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Documentary, BBC - Timewatch, 2005-2006, The Secret History of Genghis Khan
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00:00Genghis Khan, the world's most famous warrior.
00:15He rose from abject poverty to rule most of the known world.
00:23It is claimed that one in every 200 men alive today is descended from him.
00:30History records him as a brutal butcher.
00:36But for centuries, his true story lay buried, forgotten in Chinese archives.
00:47Who was the real man behind the legend?
00:49And how did he inspire his successors from beyond the grave
00:53to conquer the largest land empire the world has ever seen?
01:00Written nearly 800 years ago, an extraordinary text reveals
01:07the secret history of Genghis Khan.
01:10Europe in the year 1241.
01:21Although Genghis Khan had been dead for more than a decade, his legacy lived on.
01:33Priests prophesied a coming apocalypse as Mongolian hordes approached the borders of the Holy Roman Empire.
01:39The whole continent watched and waited in terror.
01:44Drawing from the book of Revelations, they saw the invaders as the armies of Satan.
01:54Their fears would soon be realized.
02:07Their fears would soon be realized.
02:11The Mongolian army descended like a storm.
02:28The Knights of Europe faced warriors the likes of which they had never seen before.
02:32Fearless in battle.
02:45Moving at lightning speed on highly trained horses.
02:48Armed with bows able to penetrate the strongest armor.
02:52Mongol warriors had yet to be defeated.
02:59And they were now within striking distance of the very heart of Europe.
03:06Genghis Khan was no longer alive.
03:10But his legacy, passed on through the pages of the secret history of the Mongols, was all too real.
03:22Genghis Khan's death.
03:31Fourteen years earlier, just after Genghis Khan's death,
03:35the heads of the Mongol tribes gathered together.
03:44They were preparing for the fulfillment of Genghis's grand strategy,
03:48sketched out just before he died.
03:50Nothing less than the conquest of the entire world.
03:58In the midst of this tribal gathering was the Khan's adopted son,
04:02known as Shiggy the Blessed.
04:07He was recording for the secret history
04:09the events surrounding the great Khan's extraordinary life.
04:13In the year of the rat they came all together.
04:17The nobles of the right wing,
04:19the princes of the left wing,
04:21and the leaders of the thousands.
04:26But the secret history of the Mongols
04:28was not to be an ordinary history book.
04:30The inspiration for future leaders,
04:34it was a blueprint for power.
04:38We have to bear in mind always that the secret history
04:41is a history written in order to educate.
04:44in order to educate.
04:45This is essentially a mirror for princes.
04:49A manual of statecraft.
04:53The original manuscript has never been found.
04:55But over 500 years after it was written,
04:59a Chinese copy came to light,
05:01hidden away in private archives.
05:07It was not a straightforward history of the Mongol Empire.
05:10It was far more personal than that.
05:13Genghis's rise is the real subject of the secret history.
05:18How he puts this into effect
05:21in the actual creation of the Empire
05:23is of less interest.
05:25This is not a military history at all.
05:32Genghis Khan's story begins in the middle of the 12th century.
05:38His father, a powerful Mongolian general,
05:41returned to camp after a successful raid
05:45on a neighbouring tribe.
05:50He was spurred on by good news.
05:54His wife had given birth to a son.
06:01As he was born,
06:02he emerged clutching a blood clot
06:04the size of a knuckle-bone dice in his right hand.
06:09To this boy,
06:10they gave the name
06:11Temujin.
06:16The shamans interpreted the blood clot
06:18as a sign from heaven.
06:20A sign Temujin,
06:21the future Genghis Khan
06:23would become a fierce warrior.
06:27In the legend
06:28that grew up around Genghis
06:29in later centuries,
06:31he was meant to be
06:32not the child of an ordinary person,
06:33but the child of the son himself.
06:36So,
06:37there's room
06:38for
06:39the belief
06:40that his birth
06:41was supernatural
06:42and that heaven
06:43presided
06:44over his birth
06:45and that his
06:46destiny
06:47as a world conqueror
06:48was
06:49a heavenly
06:50ordained
06:51destiny.
06:52destiny.
07:06Temujin was born into a family
07:08of noble descent.
07:09his father
07:14was a respected warrior
07:15who had increased
07:16his clan's wealth
07:17and land.
07:18he brought up
07:28Temujin
07:29to ride and hunt
07:30from an early age,
07:31skills essential
07:33for survival
07:34in the vastness
07:35of Central Asia.
07:36as he grew,
07:46Temujin
07:47became friendly
07:48with a boy
07:48from a neighbouring clan
07:49called Jamukha.
07:52Following Mongol tradition,
07:54as the two became closer,
07:56they swore vows
07:57to be friends
07:58for life.
08:01Becoming sworn friends
08:02was, if you like,
08:03the glue,
08:04the political glue
08:05of Mongol society.
08:06In this very flexible society,
08:08loyalty
08:09was the key
08:10political virtue.
08:11To break it
08:12was one of the most serious
08:13of crimes.
08:17As the two boys
08:18exchanged arrows
08:19as a symbol
08:20of their promise,
08:21they forged a bond
08:22that should have
08:23lasted forever.
08:29Instead,
08:30Temujin
08:31would learn a harsh
08:32lesson about betrayal.
08:36his father
08:37took him
08:38to find a bride.
08:47When Temujin
08:48was just eight years old,
08:49his father took him
08:50to find a bride.
08:51As was Mongol tradition,
08:53his marriage
08:56would cement an alliance
08:57with a neighbouring tribe.
08:58In a world of inter-tribal feuding,
08:59there was security in numbers.
09:03On arrival at their camp,
09:04Temujin's eyes were drawn
09:05to a graceful girl
09:06named Borte.
09:07This would turn out to be much more than just a typical Mongolian arranged marriage.
09:22It would become a bond of love.
09:35In a rare romantic moment,
09:36the secret history lapses into poetry
09:37to describe the betrothal.
09:39She had light in her eyes.
09:53She had fire in her eyes.
09:55He was pleased with her.
09:57The secret history portrays Cinghis in a much fuller sense than we're used to in the West.
10:22He was a very soft man who, you know, greatly cared for and looked after his mother and his wife
10:29and his children
10:30and was incredibly loyal to those alliances that he built up.
10:37Later, as Khan,
10:38Genghis would take more wives as tradition demanded.
10:42But it would be Borte's children who would rule the empire after his death.
10:47Borte's children
10:54Shortly after his betrothal to Borte,
10:59a messenger brought news that would, for a time, tear the two children apart.
11:06In an act of revenge, Temujin's father had been poisoned by the tribe he had been raiding at the time of his birth.
11:19The boy had to return to his people.
11:22And, to an uncertain fate.
11:27In a defining moment in the future Khan's life, he, his mother, and seven siblings were abandoned by their own tribe, left to fend for themselves.
11:44All the people had gone away, leaving only the mother and her sons.
11:49She was born of great courage.
11:52With a stick in her hand, she fed them by digging up roots.
12:02This was a woman who needed quite exceptional strength of character to save herself and her five boys.
12:11So I think her role in his upbringing was absolutely crucial.
12:16We have to bear in mind just what sort of environment Mongolia might have been.
12:22This is one of the coldest places in the world.
12:25With temperatures in winter that go down to 80 below zero.
12:29If you don't have an alpha male looking after you, you've had it.
12:35Without the guidance of a father, and with supplies scarce, Temujin began to fall out with his half-brother Begta.
12:49As they jockeyed for food and power, the conflict turned to violence.
12:55The future Khan had yet to learn the importance of family ties.
13:00Begta sat in the clearing, watching the family's horses grazing.
13:09Temujin and his other brother crept up from behind, drawing their arrows to shoot.
13:16Begta said, how can you treat me like some dirt in your eye, like something that's keeping the food from your mouth?
13:27How can you do this, when there's no one to fight, but our own shadows?
13:34Temujin doesn't declare that he's just killed his brother Begta, but his mother can see it.
13:52She says she can see it from his face as he enters through the doorway.
13:56And then she starts violently berating her son.
13:59The secret history describes his mother's reaction in graphic detail.
14:05She compares him to a ravening dog.
14:10She tells him that he's like a panther, a lion, a jackal, a monster, a pike.
14:17Temujin was not proud of what he had done, but he had learnt a harsh lesson, one that he was keen to pass on.
14:26Temujin at the time was 13 and was in no position, really, to judge himself.
14:33But later he was, and that was why he regarded it as so important that the rest of his tribe should know that this had been a great crime.
14:40But as a springboard for power, strong family ties were not enough.
14:50The secret history said the future Khan's path to leadership was preordained.
14:56To make the point, it tells of several narrow escapes where ordinary men would not have survived.
15:08It describes how, as a boy, Temujin and his family were constantly hunted by his father's old enemies.
15:15One day, unable to escape his pursuers, Temujin was captured, bound and brought to the camp of an enemy clan.
15:34He faced living the rest of his life as a slave.
15:41Humiliated and ridiculed, he was forced to serve his tormentors.
15:47But one of his captors, Shogun Shira, sensed in the young man a potential future leader.
16:01Even as the others continued in their efforts to break his will.
16:10But with heaven on his side, all was not as hopeless as it seemed.
16:14For Temujin was already showing that he was an astute judge of character.
16:19One night, whilst lashed to a yoke, he overcame his guard.
16:34He walked up to the lake.
16:36He was an astute judge of character.
16:43Realizing that he had no chance of escaping on foot…
16:46…he headed for the river.
16:53If I run for the woods, they would spot me, he thought to himself.
16:56they will spot me he thought to himself so he went to the river using his yoke as a float
17:09he should have been quickly recaptured but in the secret history nothing happens by chance
17:17it was shogun shearer the captor who had seen in him a future leader who found him
17:22a shogun shearer passed by the river he saw temujin lying there and spoke to him quietly
17:33it's because you're a clever young man that they are afraid of you just stay where you are
17:38i won't tell them i've seen you temujin shows himself to be a remarkable judge of character
17:46he sees instantly the sort of person who is going to help him he uh is able to to to choose the
17:53character to choose his allies and to then build on this and it's going to be the basis for his
17:57political career
18:15the secret history has many gaps lost years in the life of the young genghis khan
18:20it is years later before shigi takes up the story again
18:36his youth behind him temujin emerged as an imposing man
18:41a man now in command of a small army of mongol warriors
18:50a man
18:53having been reunited with his childhood love border now his wife temujin became ever more ambitious
19:01but the secret history tells us that there was more to his path to power than simple brute force
19:10instead temujin set about recruiting allies
19:13he set his sights on the most powerful warlord in all mongolia togril khan leader of the kerites
19:25he would give him his most precious possession
19:28in the old days you and my father were blood brothers you were like my father
19:39i've just married an ungrad woman and i've brought the wedding gift to you
19:47he had a knack for getting people on board
19:58he simply gives him the most valuable object he has
20:02and without asking for a favor in return he throws it entirely before this ruler whom he wants to impress
20:11and his bread comes back to him on the waters
20:15a year later
20:16and he comes to him and says i have not forgotten that coat that sable coat you gave me
20:22and i inscribed my promise to help you under my own heart
20:28and now i will help you
20:29as his influence continued to grow eager and enterprising young men were soon drawn to temujin's side
20:43where they were trained as warriors
20:49as an incentive for marketing he promised them raids and rich rewards
20:59his riders were trained in a very special skill to fire their arrows at their enemies while riding away
21:06the full gallop it was a maneuver that would help make them the greatest army on earth
21:18the archer gallops towards the enemy lines at the last moment
21:22pivots swings round in the saddle and looses in quick succession up to six arrows
21:29and the damage that this does has to be seen to be believed
21:33it is a fearsome bow i think we would need to forget the idea of a bow altogether and think of a
21:41rifle if we wanted to get some idea of the toll that these bowmen took
21:51but before temujin and his men faced the armies of the west they would be forced to contend with enemies
21:57closer to home
22:05the mongols were surrounded by other powerful tribes who were a constant threat
22:11through the secret history temujin's successors learned that away from battle
22:17heaven's chosen leader should always put his own safety first
22:21the point was made as his family made camp during a hunting expedition
22:31their camp was at the herolin river's source
22:35when one morning just before dawn his mother's servant woke the camp with a startling cry
22:42mother mother get up the ground is shaking i hear it rumble
22:59an enemy tribe had spotted them
23:01with his warriors too far away to help temujin and his family were forced to flee for their lives
23:09but there were not enough horses for everyone
23:24in what looked like a selfish act temujin took a horse for himself
23:28them ordered his mother to take the only remaining one abandoning his wife to certain capture
23:39but there was method to his madness
23:43temujin might have been seen as a coward here just leaving his wife behind
23:47but he knew that she would be strong enough to be able to cope with this and that she would be able to
23:52gather crucial information about the inner workings of the merket for him when he went to retrieve her later on
24:00with his wife now acting as his spy to assure his own safety temujin fled into the hills
24:12yet again shigi wrote the heavens had spared him from death
24:16the future khan started to believe that his destiny was ordained
24:25he escaped once again from his pursuers and began to realize saw for the first time that perhaps
24:33he was being saved for a particular purpose it was if you like a revelation of divine backing
24:38it seems that he wished his followers to believe that he had always had divine backing and that what
24:44was happening was a mere working out of the divine will
24:53with his wife rescued it was now that jenghis first emerged as the brutal mass murderer of history
25:02still barely 20 years old he was gaining the reputation the shamans had forecast at his birth
25:09as news of his successes spread more and more men joined him
25:20he was now strong enough to take on the tatars a blood feud that spanned generations
25:25now is the time of our revenge we will kill every tartar man taller than the lynchpin on the wheel of a car
25:40we will kill them until they're destroyed as a tribe
25:44and he was like what what the fuck on his way to power he trod on corpses there's no question return
25:52what people give to you he said he paid back the tatars by measuring every one of their people
26:01against the axle of a dog cart anyone taller than the axle was exterminated
26:07so generations of intertribal anger were unleashed
26:17here the secret history offers a terrible lesson the battle was more than a skirmish to avenge a death
26:25steal a bride or loot this was to be the complete destruction of an entire tribe
26:37so all surviving tartar men were beheaded
26:46only children and potential concubines were spared taken as slaves
26:55but temujin's successes began to cause tensions even amongst his own allies
27:07the most powerful jamukkah his sworn friend from childhood was now also a successful general in his own right
27:19but there could not be two leaders
27:22the ambitious jamukkah was about to change from friend to foe
27:26the secret history records a powerful message on the dangers of betrayal
27:39jamukkah called upon his tribes to desert temujin and ride with him instead
27:47their childhood vow of lifelong friendship turned into bitter hatred and jealousy
27:53the secret history is the secret history is the secret history is trying to set up jamukkah
28:06as the anti-hero to jengis jengis remains true he remains loyal to his oath jamukkah betrays him
28:14and this is a very important theme now from now on in the secret history
28:23jamukkah's betrayal did not end there
28:30in a conference between the three supposed allies
28:33he sought to turn temujin's sworn friend tohril against him as well
28:37the secret history tells us that although jengis relied on the notion of sworn brotherhood he was a
28:46little bit naive about these alliances and it often took the insights of his mother or his wife to point
28:52out that these were very fragile alliances that could be betrayed
28:56j Engine is sending messages back and forth to the nanya while his mouth is saying words like father and son s
29:16his actions speak otherwise how can you trust such shout if you don't stop him now who will save you if you
29:20If you don't stop him now, who will save you? If you attack Temujin now, I'll pledge to attack him from the rear.
29:36Jamukha and Tok'ril combined forces and attacked Temujin together.
29:51It was a bitter battle, for all knew the winner would be the most powerful force on the Mongolian steppe.
29:59After a lengthy and close run campaign, a year later, the fighting finally came to an end.
30:13After a lengthy and close run campaign, a year later, the fighting finally came to an end.
30:24Despite the odds, and having stared defeat in the face, Temujin emerged victorious.
30:39His former lord, Tok'ril, was now dead, and Jamukha, his arch-rival, was on the run.
30:50Having once commanded tens of thousands of warriors, Jamukha now had to hide in the mountains with only a handful of followers.
31:04But Jamukha was not Temujin. He was incapable of inspiring the loyalty the future Khan had.
31:12Jamukha's men had learnt to their cost that he was not to be trusted.
31:27He had proved himself a traitor.
31:32Disillusioned, his followers hatched a desperate plan.
31:36A plan they believed would save their own lives.
31:39Bound, Jamukha was delivered to Temujin by his former comrades-in-arms.
32:04The men expected gratitude from Temujin for delivering his enemy.
32:15But in a powerful lesson in loyalty and allegiance, the secret history makes it clear that they were gravely mistaken.
32:33Temujin turned on them in disgust.
32:36How can we allow men who lay hands on their own lord to live?
32:44Who should trust people like this? Such people should be killed, along with their descendants.
32:53Although Jamukha had betrayed him, Temujin still believed in the strength of the sworn childhood bond.
33:08He proposed to Jamukha that they bury their rivalries and join forces once again.
33:13Jamukha refused, seeking only an honourable death.
33:25My blood brother, if you want to favour me, then simply see that my life is ended without shedding my blood.
33:31His wish was granted.
33:38But the secret history would exonerate Genghis from blame.
33:42The story of Jamukha's death is a story with a moral.
33:49For Genghis himself to wield the knife is a desecration of blood brotherhood.
33:56How do we get round this?
33:58We get round it, I think, in a Stalinist way, with a show trial and a grovelling confession by the villain, in which he begs for a merciful death.
34:11Jamukha asks for his own death in order to exonerate Genghis himself.
34:15In 1206, Temujin received the greatest honour ever given to a Mongol warrior.
34:31At the age of 44, he was proclaimed Supreme Commander, the Khan of all Mongols, by a grand assembly of tribes.
34:40He determined to apply all the lessons he had learned throughout his life.
34:48The importance of loyalty, allegiance and total control, backed up by brutality.
34:58Most of all, a real sense of divine mission and assured success.
35:06But this was not to be the summit of his career.
35:09Merely the beginning.
35:12Temujin, if you'll be our Khan, we'll search through the spoils for the beautiful women and virgins.
35:24If we disobey your command during battle, take away our possessions, our children and wives.
35:37Leave us behind in the dust, cutting off our heads where we stand and letting them fall to the ground.
35:43Temujin took a title nobody had ever been awarded before, Genghis Khan.
35:57The title Genghis was utterly unique to him and nobody knows why it was chosen and nobody's quite sure what it means.
36:09The current thinking is that it's fierce, so that he comes over as the fierce Khan, the fierce king.
36:21He set about putting into practice the lessons he had learned during his rise to power.
36:34The secret history recorded each innovation in meticulous detail.
36:38Genghis Khan set the lives of all Mongolian peoples in order and made this decree.
36:46To reward those who fought with me to establish the nation, I will make them leaders of a thousand.
36:53He began by radically restructuring the army.
37:00Disregarding tribal affiliations, he rewarded his most loyal followers with power over a thousand men each.
37:08Without regard to rank or status, he promoted according to ability alone.
37:15It's one thing to talk about a meritocracy, it's quite another to operate it.
37:23And here it was operated. Shepherds were indeed given generalships and leaders of vassal tribes were also given generalships as well as Mongols.
37:36So this was the reward of loyalty.
37:47This is a new style of ordering large bodies of men.
37:53If a commander left a wounded Mongol on the battlefield, he would be executed.
38:00So the buck stops here is what a Mongol commander might have had on his desk.
38:06And he paid for dereliction of duty with his own life.
38:09Genghis Khan now felt powerful enough to explore beyond the vastness of the steppe.
38:19He sent scouts in all directions.
38:23Not just to find realms worthy of plunder, but whole nations to conquer on the far side of the great deserts.
38:33Neither the Gobi nor the Tarkla Makan could stop Genghis Khan's faithful warriors.
38:44With astonishing endurance, they rode on through both freezing cold and burning heat.
38:54The scouts returned with good news. There was little obstacle to invasion.
39:07But the secret history once again reveals that contrary to Western legend, Genghis Khan knew that there was more to achieving his ambitions than mere brute force.
39:19Genghis Khan, the warrior proved to be a wise statesman as well.
39:34From defeated administrators, he would take lessons in ruling a realm.
39:40Just as his military tactics are endlessly inventive, endlessly flexible and receptive to new ideas,
39:48so too, when he saw what other people had to offer, he simply paid them and they did the job.
39:56So what the Mongols couldn't do themselves, they found someone else to do for them.
40:02Although illiterate himself, the Khan was quick to grasp the importance of the written word.
40:09The secret history tells us how he overcame his own illiteracy.
40:13He told Shiggy to adopt writing from one of his new vassal tribes, the Uyghurs.
40:18And that was the script that was taken on and taught to the princes, even while Genghis was still alive.
40:27Let no man violate his word, strike fear in the hearts of thieves, bring remorse to the tongues of liars, execute those whom custom has condemned to death.
40:39Write everything in a blue book. Let no one change anything, Shiggy Hootoku, after taking counsel with me, has written on the white paper of his blue book.
40:51With reform of his troops and administration underway, Genghis Khan set his sights on his greatest neighbour, China.
41:05The traditional source of Mongol loot, it was a goal that would have universal support from his people.
41:16His army would do more than loot and run. This time, they would stay.
41:22It was an expedition fraught with risk. Genghis Khan consulted the oracle.
41:36The outcome would be determined by how the bones split.
41:56The charred bones split lengthwise.
41:58The omens were good.
42:11The greatest army Mongolia had ever seen was assembled.
42:20They would march south into the richest region in Asia, over 100,000 strong.
42:30As victory followed victory, the soldiers were accompanied by women, children and servants.
42:36Well over 100,000 horses and vast herds of goats and sheep brought along for food.
42:42At the command of Genghis Khan, his entire palace yurt was placed on a platform on wheels, drawn by more than 20 oxen.
43:01They approached northern China, not simply as invaders, but for the first time in Mongol history with the intention of long term occupation.
43:10I think Genghis was driven by his character.
43:17What he was doing in psychological terms was to create himself a security network that could never, ever be threatened.
43:27You create new frontiers, which then have to be defended, which then have to be extended, which create new frontiers, etc.
43:35It's a never ending process.
43:36In 1211, the Mongol army first reached the walls of Beijing.
43:47As wave after wave of Mongols attacked the city, Genghis Khan continued his march northwards, leaving his generals to finish.
43:53the job.
44:07Victory would take four more years, yet this astonishing military campaign barely rates a mention in the secret history.
44:13Designed to reveal Genghis's character, details of his military campaigns were simply not important.
44:29His great conquests are by the by. Sure, he happened to capture Beijing. Sure, he happened to conquer Russia. Sure, he happened to conquer Iran, Iraq, on and on.
44:42But that is of no interest to the author of the secret history. That is strictly a sideshow.
44:52Genghis Khan.
44:56Although Genghis Khan was now at the height of his power, the secret history chooses to draw to a close, not on his military conquests, but on a final act of revenge against a former ally who had betrayed him.
45:09The Tangut people made a promise they didn't keep. The Tangut people made a promise they didn't keep. Genghis Khan has gone to war with the Tangut a second time and has destroyed them.
45:22Now this writing is finished, in the seventh moon of the year of the rat.
45:27To the very end, it is the lessons Genghis wished to pass on which are the real message of the secret history.
45:39The importance of total control gained through loyalty, allegiances, fairness and trust.
45:50The power of brutality to strike terror into the hearts of enemies. And the self-assurance that flows from a sense of divine support.
46:01The secret history would teach these lessons, even if it meant exposing the Khan's own failings.
46:09I think that Genghis, in a way, allows himself to be almost like the guide throughout these teachings.
46:15So we see where he makes mistakes or where he succeeds, and future generations can see that this was actually a real person who had to confront real issues.
46:28For himself, Genghis Khan never claimed divinity.
46:33But after his death, the writer of the secret history wanted his successes to believe that from the moment of the Khan's birth, they were destined to rule the world.
46:43Already it was becoming believed that Genghis himself and the whole empire was divinely ordained.
46:53So for 150 years, his personality absolutely imbued the empire.
47:00And I think this makes it something quite unique in history.
47:07Yet the manner of his death was only too human.
47:10In 1227, legend says that the founder of a nation of riders fell off his horse and died of his wounds.
47:22Shidi does not reveal where he was buried.
47:28It is said that a thousand horses were driven over his grave until every last trace of Genghis Khan had vanished.
47:38But through the secret history, he was able to pass on the lessons he had learned on his way from illiterate nomad to one of the most powerful leaders the world has ever seen.
47:53Next this evening, Time Shift looks back over Hollywood's love affair with the epic movie in a cast of thousands.
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