Jottings from the Granite Studio

The Song dynasty managed to reunify most of the eastern provinces of the old Tang empire by about 960 AD but they never quite got around to dislodging a parcel of stubborn kingdoms on the northern and western flanks of the empire. These included the Tanguts (or Xixia) and especially the Khitans in the Northeast who had the audacity to declare a rival dynasty, the Liao and demand that the Song emperors pay tribute to them.

Beginning in the early 12th century, a new power emerged to the north of Khitans: the Jurchens. The Song could see that the Jurchens, unified under their first great chief, Wanyan Aguda, were a force to be reckoned with and moreover, were spoiling for a fight to claim the Liao territories. The Song opportunistically got into bed with the Jurchen, who then blew through the Khitans (barely pausing for a stick of chuan’r) as they helped themselves to all of northern China down to the Wei River. The Song court, after losing an emperor, an army, and most of their officials, ignobly fled south finally setting up shop in Hangzhou.

Flash forward about 100 years. A new, new power has emerged on the Central Asian steppe: a chieftain (Temüjin a.k.a. Chinggis Khan) has risen to more or less unite the Mongol clans (who usually hated each other) and whip them into one of the fiercest armies the world had seen up to that point: an unpredictable bloodthirsty army hungry for conquest…or, as the Song saw it, the perfect ally. The Song encouraged the Mongols to attack the Jurchens (who had founded their own dynasty, the Jin, in the meantime) and before they could say “Do you think maybe we should build a big wall?” the Jin had fallen and the Mongols were knocking on the door of the Song palace. To the Song Empire’s credit, they held out against the Mongols longer than most people. It took about 50 years and the almost complete annihilation of every living being in Sichuan but the Song defenses finally crumbled.

Let’s jump ahead a few more years to 1644. In the final years of the Ming Dynasty, the empire was in chaos. Gross mismanagement in the capital, poor morale among the army, and corruption among local officials had weakened the dynasty to the point of open rebellion. Two giant bandit armies, one lead by a man named Li Zicheng, rampaged across western and central China. Li finally stormed the capital at Beijing in 1644. The last Ming emperor rang the bell to summon his officials for advice, when none came (they were getting the hell outta Dodge), he slipped out the back of the Forbidden City, climbed a short way up a hill in what is today Jingshan Park and hung himself from a tree.

The last line of defense was a general named Wu Sangui who was stationed east of Beijing at a place called Shanhaiguan, where the Great Wall meets the sea. (After they kicked out the Mongols in 1368, the Ming finally got around to finishing that really big wall.) Wu’s job was to hold the pass because on the opposite side of the wall waited yet another force from the Northeast, the Manchus: united decades earlier by Nurhaci but by that time “ruled” by a child emperor and de facto controlled by the boy’s uncle, Dorgon.

(I will now use Ken Burns-speak, where all history, especially battles, are told in the present tense. Feel free to put on some nostalgic and quaint acoustic music in the background as you read the next passage.)

Wu faces a dilemma: march on Beijing and save the capital or hold the pass. Hearing that the armies of Li had begun marching east, Wu makes the fateful mistake of using the barbarians to control the bandits. Dorgon can hardly believe his ears and agrees to assist Wu in this ‘peacekeeping mission.’ The Manchus sweep through the pass, rout Li Zicheng, pacify the capital, restore law and order and then proceed to march south. They wouldn’t leave until nearly three centuries later.

(End Ken Burns production)

All of this occurred to me this week as I watch China in its appointed role as “mediator” between the United States, Japan, and North Korea. I wonder: If the Chinese remember just how many times this strategy has come back to bite them on the 屁股, will Beijing proceed differently?
—————————
Pictures:
Top left, map of Song empire showing divisions
Middle right, painting of a Mongol archer
Bottom right, photograph of Great Wall at Simatai, Summer 2002