U469  Mongolia:  Theocracy, Communism, Democracy
(formerly Mongols of the 20th Century)
Week 3:  Tuesday
Mongolia under the Qing
  1. New Forms of Authority
    1. Decline of the clan among the Khalkha
      1. Borjigin (Chinggisid aristocracy) > other clans unimportant
      2. Khalkha camps not formed by kin, but friendship
      3. Without banner, Chinggisid nobility, greater role of clan, kinship
        1. Oirats have non-Chinggisid banner nobility, stronger clans
        2. Barga, Buriats have no banner nobility, clans still corporate
        3. Epic poetry (associated with hunting) persists in Oirats, Buriats
      4. Monastic education > 40% of population theoretically monks
        1. Monks on marriage do not pay bridewealth (livestock)
        2. Children born keep clan membership of mother
      5. In Gobi, emergence of matrilateral, matriarchal families (< 1880)
        1. Men non-resident in yurts
        2. Possibly due to monasticism causing sex-imbalance
      6. Influence of Buddhist, Confucian texts
        1. Focuses on extended family, not clan
        2. Benefits of parents must be repaid (achi khari’ulkhu)
        3. Mother and father paradigm of all other relationships
    2. The Emperor in Beijing: the Bogad Khan ("Holy Emperor")
      1. Possession of the seal
      2. Incarnation of Manjushri, Bodhisattva of wisdom
        1. China under Manjushri, Tibet under Avalokiteshvara
      3. Special relation to Mongols
        1. grants titles, rewards to nobility
      4. Ideology of keshig (grace) which must be rewarded
        1. Officials of the emperor employed only by his grace
        2. Officials always inadequate, always guilty before him
        3. Land itself a gift of the emperor to Mongol bannermen
      5. Widely repeated in Chinese historical romances, official ritual
  2. The Banner chief: bureaucrat or autocrat?
    1. Banner chief (zasag) as bureaucrat in banner yamen (>Chinese, "office")
      1. Banner ruler (zasag) made non-partible, primogeniture, confirmation
      2. Titles raised or dropped by emperor depending on performance
      3. Banner has officials (noble and lay), clerks to assist him
      4. Arads put directly under banner yamen, only khamjilga under taiji)
      5. Khalkha law-code first supplemented by Chinese law code
        1. Mongolian law based on fines, Chinese on corporal punishment
        2. By 1800, mostly replaced by Chinese law code
    2. Banner ruler (zasag) as autocrat
      1. Descendant, representative of Chinggis Khan, incarnation of Vajrapani
      2. Presides over calendrical rituals, receives praises & prostrations
      3. No clear separation of ruler’s finances and banner’s finances
      4. Persistent tendency of taijis to treat arads as khamjilga
      5. Selection of officials, clerks all due to ruler, no outside mobility
  3. The financial crisis of Mongolian local government
    1. Banner government has static, inflexible finances
      1. Heavy reliance on corvee, officials not salaried
        1. Yearly requisitions (alba) divided on New Year
        2. delegated to sumu, etc., to fifties, to twenties, to tens
      2. Designated expenses (revenues of this salt lake funds that school)
      3. Permits banner to run without regular budgeting
      4. Also permits gross corruption (but aren’t the commoners our herd?)
    2. Natural changes in units’ pop. gradually distorts burden of requisitions
    3. Tendency of albatu commoners to shift to khamjilga, shabi >> vicious circle
  4. Chinese commerce, and the (unwritten) economic history of Mongolia
    1. Bawden’s argument: monasteries, Chinese suck out money, don’t invest
    2. No figures actually presented on production, total herd, productivity, prices
    3. Integration of Mongolian economy with Chinese
      1. Chinese traders supply many goods, cheaper than Mongol craftsmen
      2. Local Chinese farmers produce more grain, vegetables, cheaper
      3. Among Khalkha, handicrafts & agriculture declines
      4. In far northwest, these continue, farther from Chinese trade
      5. Mongolia integrated as speciality animal products area.
      6. Increase in overall productivity, living standards?
    4. Increasing concentration of wealth (maybe)
      1. Do we have any numbers?
      2. Population probably at ecological limit >> monasticism
      3. Marginal herders driven out of business, concentration of ownership
    5. Interest rates
      1. High interest rates means capital very rare
      2. Indicates too LITTLE silver being loaned in Mongolia, not too much
      3. General Qing monetary history
        1. Silver bullion main coinage, copper coin also used
        2. Growth, moderate inflation 1700s
        3. Depression, crisis, 1800-1860
        4. Renewed growth, more serious inflation, 1885 on