Town · The Onggirat · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Ergune river

The river that leaves Hulun Nur and runs north-east to the Shilka.

The Mongols' legend of their origin ('Ergune Kun', the valley they entered after escaping their enemies) lies here; the real Onggirat and Ikires pastures run along its south bank, and the forest hunters of the Khingan hold its east bank.

Who holds it

Name
Onggirat and Shiwei
Title
Tribes
Confidence
low

Lord in 1200

the Onggirat and the forest peoples

How things stand that morning

Quiet in winter.

Walls and castle

none (camp, mountain or open site)

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. Autumn 1201 (one line)The clans hostile to Temujin meet on the Ergune and raise Jamuqa gurkhan.Depends on: The Tayichi'ut war of 1200 leaving enough enemies for a coalition. Stopped by: Temujin winning over the clans first.

Primary sources for The Onggirat

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • Record of the Personal Campaigns of the Holy Warrior (Chinggis Khan) (presented to Khubilai in 1288, finished in Mongolian in 1290; the surviving Chinese version dates from 1369). A year-by-year Chinese account of Temujin's wars, drawn from the lost Altan Debter (the same source behind the Yuan shi's first chapter and Rashid al-Din). Read online
  • The Secret History of the Mongols (1228 or 1240 (the colophon's Year of the Rat is disputed), with later additions; the surviving Chinese transcription and gloss were made under the Ming in the 1380s). The only Mongol account of Temujin's rise, written within living memory. Read online
  • Compendium of Chronicles, Rashid al-Din Fadl Allah Hamadani (1300 to 1311, at Tabriz). The official Ilkhanid history, compiled from Mongol oral tradition and the lost Altan Debter. Read online
  • Compendium of Chronicles: the Turkic and Mongol tribes and the life of Chinggis Khan, Rashid al-Din Hamadani (about 1300 to 1311, in the Ilkhanate). The fullest description of who held what on the steppe around 1200, written a century later from Mongol court records (the Altan Debter) and from informants such as Bolad Chingsang. Read online
  • History of the Yuan, Song Lian (宋濂) and the Ming history office (1369 to 1370). Juan 1, the annals of Taizu (Chinggis Khan), gives a dated outline of Temujin's early wars drawn from the same lost Altan Debter as the Shengwu qinzheng lu: the Tatar war with the Jin in 1196, the Merkit and Naiman campaigns, the Tayichi'ut war, Jamuqa's coalition of 1201 and the Tatar and Kereyit wars of 1202 and 1203. Read online

Sources and studies

  1. The Secret History of the Mongols, transl. and commentary Igor de Rachewiltz (Brill 2004; shorter edition ed. J. C. Street, Western Washington University 2015)
  2. Rashid al-Din, Jami' al-tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles), transl. W. M. Thackston

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.