УЛС УУ? ХАНТ УЛС УУ? МОНГОЛЫН ЭЗЭНТ ГҮРНИЙ ХААН БОЛОН ХАН ЦОЛНЫ ТУХАЙ

Abstract

It was Ögödei who took the title of qa’an for the first time among the Mongol emperors. Although that title was later widely employed by the supreme rulers of the empire, it had been rarely used in the Mongolian steppe before his adoption. At first, qa’an was a unique title for Ögödei but later it was adopted as a general title for Mongol emperors. This change was almost complete in the time of Qubilai. In the meantime, the title of khan was used, before 1206, to designate rulers of tribe, tribal confederacy or a dynasty. After 1206, only the supreme ruler of the empire could use that title. Although we can find a few princes ― e.g., Jochi and Batu ― who were called khan, it was an honorary title attached after their death. It was only from the late 1250s when Hülegü came to West Asia with a huge army that Chinggisid princes began to be called khan. As is well known, Hülegü

and his successors were called il khan whose meaning is not ‘a subordinate khan’ but ‘khan of il (i.e., ulus).’ However, it was not a title monopolized by the Hülegüid rulers; Jochid rulers were also addressed by that title. It should be pointed out that khan was not an official title adopted by the Mongol Empire. The official title to designate Chinggisid princes was kö’ü(n) in Mongolian, and it was

translated into oghul in Turkic, shahzāda in Persian, and wang (or zhuwang, dawang) in Chinese.

Qubilai introduced an institution of investment and divided Chinggisid princes into six hierarchically ordered groups, which were distinguished by the materias and the shape of the seals bestowed to them. ‘The Table of Princes’ in Yuan shi shows this six-hierarchy institution was current only within the realm of the Qa’an Ulus, and no prince in the large three western uluses was found there.

However, we know that Hülegüid princes received various seals engraved with the expression of zhibao(之寶), and their officials also received zhiyin(之印) seals. * Seoul National University.After the reform of the institution in 1282 the imperial court stopped to bestow zhibao seal because it was regarded to be used only by emperors. Nonetheless, the Hülegüid princes continued to use the zhibao seals within their realms as we see in the letter of Arghun in 1289 and in the edict of Ghazan in 1302. They went so far as to cast a new zhibao seal for themselves as evidenced by its use in 1305

and in 1320.The mode of employment of the khan title and the zhibao seals suggests the fact that the Hülegüid princes, and probably other rulers in the three western uluses, practiced a policy of ‘internally emperor, externally king(外王內帝).’ This policy allowed the Mongol Empire to maintain its unity in spite of growing independency of the three western uluses.