Taiji Government and the Rise of the Warrior State

Lhamsuren Munkh-Erdene, Ph.D. (2004), Hokkaido University, is Professor of History and Anthropology at National University of Mongolia, and a Visiting Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. He has published articles on the Inner Asian political order, including “The Rise of the Chinggisid Dynasty: Pre-modern Eurasian Political Order and Culture at a Glance”.

• AcknowledgmentsList of Maps and FiguresList of AbbreviationsNote on Transcription and TranslationIntroduction1 The Qing Inner Asian Political Order1 The Qing Constitution: The Triumph of the Bureaucratic-Colonial Model2 The Qing Tributary System: Suzerain–Vassal State Relations3 The Manchu Colonialism: Chinese Defensive Empire into Chinese Conquest Empire4 Manchu’s Mongolian Social Revolution5 The Chinggisid Taiji Government and Mongolia and the Qing2 Alliance to Coalition1 Pre-1636 Manchu-Mongolian Relations: Alliance to Tutelage?2 Manchu-Mongolian Princely Treaties: Defensive Alliances3 Manchu-Khorchin Engagement and Manchu Dependence on Khorchin4 The Creation of External Mongolia and the Formation of a Multilateral Coalition5 The Coalition, Assembly, Codes, and Leadership3 The Manchu Conquest: Winner Takes All1 Shifting Borders: Qurban Tsönggereg to Shariljitai to Shonkhor2 Changing Stories: Ligdan’s Flight or Hong Taiji’s Defeat?3 The Demise of the Mongolian Great State and the Rise of the Daiching State4 Ligdan: From Lawful Great Khan to Quixotic Delusional Dreamer5 Charisma: The Very Essence of Inner Asian Politics4 From the Taishi Government to the Taiji Government1 The Mongol Empire and the Northern Yuan Dynasty2 The Taishi Government and Its Demise3 Dayan Khanid Reign: The Rise of the Taiji Government4 The Taiji Government Structure: A Federal Constitutional Monarchy5 The Taiji Government: A Parliamentary Aristocracy1 The Seven Khoshuus or the Khalkha Tümen2 An Aristocratic Parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy3 The Chuulgan: An Aristocratic Parliament4 The Jasag: An Appointed Central Government5 The Khoshuu: Autonomous Lordship and Government Unit6 The Northern Yuan: An Inner Asian Parallel to the Holy Roman Empire6 The Rise and Fall of the Jaisang Government1 The Destruction of the Great State: Contrary-to-Government Deeds2 The Abolishment of Taiji Government: Ligdan’s Reform and Princely Revolts3 The Dissolution of Tümen-Khanates4 The Saghang Saga: A Coup and the Demise of the Mongol Empire5 The Proclamation of the Daiching Ulus: A United Manchu–Mongolian State7 Aimag and Pre-Modern Mongolia in Modern Euro-Sinocentric Vision1 Bichurin’s Foresight: Aimag from Principalities to Tribes to Secondary Tribes2 Aimag and Mongolia in Modern Euro-Sinocentric Vision3 Archaeology of Aimag or External Aimag4 The External Aimags: Mongolian Principalities5 The Internal Aimags: Manchu Principalities8 The Daiching Ulus and Mongolia: An Inner Asian Aristocratic Federation1 Conferral Letter: Covenant as Investiture2 Covenant, Pillars, and Co-Rulers: One Accord, Mutual Reliance, and Tüshiyetü Khan3 The Daiching Ulus: An Inner Asian Aristocratic Federation4 The Daiching Gurun as Pax Manjurica and Pax Mongolica9 The Mongolian World Order and the Daiching Ulus1 The Chakravartin Monarchy and the Great State of Five Colors and Four Aliens2 The Altanid Redefinition: The Dyarchy of Aristocracy and Theocracy3 For the Sake of the Government and the Faith: Seeking the Qubilaid Legitimacy4 Claiming ’Phags-pa’s Seat10 The Rivalry of the Daiching Ulus and the Döchin and Dörben1 The Rise of the Döchin and Dörben2 The Daiching Ulus and the Döchin and Dörben Hostility3 The Qing and the Khalkha Treaty4 Turmoil in the Döchin and Dörben: Structural Problems within the Regime5 The Khüren Belchir Assembly and Zanabazar’s Justice6 The Failure at the Khüren Belchir Assembly7 The Destruction of the Döchin and Dörben11 The Empire of the Two Norms1 The Dalai Lama and the Making of the Manjushri Chakravartin Khan2 The Taiji Government: Mutual Reliance and the Guest State3 The Manjushri Chakravartin Monarch: The Patron and the Protector of the Faith4 Surpassing Qubilai: Consolidation of the Government of the Two NormsConclusionReferencesIndex

“Despite strongly developed historiography on the Mongolian sources of Qing institutions and political culture, in my view Munkh-Erdene is the first to develop in English the idea of a continuing organic relationship with the Mongolian aristocracy as a central controlling principle of Qing imperial governance. And what he proposes does challenge modern historiography. (…) Not only did taiji governance in Mongolia continue without disruption, it became the foundation of the dominant political values of the Qing state—its constitution. On this point Munkh-Erdene places himself in opposition to David M. Farquhar, Christopher P. Atwood, Nicola Di Cosmo, Johan Elverskog, Peter C. Perdue, Zhang Shiming and others (Oka Hiroki is given an occasional merit for not being entirely sinocentric), who all argue that the Qing used progressive bureaucratization (though in varying degrees) of the governance of Mongolia as its most effective tool for undermining the traditional elites and installing its own tame Mongol aristocrats and religious leaders. (…) No Qing, Mongolia, or Inner Asia specialist who gives The Taiji State an attentive reading will accept stock generalizations about conquest, empire, or Mongolia.” - Pamela Crossley, Journal of Chinese Studies, DOI: 10.29708/JCS.CUHK.202301_(76).0012 "One can read Lhamsuren Munkh-Erdene’s new book in one of two ways: either as a well-documented study of Manchu-Mongolian relations and the concurrent transformation of indigenous Mongolian political institutions in the early seventeenth century or as an ambitious revision of fundamental narratives of Mongolian and Qing history between 1600 and 1911.(...) Whichever angle the reader adopts, this is a work that deserves to be taken seriously and that will certainly inspire lively debate among students of Qing history, Mongolian studies, and comparative empire alike.[T]his is a very rich book, ambitious and wide-ranging, assiduously researched, and clearly organized and presented, which will repay careful reading and rereading." - Mark Elliott, Harvard University, Journal of Asian Studies, 82:2 (2023) doi: 10.1215/00219118-10290740