Toghon Temür
| Toghon Temür | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emperor of the Yuan dynasty Khagan of the Mongols | |||||||||||||||||
| Emperor of Yuan Dynasty | |||||||||||||||||
| Reign | 19 July 1333 – 23 May 1370 | ||||||||||||||||
| Coronation | 19 July 1333 | ||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Rinchinbal | ||||||||||||||||
| Successor | Biligtü | ||||||||||||||||
| Born | 25 May 1320 | ||||||||||||||||
| Died | 23 May 1370 (aged 50) Yingchang | ||||||||||||||||
| Consort | Danashri | ||||||||||||||||
| Consort | Empress Gi | ||||||||||||||||
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| Dynasty | Yuan | ||||||||||||||||
| Dynasty | Borjigin | ||||||||||||||||
| Father | Emperor Mingzong | ||||||||||||||||
| Mother | Mailaiti of the Karluks | ||||||||||||||||
Template:Contains Chinese text Toghon Temür (Mongolian: Тогоонтөмөр, Togoontömör; 25 May 1320 – 23 May 1370), also known by the temple name Huizong bestowed by the Northern Yuan and by the posthumous name Shundi (Wade–Giles: Shun-ti) bestowed by the Hongwu Emperor of the Ming dynasty, was a son of Kuśala who ruled as emperor of the Yuan dynasty and is considered the last Khagan of the Mongol Empire.[2][3][4]
During the last years of his reign, the Yuan was overthrown by the Red Turban Rebellion, which established the Ming dynasty, although the Mongols remained in control of Mongolia.
Emperor Huizong was a Buddhist student of the Karmapas (heads of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism) and is considered a previous incarnation of the Tai Situpas. He also notably invited the Jonang savant Dölpopa Shérab Gyeltsen to teach him, but was rebuffed.[5]
Before succession
Toghon Temür was born to Kuśala - better known as Khutughtu Khan, Emperor Mingzong of Yuan - when he was in exile in Central Asia. Toghon Temür's mother was Mailaiti, descendant of Arslan, the chief of the Karluks.[6]
Following the civil war that broke out after the death of Yesün Temür Khan, Emperor Taiding of Yuan in 1328, Toghon Temür attended his father and entered Shangdu from Mongolia. However, after Kuśala died and Kuśala's younger brother, Tugh Temür, was restored to the throne as Jayaatu Khan, Emperor Wenzong of Yuan, he was kept from the court and was banished to Goryeo (modern Korea) and later to Guangxi in South China. While he was in exile, his stepmother Babusha was executed.
When Emperor Wenzong died in 1332, his widow Budashiri respected his will to make the son of Kuśala's succeed to the throne instead of Wenzong's own son, El Tegüs. However, it was not Toghon Temür but his younger half-brother Rinchinbal, who was enthroned as Emperor Ningzong. However, Ningzong died only two months into his reign. The de facto ruler, El Temür, attempted to install El Tegüs as emperor but was stopped by Dowager Empress Budashiri.
As a result, Toghon Temür was summoned back from Guangxi. El Temür feared that Toghon Temür, who was too mature to be a puppet, would take arms against him since he was suspected of the assassination of Toghon Temür's father, Emperor Mingzong. The enthronement was postponed for six months until El Temür died in 1333.
Reign
Struggles during the early reign
The new emperor appointed his cousin El Tegüs crown prince as he was ward of El Tegüs' mother Budashiri, but he was controlled by warlords even after El Temür's death. Among them, Bayan of the Merkid became as powerful as El Temür had been. He served as minister of the Secretariat and crushed a rebellion by El Temür's son. During his despotic rule, he made several purges and also suspended the imperial examination system.
As Toghon Temür matured, he came to disfavor Bayan's autocratic rule. In 1340 he allied with Bayan's nephew Toqto'a, who was in discord with Bayan, and banished Bayan in a coup. He also removed El Tegüs and Budashiri from court. He also managed to purge officials that had dominated the administration with the help of Toqto'a.
Administrations during the middle reign
With the dismissal of Bayan, Toqto'a seized the power of the court. His first administration clearly exhibited fresh new spirit. The young leader was quick to distinguish his regime as something wholly different from Bayan's. A new reign title, Zhizheng (Chinese: 至正), was decreed to show this. Bayan's purges were called off. Many of the great Chinese literati came back to the capital from voluntary retirement or from administrative exile and the imperial examination system was restored.
Toqto'a also gave a few early signs of a new and positive direction in central government. One of his successful projects was to finish the long-stalled official histories of the Liao, Jin and Song dynasties, which were eventually completed in 1345.
Toqto'a resigned his office with the approval of Toghon Temür in June 1344, which marked the end of his first administration. The several short-lived administrations that followed from 1344 and 1349 would develop an agenda very different from Toqto'a's. In 1347, the emperor forced Toqto'a into Gansu with assistance from former officers of Kuśala and Emperor Taiding.
In 1349, Emperor Huizong recalled Toqto'a, which began Toqto'a's second and very different administration.
Disorder during the late reign
Since the late 1340s, people in the countryside suffered from frequent natural disasters; droughts, floods and the ensuing famines. The government's lack of effective policy led to a loss of the support from people. Illicit salt dealers who were disaffected with the government's salt monopoly raised a rebellion in 1348. It triggered many revolts around the empire. Among them, the Red Turban Rebellion, which started in 1351, grew into a nationwide turmoil.
In 1354, when Toghtogha led a large army to crush the Red Turban rebels, Toghon Temür suddenly dismissed him for fear of betrayal. It resulted in Toghon Temür's restoration of power on the one hand and a rapid weakening of the central government on the other. He had no choice but to rely on local warlords' military.
He gradually lost his interest in politics and ceased to intervene in political struggles. His son Ayushiridar, who became Crown Prince in 1353, attempted to seize power and came to conflict with Toghon Temür's aides who dominated politics instead of the khan. Chief Khatun Öljei Khutugh and his minister persuaded Ayushiridar to overthrow the latter. Toghon Temür was unable to conciliate the dispute but executed the minister. In 1364 the Shangxi-based warlord Bolad Temür occupied Khanbaliq and expelled the Crown Prince from the winter base. In alliance with the Henan-based warlord Köke Temür, Ayushiridar defeated Bolad Temür in the next year. This internal struggle resulted in further weakening of political and military power of the central government.
Relations with other nations
Church
Pope John XXII and Pope Benedict XII successfully extended a network of Catholic churches throughout the Mongol Empire from Crimea to China between 1317 and 1343. The archbishop of Khanbaligh, John of Montecorvino, died in 1328. With the backing of the Toghon Temür, the Alans wrote to Pope Benedict XII in 1336 asking for a new metropolitan. In 1338, the pope sent back the embassy headed by Giovanni de' Marignolli, who stayed at Beijing three or four years. They brought gifts for Toghon Temür that included fine European horses.
Delhi Sultanate
In around 1338, Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq of the Delhi Sultanate appointed Moroccann traveller ibn Battuta ambassador to the court of Toghon Temür. The gifts he was to take included 200 Hindu slaves. On the Doab plain they were attacked by Hindu insurgents; the imperial cavalry killed all 4000 of them while losing 78 men, according to ibn Battuta, who was separated, captured and barely escaped being killed by brigands. Battuta also luckily escaped to China. However, he said when he came to China, the Kaghan was dead, but travelling further north, through the Grand Canal to Beijing, and along with his fellow countryman al-Bushri, Ibn Battuta was invited to the Yuan imperial court of Toghon Temür as an ambassador of the Delhi Sultanate.[7]
Japan
When the Koreans captured a Japanese fishing ship they thought was spying, the Goryeo court sent it to their overlord, the Yuan emperor Toghon Temür, who then sent the fishermen back to Japan. In reply, the Ashikaga shogunate sent an embassy led by a monk to express its gratitude.
Retreat to the north
Unifying rebel groups in Southern China and establishing the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang conducted military expeditions to Northern China and defeated the Yuan army in 1368. When Köke Temür lost battles against Ming General Xu Da and the Ming troops approached Hebei, Toghon Temür gave up Khanbalik and fled to the summer base Shangdu.
In 1369 when Shangdu also fell under the Ming's occupation, Toghon Temür fled northward to Yingchang, which was located in present-day Inner Mongolia. He died there in 1370, and his son Ayushiridara succeeded to the throne and retreated to Karakorum in present-day Mongolia in the same year. The Yuan remnants ruled Mongolia and continued to claim the title of Emperor of China. It was called the Northern Yuan by Chinese and Mongols.
At the time of his death, the Mongolia-based empire maintained its influence, stretching the domination from the Sea of Japan to Altai Mountains. There were also pro-Yuan, anti-Ming forces in Yunnan and Guizhou. Even though its control over China had not been stable yet, the Ming considered that the Yuan lost the Mandate of Heaven when it abandoned Khanbalik, and that the Yuan was overthrown in 1368. The Ming did not treat Toghon Temür after 1368 and his successor Ayushiridar as legitimate emperors.
The Ming gave Toghon Temür the posthumous name Shundi (順帝), which implied that he followed the Mandate of Heaven ceding his empire to the Ming. But the Northern Yuan gave him their own posthumous name Xuanren Pu Xiao Huangdi (宣仁普孝皇帝) and temple name Huizong (惠宗).
Even after Toghon Temür, there was still Yuan resistance to the Ming in the south. In southwestern China, Basalawarmi, the self-styled "Prince of Liang", established a Yuan resistance movement in Yunnan and Guizhou that was not put down until 1381.
Legacy
Mongolian chronicles such as the Erdeni-yin tobchi include a poem known as the Lament of Toghon Temür. It deals with his grieving after the loss of Khanbalik.
Depiction in art and media
- The Korean TV dramas Shin Don (2005-2006) and Empress Ki (2013).
- The film A Frozen Flower which features a depiction of Toghon issuing a decree to the Korean king.
- Chuanqi Huangdi Zhu Yuanzhang
- Founding Emperor of Ming Dynasty
See also
References
- ^ The posthumous name Shundi was given by the Ming Dynasty.
- ^ Michael Prawdin The Mongol Empire and its Legacy
- ^ J. J. Saunders The History of Mongol Conquests
- ^ René Grousset The Empire of Steppes
- ^ Stearns, Cyrus (2010). The Buddha from Dölpo : a study of the life and thought of the Tibetan master Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (Rev. and enl. ed. ed.). Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications. pp. 30–31. ISBN 9781559393430.
{{cite book}}:|edition=has extra text (help) - ^ Andreas Radbruch, ed. Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting. Berlin: Springer, 1992 or 2000 ISBN 0-387-55594-3 ISBN 3540656308, p. 129
- ^ http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=ZF2spo9BKacC&pg=PA100&lpg=PA100&dq=ibn+battuta+in+tabriz&source=bl&ots=W7cVGG8O_P&sig=YCJFRE8hVw5fziHEOr9t58MurY4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gQy5UP3eIMy0hAfr_4HgCA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=china&f=false