The Argun or Ergune ( zh, 额尔古纳河) is a long river that forms part of the eastern

China–Russia border The Chinese–Russian border or the Sino-Russian border is the Border, international border between China and Russia. After the final demarcation carried out in the early 2000s, it measures ,

, together with the

Amur The Amur River () or Heilong River ( zh, s=黑龙江) is a perennial river in Northeast Asia, forming the natural border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China (historically the Outer Manchuria, Outer and Inner Manchuria). The Amur ...

. Its upper reaches are known as the Hailar River () in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The Argun marks the border (established by the

Treaty of Nerchinsk The Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689 was the first treaty between the Tsardom of Russia and the Qing dynasty of China after the defeat of Russia by Qing China at the Siege of Albazin in 1686. The Russians gave up the area north of the Amur River as ...

in 1689) between Russia and China for about , until it meets the Amur.

Name

The name derives from Buryat ''Urgengol'' 'wide river' (''urgen'' 'wide' + ''gol'' 'river').

Mongolian Mongolian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Mongolia, a country in Asia * Mongolian people, or Mongols * Bogd Khanate of Mongolia, the government of Mongolia, 1911–1919 and 1921–1924 * Mongolian language * Mongolian alphabet * ...

word "ergün" (in Traditional Mongolian alphabet) or "örgön" (in modern Mongolian) means "wide".

Geography

The river flows from the Western slope of the Greater Xing'an Range in China's

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's China–Mongolia border, border with the country of Mongolia. ...

, and forms the Chinese side of the two rivers that flow together to produce the Amur (Heilong). Its

confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

with the Shilka at Ust-Strelka on the Russian side forms the Amur. The Argun is long including its upper course Hailar, and has a

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

of .Аргунь

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; , ''BSE'') is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Great Russian Enc ...

Its main tributaries are the Urov, Uryumkan and

Gazimur The Gazimur (, also ''Gasimur'' or ''Bolshoy Gazimur'') is a river of Zabaykalsky Krai, Siberia, eastern Russia, a left tributary of the Argun. With a length of and a basin area of , the Gazimur is one of the major East Transbaikalian rivers. It ...

from the left, and the

Gen He Gen is most commonly seen as a contraction (such as Gen.) and it may refer to: * Book of Genesis * General officer * Generation#Western world as in GenX, GenZ, etc. * Genitive case Gen may also refer to: * ''Gen'' (film), 2006 Turkish horror f ...

from the right.

Kherlen–Argun–Amur

In years with high precipitation, the normally exitless

Hulun Lake Hulun Lake (; ; ) or Dalai Lake (; ) is a large lake in the Inner Mongolia region of northern China. Description It is one of the five largest freshwater lakes in all of China, covering approximately 2,339 km2. In years with high precipita ...

may overflow at its northern shore, and the water will meet the Argun after about . The

Kherlen Kherlen River (also known as Kerülen; ; ) is a 1,254 km river in Mongolia and China. It is also one of the two longest rivers in Mongolia, along with the Orkhon River. Course The river originates in the south slopes of the Khentii mounta ...

–Argun–

system has a total length of .

History

In ''

The Secret History of the Mongols The ''Secret History of the Mongols'' is the oldest surviving literary work in the Mongolic languages. Written for the Borjigin, Mongol royal family some time after the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, it recounts his life and conquests, and parti ...

'' is a legend related to the Ergüne hun Mongol ancestry. In this legend, the Mongols prevailed over other tribes and carried such slaughter among them, that in living remained no more than two men and two women. These two families, in fear of the enemy, fled to the inhospitable terrain, which included only mountains and forests and to which there was no road. Among those mountains was the abundant grass and healthy climate of the steppe. Then, legend tells that in Ergune-Khun, Mongols multiplied and become masters of iron smelting and blacksmithing. According to legend, it is the art of melting iron that has helped them escape from the mountain gorges on scope of the current Mongolian steppes, to the Kherlen (Kelulun) and

Onon River The Onon is a river in Mongolia and Russia. It is long, and has a drainage basin of .Онон

Jurchen people Jurchen (, ; , ) is a term used to collectively describe a number of East Asian people, East Asian Tungusic languages, Tungusic-speaking people. They lived in northeastern China, also known as Manchuria, before the 18th century. The Jurchens wer ...

, who founded the

Jin dynasty (1115–1234) The Jin dynasty (, ), officially known as the Great Jin (), was a Jurchen people, Jurchen-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and empire ruled by the Wanyan clan that existed between 1115 and 1234. It is also often called the ...

in northern China. The

Manchu people The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic peoples, Tungusic East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized Ethnic minorities in China, ethnic minority in China and the people from wh ...

who founded the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

(1644–1912) additionally claimed descent from the Jurchens. Following the

Russian conquest of Siberia The Russian conquest of Siberia took place during 1581–1778, when the Khanate of Sibir became a loose political structure of vassalages that were being undermined by the activities of Russian explorers. Although outnumbered, the Russians pr ...

in the 17th century, Russia-China relations were formalized in the 1689

, which established the Argun River as the

. However, prior to the

Amur Annexation Between 1858 and 1860, the Russian Empire annexed territories adjoining the Amur River belonging to the Chinese Qing dynasty through the imposition of unequal treaties. The 1858 Treaty of Aigun, signed by the general Nikolay Muravyov represent ...

Outer Manchuria Outer Manchuria, sometimes called Russian Manchuria, refers to a region in Northeast Asia that is now part of the Russian Far East but historically formed part of Manchuria (until the mid-19th century). While Manchuria now more normatively refer ...

, China's border extended further to include the so-called

Sixty-Four Villages East of the River The Sixty-Four Villages East of the River were a group of Manchu, Daur and Han-inhabited villages located on the left (north) bank of the Amur River (Heilong Jiang) opposite of Heihe, and on the east bank of Zeya River opposite of Blagoveshchen ...

in present-day

Amur Oblast Amur Oblast () is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located on the banks of the Amur and Zeya rivers in the Russian Far East. The oblast borders Heilongjiang province of the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the south. The administrati ...

, southern

Khabarovsk Khabarovsk ( ) is the largest city and the administrative centre of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia,Law #109 located from the China–Russia border, at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri Rivers, about north of Vladivostok. As of the 2021 Russian c ...

, and all of

Primorsky Krai Primorsky Krai, informally known as Primorye, is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (a krais of Russia, krai) of Russia, part of the Far Eastern Federal District in the Russian Far East. The types of inhabited localities in Russia, ...

. Although the subsequent Amur Annexation fixed the eastern Sino-Russian border at the Amur, it would only be at the

1991 Sino-Soviet Border Agreement The 1991 Sino–Soviet Border Agreement was a treaty signed between China and the Soviet Union on May 16, 1991. It set up demarcation work to resolve most of the border disputes between the two states. Initially signed by China and the Soviet Uni ...

when all

Sino-Soviet border conflict The Sino-Soviet border conflict, also known as the Sino-Soviet crisis, was a seven-month undeclared military conflict between the Soviet Union and China in 1969, following the Sino-Soviet split. The most serious border clash, which brought th ...

s would be resolved.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Argun River Rivers of Inner Mongolia Rivers of Zabaykalsky Krai Border rivers China–Russia border International rivers of Asia Tengriism