Preface
In the Yuan Dynasty, an era of multicultural convergence, the status and role of women have been unprecedentedly improved.
The open and inclusive policies of the Yuan Dynasty allowed women from different backgrounds to fully display their talents in the political, military, and other fields.
So, how high can the women of the Yuan Dynasty be? Is it true that as the rumors say, the princess can supervise the country, and the women can also go into battle?
Who are they?
Classification of female characters in The Secret History
There are 38 female characters in the "Secret History" that are portrayed in a positive way, and most of these female characters are wives and mothers.
If they are classified according to class, they can be roughly divided into: the female ancestors of the Li Er Jin family (such as: Ah Yan Huoa): the aristocratic women in the prosperous period of the Xue'er Jin family (Mrs. Ha Erlun and Mrs. Li Erti); Lower-class women (Khūa-hechen, Al-Thani, Broad's wife, etc.); Alien women (also quick concubines, also concubines, etc.).
The image of a woman as recorded in the Secret History
The reason why "The Secret History of Mongolia" is called "Secret History" is because it involves the secrets and secrets of Genghis Khan's golden family, which regards it as an "ancestral family motto" secret book, "It is a matter of external prohibition and cannot be passed on to outsiders." ”
The "Secret History of Mongolia", which is used as a family motto, also has the responsibility of educating future generations, so the author believes that many of the accounts in it are ethically oriented, especially the description of women in the "Secret History".
In the "Secret History", the description of the image of female mothers and wives is the most common and the most long, especially the descriptions of three women in the aristocratic class, Ah Yan Huoa and Ha Erlun Li Erti.
At the same time, some lower-class women are also described in the "Secret History", such as the servant Huo Ahechen.
Ajah
She is the "Holy Mother" in the hearts of the Mongolian nation and is a particularly important woman in the history of the Mongolian nation. As for her historical stories, we are most familiar with the stories of "Photosensitive Son" and "Five Arrows Godson" recorded in "Secret History". Even today, the story of the "Five Arrows Godson" is still a common allusion for Mongolian elders to educate their children.
After the death of her husband, Dorpenmlgan, she gave birth to three more sons, which aroused suspicion among her and the two sons born to Dorbenmlgan.
In order to unite the five brothers and stop being suspicious of each other, Ah Yan Huoa taught the children to unite by having them break one arrow and break five arrows. At the same time, she explained why she gave birth to three more children after her husband's death, because "every night, a luminous person flew into the house through the skylight and touched my abdomen, and its light penetrated into my belly."
This is the story of the "Five Arrows Godson" and the "Photosensitive Child" recorded in the "Secret History".
There are only these two stories recorded in the "Secret History", and the reason why Ah Yan Huoa was revered as "Our Lady" by her later generations may not only be because she gave birth to Xue'er Duancha'er, the founding ancestor of the Xue'er Jin, but also because of the aura of motherhood she has. In the Secret History's account of Aja Huoa, we see such a female figure: a great and wise mother.
Khaelun
In "The Secret History", Heelun is undoubtedly the woman who spends the most pen and ink in the whole book. The Secret History mainly describes Khaelun from the perspective of his wife and mother.
He Erlun was the first wife of Yesucai (the father of Cheng Yan En Khan), and the ancient Mongolian people had the custom of "robbing marriage". At the beginning, he should have met Yeke Chilie, who had returned from marrying a wife on the way to hunting, and saw that his wife (i.e., Heerlun) was very beautiful, so he teamed up with his brother to "rob the marriage".
In times of danger, Ha Erlun said to her husband, Yeke Chiliedu: "Can you see the purpose of their people? Their behavior is suspicious, and they want to kill you! Flee quickly, as long as you save your life, why worry about the difficulty of finding a woman."
If you are concerned about me, you will call her by my name when you marry again. And he fled. The description of He'erlun's wife's identity is only this paragraph when he "robbed his relatives", but this paragraph also highlights the "virtue" of He'erlun as a wife who sacrifices herself to save her husband in the traditional concept.
In addition to his wife, he was also the mother of Genghis Khan. After Genghis Khan's father was also poisoned by the Tatars, Khaelun took on the responsibility of raising his children.
It is different from the women in the Central Plains during the same period. Mongolian women are less restricted in their behavior, which may be related to the fact that the nature of the nomadic people makes the production and lifestyle different from that in the Central Plains and that women undertake more productive labor.
It is recorded in the "Secret History": "He Erlun stepped on horseback, raised his tasseled spear, and went to chase the scattered people. "In the life of the steppe nomads, it is extremely dangerous to live without the livelihood and personal safety of the family. In such a difficult situation, he "collected wild fruits and wild vegetables and worked hard to raise his children." ”
He raised the children to adulthood and raised a generation of "steppe overlords" - Genghis Khan. Here, we see the image of a woman who is both a "fit to save her husband" wife and a great mother who is tough and tenacious.
School post
Xue'er Ti was Genghis Khan's wife. The description of Xue'erti in the "Secret History" only focuses on the identity of the wife and the description of her
Relatively rare, but still portrays the image of a smart, virtuous and good wife. For example, in the course of his relationship with Temujin, Li Erti saw that Zamuhe was bored with Temujin, so he advised Temujin, saying, "I heard that Zamuhe is very easy to get tired of answering, is it time to get tired of us? What Zamuhe just said may be a metaphor for us."
We are not to camp but to go all night and leave him far away. Temujin heeded Xue'er's advice. It turned out to be a wise choice.
Genghis Khan's concubines
For Genghis Khan's concubines, the "Secret History" mainly records the two of them. Both of them were Tatar women, and after Genghis Khan defeated the Tatars, he took them as his concubines.
Although there are few accounts of the two of them, the emphasis is on highlighting their generosity, wisdom, and profound righteousness as wives and concubines.
An account of a lower-class woman who was "faithful to the Lord."
In addition to the accounts of aristocratic women, the Secret History also records a number of lower-class women. Although their status is low, they have been recorded in the history books, which shows that there must be something special about them that deserves to be written.
The first is the record of the servant of the Khaelun family, Huoa Heichen, and the story of the savior of Huoa Heichen. When the Tai Yichi people attacked, Huo Ahechen was the first to find out, and sacrificed his life to help his master Xue'er Tie escape.
Although Xue'er Ti did not succeed in the end, his loyal qualities were still appreciated by Genghis Khan, who sang, "Thanks to the hearing of the golden rat, he escaped the attack of the enemy! This is the record of the loyal servant of the "Secret History".
When Kuokuo was about to betray his master and vote for Genghis Khan, his wife stopped him and said: "When you wear silk and brocade clothes, when you eat mountain treasures, Sang Kun treats you as a brother and sister, and has always enjoyed wealth with you! But now, how can we abandon our fallen master and only care about fleeing back by ourselves? This record portrays a female image who understands righteousness and is loyal.
Similar to this female figure is Altani, who saved Genghis Khan's youngest son, Tuolei, in times of crisis.
At this point, it is not difficult for us to find that most of these women who have been recorded in the "Secret History" appear as virtuous wives, great mothers, and faithful servants.
In addition to the record of historical facts, the "Secret History" describes such a female image in more pen and ink, and I am afraid that it is more to play an ethical guiding role, focusing on men, hoping that future generations of women can learn these qualities of their female ancestors and become good wives, good mothers, and loyal servants.
Reflections on the status of women as they appear in The Secret History
In his book "Genghis Khan and the Formation of Today's World: The Last Mongol Queen", the American historian Jack Wizeford tried to awaken people's attention to Mongolian women by shouting for the Mongolian "queens" who were annihilated in history.
He believes that the status of women in ancient Mongolia was very high, and women played a great role in Genghis Khan's achievement and consolidation of hegemony. Chinese scholars have also done research on the status of women as reflected in the Secret History of the Mongols.
For example, Lian Xin, in "A Preliminary Study on the Relationship between the Subjective Consciousness and Social Status of Mongolian Women in Ancient Mongolia", argues that Mongolian women in ancient times had the right to participate in social production and labor, and could obtain property rights and control rights, as well as the right to participate in politics.
Chen Yongguo pointed out in his article "Ethical Thoughts in the > of the Secret History of Mongolia" that "to say that Mongolian women in ancient times occupied an important position in society, it is only compared with the women of the agrarian ethnic groups in the interior during the same period.
Due to political factors such as the economic characteristics of ancient Mongolian society, which was both herding and hunting, and frequent internal and external disputes, it was determined that women could never surpass the dominant position of men in society. "
Although women played an important role in the construction and consolidation of the Mongol Empire, they were forced to do so.
Jack Wyseford is trying to prove the role women play in empire-building. However, the author believes that women did play a non-negligible role in the construction of the Mongol Empire, and for Mongolian women at that time, there was indeed no choice.
This is also evidenced in Jack Wiseford's book, "This time, Genghis Khan did not have any trouble arranging the marriage of his son and daughter. He married his three daughters to the Mongols in accordance with the Mongol Khuta tradition, thus establishing a marriage union. ”
There are also many marriage-giving acts in the "Secret History". For example, in order to reward Aersi's surrender without a fight, Genghis Khan gave a grace: "Promise my daughter to you!" It can be seen that the Mongolian upper-class women at that time were still the appendages of men, and they were disposed of when needed.
In the struggle between the tribes, women, like property, were divided among the winners. In the "Secret History", there are many words such as "bring a beautiful woman to seize his palace tent" and "bring his wife and daughter to serve as a domestic slave, and choose his beauty to take into his arms".
This reflects the Mongol concept at that time, women and material were basically the same, and women did not have an independent personality and status in the war. Genghis Khan's two concubines also dried quickly.
She was also a woman of the defeated Tatar tribe, who was taken as a concubine by Genghis Khan as a trophy. It can be seen that in ancient Mongolia, neither the upper-class women nor the lower-class women were not freed from the fate of being gifted, plundered, and exchanged, and they were still the appendages of men.
epilogue
Although the Secret History of the Mongols describes a number of women and celebrates their conduct, we cannot conclude that the status of women in ancient Mongolia was equal to or higher than that of men.
The praise and praise of women in the "Secret History" is more to play an ethical guiding role, focusing on men, teaching future generations of women to learn from the female ancestors in the book and become good wives, mothers or loyal servants.
It is true that the status of women of the Mongolian nationality is higher than that of the women of the farming ethnic groups in the interior of the same period, but this does not mean that the women of the Mongolian nationality have obtained an equal status with men of the same class.