Bayan of the Baarin

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Bayan of the Merkid.

Bayan of the Baarin (Mongolian: Баян; 1236 – January 11, 1295), or Boyan (Chinese: 伯顔; pinyin: Bóyán), was an ethnic Mongol general of the Yuan dynasty of China. He was known to Marco Polo as "Bayan Hundred Eyes" (probably from a confusion with Chinese: 百眼; pinyin: Bǎiyǎn).[1] He commanded the army of Kublai Khan against the Southern Song dynasty, ushering in the Southern Song collapse and the conquest of southern China by the Yuan dynasty.

"Bayan" literally means "rich" in the Mongolian language.

Background

Born a grandnephew of Nayagha, a general under

Mongol Baarin tribe.[2] Nayagha, together with Bayan's grandfather Alagh and Alagh's and Nayagha's father Shirgügetü Ebügen, appear in the Secret History of the Mongols.[3]
However, at least one well-respected scholar presents Bayan as a Turk whose family had long served the Great Khans.[4]

Early career

His grandfather Alagh was the

Kunggirat. Bayan of the Baarin is wrongly said to have had an Iranian or Persian wife but the biography Xiao wrote on Bayan of Baarin does not mention the ethnicity of the wife and says that it was a wife "in Persia".[5]

The conquest of southern China

The Song Emperor

Xiangyang, with Lu Wenhuan as fore-runner general; the second column headed by Mang-wu would depart from Yangzhou, with Liu Zheng as forerunner general. Bayan took numerous cities on his march, slaughtered the inhabitants of one town, and killed and captured numerous Song generals. The Song regent and Grand Empress Dowager Xie had no choice but to rely on Jia Sidao for fighting the Mongols. More Song generals surrendered, including Fan Wenhu in Sichuan and Chen Yi in Huangzhou (Huanggang area, Hubei). Hearing that Liu Zheng had died, Jia Sidao experienced a brief ecstasy and led an army of about 130,000 against the Mongols, but he suffered defeat on the Yangtze River. The populace of the Jiangsu areas, around the Yangtze, including Zhenjiang and Jiangyin, deserted their homes in the face of the Mongol attacks. Jia Sidao sent an emissary to Bayan to discuss a truce, but Bayan declined to negotiate. Jia Sidao asked the dowager empress to relocate the Song capital, Hangzhou
, but Empress Xie-shi refused to move.

Several ministers at the Song court requested that the regent deprive Jia Sidao of his posts, and the Song released former Mongol emissaries like Hao Jing as a good-will gesture. At this point Zhang Shijie of E'zhou (Hubei Province), Wen Tianxiang of Jiangxi and Li Fei of Hunan came to the east to help the Song court. A Song general abandoned Jiankang (i.e. Nanking), and the Mongols took Changzhou and Wuxi.

Kublai Khan then sent

Yangtze (Changjiang River) and defeated two generals under Li Tingzhi. Jiading surrendered next, and a Mongol fire attack defeated Zhang Shijie's navy on the Yangtze. Wen Tianxiang arrived in Lin'an (Hangzhou, the Song capital), but the Empress Dowager did not take his advice. Jia Sidao was expelled from the capital, and the escort official killed him en route. The Mongols took Taizhou in Jiangsu and slaughtered the inhabitants of Changzhou. In Hunan, Li Fei died, and the Song lost both Hunan and Jiangxi
Provinces. After taking over Dusong-guan Pass, the Mongols started to close in on the Song capital.

A Song minister called Liu Yue, sent to the Mongol camp to sue for peace, received a rebuff from Bayan, who said that the Song Emperor obtained the throne from a child and would lose it in the hands of a child as well. The Song sent Lu Xufu to the Mongols to express a wish to become a Mongol protectorate, but the Mongols declined the proposal. The Song's new prime minister, Chen Yizhong, sent Liu Yue to the Mongols in an attempt to gain acknowledgment as a Mongol vassal, but a Song Chinese civilian killed Liu Yue en route, at Gaoyou of Jiangsu Province. The Mongols then sacked Jiaxing and An'jie of Zhejiang Province. Wen Tianxiang and Zhang Shijie advised that the Song court relocate to the islands ioffshore, but Prime Minister Chen Yizhong decided to send the imperial seal to the Mongols in token of surrender. Bayan demanded that Chen personally come to the Mongols, and Chen fled to Wenzhou, a southern Zhejiang coastal city. Zhang Shijie led his people into the sea. The Song appointed Wen Tianxiang as the rightside prime minister and ordered him to go to the Mongols to seek peace. Bayan arrested Wen after he accused Bayan of invasion. In AD 1276, Bayan took over Lin'an and forced the dowager empress to issue the surrender order. He sent the Song royal family, including the dowager empress and Emperor Gongdi, to Peking.

Persian minister Ahmad Fanakati was jealous with Bayan's success and tried to calumniate him that he plundered Chinese commoners.

Later military career

Kublai dispatched his favorite son Nomukhan, another son Kokhcu,

Tode Mongke released Nomukhan and expressed his willingness to submit to Kublai after his sons' 10 years hostage in Crimea. But some historians think that Mongketemur released the princes.[7]

Kublai recalled Bayan when

Nai-yan (or Nayan, the great-grandson of the brother of Genghis Khan) reportedly planned rebellion in the areas between the Onon and Kerulen rivers of Mongolia. Bayan went to meet and failed to persuade Nai-yan. Bayan fled back to the Mongol capital. A Mongol minister recommended to Kublai that pacifying the khanates in the west would lead Nayan to submit. Kublai therefore ordered this minister to go west: and he claimed that Nai-yan had already submitted to Kublai. Hence the khanates all succumbed to Khubilai. After that, Khubilai led an army northward against Nai-yan. Seeing that his Mongol soldiers fraternized with the Nai-yan soldiers, Khubilai adopted the advice of a Chinese in having the Chinese army act as the forerunner column. General Li Ting tricked Nai-yan into a retreat and then defeated Nai-yan's army of 100,000 in a night attack with cannons. Nai-yan was captured and executed. The battle was later reported by Marco Polo to Europe
.

A remnant of Nai-yan's people then fled to Manchuria and attacked eastern Liaoning Province. The Liaodong Xuanweishi (遼東宣慰使) of the Yuan, Ta-chu (塔出), asked for aid, and Kublai sent his son over. Ta-chu defeated the Nai-yan remnants under Khadan (Descendant of Genghis Khan's another brother) and chased them westward to the Altai. Ta-chu won the title of wan hu. Nai-yan remnants, however, still remained for some time.

Bayan received orders to counter Kaidu, who harassed Helin in the west; and Prince Temür (grandson of Kublai) had the duty of guarding the Liao River area in the east. When a Mongol official defected to Kaidu and attacked Kublai's grandson Kamala (or Gemala) near Hang'aishan Mountain, Kublai would lead a column to the north. Kaidu retreated thereafter. Bayan would continue warfare with Kaidu for some time before he left the post at Helin. Unfortunately, some ministers accused him of Kaidu's desertion. He was sent to China far away from Mongolia for a while. Temür was appointed a governor in Karakorum and Bayan became a minister.

Later life

Bayan met and swore loyalty to Kublai Khan before the latter's death in 1294. With the support of minister Bayan, Kublai's grandson Temür became Kublai's successor, the Emperor Chengzong, after the Yuan court went through a power vacuum for a few months. Bayan died on 11 January 1295.

Popular culture

Bayan was a major character in the novel, and later movie, The Black Rose, written by Thomas B. Costain. In the film he was played with a mixture of culture and menace by Orson Welles.

"Hundred Eyes" is portrayed by Tom Wu in the Netflix series Marco Polo. However, he is depicted as a blind Taoist monk from Wudang Mountains whose name is Li Jinbao.[8]

Notes

  1. ^ Cleaves, 187
  2. ^ Cleaves, p. 185, 198 ff
  3. ^ In §149 and §220. They and Alagh's brother Nayagha captured their lord Tarkhutai of the Taichigud, and planned to bring their prisoner to Genghis Khan. But then they decided that harming their legitimate lord might cause offence; and they set him free. Genghis confirms their decision, and rewards Nayagha. Later, Nayagha becomes leader of a tumen. Cleaves, p. 205n3, 205n5; Erich Haenisch (translator), Die Geheime Geschichte der Mongolen, Leipzig 1948, pp. 50, 103
  4. ^ a b Rossabi, 87
  5. JSTOR 10.13173/jasiahist.48.2.0263
    .
  6. ^ Rene Grousset - The Empire of Steppes
  7. ^ John Man - Kublai khan
  8. ^ "Netflix's 'Marco Polo' Sets Its Cast". The Hollywood Reporter. April 8, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2014.

References

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