During Chingis Khan’s rise to power he had sought of patronage of Tooril, the powerful ruler of the Kerait Tribe who was headquartered in the valley of the Tuul River not far from current-day Ulaanbaatar. Tooril had recognized the nominal suzerainty of the Jin and apparently paid tribute to to them. In return he was awarded the title of Wang (or Ong) Khan. As one of Tooril’s vassals Temûchin also received a minor title from Jin Dynasty and may have also paid tribute. There are also hints that Temüchin sought refuge among the Jurchen during the low points in his early career when he was being hounded by more powerful Mongol tribes.
Chingis Khan and the Wang Khan would later fall out and the Keraits would be defeated, calling into question the Jin title Temüchin had received as one of the Kerait ruler’s vassals. The Jin, for their part, still believed that Chingis Khan owed loyalty and tribute to them, even after he had been confirmed as leader of all the Mongols at the 1206 convocation on the Onon River. The Jurchens were no doubt aware that having became the most powerful ruler on the Mongolian Plateau Chingis now posed a direct threat to themselves, but at the time they were embroiled in war with the Song Dynasty in the south of China and could not confront Chingis directly.
In 1208 the Jin Dynasty finally sought to clarify their relationship with Chingis Khan. The Jin emperor Zhangzong sent his uncle Wanyan Yunji, the Prince of Wei, north to reaffirm their suzerainty and receive tribute from Chingis.
The Mongol Khan met with the prince but refused to make the proper signs of obeisance. It soon became clear the Chingis no longer recognized the Jin as his overlords. No mention was made of tribute. The infuriated Prince returned to China and began mobilizing troops to attack the Mongols. In late 1208 Emperor Zhangzong died and Wanyan Yunji became the new ruler of the Jin Dynasty. The attack was postponed, and instead Wanyan Yunji sent ambassador to Chingis with the news that he was now the Altan Khan (Golden Khan), as the the Mongols called the Jin Emperor, and that Chingis should declare his loyalty to him. Chingis, however, apparently had not been to impressed by Wanyan Yunji at their previous meeting. According to one account, when Chingis was asked by the ambassador to make obeisance to the new emperor he “flew into a rage” and stormed: “‘Is am imbecile like [Wanyan Yunjii] worthy of the throne and am I to humble myself before him?‘” He answered his own question by turning to the south and spitting in the direction of China. The ambassador was dismissed and Chingis rode away to the north. The import of these actions was clear to the Jin Emperor; Chingis Khan was declaring war on the Jin Dynasty.
Chingis Khan’s distain for the power of the Jin Dynasty was not based on mere bravado. He had been receiving intelligence about the weakness of the Jin even before his affirmation as Khan of the Mongols in 1206. Muslim merchants who traded in both northern China and Mongolia had kept him apprized of the various internal disputes in the Jin court and of the grumblings of discontented peasants. One Muslim merchant, a man named Jafar, was an early adherent of the Mongol Khan, and Chingis eventually sent him to the Jin court fishing for information. Jin officials quickly surmised that he was a spy and dismissed him, but during his travels in northern China he gathered much information which would later be useful to the Mongols. Then in late 1206 and again in 1208 dissidents and defectors from the Jin brought Chingis brought more news of political upheavals and social disturbances in northern China, but still he was not ready to be drawn into a conflict with his powerful neighbors to the south.
His confrontation with the Jin ambassador seems to have marked a turning point in Chingis’s altitude toward the Jin. In early 1211 Chingis summoned his followers to a Khuraltai on the Kherlen River where subject of an attack on the Jin Dynasty was broached. Also, the Uighur Idikut Barluk appeared in person as he had earlier promised and cemented his allegiance to the Mongols. With the Tanguts of Xi Xia already neutralized and the Uighurs firmly in his corner Chingis now controlled the western approaches to the territory of Chin. The pieces were falling into place for an invasion.
But before riding south Chingis climbed to the top of a high mountain—local people to this day claim it was 7,749-foot Khentii Khaan Uul, also known as the Burkhan Khaldun of the Khamag Mongols, in current-day Khentii Aimag (the president of Mongolia is still required to go to a pilgrimage to the summit of this mountain at least once every four years)—and sought the guidance of Ikh Tenger, the Great God of the Eternal Blue Sky. According to the Persian historian Rashid al-Din Chingis proclaimed:
O Eternal Heaven! You know and accept that the Altan Khan [Jin Emperor] is the wind which fanned the tumult, that it is he who began this quarrel. He it was who, without cause, executed Ökin Barkhakh and Ambakhai Khan, captured and delivered over to him by the Tatars. These were the elder relatives of my father and grandfather and I seek to avenge their blood.
The Persian historian Juzjani relates much the same episode, adding that Chingis spent three days praying in a tent on the top the mountain. On the fourth day he emerged from the tent and proclaimed, “Heaven has promised me victory. Now we must prepare ourselves to take vengeance on the Altan Khan.”
Burkhan Khaldun
Approaching the summit of Burkhan Khaldun
The summit of Burkhan Khaldun
As is clear from these accounts Chingis attempted to justify his attack on the Jin Dynasty as revenge for the deaths of his relatives. There were of course other considerations. In his struggle to attain supremacy on the Mongolian Plateau Chingis had mobilized large armies and these men were traditionally paid in plunder. With their enemies on the Mongolian Plateau already defeated there was little left to loot. Once again the nomads of the steppe turned their attention south to rich and fattened cities of China glittering on the far horizon.
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