On The Mongolian Elements In The Mongol-Yuan Political System

Preface:Interpretation of Mongolian PatrimonialismYeke Monggol ulus, the predecessor of Yuan dynasty, is a typical Nomadic Empire and took Mongolian Patrimonialism as the dominant wealth holding way. The Altan uruq, with the Qa'an as core, regarded the whole empire as their family common wealth. The Qa'an had the right to hold gathering of representatives of every branch of the Altan uruq to discuss and make decision on important affairs. In wars, all the branches should follow the Qa'an's command and the Qa'an must equally distribute all spoils of war. Princes of every branch had autonomy on their own domains which was seldom interfered by the Qa'an. After conquering Song dynasty, Mongolian Patrimonialism undertook changes because of the adoption of traditional Chinese administration system..From Ogedei period on, Qubilai and his successors gradually applied Chinese centralism and Carried out Wuhusi五户丝policy. Consequently benefits of princes of family branches were seriously harmed. In fact the conflicts between princes and central government lied in the contradiction between Mongolian Patrimonialism and traditional Chinese centralism. In Renzong仁宗and Yingzong英宗period, the conflicts intensified. Their policy that Central government assigned Darughachi to princes'domains were objected and failed. The extreme result of such conflicts was Nanpo Incident. Such conflicts last throughout the whole Yuan dynasty. It is primary cause of the Yuan dynasty's Characteristic, combination of Mongolian and Han influences.The First Chapter:A study of Touxia投下In history documents, Touxia refers to the small Ulus of Princes, princesses, Queens and other meritorious generals. These aristocrats and generals had their own domains in steppe and tax payers in Northern and Southern China. And the aristocrats from Altan Uluq can enjoy the yearly grants from the central government. For example哈撒儿family can be regarded as a Touxia. The concept of Touxia, such as Touxia land投下地土,Touxia household投下人户,Touxia officials投下官吏and Touxia Darugachi投下达鲁花赤,is to illustrate their belonging to aristocrats instead of central government. There are neither concept of Steppe Touxia, Zhongyuan Touxia and Army Touxia, nor the concepts of Bentouxia本投下and Yibantouxia一般投下。 Bentouxia本投下just refers to this Touxia or this part, without special connotation. And also the use of Ben本in Yuan documents needs be paid attention to.The Second Chapter:A study of Emcu relative questionsEmcu meant some special staffs and belongings, such as Emcu Bo"ol奄出孛斡勒(体己奴隶)Emcu irgen奄出亦儿坚(体己百姓),Emcu Qubi奄出忽必(体己分子)and so on. In the steppe society, the right to possess one's own Emcu Qubi and Emcu Irgenn is exclusive and respected by other people. Inje引者were the personal servants of a new wife, the wealth brought from her own family. These Inje accompanied the wife to the family of her husband and only serve the wife. If they were appreciated by their lords, they may become Emcu. This traditional Mongolian idea exerted influence until late Yuan period.The Third Chapter:A Study of Todqayulsun脱脱禾孙脱脱禾孙was the official in charge of inspecting in the empire courier stations. Meanwhile they also held the responsibility to report other affairs related to courier stations and other issues. Tod脱脱火孙,札撒孙,孛可孙and火里孙can be traced back to early Mongolian as Todqayulsun, Jasayulsun, bukegulsun and Qoriyulsun respectively. In translation, pronunciation of yul and gul were omitted. In扎撒火孙and扎撒兀孙pronunciation of "1" was omitted. The name Jasa'ulsun札撒温孙was closest translation form for Jasayulsun. With the evolution of Mongolian, pronunciations of-sun and -sun were dropped and the names mentioned above transformed into Todqayul Jasayul Bukegiil and Qoriyul. But transliteration form of～孙in Chinese was preserved孛可温bukegul and火里温qoriyul in Yuan documents were direct transliterations of Mongolian used in that period, without following the traditional form of孛可孙and火里孙.The Fourth Chapter:a Study of Official Document SystemThe official document system in Yuan Dynasty was quite unique. It had many forms and scripts. There was special institution responsible to translate other language into Mongolian. The memorials to the throne and the emperor's instructions were believed to be in Mongolian. But these instructions and comments needed to be translated into Chinese to send to local governments. In translation the sequence of Mongolian was preserved with only words translated. This special Direct Translation Form was a combination of Mongolian grammar and northern Chinese folk words. Therefore a study of Mongolian factors in this special form is helpful to understand the meanings. In this Chapter, Negative Sentence Form, Agglutinating Verbs and Ilqa'ul亦里哈温are studied in details.Conclusion A summary to the whole thesis is made to reiterate the main idea.