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received posts and awards are beyond counting. Only Joseon 朝鮮 court of Korea, ostensibly a devoted tributary
Bunyashiri did not lead [his subordinates in submission], ally of the Ming, led by King Taejong 太宗 (r. 1400–18),
stubbornly remaining outside transformation. another man who had come to power through a bloody
16
至與朔漠氊裘瓣髮之眾，合率其屬，歸誠慕義，拜俯闕下，蒙荷 coup. In mid-November 1409, King Taejong received the
官賞者不可勝計。惟本雅失里弗率倔強化外。 14 following brief secret report from one of his officials:
The Tatar Emperor has stationed a powerful army outside the
Bunyashiri (d. 1412) was a Chinggisid noble who reigned passes of Guanzhong. Regional Commander and Duke of
briefly (1408–11) as khan of khans. Yang Shiqi’s effort to Yiguo [i.e. Qiu Fu 丘福] and the Marquis of Wucheng [i.e.
marginalise Bunyashiri was part of a wider attempt to justify Wang Cong 王聰] clashed with them but suffered defeat. Their
the Yongle emperor’s momentous decision to lead the entire army was taken captive. The Emperor is mobilising
imperial host in person. After taking the throne in 1368, the troops from all routes; he will campaign against the north in
Ming founder had no longer commanded armies in the field. the second month of next year.
In fact, neither had any Chinese emperor in recent centuries. 韃靼皇帝將重兵屯關中口子外，總兵官沂國公武城侯禦之敗績,
Thus, although at first glance the following imperial 全師被擄，皇帝徵兵諸路, 將以明年二月北征。 17
proclamation might seem no more than bombastic
propaganda, it is actually an effort to rewrite history and Within a few short lines, the report explicitly mentions
justify the Yongle emperor’s innovative actions: two emperors, both of whom command considerable
We have received the Mandate of Heaven and succeeded to the military forces. The document as preserved in the Veritable
vast foundation of the Grand Progenitor the Lofty Emperor to Records of Joseon (Joseon sillok 朝鮮實錄), a Korean royal
rule the myriad regions and succour the multitudinous kinds. chronicle, qualifies the reference to Bunyashiri as the Tatar
Barbarians of the four quarters and distant lands, there is none Emperor, whereas the Yongle emperor requires no such
that has not come in submission. Only the remnants of the qualification, but otherwise the Chinggisid and Ming rulers
northern caitiffs located in the desolate wastelands brazenly are treated as roughly analogous. Reading such reports, the
perpetrate brutality. [We] have repeatedly dispatched envoys Joseon king and his advisors could not have been sanguine
with messages [but] they have detained and murdered them.
Recently their people raided the border. Border generals about the Ming’s military prospects. In initial clashes, the
apprehended them. [We] again dispatched envoys to return Ming army had been routed and now the Yongle emperor
them. Again they were detained and murdered. [Our] kindness was forced to mobilise troops from throughout the empire.
has already been betrayed several times; how can we harbour Given that the Ming founder had coerced the Joseon’s
virtue? Furthermore the jackals and wolves are avaricious and predecessor, the Goryeo 高麗 dynasty (918–1392), into
grasping. The duplicitous villains gnaw on their people, who selling him some 50,000 horses for his wars with the
crane their necks in search of respite. Investigating [such Chinggisids, and that the Yongle emperor had similarly
circumstances] by the Heavenly Path, their fortunes have pressed the Joseon into selling him tens of thousands of
already expired. Examining [them] in human affairs, their horses during his civil war, King Taejong no doubt viewed
peoples are all divided. We now personally lead the Six Armies 18
to go and chastise them. [We] inspire fear [through] martial the upcoming conflict with some concern.
awe and make manifest Heavenly punishment. Perhaps this explains why the Yongle emperor felt the
need to send a note to the Joseon king explaining in explicit
朕受天命，承太祖高皇帝洪基，統馭萬方，撫輯庶類。凡四夷僻 terms the reason for his campaign into the steppe:
遠靡不從，化獨北 虜殘孽處于荒裔，肆逞兇暴，屡遣使申諭輒
拘留殺之。乃者其人鈔邊，邊將獲之，再遣使護還使者復被拘 Among the descendants of the Yuan emperors, some have
殺。恩既数背，德豈可懷。况豺狼野心貪悍，猾賊虐噬。其衆引 submitted and some have not submitted. We intend to pacify
領徯蘇，稽于天道則其運已絕，騐于人事則彼衆皆離。朕今親率 those who have not submitted.
六師往征之，肅振武威用彰天討。 15 元帝子孫，有順附者，有不順者，其不順者，朕欲平之。 19

Space precludes a thorough analysis of the passage, but We have no evidence for King Taejong’s reaction, but the
immediately in the opening lines, Yongle’s usurpation of the letter makes clear that the Yongle emperor understood the
throne from the founder’s chosen successor in a four-year campaign in the context of the Mongol Yuan empire and its
bloody civil war is transformed into a smooth transfer of Chinggisid descendants rather than merely as another clash
power directly from the founder to the Yongle emperor. The with nameless steppe nomads.
proclamation justifies the emperor’s decision to lead troops In fact, the early Ming imperial court understood that
into the field in several ways. Bunyashiri, here left unnamed, the Chinggisid world continued to span much of Eurasia.
is marginalised politically and physically, and his people Ming records refer to the Timurid ruler of western Eurasia,
reduced to desperate straits. The emperor asserts that the Shah Rukh (1377–1447) as the fourth son of the ‘Yuan/
Ming court’s repeated attempts at diplomatic negotiations Chinggisid royal son-in-law Temür’ (Yuan fuma Tiemuer 元駙
have met only with vile betrayal, its envoys killed again and 馬帖木兒). Temür was the Mongolian version of Timūr,
again. Bunyashiri is cast as a cruel ruler who abuses his perhaps better known in Western language sources as
people, who look to the Ming for help. To use terms familiar Tamerlane (d. 1405), founder in 1370 of the Timurid dynasty.
to us today, the Ming court is justifying its actions through ‘Royal son-in-law’ or gerügen was a key political status under
an appeal for regime change. the Mongols and a description Timūr and his immediate
One gets a clearer sense of why the Ming court felt successors adopted as an official title, and it appeared in
compelled to explain its decisions when considering the proclamations and on coins (Pl. 1.4) as well as on objects
wider geopolitical field. Let us begin with the neighbouring made at their courts (Pl. 1.5). Likewise, late 14th- and early

Justifying Ming Rulership on a Eurasian Stage | 11