著者

岡田英弘

雑誌

東洋学報 / The Toyo Gakuho

巻号頁・発行日

vol.48, no.3, pp.301-326, 1965-12

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From 1547 till 1628, just before its conquest by the Manchus, Inner Mongolia was divided into six Mongol states each headed by a qaγan, namely Ordos, Tümed and Qaračin to the west and Čaqar, Inner Qalqa and Qorčin to the east of the Khingan Mountains, while Outer Mongolia was under the rule of three qaγans of Outer Qalqa. The royal families of all those states save that of Qorčin had descended from Dayan qaγan, himself a descendant of Činggis qaγan. Such an important historical personage as he was, it has not yet been determined just when he lived and died. There are ten Mongol chronicles, all composed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, that report on his reign. Three of those are found to have best preserved the historical traditions of the aforementioned states, quite independent of each other: Erdeni-yin tobči of Ordos, Altan tobči of Tümed and Ganga-yin urusqal of Čaqar. The Tümed chronicle is the most accurate in chronology up until the reign of Manduγuli qaγan who died in 1479. His successor, Dayan qaγan''s father Bolqu ǰinong, is reported to have died in 1487 in a contemporary Chinese source, Ming Hsien-tsung Shih-lu. As for the length of Dayan qaγan's reign, both Altan tobči and Gangga-yin urusqal give 37 years. Thus the date of his death falls in 1524, one year after the death of his eldest son Törö bolad, who is said in the Ordos chronicle to have died before the father. After Dayan qaγan's death, his third son Bars bolad ǰinong took over the throne, according to the Čaqar chronicle for one month, but Bodi alaγ, son of Törö bolad and the rightful heir, backed by the left-wing tribes, forced him to retire. Erdeni-yin tobči reports that Bars bolad died in 1531, seven years later. All the three Mongol chronicles and a Chinese source, Ming Hsien-tsung Shih-lu, concur in asserting that Bodi alaγ qaγan died in 1547, that is, 23 years after his grandfather's death, and this is the very number Altan tobči gives for the duration of his reign. Thus it is established that Dayan qaγan was on the Mongol throne from 1487 till 1524. As for the date of his birth, 1464 is preserved in the Ordos chronicle, most probably culled from an old genealogical work. Judged from ages of his sons and grandsons, especially that of Bodi alaγ qaγan, this date is quite reliable, while earlier birth-dates of Dayan qaγan's predecessors are all false, often anachronistic, suggesting that he was the first one in the original family-tree whose birth-date was recorded.