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Alatan Khan and the Ming Dynasty in a peaceful mutual market
After Altan Khan eliminated the feudal division and chaotic state within Mongolian society, a relatively stable social situation emerged. Due to the relative stability of society, the pastoral production of the Mongolian steppe has been restored and developed to a certain extent. With the recovery and development of pastoral production, it is inevitable that the development of commodity exchange will be triggered.
It was necessary for the Mongols to exchange their horses, cattle, sheep and furs for the cloth, satin and various daily necessities they needed. This barter exchange was of great significance to promoting the development of Mongolian social production at that time and meeting the living needs of Mongolian herders.
The exchange of goods between the Mongolian steppes and the Ming Dynasty is a traditional history, and there have been peaceful mutual market relations with the Ming Dynasty from the time of the Western Mongolian Walla period to the reign of Dayan Khan and Altan Khan's father, Balsborotjinong.
Following the tradition of peaceful mutual marketing in his predecessors, Altan Khan proceeded from the class interests of the Mongol feudal lords and also took into account the Mongolian and Han people's desire for peace and the urgent demand for "mutual market", and always took the initiative to demand the restoration of peaceful and mutual market relations with the Ming Dynasty. However, the Ming dynasty adopted a policy of economic blockade against Mongolia and rejected all the demands of Altan Khan. Nevertheless, Alatan Khan made unremitting efforts to restore peace and mutual market with the Ming Dynasty. In the autumn of 1541 (the twentieth year of Jiajing), Altan Khan sent his envoy Shi Tianjue to the Governor of Datong to request mutual markets, but was not only refused, but also offered a huge reward to requisition the head of Altan Khan. Later, in 1542 and 1546, Altan Khan twice sent envoys to Datongsai to ask for the opening of the mutual market, but both refused and killed the envoys. In 1547 (the twenty-sixth year of Jiajing), in order to win the mutual market, Aletan Khan deliberately convened a meeting of feudal lords and nobles of all Mongolia before sending envoys to Xuanfu and Datong to demand mutual markets, at which a covenant of fair mutual market was also proposed. According to the Records of Sejong in the 26th year of Jiajing (1547 noon), "The four leaders of the Ji Bao Only Prince, Ji Nang Tai Ji, and Jiang Du Tai Ji discussed and asked for tribute. If so, he will enter one black-headed white horse, seven white camels, and three thousand horses; Ask the imperial court to wear a white satin horse with the robe of the great god, the satin of the unicorn python and other pieces. Cultivate the fields inside the side and herd the horses outside the side. Yihan is not harmful. From Liaodong in the east to Gan and Liang in the west, no one is offended. Now in the covenant with China, if the Dazi people are thieves on the border wall, China insists on paying the other, and he will do his best to pay China for the horses he has prepared; If you don't obey, you will kill them. If a Han chinese goes out into the meadow to become a thief, he will pay for China's crimes and kill them if he does not obey. Always for good, pay tribute once or twice a year. If the master recites every time he is substituted, he will preach to the tribe and forbid it to be born. In short, from 1541 to 1547, Alatan Khan successively sent envoys to the Ming Dynasty to ask for mutual markets, about dozens of times. According to Shi Weng Wanda, the governor of Xuanfu, the governor of Datong, and the capital of Shanxi, "Since the winter and spring of the year, Yu (Referring to Yu Da) has been a ranger messenger and asked for tribute no less than dozens of times, and the words are quite obedient. ”
1548 (Jiajing 27). For the last time, Altan Khan sent envoys to Beijing to demand peace and mutual markets, and proposed that the two sides should not invade each other, and that the Han people could not only work in agriculture with peace of mind, but also the Mongols could graze their cattle freely. But this time, still resolutely rejected by the Ming court, Altan Khan repeatedly demanded mutual markets, and was completely desperate.
The Ming Dynasty, which regarded itself as a "Heavenly Dynasty," practiced a high-pressure policy toward southern Mongolia, isolated politically, and blockaded economically. This undermined the economic ties between the Mongolian steppe and the Ming tradition, and on the one hand, left the Mongols with nowhere to sell their own breeding horses, cattle and sheep, and furs; On the other hand, they could not exchange their necessary grain, cloth, iron pots and other daily necessities. This has an impact on the production of Mongolian society and the daily life of herders.
After repeatedly being rejected by the Ming dynasty, Altan Khan used troops to invade the Ming border counties in an attempt to force the Ming dynasty to make economic concessions in order to achieve the goal of peaceful mutual markets. For example, in 1550 (the twenty-ninth year of Jiajing), Altan Khan personally led an army to the outskirts of Beijing, and the generals stationed in Beijing "all dared not fight with cowardice", but closed the city gate and guarded it strictly. When Altan Khan besieged the capital, he reiterated to the Ming court the demand for peace and mutual market, and the Ming court took the withdrawal of troops as a precondition for peace talks, and Altan Khan accepted this condition, and then led his army out of Gubeikou and returned to Mongolia. It can be seen from this that the main purpose of Altan Khan's invasion of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty was to force the Ming Dynasty to open the market.
In 1551 (the thirty years of Jiajing), an agreement was reached to open up mutual markets in Datong, Yan, Ning and other places. After the opening of the market, according to The Han records, a large number of horses came from Mongolia, "there are still many horses, and it ends with the exhaustion of our satin and cloth." The chieftain restrained the tribe, and there was never a single person who dared to make a noise. Facts have proved that after achieving the dream of peaceful mutual markets, Aletan Khan ordered the Mongol tribes not to trade illegally, and he was very strict in keeping the covenant. However, the Ming Court was treacherous. When Alatan Khan withdrew his troops, once the predicament of Kyoto was lifted, the Ming Dynasty soon closed the border market.
After the mutual market stopped, the war between Altan Khan and the Ming Dynasty resumed. From 1551 to 1570 there was a twenty-year period. During this continuous war years, the Mongolian and Han people's departments inside and outside the Great Wall suffered the hardships of war. On the one hand, in order to safeguard the interests of its ruling class, increase the taxes of the Han working people, launch a war along the Great Wall, and send a large number of troops out every year to "stir up nests" and "burn the wilderness," causing the endless grassland to suddenly turn into ashes and cause a large number of deaths of people and livestock in pastoral areas. As recorded in the Records of The Ten Thousand Martial Arts, "I went out of the country and chased the horses from the nest, and the captives suffered. Altan Khan also said in his "Tribute Text": "In recent years, all sides have often dispatched troops to make trouble, kill the mouths of the captives, drive away the horses, burn the wild grass outside the border, and make people and animals sad in winter and spring..." Similarly, the damage caused by the war to the Ming Dynasty was not small. In his essay, Gao Gong of the University pointed out that the envoys sent by Alatan Khan to demand mutual markets, "The border ministers did not know what to do, and the ministers involved in the shop were afraid of the mastermind, but they directly refused to ask for it, and cut it off... Since then, the crowd has committed a large number of crimes. Or in Xuandae, or in Shanxi, or in Jichang, or directly to Gyeonggi. For more than thirty years, there has been no peaceful day. As a result, the people of the border were devastated, the father and son could not protect each other, the anointed land was abandoned and not cultivated, the tun fields were barren, and the salt law was obstructed, not only the border ministers were suffering and suffering, but the reserves were exhausted to provide for hundreds of millions, the horses were dispatched, and the Central Plains were also destroyed. On the other hand, due to the continuous war of the past twenty years, the Ming Dynasty and The Alatan Khan lost their troops and generals, and there were very tragic scenes of "three armies fighting, violent bones, displacement of all surnames, horizontal death, ruins of the city, and grain depletion" everywhere inside and outside the Great Wall.
The war waged by Altan Khan against the Ming Dynasty was forced. The Ming Dynasty's annual "burning of the desert" and "nest-pounding" of the Mongolian steppe and its consistent policy of economic blockade were the main causes of the war, but in the "History of the Ming Dynasty", It is often said that Aletan Khan was the culprit in the long-term plundering of the Ming Dynasty's border areas, which is inconsistent with historical facts. As long as we open the "History of ming", "barbarism" and "plundering" have become the nature of the Mongolian nomads. For example, Qiu Luan of the Ming Dynasty once said: "There are many teeth in the prisoners, and everything is given to China, if it is either lacking, it will be needed, and if it is not needed, it will be plundered." This is pure nonsense. The so-called "abundant number of raw teeth in captivity" and "insufficient food" are bound to trigger the viewpoint of "plundering" war, which is very absurd. Although there is no detailed record of the Mongol population under the rule of Altan Khan, it will not be "excessive." Usually, Altan Khan only "controlled 100,000 armor" and counted the common people, and did not exceed 300,000 or 400,000. Judging from the situation of Mongolian animal husbandry production at that time, the consumption of livestock by hundreds of thousands of people should be said to be self-sufficient. Otherwise, the economy of Mongolian society would not have the need for mutual marketing, and in the mutual market, it would be impossible to have an exchange situation in which "there are still many horses, and we will not be able to exhaust the cloth."
Second, Aletan Khan's use of troops against the Ming Dynasty did not have ambitions to invade the Central Plains, nor was it to ease the class contradictions within Mongolia, but was bound to "plunder" the interior. His use of troops was mainly out of the urgency of resisting the Ming Dynasty's "nest-pounding," "burning wasteland," and "chasing horses" in the Mongolian steppe, as well as the need to engage in mutual marketing with the Ming Dynasty. However, the Ming dynasty authorities always adopted a strategy of exterminating prisoners, often tearing up the treaty, refusing to exchange markets, and provoking war. As a result, the Mongol feudal lords and the Ming court were in a very tense cold war for a long time.
No matter how tortuous the path of historical development is, the contradictions between the Ming court and the Mongol feudal lords are sharp, and the desire for peace and mutual market between the Mongolian and Han peoples inside and outside the Great Wall and the demand for peaceful mutual markets always urgently need to be resolved. Under the influence of this objective situation, the Ming Court considered that on the issue of mutual marketing, it was "very easy to reject the prisoners, but it was really difficult to eliminate the prisoners." It is better to take a delay in the army. Therefore, Ming Ting adopted the opinion of the university scholar Gao Gong and others: "... Now that the captives are obedient and have been knighted by Me, then the border will be fine, and they are about to have this time of leisure. Accumulate my money and grain, repair my dangerous passes, train my soldiers and horses, straighten out my equipment, open my tun fields, straighten out my salt method, and make China's tithe riches, so as to reap the benefits of Huma. This is the main reason why the Ming Dynasty agreed with the leading idea of resuming mutual market with Altan Khan, or the restoration of mutual market. Secondly, because the grandson of Altan Khan fled Han Naji to Shanxi to "defeat Hu Fort", the Ming Dynasty, in order to weaken the strength of Altan Khan, exchanged Han Naji for Zhao Quan, a military master of Altan Khan, and six others. This is also a secondary reason for reaching peace talks and resuming mutual markets. Whether it is the main or secondary reason, the Ming court and its close courtiers have realized that between the two roads of war and peace and mutual market, they should take the road of peaceful mutual market, and peaceful mutual market is not only conducive to their feudal rule and the tranquility of the border blockade, but also conforms to the common aspirations and urgent demands of the military and people of the Mongolian and Han nationalities inside and outside the Great Wall. As a result, Altan Khan's long-term desire to restore peace and mutual market with the Ming Dynasty was finally realized in 1570 (the fourth year of Longqing).
After the agreement to restore peaceful mutual markets was reached, especially in March 1571 (longqing 5th year), after the Ming Dynasty made Altan Khan the King of Shunyi, the mutual market trade between Altan Khan and the Ming Dynasty became more and more frequent. According to statistics, in 1571, the Ming Dynasty first opened up six mutual market offices in the counties along the Great Wall, such as Datong Desheng Fort, Xinping Fort, Shuiquan Camp, Qingshuiying, Hongshan Dun and Zhangjiakou. Among them, in the four mutual markets (including the official and min markets) of Desheng fort, Xinping Fort, Shuiquanying and Zhangjiakou alone, the Mongols exchanged 28,654 horses for a large amount of cloth, satin, grain, salt, and various other daily necessities. According to the statistics of Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi, when the market first opened in 1571 (the fifth year of Longqing), there were more than 7,000 horses, and it has multiplied year by year since then. In 1573 (the first year of the Wanli Calendar), a total of 19,303 horses were changed, and after 1582 (the tenth year of the Wanli Calendar), the three cities of Xuanfu, Datong and Shanxi had a total of 50,000 horses per year. In 1575 (the third year of the Wanli Calendar), the Ming Dynasty stipulated that the annual quota for yima should not exceed 35,000 horses, but after 1578 (the sixth year of the Wanli calendar), the number of yi horses in Zhangjiakou alone reached more than 36,000 per year. Because of the prosperity of the horse market, it not only solved the problem of military horses and horses of the Ming Dynasty, but also greatly increased the main means of transportation and cultivated livestock in the Central Plains.
In the Ming Dynasty and the Alatan Khan exchange market, in addition to fixing places, time, and quotas, the exchange of certain varieties was also restricted. Initially, the Ming court only allowed the Han to sell Cantonese pots (i.e., copper pots), but not to sell iron pots, so that the Mongols "rarely got iron" to prevent the use of iron pots to make weapons and enhance the military strength of the Mongol departments. Later, in 1574 (the second year of the Wanli Calendar), the Han Chinese were also allowed to sell iron pots, but there was still a limit on the number. Second, in 1571, only the horse market was opened, and later gradually relaxed to the exchange of five animals and various other goods. According to the Biography of The Lidare, the Han Chinese "used satin silk, cloth silk, cotton flowers, needle clues, machine changes, combs, rice salt, candy, shuttle cloth, otter skins, sheepskin boxes, easy horses, cattle, sheep, mules, donkeys and horsetails, sheepskins, and coats." It can be seen from this that the barter at that time, to some extent, its varieties had reached a considerable level.
Since the Ming Dynasty border counties and Mongolian ministries exchanged peace and mutual markets, Altan Khan has always maintained the agreement and abided by the treaty. He strictly instructed his subordinates not to break the agreement or break the covenant. Every year, they will be exchanged on schedule, and violators will be severely punished. In 1576 (the fourth year of the Wanli Calendar), the Mongols captured more than ten officers and soldiers from the Dining Room Fort to collect firewood, and the Ming authorities rebuked Altan Khan, so Aletan Khan punished Yindingtaiji with Mongolian law for 1,000 sheep, 207 horses, and triangular camels, and sent these livestock and the captured officers and soldiers to their subordinate supervision office for disposal. In the leap August of 1577 (the fifth year of the Wanli calendar), before Altan Khan traveled west to Qinghai (to meet the Dalai Lama), he inspected the ministries outside The Serb and specially ordered them not to break the covenant and attack Ming County. If there are those who dare to betray the covenant and steal the border, the punishment is like beating The Lawming Ann." In the first month of 1578 (the sixth year of the Wanli Calendar), Altan Khan, on his way to welcome the Dalai Lama to the west, also warned his army to "not go near the castle, do not trample on the seedlings." In 1579 (the seventh year of the Wanli Calendar), when Altan Khan returned from Qinghai to the east, he once falsely passed through Guannei, "Passing along the border, Qiu did not commit any crime." It can be seen from this that From the time of the mutual market agreement reached in 1571 until his death (1582), Altan Khan lived peacefully with the Ming Dynasty and adhered to the covenant. It was also strictly forbidden for his subordinates to plunder while they were there, so the Ming Dynasty "proclaimed itself along the border and did not use soldiers in Gansu for twenty years." ”
In short, as a result of peaceful mutual markets, the long-term war between southern Mongolia and the Ming Dynasty was completely eliminated, the economic ties between the southern Mongolian steppe and the Ming Dynasty were strengthened, the production and living needs of the Mongolian and Han people were satisfied, and an unprecedented peaceful situation appeared inside and outside the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty. In addition to the urgent demands and joint efforts of the working people of Monghan and Han, Altan Khan also made special contributions and established historical merits
Reprinted from "SaiWai City Temple, Mei Dai Zhao"