By Pepe Escobar posted with permission and first posted at Asia Times
Have an auspicious Year of the Ox, everybody. And to celebrate it in style, fleetingly alleviating our burden in these times of trouble, let’s plunge into a dream within a dream, going back to the future for a game-changing moment in Chinese history.
Chinese New Year’s Day, 1272. At the time, that fell on January 18. Kublai Khan, after issuing an imperial edict, establishes the official beginning of the Yuan dynasty in China.
That may have been a Chinese-style dynasty in all its accoutrements, set up according to millenary rituals and following a classic structure. But the people who were running the show were definitely the sons of the steppe: the Mongols.
Kublai Khan was on a roll. In 1256 he had started building a summer capital north of the Great Wall of China, Kaiping – renamed Shangtu in 1263. That was the Xanadu of Coleridge’s sublime poem – later decoded by the genius of Jorge Luis Borges, that Buddha in a gray suit, as containing an “unrevealed archetype”, an “eternal object” whose “first manifestation was the palace; the second, the poem.”
In 1258, after fighting, successfully, a court conspiracy, Kublai’s brother Mongke – then the Great Khan – gave him the strategic command of one of the four divisions of the Mongol army in a new offensive against the Song dynasty in China.
But then Mongke died – of fever – outside Chungking (today’s Chongqing), in 1259. The succession was epic. The Khan’s younger brother, Ariq – who had stayed in the Mongol capital Karakorum to protect the homeland – was about to go medieval to capture the throne.
Hulagu, also Kublai’s brother, and the conqueror (and destroyer) of Baghdad – actually the conqueror of nearly all of West Asia – stopped his military campaign in Syria and run back home to support Kublai.
Kublai finally got back to Kaiping. A khuriltai – the imposing, ceremonial Mongol council of tribal chieftains – was finally held. And Kublai was proclaimed Great Khan in June 1260.
The immediate result was civil war – until Ariq finally caved in.
Six years after becoming Great Khan, Kublai started the construction of a new winter capital, Ta-tu (“great capital”), northeast of the old city of Chungtu (that’s where modern Beijing is located).
In Turkic, the city was named Khanbalik (“royal capital”). That’s the Cambalac we find in Marco Polo’s travels.
Kublai’s war against the Song dynasty was an immensely protracted affair. His final victory only happened four years after he became Great Khan – when the Song empress dowager handed him over the imperial seal.
The Yuan dynasty was a de facto, historical game-changer – because deep down the Mongols, nomad sons of the steppe, never trusted the sedentary, refined, urbanized Chinese.
Kublai, though, was a master strategist. He kept a lot of very important Chinese advisers. But later on, his successors preferred to staff the administration with Mongols, assorted Muslims from Central Asia, and Tibetans.
The Great Khanate under Kublai included Mongolia and Tibet – which, of course, were not Chinese. Yet the most extraordinary point is that Yuan China was in fact integrated and/or absorbed into the Mongol empire. China became part of the Khanate.
Follow the script
The Yuan dynasty also sealed a defining moment in Mongol history. The Mongols were always open to the influence of every religion. But all in all, they remained fundamentally pagan. The ones who really commanded their attention – and devotion – were their shamans.
Still, some Mongols had converted to Nestorian Christianity. Kublai’s wife, Chabi, was a fervent Buddhist. But then Kublai’s generation, en masse, started to turn towards Mahayana Buddhism. Their tutors were not only Tibetans, but Uighurs as well.
And that leads us to a key juncture. Kublai decided he needed a unified Mongol script to congregate the Babel of languages spoken across the Khanate.
The man appointed to carry the formidable task was Phagspa – Kublai’s National Preceptor, the Viceroy of Tibet, and later imperial preceptor, that is, the supreme authority over all Buddhists in the whole Mongol empire.
Phagspa came up with a script, not surprisingly, based on the Tibetan alphabet. Yet that was written vertically – like Chinese script, and Uighur and Mongol script.
In 1269, three years before the official start of the Yuan dynasty, that became the official writing system. Why is that so important? Because it was the first multilingual transcription system in the world.
Then there’s the all-important matter of food.
Kublai was a gourmet. Cooks held a special, very prestigious role in the Mongol universe. They were close companions to the Khan, who trusted them to keep his food always poison-free. Cooks were also members of the keshig – the Khan’s praetorian guard. That means they were also accomplished warriors.
In Chinese imperial tradition, the Son of Heaven was supposed to follow a perfectly balanced diet; that’s how he secured stability for the world at large. Meals of the Chinese emperor – the living link between Heaven and Earth – marked the passage of time, and the alternation of yin and yang.
Kublai, as a keen student of Chinese tradition, must have been introduced by his court advisers to a famous passage from the Chinese classic The Master Zhuang. The appropriately named “Essentials for Nourishing Life” features a dialogue between the Duke Wenhui of Wei and his cook, Ding, who happens to be butchering… an ox.
The most extraordinary thing about this tale – which sort of prefigures the writing of Borges – is how Ding, the cook, describes his art to the master: how to dissect an ox by steering his blade through the open spaces between the joints.
It’s all a matter of concentrating on the Dao. That is, going with the flow – and respecting natural anatomy. That’s how you learn to navigate the complex carcass of life itself – facing no resistance, and without exhausting vital energy.
So there it is: a cook as a Daoist philosopher. Borges would have loved it.
The message: if we want to live a life on the edge of a knife that can’t be blunted, we should be working between the joints.
Sounds like a life lesson we all should heed for a properly Ox-picious year.
Stalin had that idea to have ability and skilm to start and then to stop action. This world is full of headbangers who can’t stop when starting their action. Success is so often the first step to latter fiasco and while knock down victory sounds so fascinating but stream of narrow marginal victories are most delicious.
‘It’s all a matter of concentrating on the Dao. That is, going with the flow – and respecting natural anatomy. That’s how you learn to navigate the complex carcass of life itself – facing no resistance, and without exhausting vital energy. To dissect an ox by steering the blade through the open spaces between the joints.’
How expertely subtle. In both a military sense and a philosophically sense. Militarily you destroy the opposition by disection, by isolating the various sections of their forces and defeating them one by one. Imagine, should the Chinese isolate the US navy just to conduct a naval battle wherein the airforces and others forces are not involved. Should one side win what would be the consequences?
The weakness of the US military machine is not in its size or potential power it is in its ‘anatomy’ which means its structure. It is private enterprise and its ‘carcass’ is succeptible to the knife. It is economic. Should a manufacturer of say … of aircraft carriers become obsolute then its huge production is no longer affordable.
That Russian arments are specifically designated and have spent most of the last 20 years desigining weapons to defeat specific areas of US military equipment so as such ‘areas of the carcass’ that are vunerable will no longer be effective. That America’s military strength is a factor of capitalism is its weakness and not its strength. That is the Dao in essence.
This is an Asian concept in both business and in defense and it is very, very usefull.
thank you for your comment above….
Nice article, but worthy of some annotations — like all good classics got subject to in China.
Escobar stetes thus:
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” In 1256 he had started building a summer capital north of the Great Wall of China, Kaiping – renamed Shangtu in 1263. That was the Xanadu of Coleridge’s sublime poem – later decoded by the genius of Jorge Luis Borges, ”
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“Shangtu” is no longer the transskription of [‘ʂâŋ.tū] , which is nowadays (for the last 40 years) been written “Shàngdū when using latin letters. The centre of that winter capital lay 15 km NW of the centre of present-day Bĕijing, Sout and SW of the later Summer Palace of Míng and Qíng times.
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Furthermore, the classical Chinese New Year’s dish introduced by Khublai was first of all probably the “shàn yángròu” , a hotpot using raw frozen mutton slices, scallions, soft flatbreads, sweet soy juice and more thet were cooked fast in the middle of the table. Nowadays, it is eaten in Bêijing from early winter until the chinese new yar Spring festival.
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Happy yer of the ox! May Ferdinand get stung by a bee and charge with his horns agains all imperialis oppressors!
MAXIMA mea culpa:
. “Shàngdū” was of course the summer capital. Lying on the southern slpåes from what is now the ‘autonomous area’ of Inner Mongolia (Nèi-Mènggû zìzhìqǖ / Öbür Monggol ).
. The precursor of Bêijing (and earlier called Yànchéng/Yànjing) was the winter capital of the Mongol-ruled Yuán empire previously in English spelled “Ta4-tu1) but now for fourty years spellled “Dàdū” in latinite script would-wide.
A good description of the remains of that capital city is provided by British Library head sinologist Francise Wood in her “Did Marco Polo go to China?” (available in Chinese under the title “Make Polo daoguo Zhongguo’ ma?”
The great Winter Capital of Dàdū was quite large in terms of square mileage due to the need to keep large herds of goats, sheep and cattle within bounds throughout the winter months) A small part of the wall around Dàdu/Khanbalik was preserved in the Northwest corner of Peking University/BêiDà campus where the famous English teacher and friend of Ezrah Pound and P.C. Roberts (author of “The Meaning of Meaning”) Robert Winter (Dōng Wéhdé’/Tung Wên-Têh) lived in and held state in a large a hut/chalet for fifty years fefore dying at age 100 around 1986.
OBLIGATORY Reference for anyone interested in the interactions between China, Anglo-Amrikastan and the Rockefeller Foundation: The Book “Winter in China” published by Wabash College Press!
And there lies the problem.
To even consider that folk in the US, UK, Tasmania, New Zealand or France have any understanding of your grasp of history and philosophy is folorn. In the current struggles for equity or supremacy of economies and military assesments my studies only reveal what I know of Confucius and the fact I have lived in Asia for some time and know a tiny part of Chinese history.
It is not unknown that incorrect assessments of adverseries is more a salient factor in Chinese history than the US where such recent mistakes are already manifest if not universal.
That I believe that history is the greatest teacher of outcomes, when people are involved, and that the US believes that science and military superiority will be a turning point that cannot be denied is where the two concepts differ.
Some belive greater weaponary will destroy the exercise of belief or philisophy.
Those intelligent enough to understand (as those who comment so well above) will already know the result.
The USA never seem to be able to learn from Korea and Vietnam. As Sun Tze said: superior numbers (or superior military power) alone is not enough to decide the outcome of a battle.
So what will decide the outcome of a battle or war according to Sun Tze? They are:
1) self-knowledge (including History),
2) knowledge of the enemy (again including History),
3) Preparation – ensure victory first before fighting and not fight first and seek victory afterwards (the US’ seemingly perpetual mistake to date and most recently exemplified by Trump’s trade, tech and diplomatic wars against Xi’s China).
There are others, but these are the three main ones.
Oh and I forgot to mention that the US and the west believes that history lasts for 4-8 years whereas in Asia it is considerably much, much longer which is why the ‘family’ is a major element in Chinese society and philosophy. Perhaps the element of being ‘reborn’. Reincarnation became part of Confucianism through the influence of Buddhism. Basically, Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism are all part of the Chinese tradition. … However, at the end of their life, they would call Buddhist priests who believed in reincarnation.
“Because it was the first multilingual transcription system in the world.”
I have doubts about that. Qin Shihuangdi created the first Chinese written script which would be common to all the spoken languages of his new Qin Empire…over a thousand years before the Khaan Kubilai.
Did Qin include Tibet and Mongolia and the West Provinces?
How does that make a difference to the question? Escobar didn’t say multinational. He said multilingual.
That so-called multi-lingual script, if it existed at all, did not last. After Kublai Khan, the Mongol empire was all downhill – likely due to the sort of ‘advisors’ his successors kept. The ‘script’ likely died with the Mongol empire i.e. f it was really adopted extensively in the first place.
That “multy-lingual script” became the means through whigh several Miao-Yao tribes preserved theit traditions (and alo influenced the “nǚzi” scripts that are now preserved both in Mainland CHina and amongst the refucfugies resettled in mountain areas of North America and some in France.
Kublai Khan likely got the idea of a trans-lingual script from the common Chinese script of the Qin Dynasty.
China was one of provinces of the Mongol Empire. Khubilai Khaan, as the Great Khan of the Empire resided on the territory, nearby Beijing.
Sara, there is another little but significant twist in the history of Beijing as the capital of the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire.
The Ming Dynasty’s first capital was at Nanjing – which was also the capital of the Southern Song. The first Ming Emperor through this signified that he was reviving and ruling over the Chinese Empire.
But the second Ming Emperor – Yung Lo, moved the capital to Beijing which was Kublai Khan’s capital where he ruled as both the Emperor of China and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. By this, he signified that he is also the Emperor of the Mongol Empire.
No wonder Tamerlane was anxious to conquer China to snuff this threat to his claim as successor to Ghenghis Khan. With Yung Lo as Emperor in Beijing, there is no way that he will be recognized as the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, not even after defeating the Golden Horde!
The Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite stele inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in Memphis, Egypt in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts are in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic and Demotic scripts respectively, while the bottom is in Ancient Greek.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone
The Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799 by members of Napoleon Bonaparte’s campaign in Egypt, bore a parallel text in hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decipherment_of_ancient_Egyptian_scripts
Dwell for a moment on the ninja-blade hellfire missile used to assassinate General Soleimani.
Not only an explosive device, but a slicing warhead that minced the body of the great man.
The Hegemon always a beast of excesses.
And this year, perhaps, the Hegemon is, symbolically, the Ox to be cut into quarters.
The butcher? The Ox itself, impaling itself on its own devices.
Certainly, blood is on the ground and it’s only been three weeks. The charnel house is on the Potomac. We smell the stench of death, hopelessly shielded by fences, concertina wire and tens of thousands of guardia.
Happy New Year!
Well said, my comrade Larchmonter, well said. One can, indeed, smell the blood spilling in Sodom on the Potomac as I type, and the bloodshed is self inflicted by those ‘trusted’ to steer the republik. It ain’t going to be pretty, and always remember what I said to you earlier today, to whit, you and I are old but we both may well outlive the republik.
Auslander
Author http://rhauslander.com/
that is where the ”land of the free” have come to”…maybe they were never free….
Not even “the home of the brave”!
The assassination, I understand, used explosives. There were at least 8 other collateral deaths.
Some details were bragged about by the military immediately.
They then spoke of the small pieces of DNA used to authenticate the kill were the result of the “blades”.
So I read several stories source to the US operations which said it was this missile used to kill the General.
“A number of these strikes have also been carried out in the same general region of Syria using the AGM-114R9X Hellfire missile, which has a warhead consisting of pop-out sword-like blades rather than a traditional explosive charge. . . . is understood to be used almost exclusively by JSOC and the CIA.”
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/38739/pentagon-report-adds-new-evidence-irans-soleimani-was-killed-by-new-highly-precise-missile
I have read about the so-called “Ninja Missiles”. These missiles are supposed to be precise such that even the person sitting besides the victim will not be harmed. This is to avoid collateral killings of innocents that are inevitable with explosive missiles.
Trump only wanted to kill Soleimani. If the Ninja blade missile was used, no other would had been killed. But there were at least 8 other deaths of those not targeted by Trump in the killing of Soleimani – a wanton collateral killing of innocents consistent with the use of explosive missiles.
Simon, is it not possible to use two types of weapons in an attack? Does it have to be just one or another?
I read somewhere that both explosives and “Ninja” were used.
Possible. But no evidence of both explosive and ninja blade missiles were used. In fact the fragment of the missile used and the large number of casualties point to explosives used. If ninja blade missile used, the missile would be relatively intact and the vehilces of the victims would not have been in pieces.
The report I read of the ninja blade missile’s impact in another purported rub-out, showed the victim’s car intact. Only the roof of the car showed where the blades smashed through to slice up the victim.
And why should Trump use both types of missiles since he is after only Soleimani? Why should Trump sliced up only Soleimani and blow up the rest? Makes no sense even with a madman like Trump.
Even more extraordinary than Zhuangzi’s knife story is the fact that over 60% of China’s territory was acquired, on its behalf, by foreign conquerors like Kubilai :
— The Mongols added Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet to China’s territory
— The Manchus added the 3 Northern provinces and stabilized China’s control over the territories initially integrated by the Mongolian Dynasty.
History does not seem to have been kind to Pepe’s idea that “Yuan China was in fact integrated and/or absorbed into the Mongol empire. China became part of the Khanate”. This illusion penetrated the minds of the Mongol Emperors of China but after having been deposed by the Han Ming Dynasty it was the Manchu blade that cut definitely this illusion.
What is not very well known today is that the entirety of Mongolia was once a part of China.
Russia was one among a long list of long nose foreign invaders that obliged the Manchus to agree the transfer of their Northern territories (Northern Manchuria) which included the present day port of Vladivostok, as well as the Northern territory of Mongolia that is known presently as Outer-Mongolia as well as Northern Xinjiang… In sum Russian actions were responsible for a Chinese territorial loss of some 3 million sq.Km. !
The remembrance of this fact, in China proper today, is kept under the rug !
Xinjiang was already Chinese during the Han Dynasty. But it was certainly Chinese by the Tang Dynasty in the 7th century AD. It was during the Tang Dynasty that the Chinese allowed the Turkic Uighurs to settle in Xinjiang.
Isn’t Russia the successor of the Mongol Empire?
No. The Grand Khan was never from Russia. Russia was ruled by a Khan and subsequently by the Golden Horde which was destroyed by Tamer the Lame.
The Grand Khan – the head of the Mongol Empire and nominal head of all the other Khans – descendants of Ghenzis Khan, was head-quartered in Beijing (and China) under Khublai Khan.
Khublai Khan ruled as a Chinese Emperor. Because of this, the Chinese (always die-hard meritocrats) transferred their loyalty to him, shared with him the advanced cannons and explosive weapons to conquer the very populous Southern Song whose armed forces were equipped with the same weapons with which they repelled the Mongols for nearly a century.
Chinese gunpowder weapons were used by Hulagu to conquer South-West Asia aka the middle East, especially in the conquest of Baghdad.
So China could lay claim to the Mongol Empire if it wanted to. (Notice how Mongolia defers to China today, especially after being taken for a merry-go-round by the western economic predators).
But no, China as the Middle Kingdom, views this as a responsibility to contribute to the development of the barbarian nations (I.e. all non-Chinese nations) by influence, trade and aid and NOT by intervention, and certainly NOT by conquest.
The 2nd Anonymous above is me Simon Chow. Sorry, forgot to key in my name when I posted just now.
What was the meaning of the titles of the Russian Tsar: Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, Tsar of Siberia, Lord of Turkestan? And why was he called ‘The White Tsar’ by his Buddhist subjects, even by Tibetans?
The idea that Russia was the ‘inheritor of the Mongol Empire’ belongs to the famous Pyotr Badmaev (1851-1920), the Buriat convert to Orthodoxy and enthusiast advocate of the “wish” of the Asian peoples to submit to Russia. He was one of the first to put forward historical arguments justifying Russia’s presence in Asia, considering that facts like Russia’s lengthy domination of the Finno-Ugrian population, the republic of Novgorod’s discovery of the Urals very early in its history, the national diversity of the Cossacks, and, lastly, Russia’s policy of respecting conquered peoples’ mores, constituted simply so many factors indicating the “naturalness” of Russia’s eastward expansion. He was sincerely convinced of Russia’s civilizing mission in Asia: Russia, he thought, shall enter Asia “not for the profit and the exploitation of the Asian tribes, as some of the European states do, but for the very welfare of the inhabitants of Asia.” He was a zealot for the Tran-Siberian railway, which for him signaled the beginning of Asia’s incorporation into Russia.
The title “Tsar” or “Czar” came from ‘Caesar” and is from the historic claim by Rus to be the accessor and subsequently successor to the Roman Byzantine Empire.
The Tsar of Russia was never called the Great or Grand Khan.
Russia may well have a claim to be the successor of the Golden Horde. But the Golden Horde only ruled the north-west of Asia down to parts of central Asia. The Golden horde was destroyed by Tamerlane.
Russia could well claim to succeed Tamerlane. If so, central Asia is all that it would get and perhaps northern-central India. Tamerlane never was able to conquer China itself.
But with the demise of the USSR, all such claims ceased with it.
As I have posted, the Tsar of Russia was never acknowledged as the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. But Kublai Khan who ruled as a Chinese emperor of China and founded the ‘Chinese’ Yuan Dynasty, was also the accepted Great Khan of the Mongol Empire.
And those predictions and goals of Pyots Madayev have come true, dear mr. or mz. “Anonymous: The øeader of the central bank of Russia is a Bashkir laydy, the former leader of strategic planning of the Russian defence fources until two years ago was a Tartar, the present Minister of defence is a man of Tuva nationality (a mixed turco-mongol ethnicity) beleiving in the tenets of Dalaiy Lahma Buddhism — and the spokeswoman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign affars (mz. Zaharova) is the daughter of two Jewish diplomats of Khazarian decent (Met them in Bêijing nine months before she was born celebrating their Pesach meal in a minority resturant of sorts –the chef hailed from the Kaifeng Jews.)
I beg to differ. Khubilai Khaan was ruled as a Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, China was a part of the Empire.
No Sara, Kublai Khan ruled as a Chinese Emperor, Chinese culture, language and all. That’s why he established the Yuan Dyansty as a Chinese dynasty on Chinese New year day in the year 1272 – which happened to be the year of the Monkey.
Only later on — in the wane of his rule.
1272 was near the zenith of Kublai Khan’s rule.
You write “Golden Horde which was destroyed by Tamer the Lame.” Try Ivan the Great
Without Tamerlane virtually destroying the military power of the Golden Horde, Ivan the “Terrible” would not had been able to free Russia from the Golden Horde.
Yes the wars between the Mongols did help, But the same was true on the Russian side, The attacks from the West and the Baltics did not strengthen Russia. Once Kazan fell that was not the end of the Mongols. Catherine (Potemkin and Suvorov) did the job on them in the South where the Turks protected them.
Yeah, but the backbone of the Golden Horde’s military was destroyed by Tamerlane. After that, it was a cinch for the Russians to finish the job – which was mainly a mobbing up operation – much like what the US did with the D-day landings against Hitler after the battle of Kurst when Zhukov broke the backbone of the German army – the Tiger Tank regiments.
It took some time for the Russians to ‘mop up’ the splinters of the Golden Horde. From Timur’s ‘destruction’ of the Golden Horde (1396) to Ivan IV conquest of the Khanate of Kazan (1552), of the Khanate of Astrakhan (1556) and of the Khanate of Sibir/Sıbır Qağanlıq), interval in which the ‘Tartars’ continued their devastation of Russia and massacres of Russians. Actually the first step in ‘freeing’ Russia was taken by Ivan III, who first occupied Kazan in 1487. It was a reversal of the situation, Russians clearly on the offensive, no doubt with a geopolitical objective in mind and not just an opportunistic grab as you try to suggest.
Russia took so long to nullify the Golden Horde points to the weakness of Russia then as a military power.
But for China, the embryonic Russian state could well be wiped out by the even more brutal Tamerlane, or another Mongol power from the East.
China expelled the Mongols in 1368, and Tamerlane cannot hope to complete the conquest of Russia without neutralizing a fast rising China under the Ming Dynasty to the East and his rear – the traditional fear of an unwinnable two-front war.
So Tamerlane, after defeating his immediate rival, the Golden Horde, turned Hus attention towards conquering China. But he died (do it was written) before he reached China.
So the rise of Ming Dynasty China saved the incipient and very weak Russian state, allowing it time to overcome its internal political problems and grow.
Like now. 😁
Isn’t in the back of your mind the idea that Russia is a ‘junior partner’ of China?
Tamerlane concentrated on the Middle East and India in a joint venture with his brother . After the family fight the Russians had a free hand in the steppe lands. With a hundred or so Cossack they took Siberia all the way to the present Vladivostok (ruler of the East).. Could have should have did not happen. China was satisfied to stay behind the Wall that is why the Amur became Russian By the way yes it was a “mobbing up operation” . You know what they say, I think it was Fredric the Great that said it “he who defends everything defends nothing” or maybe he should have said he who attacks everything wins nothing’ Now if Tamerlane took some advice from General Fabian who took ROME one battle at a time he would have held onto Siberia. You know the old saying how do you eat an elephant —one bite at a time.
Sharp of you to notice I used “mobbing” instead of “mopping”. In those days, just after the destruction of the military power of the Golden Horde by Tamerlane, the armed forces of Moscovy were more like indiscipline mobs compared with the army of Tamerlane. Same as the armed forces of the rest of Europe. That’s why Batu was able to slice through up to he borders of Germany earlier. The whole of Europe lay helpless before him. He was suddenly recalled by the death of Mongke the then Great Khan.
It was the death of Odegei the then Great Khan, not Mongke.
Anonymous, no. Russia is a partner, not a “junior” partner to China. As partners, each play according to its strength, not weaknesses. But each must have self-knowledge of its own strength and weaknesses – a Sun Tze “must” for victory.
BeliVuk, the Cossaks only genocided the simple and peaceful tribes living in the largely uninhabitable north.
Vladivostok was not established until 1860 when a declining Sing China was unable to resist Russian infiltration north of the Amur.
Russian over-ambitions were checked by the small-sized, dwarf soldiers of Japan in 1904-5.
You eat an elephant one bite at a time? But Russia is like a python which has swallowed an elephant.
Would Russia be able to digest the elephant?
My observation is that Russia is still suffering from indigestion. That’s why the hyenas of the West are circling together with an assortment of wolves.
Simon I am enjoying your posts. Russia was a tribute state of the Mongols. Ivan “kalita” the pockets did not pass on all the tribute to the Mongols he held onto some of it and expanded Muscovy that is why Ivan IV was able to do a number on Kazan. As far as Batu is concerned he was able to deal with the Europeans because he had a mobile force of warriors unlike the heavy armoured and slow European knights.. As for the Japanese defeat of the Russians two reasons distance and the navy had to go all the way around Africa and Asia to get into battle thus the Japanese close to home Islands were able to resupply and destroy the Russian fleet. As you say they did not prepare well. Like most Westerners Russia had the same attitude towards the oriental people (they should have known better) as the rest of the mental midgets in Europe and America.
Simon says, Russia can’t digest the elephant,
and so Russia needs to necessarily spit out Siberia,
Siberia will then be re-absorbed in the Great Mongolian empire of Han China.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
– Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Also, General Fabian should have also noted that “he who conquers everything, conquers nothing”. At least ultimately.
From a purely human viewpoint off course.
Look up “Secret History of the Mongols” (also available in Chinese, Russian and modern Mongolian and Bêijing Manchu editions), and You will find a completely different story.
No, dear Anoymous: China is not “The Middle Kingdom” in Chinese parlance. Until late Qíng times (250+ years ago) the term “Zhongguó” referred to the central planes of North China around the Huágnhé Yellow River and Central Shânxi around Xi’an (Hsi-Ngan or Chang-an). That Escobar and even Western and Hàn experts have succumbed to this miapprehention tells a lot about the power of Western propaganda for the last 250 years.
Middle Kingdom is both a concept as well as geographical. But more a concept since China was well aware of lands far larger than its territory.
And Sudhi, no. China does not want this i.e. “Siberia will then be re-absorbed in the Great Mongolian empire of Han China”. Period.
But China want to help revive the silk-roads, prosperity and peacefulness of the Great Mongol Empire. China just want to trade and interact with the free peoples of the rest of Asia, including Europe and anybody else willing to peacefully and independently interact with China.
As for Russia, I think it has a good chance of holding on to Siberia by reviving both its economy and population.
It is in the nature of States or Kingdoms and Empires to be in friction with their neighbors. As an individual covets others possessions so does a State.
You state –
” China just want to trade and interact with the ‘free people’ of the rest of Asia, including Europe and anybody else willing to peacefully and independently interact with China.”
The question which arises, not only for peoples but even States is, who is truly “free” ? Isn’t everyone in constant interaction with one another, wishing to rise to the apex ?
So, do let go of your false dreams of “prosperity and peacefulness of the Great Mongol Empire”.
I agree that “As for Russia, I think it has a good chance of holding on to Siberia by reviving both its economy and population.” But, given the shrinking population of Russia it may be difficult.
I quote: “Isn’t everyone in constant interaction with one another, wishing to rise to the apex”? Unquote.
Maybe other countries like the USA.
But China just want to be China, measuring her own progress with its potential. Maybe also benchmarking better countries to better able to chart its own progress. But not to rise above them in order to be at the delusionary “apex”, since all have an strength and weaknesses.
The “apex” has many definitions. Some countries measure themselves against other countries and get agitated if they perceive themselves as not at the “apex” of their definition. This is a form of warped thinking.
China just want to be China. Her interaction with other countries is for learning for self-improvement.
And China has never been expansionist. It will rather colonise the Moon or Mars than conquer other countries.
And who is truly free? It depends on free from what? My take is that people nowadays, including those in the land of the free – the US, are not much freer than those who lived in the ancient Roman Empire.
And Sudhi, the Mongol Empire was the first Eurasian Empire extending right up to Germany.
The USSR could well have been the second. But the USSR made two mistakes from my viewpoint:
1) It was too miserly and alienated China at a time when Mao was an ardent admirer of Stalin.
2) It failed to develope its economy and the economies of its satellites, being too insecure after Stalin, and got caught into playing the USA’s game in a ruinous arms race which it could ill-afford.
But now China is in a position to underwrite the prosperity of the former Mongol Empire in partnership with Russia underwriting the security of the same.
This is a winning combination. Russia could then have the breathing space to up both her economy and her population.
Dear Simon,
You have indeed put forth many valid points, however, when you state –
” But now China is in a position ‘to underwrite the prosperity’ of the former Mongol Empire in partnership with Russia underwriting the security of the same.”
‘to underwrite’ – to accept responsibility to recompense if there is any damage or loss
Do you mean that China now willingly accepts the burden of ensuring the prosperity of the ‘former Mongol Empire’. Kudos to China for this grand achievement.
One cannot be responsible for something unless one has power over it.
We can on only hope when China achieves such renown the Chinese remember the words of the great Sufi saint Jalal – Ud – Din Rumi
And –
“Be as water for generosity and assistance;
be like the sun for affection and mercy;
be like the night to cover the faults of others;
be like death for anger and nervousness;
be like the earth for modesty and humility ;
be like the sea for tolerance:
Either appear as you are or be as you appear”
With warm regards
Your friend
Sudhi
Chinese “power” is not like what the West, led by the USA conceive it to be. All hard with just a velvet glivd which comes off easily.
Chinese “power” is more like what the Sufi saint you quoted says so poetically.
And China through its BRI, will not only share responsibility for the prosperity of the old Mongol empire and beyond (Latin America and Africa) with the countries involved but also backstop any slide backwards provided there is willingness to learn and share responsibility.
China if I read it correctly, is willing even to cooperate with the USA on this.
However, no one can prosper by being spoon-fed like a child indefinitely.
China, as Pepe hinted, will be working between the “joints” on this.
And Sudhi, as I have posted before, if China covet something owned by other countries, it will trade for it and not plunder for it like during the period of Western colonialism.
And Sudhi, I did not post that Russia “can’t digest the elephant”. Just that Russia seems to be still suffering from “indigestion”. IMO, the jury is still out on this.
Well here is a beautiful rendition of an old song –
https://youtu.be/czteUXAq86g
Sudhi, thank you for the song.
Metal Ox: Metal element in Chinese medicine deals with the Lungs/colon. which includes the sinuses as well as by extension the skin. It deals with “letting go”, elimination.
Emotions of : Grief
balanced. positively with
Emotions of Courage.
Key words: “Ventilate the Lungs”
When I visited my chiropractor in January, he noted that all systems were “go” except for the valves of the colon. “Unexpressed Grief, ” he agreed… 2020: the year my mother died, my cat died, several friendships died and my country died. So the challenge is two fold: release the grief and assimilate the anger, transmuted to courage of the heart.
Easier said than done.
Sorry to hear about your mother, teranam13
Im sorry as well Teranam13. Your posts here have always been appreciated by me.
Machine translated:
In Buddhism, the practices of Spiritual development of Bodhisattvas = Saints are called stages = 10 bulls Bodhisattva – bodhi – “awakening” + sattva “essence, being” Bodhisattva – awakened essence = Soul … 10 stages of the awakened soul
1. Looking for a bull / Searching for a bull (aimless search, only the sound of cicadas). 2. Attacked the trail / Trace detection (route). 3. Feel the bull / Spot the bull (but only the rear, not its head). 4. Catching the bull / Catching the bull (great fight, bull runs away repeatedly, discipline required). 5. I humble the bull / Conquer the bull (fewer mistakes, less discipline, the bull becomes meek and obedient). 6. Riding a bull / Returning on horseback home (great joy). 7. The bull is surpassed / The bull is left behind (home, the bull is forgotten, the whip of discipline is put aside; serenity). 8. Both the bull and the self are transcended / Both the bull and I are left behind (the mind is free from all limitations). 9. Reached the source / Reached the source (naturalness, obviousness). 10. In the world / Returned with gifts to the world (spreading enlightenment among people
So don’t butcher the ox…
Too late. I have loaded up with beef (tenderloin) just before the Lunar New Year of the Ox. But I did not do the butchering. The local butcher did!
Pepe says: “But then Mongke died – of fever – outside Chungking (today’s Chongqing), in 1259.”
According to the Chinese historical records, Mongke died in the battle of Diaoyu Fortress, killed by the Song cannon while he was standing at a high point trying to observe the inside of Diaoyu Fortress.
The Diaoyu Fortress was one of the legendary battle in the epic Mongol-Song struggle. Mongol did not manage to conquer it even until Song empire was completely eliminated many decades later. Kublai Khan eventually pardoned the defenders of the Fortress, and the Fortress was then turned over to the Mongol.
Ironically, the Fortress had the same name as the disputed island with Japan today (Japanese name Senkaku). Literally, Diaoyu 钓鱼 translated as “hanging fish”, meaning “fishing” in English.
This sudden mentioning of both Coleridge and Borges was my wet dream come true!
Always ready for a written ride of my life through the Library of Babel with you, Mr Escobar!
Much appreciated Pepe.. Merci beaucoup!!
2021 interesting documentary series from PBS from a joint Chinese-Inner-Mongolian-USA archaeological team
with revealing 3D animation/reconstruction techniques.
Particularly regarding the actual site of Xanadu (excuse misspelling !!) which was magnificent. Drone flights, local ground penetrating radar etc., combined with 3D reconstruction have revealed the enormity of this complex. No wonder Marco Polo freaked out!! It was not just the gorgeous damsels!!
Apparently, the main Royal structure was 50-80 meters diameter and transportable, similar to a yurt!!
Interestingly, Chinese architects and engineers were also much involved. Video 1)
Video 1) Ancient.China.from.Above.S01E03.Mysteries.of.Xanadu.
Video 2) Ancient.China.from.Above.S01E01.Sections.of.the.Great.Wall
Video 2) revealed earlier sections of western Great Wall, desertic region, which has been dated back to 300 BC, using mud-sand-straw building techniques.
Furthermore, under the Forbidden City and surrounding area there are verifiable remnants of earlier structures (approx. 800 years!!).
If you are tired by BBZ (Brit Bullshit for Zionism..), PoxTV, CNN (Crap for nonsensical nitwits..) I could also recommend an excellent read by Yongxiang Lu,
“A History of Chinese Science and Technology: Volume 1,2,3” ISBN: 3662442566..well illustrated!!
Starts around 2500BC…
Oh well, we Anglos have the Stonehenge!!!
The rule of Ghengis Khan and his successors was truly a golden age of Asia and Eurasia. Contrary to the historical slanders of the Western barbarians, the silk roads flourished. Mongol rule made the whole of Asia and the then steppe lands of modern-day Russia, including Moscovy, safe for trade between the richest parts of the Mongol Empire (especially China) and Europe.
Now China is reviving the silk-roads without military conquests. Only with very skillful diplomacy.
South-West Asia (the Middle-East) had seen prosperity under Mongol rule, directly or indirectly from Beijing before. Now China is reentering the scene, forging a stable regional political structure which only China, with its millennia of diplomatic experience, have the skills to do so.
China now as was under Kublai Khan, is and was the richest country on earth and the countries of western Asia and Eurasia right up to central Europe are very eager to trade with China. For this trade to succeed, the condition is peace.
Notice how even Turkey is beating a BRI railway path to China.
A point many forgot is that the inhabitants of Eastern and Central Europe including Germany (Huns) were settled by barbarians who invaded Europe from the north of China. They were attracted by the opportunities for plunder due to the weakening of the Roman Empire and not driven out by the (Han to the Tang Dynasty) Chinese as slanderousy alleged by the usual (western) culprits.
Notice how the Germans defer to authoritarian but competent rulers. This is a legacy of Chinese influence when they were living just north of Han Dynasty China. So also were the other barbarians which settled into Central, Eastern and even Southern Europe, so influenced by the Chinese.
I was always been fascinated as to why the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty China treated Russia as equal and afforded them privileges denied to all the orther barbarians clamouring to trade with super rich China? Was it because that the Manchus recognised Russians as descendants of the Goldern Horde which consist of many barbarian tribes unified by the Mongols, including the Tartars. and therefore their distant relatives? After all, if one look carefully at the photo of Stalin (a Georgian but still Asian), his high cheek bones are certainly not European but Asiatic, especially central and northern Asian!
An account I read of Marco Polo and his travels emphasized that during his stay at the court of Kublai Khan, there was a very efficient and sophisticated communications network that covered the whole Mongol empire, or however you want to designate it. This network consisted of stations at regular intervals where horses were stabled and kept at the ready to be changed out by couriers on horseback who rode the length of the empire carrying dispatches of various sorts. Dispatches from Khan were sealed with his seal and carried his authority. Polo is thought to have been in the service of Kublai Khan for about 15 years before setting out on the return trek; the Khan didn’t want to let him go. But eventually he did succeed in getting appointed to escort a Chinese princess to Persia.
The Polo brothers and Marco Polo himself were spies for the Venetians which served the Mongols well. I would applaud the book “Did Marco Polo go to China?” by British library sinologist Francis wood. Her thesis squares well with my notion that he only arrived in what is today Bêijing and later on visited one South China trading port. The entire Marco Polo story was set onto paper by one Rusticello of Piza and Marco told the story so as to win court cases in Venezia even though he had been born and bread at Evya (Ebouya or Montenegro) — a venetian possession NE of Attica.
@Manchus recognised Russians as descendants of the Goldern Horde
Wasn’t precisely because Russia is the ‘inheritor of the Mongol Empire’?
For those interested I have done two short videos on China. The first for a little background and the second regarding other matters:
Part1; https://youtu.be/2xRj0-PHkqo
Part 2 : That the chinese money system (computerised electronic) will do away with physical cash or dollars in all those countries that BRI covers and use the Chinese cashless apps will spell the slow but inevitable end for the US dollar. The transactions will start small and local but will eventually prevail overall other. Already the ‘SWIFT’ money transferr system is being outclassed by other players in cluding the Chinese which already has the largest volume of trade on the planet.
https://youtu.be/ZPwnLdg_9D8
Many thanks John Hagan,
First video fine, but could have had a photo of my personal hero – Chou Enlai!!
The beheading photo reminded me of my supposed Danish grandfather´s photo album – there were 3 photos with notes in Danish on the back, of Chinese men with pigtails being bayoneted and beheaded in a crowded street by a Japanese soldier !!!(Not sure..). Fujian or Shanghai region I guess, early 1930´s. Of course, my father´s Amma (nanny..) had bound feet.
Second video, most interesting, has been forwarded to acquaintances in financial/business sector.. probably be trashed… oh well!!
Xie-xie!!!
Many thaks for your comments. My videos are also posted on twitter so I need to curtail them to the 2-20 timeline. In fact it is most probable that such is the attention span of many folk with the exception those being here on The Saker.
The Golden Horde did not rule over the whole Mongol Empire, only the north-west and parts of central and western Asia.
But Kublai Khan as the Great Khan did.
Ox-picious new year. I love it. Keep up the good work Pepe.