Introduction: The policies of the Ming and Qing dynasties toward Mongolia are actually the same, and if it were not for the Blockade and Division of the Mongol Ministries by the Ming Dynasty for more than two hundred years, how could the Qing Dynasty conquer Mongolia so easily through marriage and religion.
The Ming Dynasty's policy toward Mongolia was not only to build the Great Wall, but also because of the Ming Dynasty's long-term blockade policy and continuous military attacks, as early as the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Mongolia was divided into Tatar headquarters, Walla department and Wuliangha department.
In the late Ming Dynasty, the Mongol suzerainty chahar was extremely weak, and after Emperor Taiji defeated the chahar tribe, he became the co-lord of the Mongol tribes and was honored as Bogda Khan.
(1) The split of the Northern Yuan regime in the early Ming Dynasty
After the Northern Yuan dynasty lost its support for the Han dynasty in the Central Plains, the fragile nomadic economy of the Mongolian plateau alone could no longer maintain the Han-style central government, and it was quickly divided into tatar headquarters, Walla departments, and Wuliangha departments under the military suppression of the Ming Dynasty.
During the reign of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, the Northern Yuan Emperor Nahachu (a descendant of Muhua Li) led an army of 200,000 to surrender to the Ming Dynasty. The Liaodong and Eastern Mongolian regions of Wuliangha also surrendered together, and the Ming Dynasty established Duoyan Wei, which was mainly based on Wulianghabu, Tainingwei, which was mainly Liubu, and Fuyuwei, which was mainly Based on Wuerbu, and the three wei were collectively called Duoyan Sanwei or Wuliangha Sanwei.
When Ming Chengzu personally went north to Mongolia, he pursued and defeated the Tatar Khan Ben yawari and the Taishi Arutai on the banks of the Nan River and in Yu'er Haidong. In the eleventh year of Yongle (1413), the Tatar leader Arutai was made the King of Hening and submitted to the Ming Dynasty.
Ming Chengzu later fought with the Wala at Kulan Kuwan (present-day eastern Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia), and the Wara was defeated and submitted to the Ming Dynasty as a vassal. Its leaders, Mahmu, Taiping, and Bald Polo, were given the titles of King of Shunning, King of Xianyi, and King of Anle.
(ii) The division of Dayan Khan led to the fragmentation of the Mongol divisions
After the brief unification of the Mongolian plateau, the Wala collapsed again, and the Mongol tribes fell into division, and the Golden Family's Dayan Khan, with the assistance of his wife Manduhai, once again unified the Mongol tribes.
But due to the fragility of the nomadic economy, Dayan Khan failed to establish a centralized system like the Yuan dynasty. Only in accordance with steppe tradition, the Mongol parts were given to his sons to govern independently, and after the death of Dayan Khan, his sons attacked each other and the successor Great Khan could only rule the Chahar department.
Dayan Khan personally abolished the official positions of Taishi, Taiwei, Taifu, Taibao, Shaoshi, Pingzhang, and Zhiyuan left over from the Yuan Dynasty. Instead of Jinong and Noyan in the era of Genghis Khan, the position of "Taishi" who threatened the Golden Family for nearly two hundred years completely disappeared.
Dayan Khan divided Mongolia into six thousand households: Chahar, Halaha, Wuliangha, Ordos, Tumut and Yongshebu. In view of the influence of several Mongol vassals with different surnames, the lords of the five ten thousand households except Wuliang Hawan were their sons. Among them, the Chahar Wanhu was directly under the jurisdiction of the Khanate, and the Ordos Wanhu was the territory of Jinong (deputy Khan).
Just as Han Gaozu's ancestor Liu Bang divided the princely states with the same surname, Dayan Khan did solve the threat of the Golden Family by powerful courtiers like Arutai and Yixian, but after Dayan Khan's death, the Mongol tribes were more divided. In the end, it was broken by Huang Taiji one by one, and the Yuan Dynasty's chuanguo jade seal also reached the hands of Huang Taiji.
(iii) Marriage, war, and lamaism led the Qing Dynasty to completely conquer Mongolia
(1) The Manchu-Mongolian marriage can top thousands of troops and horses
As early as the Ming Dynasty, Nurhaci had already begun to marry the Horqin Ministry and married Horqin Belle Ming'an.
Nurhaci's second son Daishan, the fifth son Mang Gultai, the fourth son Emperor Taiji, and the tenth son Dege all married women of the Mongolian Golden Family.
In the more than two hundred years of the Qing Dynasty, the Aixin Jueluo family married a total of 156 daughters of Mongolian princes, 430 Mongolian princesses and Gege, and the number of marriages ranked first in the past dynasties. The Manchu-Mongolian marriage was actually a "hereditary marriage" between the Qing Dynasty royal family Ai Xinjue Luoshi and the Mongolian golden family Bo'er Only Jin, through which the Mongolian departments were firmly tied to the chariot of the Qing Dynasty, shed the last drop of blood for the Qing Dynasty to conquer the Ming Dynasty and the Dzungar Khanate.
(2) The strong combat effectiveness of the Eight Banner Army in the early Qing Dynasty was the main reason for the subjugation of the Mongol departments
Emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty led the Eight Banners Army to conquer the Mongolian Chahar tribe of Lin Dan Khan, who was defeated by the Eight Banners Army and fled to naturalized city (present-day Hohhot). After Lin Dan Khan's death, Emperor Taiji captured Lin Dan Khan's son Erzhe, and the various departments of Southern Mongolia surrendered to the Qing Dynasty after seeing the combat effectiveness of the Eight Banner Army.
Three generations of emperors, Kang Yongqian's grandsons, went to war with the Dzungar Khanate, and in the end the Dzungar Khanate was completely destroyed, and the Dzungars were almost exterminated by the Qianlong Emperor.
(3) Lamaism was the last chain of the Qing Dynasty's control over the Mongol ministries
Through marriage and war, the Qing Dynasty ruled over the Mongol tribes far more than other feudal dynasties. In order to ensure that the Qing dynasty royal family ruled Mongolia for generations, the Qing Dynasty vigorously supported Lamaism in various parts of Mongolia, and further divided the power of Mongolian princes through religious forces.
The Qing Dynasty enthroned the two living Buddhas in Mongolia, Jangyalhutuktu and Jebtsundamba, and controlled all the lamaist temples in inner and outer Mongolia respectively. The princes and ministers of the Mongol ministries were disciples of two living Buddhas, and sometimes a single letter from them could put an initial rebellion to an end.
By the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were more than 1,900 lamaist monasteries in Mongolia, and almost every Mongolian herder had a son as a lama.
Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty once said: "If you control the way of foreign domains, show that if you show humility, you will be more arrogant, and if you are afraid of your might, you will be afraid of yourself.
Conclusion: Looking at the policies of the Ming and Qing dynasties separately is incomplete, nor can we see the underlying logic of policy development. A generation of people do a generation of things, the steps of the tai will pull that, do not think that they are smarter than the ancients, in fact, the Ming and Qing dynasties made the worst choices in line with that era.