The Yuan Dynasty was the first feudal dynasty in Chinese history established by an ethnic minority that ultimately unified the entire country; its predecessor was the Mongol Khanate founded by Genghis Khan in 1206, and in 1271, after Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty, he specifically posthumously honored Genghis Khan as the dynasty's founding emperor, Emperor Taizu.
Genghis Khan's original name was Borjigin Temujin. Before Temujin was born, the Mongol people suffered under the oppressive rule of the Jin Dynasty. To resist the brutal governance of the Jin, generations of Mongols paid a heavy price in blood, and throwing off the yoke of Jin enslavement became the greatest aspiration of all Mongols at that time. After Temujin's birth, this also became one of his lifelong ambitions.
Temujin's father was Yesugei, the leader of the Mongol Kiyat tribe, and his mother, Hoelun, was originally the wife of a Merkit man before being forcibly taken by his father. The following year, Hoelun gave birth to Yesugei's eldest son, Temujin.
When Temujin was nine years old, his father was poisoned to death by the Tatars. Afterwards, Temujin and his mother Hoelun were ostracized by the various Mongol tribes, struggling to survive as a widow and orphan. Hoelun was an extraordinarily strong woman; while hunting and gathering to sustain their livelihood, she never forgot to educate her son. The harsh living conditions tempered Temujin's will, and his mother's earnest teachings instilled in him great ambitions from a young age, ultimately shaping him into an upright and formidable man.
At the age of eighteen, Temüjin's wife was abducted by the Merkit tribe; refusing to endure this humiliation, Temüjin immediately engaged the Merkit in direct confrontation, and the Merkit, unable to withstand Temüjin's forces, ultimately were defeated and surrendered.
Temujin became famous after a single battle, his reputation spreading far and wide, attracting more and more followers. When he was elected as the Khan of the Kiyan tribe, Temujin was just barely over twenty years old. This position originally belonged to his father, and more than a decade later, Temujin reclaiming it could be seen as avenging his father's disgrace. After ascending to the Khan's throne, Temujin began working to unify the various Mongol tribes.
At that time, Jamukha, the leader of the Mongol Jadaran tribe, also aspired to unify the Mongols, making Temüjin his major rival. Interestingly, the two had sworn brotherhood as children. In adulthood, however, faced with the ambition of unification, they became bitter enemies locked in conflict.
Jamukha allied with thirteen Mongol tribes to launch an attack against the Kiyad tribe led by Temüjin. Temüjin, who spent his entire life on horseback, fought through more than sixty battles of various scales and was nearly invincible—yet in this particular war, he suffered a crushing defeat with heavy losses.
In this battle, Temujin led a total of thirty thousand troops to confront Jamukha. Because Temujin divided these thirty thousand men into thirteen wings, the battle became known as the "Battle of the Thirteen Wings." Temujin and his mother, Hoelun, each commanded one wing, while the nobles of the Kiyan tribe led the remaining eleven wings.
Later, Temujin's side was no match and was forced to retreat to the upper reaches of the Onon River for refuge. Jamukha captured a large number of soldiers from the Kiyad tribe and returned in triumph. Normally, since the captives had already surrendered, their lives should have been spared, but Jamukha insisted on exterminating them completely. He ordered his men to set up seventy large cauldrons and boiled these captives alive.
Jamukha's atrocities chilled the hearts of the Mongol tribes; despite his overwhelming victory in the Battle of the Thirteen Wings, one by one the tribes defected to Temujin's side. Temujin, turning misfortune into fortune, saw the forces under his command rapidly swell in strength.
Afterward, Temujin campaigned across the Mongolian steppe, accelerating his efforts to unify the various Mongol tribes, which aroused the fear and jealousy of the tribal nobles. They elected Jamukha as the Khan of Khans, titled the "Gur Khan," and formed a coalition army to fight a decisive battle against Temujin. This battle took place at Koyiten and is thus known as the Battle of Koyiten. It was the final showdown between Temujin and Jamukha, and the outcome would determine who would ultimately seize leadership over all the Mongol tribes.
Temujin allied with Wang Khan, the leader of the Kerait tribe, to crush the coalition army led by Jamukha. Because Temujin cherished the old friendship he had with Jamukha, he could not bear to see him become a captive and thus let him go. Unexpectedly, Jamukha showed no remorse and later repeatedly defected to Temujin's rivals to oppose him. Three years later, Jamukha was captured by Temujin's subordinates and brought before him. Surprisingly, Temujin still set aside past grievances and hoped to reconcile with Jamukha. However, Jamukha felt too ashamed to face him again and begged Temujin to grant him death. Seeing that he could not persuade his childhood sworn brother, Temujin complied with his request and granted him a death that did not involve bloodshed.
After the Battle of Koyiten, Temujin and Wang Khan became the two most powerful tribal leaders on the Mongolian steppe. As the saying goes, two tigers cannot share one mountain, and over the next two years, conflicts between Temujin and Wang Khan were constant. Eventually, Wang Khan was defeated by Temujin and attempted to flee to the Naiman tribe, but was mistakenly killed by a Naiman sentry who took him for a spy. Such was the end of a great conqueror.
Temujin pursued his victory, routed the Naiman tribe, and thus unified all the Mongol tribes, establishing the Mongol Khanate and being honored as Genghis Khan. "Genghis Khan" in the Mongolian language means "the great chief who possesses the four seas."
After stabilizing the domestic political situation, Genghis Khan immediately began external campaigns. Over the following twenty long years, he fought continuously to fulfill his childhood ambition—the destruction of the Jin Dynasty. During his lifetime, Genghis Khan achieved repeated victories in his campaigns against the Jin, yet by the time of his death, he had still not completely eliminated the Jin Dynasty. In 1234, his son Ögedei finally fulfilled his father's dying wish by conquering the Jin Dynasty. By then, Genghis Khan had already been dead for seven years.
In the year before Genghis Khan's death, he personally led an army of 100,000 to annihilate the main forces of the Western Xia army. Shortly after his death, the Western Xia fell. Genghis Khan spent his entire life on horseback, making great contributions to the Yuan Dynasty's unification of the realm, but unfortunately, the final fruits of victory could only be reaped by his descendants, which must be considered one of the great regrets of his life. However, this does not prevent later generations from ranking him as one of the greatest military strategists in world history.