THE ULUS OF JOCHI VS. THE MONGOL DYNASTY IN CHINA

According to the Persian historian Ala al-Din Ata-Malik JuvayniiAla al-Din Ata-Malik Juvayni (1226–1283) was a Persian historian and governor under the Mongols, and the author of Tarikh-i Jahangushay (History of the World Conqueror), an important first-hand account of the Mongol conquests., the territories granted to Chinggis Khan’s eldest son Jochi extended from Kayalyk and Khwarazm to the farthest reaches of Saksin and Bulgar, as well as all lands ‘touched by the hoof of the Tatar horse’. Historian Z. Kinayatuly described the boundaries of the Ulus of Jochi as follows:

The Great Mongol State, the official name of the Mongol Empire which made the world tremble, did not rise by the will of Chinggis Khan alone. A special role in its rise and consolidation was played by his son Jochi and his three younger brothers. Together, they were the engine of conquest, each commanding armies, governing territories, and enforcing their father's authority across Eurasia. Regarding the role of his sons, Juvayni wrote:

After the death of Chinggis Khan in 1227, in accordance with his will, the title of Great Khan was inherited by his third son, Ögedei. Following the death of Jochi himself—who died just a few months before his father—his position was taken by his second son, Batu, who was proclaimed khan.

At that time, no one could have imagined that within just a few years, the descendants of Chinggis Khan would enter into a fierce struggle for power that would change the course of history and redraw the map of the world.

In 1229, Ögedei convened a great kurultai, at which he was officially elected Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. Immediately after ascending the throne, he undertook decisive measures to strengthen the system of state administration and centralize the authority of the khan. Through a series of decrees, he clearly defined the scale of taxes levied on the population, established state storehouses, granaries, supply depots and a treasury, and initiated the construction of a network of relay stations.

During the same period, at Ögedei's command, Batu launched a large-scale western campaign that lasted from 1236 to 1240. In the course of this campaign, he subdued the Kipchak and Bulgar tribes west of the Ural River and in the lower reaches of the Volga. He also brought the Rus’ principalities under his control, obliging them to pay regular tribute.

When he returned to the Volga region in 1243, Batu firmly consolidated his authority in the Kipchak Khanate (as the Golden Horde was sometimes called), whose domains now stretched from the Irtysh River in the east to the Rus’ lands in the west, and from Lake Balkhash and the Aral Sea in the south to the Black Sea and the subpolar regions in the north.

Among the grandsons of Chinggis Khan, Batu stood out for his authority, wisdom, and military talent. For these qualities, he was popularly nicknamed ‘Sain Khaan’, meaning ‘good’ or ‘noble’ khan in Mongolian.

By establishing a network of relay stations across this vast territory, he linked the uluses of Jochi, Chagatai, and Ögedei with one another, as well as with Karakorum, which was the capital of the Mongol Empire. And in this way, a well-organized system of roads and postal relay stations known as the Yam was formed between the central regions of the Great Mongol State and its uluses. These stations not only ensured uninterrupted communication within the vast empire, but also created favorable conditions for the development of political, cultural, and trade/economic ties between East and West.

Thus, in 1245, at the request of Pope Innocent IV, Giovanni da Plano Carpini, an Italian Franciscan friar who eventually wrote the earliest detailed European account of the Mongol Empire, undertook a journey from the French city of Lyon to Mongolia. The delegation passed through the lands of the Golden Horde, traveling along the southern shore of Lake Balkhash and, after passing Alakol, headed eastward. Crossing the Urungu (Ulunghur) and Irtysh rivers and traversing the Altai Mountains, the mission reached Karakorum. By changing horses several times a day and replenishing their provisions at the relay stations, the travelers were able to advance practically without interruption.

In 1246, Güyük, the eldest son of Ögedei, was elected Great Khan. He had not forgotten the past, harbouring a deep resentment toward Batu for having failed to support his candidacy for the throne previously. This hostility, fueled by internal divisions, prompted Güyük to launch a campaign against Batu, but before he could strike, the khan died suddenly in 1248.

Even after his death, however, relations between the Great Mongol State and the Golden Horde did not normalize; on the contrary, tensions between the imperial center and the breakaway ulus only continued to grow.

At the same time, among the Chinggisids, Batu enjoyed unquestioned authority as the lineage's recognized senior figure. It was largely thanks to his decisive support that Möngke (1251–1259) was elected Great Khan. And so, supreme power in the empire passed from the descendants of Ögedei to those of Tolui, the youngest son of Chinggis Khan.

The alliance between Möngke and Batu manifested itself in both state affairs and the governance of the empire, and from 1251 to 1255, they effectively ruled the Mongol Empire in tandem. William of Rubruck, a Franciscan friar who, on the orders of the French king Louis IX, visited Karakorum in 1253, recorded Möngke’s words:

The strong alliance between the two khans did not fall apart even after Batu’s death in 1255. Möngke exhibited special care for Batu’s descendants: he confirmed his sons Sartaq and Ulagchi on the khan’s throne, and later recognized the authority of Batu's brother Berke, ensuring the family line continued to hold power.

For his part, Batu, whose authority was unquestioned, consistently carried out Möngke’s orders during his lifetime. Thus, by decree of the Great Khan, he undertook western campaigns, advancing in battle as far as the borders of Albania. In this way, despite the nobility and honor that characterized the personal relationship between the two rulers, the state hierarchy was strictly observed in practice, with a clear division between central authority and regional governance.

In 1259, Möngke, the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, died during a military campaign in the province of Sichuan in southern China. His death marked the beginning of a prolonged internecine struggle for power between his brothers Kublai and Ariq Böke.

In March 1260, Kublai, relying on the support of nobles loyal to him, proclaimed himself Great Khan in the city of KaipingiKaiping was the original name of Xanadu (Shangdu), established by Kublai Khan in 1256 as the first capital of the Yuan Dynasty before later becoming the summer capital. His goal was ambitious: to transform the traditional Mongol social system and create a centralized feudal empire modeled on Chinese governance. However, in May of the same year, Ariq Böke, backed by his own supporters, had also declared himself Great Khan in Karakorum.

From that moment on, military force became the decisive factor in the power struggle. Kublai, skillfully mobilizing the vast resources of the conquered Chinese lands, dealt Ariq Böke a crushing defeat and retained the title of Great Khan.

In 1271, following Chinese political tradition, Kublai officially proclaimed the founding of the Yuan dynasty. The following year, he moved the capital from the old Mongol heartland of Karakorum to Beijing—then known as Khanbaliq, or Dadu. The transformation of the Mongol Empire into a Chinese-style dynasty was now complete.

Thus, in just a few years, the Great Mongol State was transformed into the Yuan Empire. This event irrevocably changed the history of the entire region. From that point on, Chinese historiography was compelled to recognize a new reality: the Yuan dynasty, founded by Kublai, a Mongol khan, as a legitimate continuation of China’s own dynastic tradition. Kublai, for his part, skillfully adopted Chinese law and used it to establish sole rule over the population of China. The conqueror had become the emperor.

It is important to note that at the height of the bitter internecine struggle between Kublai and Ariq Böke, Berke, the khan of the Golden Horde, sided with the latter. Even after the official proclamation of the Yuan Empire, Berke continued to support any efforts aimed at undermining Kublai’s authority. This indicated that the Golden Horde had already transformed into a sovereign state, no longer subject to either the imperial center or the Yuan dynasty. Indeed, after the kurultai of 1260, the Golden Horde was effectively regarded as an independent state.

In 1266, at the height of the war between the Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate (the Mongol state ruled by the descendants of Hulagu), Berke died, and his nephew Möngke-Temür ascended the throne. Upon coming to power, he continued the political course of his predecessor. Forming an alliance with Kaidu, a grandson of Ögedei who led the house of Ögedei and ruled the Chagatai Khanate, Möngke-Temür dealt a crushing defeat to Baraq Khan, the man Kublai had appointed to govern the Chagatai ulus in Transoxiana (the region between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers).

In 1270, Kaidu, Berkechar, and Barak Khan convened a kurultai in Talas (Taraz) in southern Kazakhstan, at which the Great Khan Kublai was not present. At this assembly, a decision was made to divide Transoxiana: two-thirds of the territory went under Kaidu’s control and one-third to Baraq. In addition, a plan to undertake a joint military campaign against the Ilkhanate in Iran was also developed at this time. Through this, Möngke-Temür and Kaidu sought to undermine the alliance between the Hulaguids and the Yuan Empire, since both of those powers were ruled by descendants of Tolui, Chinggis Khan’s youngest son.

In essence, after these events, the era of peaceful coexistence between the houses of Jochi and Tolui came to a definitive end. Notably, during the reign of Möngke-Temür in the Golden Horde, the name of the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire disappeared from the coins of the Kipchak khans. This became yet another indication that the Golden Horde had fully freed itself from the political oversight of the Yuan Empire.

The internecine wars between Kublai and Ariq Böke became a clear signal of discord and division within the Altan Urag (meaning ‘the golden lineage’), the direct descendants of Chinggis Khan. At the same time, the Chagatai Khanate under Duwa and the house of the Ögedeids led by Kaidu were steadily strengthening their positions. Firmly established in Central Asia, they turned their attention eastward and intensified their struggle against the Yuan Empire. And the consequences were severe. The system of road routes and postal relay stations established under Ögedei was disrupted, leading to the decline of trade and cultural ties between East and West.

At the same time, two key aspects must be taken into account. First, there were no shared economic or political interests between the Golden Horde and the Yuan Empire that could have ensured that they stayed allies. The political trajectories of these states had completely diverged, and by the third generation, any familial ties between the ruling dynasties had completely lost their significance. As a result, open military clashes driven by conflicting interests became inevitable.

Second, the spiritual orientations of these states proved fundamentally opposed. Kublai built his system of governance on Chinese political canons and philosophical traditions, while the Mongol elite in China had adopted Lamaism (Tibetan Buddhism). In contrast, the Golden Horde went in a completely different direction, and the processes of Turkification and Islamization took a strong hold. Beginning with the reign of Berke, Islam spread widely throughout the state.

The deep divergence in their worldviews became increasingly evident, and the cultural and spiritual distance between these states only continued to widen with each passing decade.

In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang—rising from a poor peasant orphan and Buddhist monk—as a result of a large-scale uprising, overthrew the Yuan Empire and proclaimed the founding of the Ming dynasty. However, the influence of the new dynasty on the west was limited to the region of Hami (or Kumul)iHami is an oasis city in eastern Xinjiang, a historic Silk Road hub and former capital of the Kumul Khanate., which prevented it from maintaining direct diplomatic contacts with the Golden Horde. As a result, between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, trade relations between China and Central Asia were concentrated primarily within the framework of interactions between the Ming dynasty and the Timurid Empire. Although these states represented two fundamentally different civilizations, both sides were compelled to establish contact due to pressing trade and economic interests.

Chinese empires of that period perceived the arrival of embassies from neighboring countries bearing gifts exclusively as a recognition of the emperor’s status as suzerain. In Chinese historiography, this phenomenon is known as the ‘chaogong system’ (In Chinese ‘chaogong tixi’), that is, a system of tributary dependence on China. Guided by this logic, the Ming dynasty repeatedly sent envoys to Amir Timur, demanding formal recognition of vassal status and the presentation of tribute.

Unwilling to accept such arrogance and not intending to bow his head, Amir Timur, after completing his Iranian campaign, sent an embassy to the Ming Empire for the first time in 1387 led by Mullah Hafiz. Chinese chronicles describe this event as follows:

Historian Klara Khafizova explains that those fifteen argamak horses and two camels were indeed interpreted as ‘gifts sent by the Amir as an official offering’.

In September 1394, Amir Timur sent an embassy to the Ming Empire headed by Delbish, presenting 200 horses as a gift. Thereafter, he dispatched envoys for three consecutive years, with the number of horses offered increasing each year. In accordance with the diplomatic etiquette of ‘gift for gift’, the Ming Empire, in turn, sent monetary rewards and other valuable presents in response.

Interestingly, Chinese archives preserve a message from that period, purportedly written by Amir Timur. It is saturated with elaborate expressions of deference and recognition of the Chinese emperor as the supreme ruler:

Some historians explain such seemingly humiliating flattery on the part of Amir Timur toward the Ming emperor as an attempt to extract maximum benefit from frontier trade. However, these messages were, in fact, the product of a cunning scheme by merchants, who wrote in the rulers’ names for their own profit. The Ming emperor, believing them to be genuine, sent an embassy to Amir Timur in 1395 headed by court officials Fu An and Liu Wei to express gratitude for the ‘fulfillment of vassal duty’. However, enraged at being addressed as a subordinate, Timur ordered all the envoys imprisoned. Diplomats who arrived in 1397 were similarly taken captive and denied the right to return to their homeland.

Yongle, the new Ming emperor on the imperial throne, demanded that Timur release the captured envoys. However, Amir Timur not only continued to hold them as hostages but also sent his own agents, disguised as merchants, into the Ming Empire. His aim was to conduct a detailed assessment of the internal situation, geographical conditions, and the state of the roads in preparation for a full-scale military campaign against China. Nevertheless, the Ming Empire managed to anticipate these intentions. In 1404, by the time Amir Timur set out on a campaign at the head of a 200,000-strong army, Emperor Zhu Di (Yongle) had already taken action. He ordered General Sun Cheng in the province of Gansu to place his troops on combat alert, warning that the enemy would advance via Beshbalyk [15]. The stage was set for a massive confrontation—but it would never take place.

The sudden death of Amir Timur on the march halted the course of events and prevented an inevitable war. After his death, relations with the Ming Empire entered a new phase. Chinese chronicles describe this period as follows:

At the same time, Shahrukh, the younger son of Amir Timur who ruled in Khorasan, sent an embassy to the Ming Empire with rich gifts, thereby restoring trade relations with the Yongle Emperor. According to historical chronicles, between 1407 and 1524, a total of twenty official delegations arrived in the Ming Empire from Timurid territories. The envoys traditionally brought pedigree horses, camels, and sheep, receiving in return silk fabrics, clothing, and paper money intended exclusively for the purchase of local goods.

However, the regular exchange of embassies and mutual presentation of gifts did not necessarily indicate the establishment of lasting and genuine peace. Full diplomatic relations never developed into a stable form. In essence, this ‘exchange of courtesies’ remained merely a form of distant and carefully polite mutual observation.

Over time, the grandiose chaogong system, although aligned with the long-term political ambitions of the Ming Empire, became an unbearable burden from an economic perspective. The diplomatic doctrine of bo lai hou wang, or ‘giving far more than one receives’, literally drained the state treasury, provoking a deep financial crisis. Eventually, Beijing was forced to sharply reduce its diplomatic expenditures. In June 1547, Yang Bo, the governor of Gansu province, submitted a memorial to the emperor stating:

Supporting this initiative, the Ministry of Rites (known in Chinese as Lǐbù) presented its recommendations to the emperor:

The imperial court approved the proposal of the Ministry of Rites, after which the chaogong system officially ceased to exist. However, over time, this led to the gradual winding down of official trade relations between the Ming Empire and the Central Asian states.

Ultimately, the political and economic relations between the aforementioned dynasties and great empires underwent a series of complex historical transformations. Although their political trajectories often diverged, the parties remained significantly interdependent in the sphere of trade and economics. For this reason, over the course of three centuries—despite the collapse of empires, changes in ruling dynasties, and the restructuring of systems of power—connections between China and Central Asia were never interrupted but rather transformed, taking on various forms.