The Taiji Government and the Rise of the Warrior State

The Formation of the Qing Imperial Constitution

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Read The Taiji Government and you will discover a bold and original revisionist interpretation of the formation of the Qing imperial constitution. Contrary to conventional wisdom, which portrays the Qing empire as a Chinese bureaucratic state that colonized Inner Asia, this book contends quite the reverse. It reveals the Qing as a Warrior State, a Manchu-Mongolian aristocratic union and a Buddhist caesaropapist monarchy. In painstaking detail, brushstroke by brushstroke, the author urges you to picture how the Mongolian aristocratic government, the Inner Asian military-oriented numerical divisional system, the technique of conquest rule, and the Mongolian doctrine of a universal Buddhist empire together created the last of the Inner Asian empires that conquered and ruled what is now China.
Copyright Year:
2022
E-Book (PDF)
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-46887-0
Publication:
11 Oct 2021
Hardback
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-46169-7
Publication:
14 Oct 2021
Cover The Taiji Government and the Rise of the Warrior State

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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”.
“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
Acknowledgments
List of Maps and Figures
List of Abbreviations
Note on Transcription and Translation

Introduction

1 The Qing Inner Asian Political Order
 1 The Qing Constitution: The Triumph of the Bureaucratic-Colonial Model
 2 The Qing Tributary System: Suzerain–Vassal State Relations
 3 The Manchu Colonialism: Chinese Defensive Empire into Chinese Conquest Empire
 4 Manchu’s Mongolian Social Revolution
 5 The Chinggisid Taiji Government and Mongolia and the Qing

2 Alliance to Coalition
 1 Pre-1636 Manchu-Mongolian Relations: Alliance to Tutelage?
 2 Manchu-Mongolian Princely Treaties: Defensive Alliances
 3 Manchu-Khorchin Engagement and Manchu Dependence on Khorchin
 4 The Creation of External Mongolia and the Formation of a Multilateral Coalition
 5 The Coalition, Assembly, Codes, and Leadership

3 The Manchu Conquest: Winner Takes All
 1 Shifting Borders: Qurban Tsönggereg to Shariljitai to Shonkhor
 2 Changing Stories: Ligdan’s Flight or Hong Taiji’s Defeat?
 3 The Demise of the Mongolian Great State and the Rise of the Daiching State
 4 Ligdan: From Lawful Great Khan to Quixotic Delusional Dreamer
 5 Charisma: The Very Essence of Inner Asian Politics

4 From the Taishi Government to the Taiji Government
 1 The Mongol Empire and the Northern Yuan Dynasty
 2 The Taishi Government and Its Demise
 3 Dayan Khanid Reign: The Rise of the Taiji Government
 4 The Taiji Government Structure: A Federal Constitutional Monarchy

5 The Taiji Government: A Parliamentary Aristocracy
 1 The Seven Khoshuus or the Khalkha Tümen
 2 An Aristocratic Parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy
 3 The Chuulgan: An Aristocratic Parliament
 4 The Jasag: An Appointed Central Government
 5 The Khoshuu: Autonomous Lordship and Government Unit
 6 The Northern Yuan: An Inner Asian Parallel to the Holy Roman Empire

6 The Rise and Fall of the Jaisang Government
 1 The Destruction of the Great State: Contrary-to-Government Deeds
 2 The Abolishment of Taiji Government: Ligdan’s Reform and Princely Revolts
 3 The Dissolution of Tümen-Khanates
 4 The Saghang Saga: A Coup and the Demise of the Mongol Empire
 5 The Proclamation of the Daiching Ulus: A United Manchu–Mongolian State

7 Aimag and Pre-Modern Mongolia in Modern Euro-Sinocentric Vision
 1 Bichurin’s Foresight: Aimag from Principalities to Tribes to Secondary Tribes
 2 Aimag and Mongolia in Modern Euro-Sinocentric Vision
 3 Archaeology of Aimag or External Aimag
 4 The External Aimags: Mongolian Principalities
 5 The Internal Aimags: Manchu Principalities

8 The Daiching Ulus and Mongolia: An Inner Asian Aristocratic Federation
 1 Conferral Letter: Covenant as Investiture
 2 Covenant, Pillars, and Co-Rulers: One Accord, Mutual Reliance, and Tüshiyetü Khan
 3 The Daiching Ulus: An Inner Asian Aristocratic Federation
 4 The Daiching Gurun as Pax Manjurica and Pax Mongolica

9 The Mongolian World Order and the Daiching Ulus
 1 The Chakravartin Monarchy and the Great State of Five Colors and Four Aliens
 2 The Altanid Redefinition: The Dyarchy of Aristocracy and Theocracy
 3 For the Sake of the Government and the Faith: Seeking the Qubilaid Legitimacy
 4 Claiming ’Phags-pa’s Seat

10 The Rivalry of the Daiching Ulus and the Döchin and Dörben
 1 The Rise of the Döchin and Dörben
 2 The Daiching Ulus and the Döchin and Dörben Hostility
 3 The Qing and the Khalkha Treaty
 4 Turmoil in the Döchin and Dörben: Structural Problems within the Regime
 5 The Khüren Belchir Assembly and Zanabazar’s Justice
 6 The Failure at the Khüren Belchir Assembly
 7 The Destruction of the Döchin and Dörben

11 The Empire of the Two Norms
 1 The Dalai Lama and the Making of the Manjushri Chakravartin Khan
 2 The Taiji Government: Mutual Reliance and the Guest State
 3 The Manjushri Chakravartin Monarch: The Patron and the Protector of the Faith
 4 Surpassing Qubilai: Consolidation of the Government of the Two Norms

Conclusion
References
Index
All those interested in the rise of the Qing Empire and its constitution, and anyone concerned with the pre-modern Inner Asian political order and empire-building.
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