The Research Of Bogo Khan And Uighur Manichaeism

Bogo Khan is the third Khan of Uighur Khanate in Northern Mongolia.Both his accession to the throne and the religious conversion to Manichaeism after the accession are controversial and valuable topics in the study of the history of the Uighur Khanate in Northern Mongolia.Bogo Khan ascended the throne coincided with the time when his elder brother,Crown Prince Ye Hu,died.The historian circles has been holding controversial opinions about his cause of death.While Bogo Khan ascended the throne,the neighbour of Uighur Khanate in Northern Mongolia,Tang Dynasty,was experiencing An Lushan Rebellion.It was in such a complex historical background that Bogo Khan ascended the throne.And after his accession,Bogo Khan repealed Shamanism,which had been popular in Uighur Khanate,and made religious conversion to Manichaeism.He set Manichaeism as “state religion”.Since then,Uighur Khanate in Northern Mongolia began to embrace the Manichaeism for a century-long history.The religious conversion to Manichaeism of Uighur Khanate in Northern Mongolia had had great influence on the politics,economy,culture and foreign relations of the whole country in the subsequent hundred years.In particular,Bogo Khan used Mercantilism policy in Manichaeism to make Uighur Khanate in Northern Mongolia an economic empire that controlled the Silk Road.Based on the absorption of the research finds of professors,this paper mainly uses Uighur documents and other multilingual historical materials to explore the reasons that Bogo Khan embrace Manichaeism and the subsequent influences.The article is mainly composed of three parts: introduction,body and appendix.The introduction mainly includes the research finds of professors,the historical materials that are used and the new ideas to research Bogo Khan embrace Manichaeism.The body is composed of four chapters.Chapter one is mainly the interpretation of three Manichaeism historical documents in Uighur,and the analysis of the historical characteristics in the contents of these documents.Chapter two discusses three issues: Bogo Khan's accession to the throne,his “Caesaropapism” policy in the khanate and stressing commerce development.Chapter three is about analyzing the causes of the Manichaeism spread into Uighur Khanate in Northern Mongolia,and using the Uighur documents to analyze the process that Manichaeism became as the “state religion” of Uighur Khanate in Northern Mongolia,and finally discusses the brief interruption of spreading Manichaeism in Uighur Khanate after the death of Bogo Khan.Chapter four discusses the social culture and the Uighur-Tang relationship after the Uighur Khanate embraced Manichaeism.The appendix contains the interpretation of the Uighur Manichaeism historical documents and the document pictures.