The fiefdoms of the eastern kings of the Mongol Empire were in the steppe region of the western northeast. South of the Waixing'an Mountains, north and south of the Daxing'an Mountains, north and south of the Nen River, and north of the Tao'er River and the Songhua River in the east, it was the fiefdom of four powerful Mongol princes, namely Genghis Khan's eldest brother Hazar, his second brother Hechiwen (an early death, whose son Alchi succeeded to the throne and divided the land), his younger brother Timuge, and his half-brother Belegutai. The north and south of the Xilamu river valley, up to the middle reaches of the Daling River in present-day western Liaoning, were the territory of the Mongol nobles such as the Yuan Dynasty's foreign relatives, the Dexue Chan family, and the founding hero Muhuali family. They are called "hidden khanates" because they do not have the same eventual and complete self-contained system as the Western Daoist kings, but they also have the considerable characteristics of an independent state.
The elements of an independent state, one of which lies in whether it is politically autonomous and whether the officials are appointed by themselves; second, whether the economy is independent and whether the income in the territory is self-enjoyed; third, whether there is judicial independence and can rule on legal proceedings in the territory; fourth, whether the military is self-exclusive and has its own army. From these four points, we know whether they are counted as a country.
First, the officials in the fiefdom had the right to appoint and dismiss themselves. According to the system, the kings could set up their own official subordinates, appoint and dismiss officials, and the Mongolian households under the control of the royal palace set up local institutions according to the establishment of ten, one hundred, and one thousand households. Not to mention that Genghis Khan's four younger brother families, that is, the Muhuali family, which is one level lower than them, can send liberal officials in their fiefdoms, "the place where the centurion is prescribed, the centurion stipulates the place where the centurion is prescribed, and the centurion stipulates the place where the ten fu is", it is only necessary to report the number of thousand households and the name of the thousand household officials to the khan. By the time of Wokoutai Khan, certain states and counties in the Central Plains were constantly given to the kings as subordinates. According to Yelü Chucai's suggestion, the surrender of the newly divided seals changed, with provisions such as "Ordering everyone to stop the establishment of Daru Huachi, and the imperial court to set up official rents and awards to them, and not to conscript military personnel unless they were edicted", so that the kings' surrender in Han China was very different from the fiefdoms in the Mongolian steppe, and it was the Mongol kings who received taxes, but the kings still had certain official powers.
In the time of Möngke Khan, in order to reverse the dilemma of "the masses of subjects usurping power and having many governments", Möngke Khan vigorously rectified the zongwang and "issued matters of convenience in the country: all the imperial courts and kings indiscriminately issued cards, edicts, and decrees, and received them; The kings galloped, allowed to ride three horses, and traveled no more than four; Kings are not allowed to recruit households without permission. However, this only limited the power outside the fiefdom of the emperor and did not touch his original power. After the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, the official system was reformed, and each of the princes set up three official positions, Named Wang Fu ( Fu Wei ) and Sima Ma , to manage the daily affairs of the royal palace , but the principle of the kings setting up their own officials and subordinates has not changed, and the appointed officials only need to say hello to the imperial court - "All the kings who divide the land and the Tang Muyi they receive, they must raise their own people, make the court famous, and then grant them their posts", "All the officials and subordinates below the general manager of Daru Huachi may be full-time their accomplices, and the king (state) people shall not be with him." ”
When the Soviet Union was the big brother of the socialist camp, the younger brothers in Eastern Europe even had to look at moscow's face when they appointed and dismissed heads of state, but they also claimed to be sovereign states, and the host emperor, who had the right to appoint and dismiss subordinate officials, was much freer than the host king.
Second, the wealth in the fiefdom was enjoyed by the kings. The kings may levy all kinds of labor and military service to the subjects of the fiefdom at will, "and all their households produce cattle and horses, chariots, men, mutton, and horse milk, which are called chafa." Although the share of the Han Dynasty could not be so free, it also enjoyed the right to collect taxes, and its form of collecting taxes was called the "five-household silk system", which stipulated that "every two households produce one pound of silk, and lose to the officials with the silk thread and color of the road; Five households out of a pound of silk, and with the silk thread, color lost to the standard (cast down), to the twentieth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1283), the ancestor Kublai Khan in the Han Dynasty cast "to establish a tax office, the length of which was set from the capital province, the second was set up by the royal palace." In order to ensure the tax cast by the Emperor Han Dynasty. The kings did not pay taxes to the imperial court, but also received a staggering number of rewards from the imperial court, according to the Mongol system, "when the new king is on the throne, he will give the kings, horses, concubines, and guards a golden veil", and at the end of each year, in the name of "the gift of the year", the kings and horses will be given a fixed amount of gold. Successive great khans and emperors had to suffer from financial problems, but the fiefdoms of the kings were only in and out, and the days were quite moist.
Third, the judiciary of the various royal domains was also relatively independent. During the Mongol Empire and the early Yuan Dynasty, the kings set up their own judges, "those who sin under the kings, do not listen to the dynasty, and decide to dismiss themselves." It was not until May of the 27th year of the Yuan Dynasty (1290) that Kublai Khan issued an edict: "The people who divide the land among the kings have lawsuits, and Wang Fu and the county they have placed are ruled together, and wang Fu who does not have a prison county listens to it", and the state officials and the royal officials jointly handle the litigation cases in the fiefdoms of the kings and nobles. After Emperor Renzong ascended the throne, he completely "dismissed the kings and judges" and transferred judicial power to the central government.
Fourth, the fiefdoms of the kings had a large number of armies, and the command power was owned by the kings in peacetime. Only in the face of foreign wars and the suppression of domestic rebellions, the armies of the kings are recruited, but often the kings and nobles are appointed as the president of the army and the commander of a certain army. With these four articles, it is enough to prove that the fiefdoms of the Western Dao Sect Kings and the Eastern Dao Sect Kings also exist in the empire one independent khanate after another.
However, why can the Western Daozong King gradually develop into a truly sovereign state, while the Eastern Dao Sect King has never been able to form its own system? This has to say that geography affects the decision of a country's development.