Hūlun gurun (

Manchu 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 ...

: , ) was a powerful confederacy of Haixi Jurchen tribes in the late 16th century, based primarily in modern

Jilin ) , image_skyline = Changbaishan Tianchi from western rim.jpg , image_alt = , image_caption = View of Heaven Lake , image_map = Jilin in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_al ...

province of China. The Hūlun confederacy was formed by Hada-nara Wang-tai (d. 1582), the leader of the Hada tribe, which had drawn its importance from the control of commerce between the late-

Ming The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, t ...

Liaodong The Liaodong or Liaotung Peninsula ( zh, s=辽东半岛, t=遼東半島, p=Liáodōng Bàndǎo) is a peninsula in southern Liaoning province in Northeast China, and makes up the southwestern coastal half of the Liaodong region. It is located ...

and Jurchen tribes to the east via Guangshun Pass (east of Kaiyuan, which is located near the northern tip of today's

Liaoning ) , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = Clockwise: Mukden Palace in Shenyang, Xinghai Square in Dalian, Dalian coast, Yalu River at Dandong , image_map = Liaoning in China (+all claims hatched).svg , ...

Province). Besides the Hada themselves, the Hūlun included three other tribal federations, known as Ula, Yehe, and Hoifa. While the Hūlun people were mostly of Jurchen origin, they had been heavily influenced by the Mongol language and culture, and intermarried with the neighboring

Khorchin The Khorchin (, ''Horchin''; ''Qorčin''; ) are a subgroup of the Mongols that speak the Khorchin dialect of Mongolian and predominantly live in northeastern Inner Mongolia of China. History The Ming dynasty gave Borjigin princes (descended ...

and

Kharchin The Kharchin ( Mongolian: , , ; zh, c=喀喇沁部), or Kharachin, is a subgroup of the Mongols residing mainly (and originally) in North-western Liaoning and Chifeng, Inner Mongolia. There are Khalkha-Kharchin Mongols in Dorno-Gobi Province ...

Mongols. Therefore, were viewed by their southern neighbors –

Jianzhou Jurchens The Jianzhou Jurchens () were one of the three major groups of Jurchens as identified by the Ming dynasty. Although the geographic location of the Jianzhou Jurchens changed throughout history, during the 14th century they were located south of ...

, which were in the late 16th century led by

Nurhaci Nurhaci (14 May 1559 – 30 September 1626), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizu of Qing, was the founding khan of the Jurchen people, Jurchen-led Later Jin (1616–1636), Later Jin dynasty. As the leader of the House of Aisin-Gi ...

– as ''Monggo'' ("Mongols"). The Hūlun

khan Khan may refer to: * Khan (surname), including a list of people with the name * Khan (title), a royal title for a ruler in Mongol and Turkic languages and used by various ethnicities Art and entertainment * Khan (band), an English progressiv ...

Wang-tai aspired to paramount leadership in the region, establishing a network of political and business relations with Jurchen and Mongol leaders, as well as with the

governor of

, Li Chengliang.

, the chief of the Jianzhou Jurchens, was Wang-tai's son-in-law,Jurchen and Mongol chieftains of the time were often polygamous, thus it would be common for each of them to be a son-in-law, and later in life father-in-law, of many other chiefs; see many allusions to such relations elsewhere in Crossley (2006). and, in Pamela Crossley's view, viewed Wang-tai and his Hūlun as role models for himself and his Later Jin dynasty in northeastern China. Many years later, long after

Hong Taiji Hong Taiji (28 November 1592 – 21 September 1643), also rendered as Huang Taiji and sometimes referred to as Abahai in Western literature, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizong of Qing, was the second khan of the Later Jin ...

had renamed Jurchens to

Manchus The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) an ...

, and both Wang-tai and Nurhaci were dead,

Qing 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 ...

historians referred to Wang-tai as one of the first great leaders of the "Manchu nations". In the closing years of the 16th century, Hūlun tribes started recognizing Nurhaci's supremacy although, in some cases, the Nurhaci-appointed chief of a tribe would then try to assert his independence, and a new war would result, as it was the case with Bujantai, the leader of the Ula. Eventually, all four tribes were fully incorporated into Nurhaci's empire (Hada 1601, Hoifa 1607, Ula 1613, Yehe 1619).

Notes

References

Jurchen history Qing dynasty Tribal confederacies {{China-hist-stub