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At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the peasant revolt, Zhu Yuanzhang's rebel army occupied and set the capital Nanjing, changing the name of the country to Ming. In July 1368, Xu Da and Chang Yuchun led Zhu Ming's Northern Expeditionary Army into the Capital of Yuan, and emperor Tuoba Timu'er of Yuanshun fled yingchang, and the rule of the unified Yuan dynasty throughout China came to an end. However, for more than two hundred years after that, on the old map of the Yuan Dynasty, there were always two confrontational political armed groups- "Zhu Ming" and "Northern Yuan". The war continued for many years, and the Ming Dynasty tried to achieve reunification by conquest by force, and the descendants of the Yuan Shun Emperor always tried to realize the old dream of the "Great Yuan Empire." Whether the war is won or lost, or attacked or defended, the masses of the people are always the most direct victims of the war. Ending war, friendly exchanges, and peaceful coexistence are the common demands of the masses of the people. Following this trend and the will of the people and playing a huge role was the outstanding Mongolian politician Altan Khan.
Altan Khan (1507-1582), also known as Altan Khan, was born in the Golden Family of the Boerjin clan, the seventeenth grandson of Genghis Khan, and the second son of Balsborot, the third son of Dayan Khan. From the age of thirteen, Altan Khan, adhering to the will of his grandfather Dayan Khan, assisted his eldest brother Morgenjinong to unify the tribes in the western region and establish a relatively consolidated unified regime. After Morgenjinong's death, Altan Khan gave full play to his political and military talents, broke through all obstacles, united all nationalities and tribes inside and outside the Great Wall, and restored and developed animal husbandry, agriculture, and handicrafts with Tumut as the center, and ensured the stable life of the people. The further strengthening and expansion of The sphere of influence of Altan Khan forced the young Mongol prince Bodi Alek Khan to move east to Liaodong, and most of the other Mongol tribes also submitted to orders to a certain extent, becoming another outstanding representative figure after Dayan Khan's Mongolian Zhongxing.
In Mongolia, where the animal husbandry economy is the mainstay, "people do not cultivate and weave, the land has no other production, and the tools given by pots and kettles all depend on the agricultural areas of the Central Plains." The war horses of the Ming dynasty army, the cultivated animals in the Central Plains, also relied heavily on the Mongols. The economic complementarity and ties between the two sides are objective requirements. At that time, this kind of contact was mainly carried out in the form of "tribute" and "mutual marketing." This form of tribute and city was intermittent with the changes in the relations between Mongolia and Ming, and by the beginning of the fifteenth century, due to the Ming Dynasty's exhaustive military force and obstinate will, it imposed a blockade on the outside of Serbia, the tribute was stopped, and the mutual market was almost completely interrupted. In the twenty years of Jiajing (1541), forty years after the interruption of the Tonggonghu city, Altan Khan took the initiative to send emissaries to Datongyang and Zhai to request the reopening of the Gonghu City with the Ming Dynasty, and promised that in the future, "the border people would reclaim the fields and stop the border people from committing crimes." However, mingfang believed that "his tribute was not credible" and not only refused to ask for it, but also killed the messenger and passed it on to the nine sides to show the public. Altan Khan was forced to actively fight for it in a peaceful manner, while taking a force of attack to disturb the Court, in order to change the course of the Court. In the case that all kinds of efforts could not work, in the twenty-ninth year of Jiajing (1550), Altan Khan led an army to directly attack Beijing, and the decadent Ming Dynasty was powerless under this sudden attack, and more than a hundred forwards of the Mongol army rode into the entrance of the Andingmen School in Beijing, and the Ming Dynasty was in a chaotic mess. Altan Khan judged the situation and took the initiative to retreat before the arrival of the Rescue Ming army in various places, released the captured internal officials, and ordered them to submit letters to the emperor asking for tribute to the city. Under the military blows of Altan Khan, the Ming court reluctantly agreed to tonggong to reopen the horse market, and although it was still difficult to use harsh conditions, Altan Khan, in order to show his sincerity, still personally came to the horse market to offer a "nine-day tribute" at the opening of the market, and warned the chiefs of various departments that "no drinking and accidents will be caused when they are in the market, and the city horses will grow up on their waists and their hairy teeth will correspond." By 1570, Altan Khan, taking advantage of his grandson's attempt to send Hannaji away from mingfang, actively negotiated and communicated, and under the strong leadership of the ming court's first assistant Gao Gong, cabinet minister Zhang Juzheng, and Xuanda governor Wang Chonggu, the mengming friendship and mutual market were fully realized. The Mongolian and Han people "traded endlessly, from Haiye in the east to Ganzhou in the west, covering a vast area of 5,000 miles, and there was no beacon alarm." (Fang Kongzhuo: A Brief Record of the Whole Frontier) In only three or four years, in the northern part of the Ming Dynasty, "the frontier waterways were tun tian, and the reclamation was like the interior." (The Whole Edge)
While economic ties were restored, political relations between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia were further strengthened. In March of the fifth year of Longqing (1571), the Ming court made Altan Khan the King of Shunyi and issued a gold and silver seal, at which point the two sides confirmed their political affiliation. After the death of Altan Khan in 1582, the friendly relations he initiated maintained for more than forty years with the efforts of his wife Zhong Jin (the third lady) and the second and third generations of Shunyi kings. Therefore, the Third Lady was also named Lady Zhongshun by the Ming Court, and the existing stone inscription plaque of Meidai Zhao Taihe Gate, which was rebuilt in 1606, reads "Emperor Tu Yonggu, Emperor Dao Xianning, Wanmin Leye, And Sihai Clarification" and the fallen "Daming Golden Kingdom", which shows that Altan Khan and his descendants, although known as the Golden Kingdom, have unmistakably crowned Daming and recognized it as part of the Ming Dynasty. He also approved Zhu Ming's imperial power. This has taken an important step in ending more than two hundred years of separatism and promoting the reunification of the Chinese nation.
As early as the Yuanmeng Dynasty, Kublai Khan honored the Tibetan monk Basipa as his master, ordered him to create the Mongolian script (called Basipa Mong), and converted to Buddhism. Later generations of emperors followed suit, believing in the principle of prudence and modesty, but did not establish Buddhism as the state religion, and the various religions of the Mongol and Han adherents were inclusive. Lamaism also flourished only among the court nobility, while shamanism was still the main religion of the general herders. After the decline of the Yuan Dynasty and the retreat to the desert, except for a few nobles who still believed in Lamaism, shamanism controlled the entire steppe as the main religious belief.
Altan Khan himself practiced shamanism in his early years. In the twentieth year of Jiajing (1541), when The Khan of Aletan sent Shi Tianjue to Datong to ask for tribute, he said: "... Recently, the tribute path is not accessible, and every year of people are plundered, and due to the many plagues of people and animals, the god official of Bu zhi is called Gong Ji, (Records of the Ming Dynasty) The so-called priest here is the shaman (shaman), and from here it can prove his beliefs at that time. However, after a long period of conquest, especially several expeditions to Gansu and Qinghai in 1544, 1559, and 1570, and staying in Qinghai for two years, and after many frequent contacts with Tibetan monks who believe in Lamaism, especially with shamanism that kills and sacrifices and other barbaric religious customs, he gradually gained a deeper understanding of Lamaism; many Tibetan doctors in Lamaism healed and healed the wounds and sick of Altan Khan who had been fighting for many years, which made him even more fond of Lamaism. This evening, judging from the psychological trajectory of Altan Khan himself, after galloping on a prancing horse and fighting for most of his life, he also greatly hoped to have a spiritual sustenance, and even more hoped to have a unified thought and will as the spiritual pillar of the entire tribe.
In 1571, the Tibetan Lama Akhing came to the territory of Alatan Khan, and the Akhing Lama introduced the teachings, canons, and various precepts of Lamaism in great detail by reviewing history and comparing reality, with the intention of exhorting Altan Khan to believe in Lamaism (Yellow Religion). Since then, the nephew of Altan Khan, who has had many contacts with Lamaism, ordos KutuktaiChechen Hongtaiji also asked him to convert to Buddhism. Since 1574, Altan Khan has sent envoys to Lhasa three times to invite the Tibetan monk Sonam Gyatso (i.e., Dalai III) to meet and begin the full spread of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia.
Reprinted from "SaiWai City Temple, Mei Dai Zhao"
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