scion of the Liao imperial family and, like so many other Khitan insurgents, had cherished hopes of gaining independence ftom their Jurchen overlords. With his followers, mostly Khitan cavalry and soldiers, he declared his allegiance to Chinggis khan in 1212, quickly gained control of central and northern Manchuria, and was even allowed to adopt the title emperor of Liao in 1213. A Chin punitive expedition against him in 1214 failed.
Liu-ko's puppet state survived until 1233 when the Mongols destroyed it. The general responsible for the abortive Chin campaign against Yeh-lu Liu-ko was Wan-nu, a member of the Jurchen P’u-hsien clan. After his defeat by the Khitan rebels, Wan-nu retired with his troops to the region of the Eastern Capital in southeastern Manchuria. Like so many others he realized that the end of Chin was near and therefore tried to carve out a portion of territory for himself from the remnants of the once-great empire.
In the spring of 1215 Wan-au, too, declared himself independent, adopting the title of king and naming his state Ta-chen. This name was not a geographical name, as practically all Chinese state names had been before this (including that of Chin itself, though in this case there were overtones of Chinese cosmological symbolism). Ta-chen is a highly literary expression standing for “gold’ in Taoist texts. This name, therefore, was meant to proclaim that Wan-nu regarded himself as the true successor of the Chin, and to underline this point he also adopted the clan name of Wan-yen, the ruling house of Chin. The Taoist connotations of the state name and other features of Wan-nu’s regime were the result of the influence of a very curious person, the Chinese Wang Kuei. He came from the region of modern Shen-yang and had been a specialist in fortune-telling and the exegesis of the I-ching (Book of changes), at the same time being an adherent of the Taoist religion. Although he lived as a hermit, Wang Kuei’s reputation as a sage must have been great because he had been summoned to the Chin court as long before as 1190. He had refused and had again refused in 1215 when Hsuan-tsung had invited him to court and offered him high office. Instead he became the chief adviser of Wan-nu, whom he continued to serve until he was well over ninety years old.
Wan-nu saw no chance of regaining the plains of central Manchuria, which were at that time firmly held by Yeh-lu Liu-ko in alliance with the Mongols, and so he turned eastward and to the north. His state covered the eastern, forested, and mountainous part of Manchuria and also included the region of the former Supreme Capital on the Sungari. Wan-nu’s territories thus bordered on Koryo, and he would certainly have liked to extend his domination in that direction, but his invasions into Koryo led to no lasting results. The state of Ta-chen existed for over eighteen years until the Mongols, during their campaign against Koryo, advanced against Wan-nu’s strongholds and took him prisoner in 1233. Wan-nu’s political role can be compared with that of the insurgent Li Ch’uan in Shantung: Both established themselves in border regions far away from the center of the Chin state, and both tried to remain independent of the advancing Mongols with whom, however, they sometimes nominally allied themselves.
For the Chin state the loss of Manchuria, first to Liu-ko and Wan-nu and subsequently to the Mongols, was a severe blow because it cut off the remains of their state in China from their main horse-and cattle-breeding areas and from those regions with a substantial Jurchen population on whose loyalty they could have relied. As the situation was in 1215, Chin had lost not only the grain surplus -- producing areas of northern Hopei but also the regions from which they had obtained a great number of their cavalry horses. It is surprising that despite these formidable, and indeed fatal, losses, Chin was still able to survive as a state for some years. One reason was certainly that from 1219 onward Chinggis khan directed the greater part of his forces westward in order to attack western Asia; another factor may well have been the fear of the Mongols that united loyal Jurchens and Chinese against a common foe.
The loss of Manchuria: Yeh-lu Liu-ko and Pu-hsien Wan-nu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Manchurian homelands of the Jurchens, where many of them still lived, and, in particular, the comparatively prosperous region of Liao-tung, could have been an area for retreat for the Chin government. Indeed, a Jurchen minister had advised Hsuan-tsung to withdraw from the Central Capital (Peking) to the Eastern Capital (Liao-yang) instead of K’ai-feng. However, whereas the Liao-tung region was still under the firm control of Chin when the Mongols attacked in 1211, northern and central Manchuria had already been lost because of the insurrection of Yeh-lu Liu-ko. Liu-ko was a scion of the Liao imperial family and, like so many other Khitan insurgents, had cherished hopes of gaining independence ftom their Jurchen overlords. With his followers, mostly Khitan cavalry and soldiers, he declared his allegiance to Chinggis khan in 1212, quickly gained control of central and northern Manchuria, and was even allowed to adopt the title emperor of Liao in 1213. A Chin punitive expedition against him in 1214 failed.
Liu-ko's puppet state survived until 1233 when the Mongols destroyed it. The general responsible for the abortive Chin campaign against Yeh-lu Liu-ko was Wan-nu, a member of the Jurchen P’u-hsien clan. After his defeat by the Khitan rebels, Wan-nu retired with his troops to the region of the Eastern Capital in southeastern Manchuria. Like so many others he realized that the end of Chin was near and therefore tried to carve out a portion of territory for himself from the remnants of the once-great empire.
In the spring of 1215 Wan-au, too, declared himself independent, adopting the title of king and naming his state Ta-chen. This name was not a geographical name, as practically all Chinese state names had been before this (including that of Chin itself, though in this case there were overtones of Chinese cosmological symbolism). Ta-chen is a highly literary expression standing for “gold’ in Taoist texts. This name, therefore, was meant to proclaim that Wan-nu regarded himself as the true successor of the Chin, and to underline this point he also adopted the clan name of Wan-yen, the ruling house of Chin. The Taoist connotations of the state name and other features of Wan-nu’s regime were the result of the influence of a very curious person, the Chinese Wang Kuei. He came from the region of modern Shen-yang and had been a specialist in fortune-telling and the exegesis of the I-ching (Book of changes), at the same time being an adherent of the Taoist religion. Although he lived as a hermit, Wang Kuei’s reputation as a sage must have been great because he had been summoned to the Chin court as long before as 1190. He had refused and had again refused in 1215 when Hsuan-tsung had invited him to court and offered him high office. Instead he became the chief adviser of Wan-nu, whom he continued to serve until he was well over ninety years old.
Wan-nu saw no chance of regaining the plains of central Manchuria, which were at that time firmly held by Yeh-lu Liu-ko in alliance with the Mongols, and so he turned eastward and to the north. His state covered the eastern, forested, and mountainous part of Manchuria and also included the region of the former Supreme Capital on the Sungari. Wan-nu’s territories thus bordered on Koryo, and he would certainly have liked to extend his domination in that direction, but his invasions into Koryo led to no lasting results. The state of Ta-chen existed for over eighteen years until the Mongols, during their campaign against Koryo, advanced against Wan-nu’s strongholds and took him prisoner in 1233. Wan-nu’s political role can be compared with that of the insurgent Li Ch’uan in Shantung: Both established themselves in border regions far away from the center of the Chin state, and both tried to remain independent of the advancing Mongols with whom, however, they sometimes nominally allied themselves.
For the Chin state the loss of Manchuria, first to Liu-ko and Wan-nu and subsequently to the Mongols, was a severe blow because it cut off the remains of their state in China from their main horse-and cattle-breeding areas and from those regions with a substantial Jurchen population on whose loyalty they could have relied. As the situation was in 1215, Chin had lost not only the grain surplus -- producing areas of northern Hopei but also the regions from which they had obtained a great number of their cavalry horses. It is surprising that despite these formidable, and indeed fatal, losses, Chin was still able to survive as a state for some years. One reason was certainly that from 1219 onward Chinggis khan directed the greater part of his forces westward in order to attack western Asia; another factor may well have been the fear of the Mongols that united loyal Jurchens and Chinese against a common foe.
