Original subtitles

The Mongolian empire, swept across continents,

unmatched in power, changing the course of history forever.

It was a dynasty that conquered much of Eurasia

At its heart was a man once known as Genghis,

but now honored with his true historical name, Chinggis Khan.

His name was translated in many

different ways in many different countries,

but Mongolians call him Chinggis Khan.

He was a warrior, a strategist, a visionary.

He united the rival houses on the vast Mongolian steppe

into one great and powerful nation.

The world changed with his actions.

It could not go back to the way it was before Chinggis Khan.

He crushed every empire that dared stand

in his path.

He conquered more territory than any other

single ruler in history.

Historians once painted him as a savage

barbarian, but a new translation of an ancient

text unveils the real story of Chinggis Khan's life

and legacy.

We know Chinggis Khan was of a royal house,

a general who is worshiped something crossed between

Napoleon and Jesus.

But it was under the rule of his son,

Ogodei Khan that the empire expanded further sweeping

from the shores of the Pacific to the deserts of Persia.

This is the story of the powerful rulers

who built the Mongolian empire.

The vast and desolate Mongolian plains

are home to nomadic rulers, whose people thrive

in these barren lands, moving over distant pastures

to sustain their families and herds.

These people are skilled horse riders,

expert archers and masters of this unique landscape

known as the steppes.

-So, the steppe lands is an enormous belt

of grassland that runs all the way from the Manchurian

forests right across the Eurasian continent,

as far as the Hungarian plains in the West.

The steppe lands of what is now Mongolia were divided

between different dynasties.

In the central part, there was the Kingdom of the Kerait.

To the west, there's another well-established dynasty,

the Naiman. And these two kingdoms,

they'd been around for generations.

And then in the south and the east, was the Jin Dynasty,

part of northern China and Manchuria.

And in this eastern Mongolian area,

there were a lot of different warlords and smaller petty

dynasties and smaller petty rulers.

So this was a kind of borderland between

great powers and for 1000s of years,

steppe empires have emerged in this environment.

The lifestyle of these aristocrats at the time

would have been different from their equivalents in Europe

or China, but recognizably elite, they would have lived

in these large, mobile structures,

almost like small palaces,

and that's where the noble class lived.

All around them, their subjects would be in smaller,

much more humble dwellings, herding livestock.

-In nomadic society life was difficult,

and as you're traveling across the steppe,

you will have to spread out.

Nomads do not just simply wander around.

They know where they're going.

They have seasonal migrations to pastures.

In the summer, they might go into the highlands,

where it's going to be cooler, or they'll go to different

pastures depending on the environment

and the conditions.

They hunted a lot.

That was a leisure activity, but also it could be used

to actually produce a large amount of meat.

And the subjects would be delivering all sorts of

produce to the nobles,

including a lot of milk products.

Animals are not only your livelihood;

they're also your wealth.

And although it looked exotic and different

to visitors, it was actually a very sophisticated system

of movement, which allowed the rulers of the steppes

quite a lot of options.

-Nomadic families followed one leader

at one time. Tribes don't have to be one ethnic group.

It can be several families, several ethnic groups,

but they would follow one leader.

Generations earlier, the great Mongolian ruler

Kabhul Khan briefly united the most powerful nomadic factions

under his leadership.

Kabhul Khan ruled the earlier Mongolian kingdom

called Khamag Mongol.

That means all of the Mongols, a whole bunch of disparate

noble families united just as a single category,

which was almost certainly in the area of what is now

eastern Mongolia.

Years later, his grandson Yesugei,

leads one of the noble families thriving

on the eastern edge of the Mongolian steppes.

Yesugei Ba-atur was a good warrior,

led about maybe hundreds of some families.

He is described himself as a Khan.

That means as a king.

Although Yesugei commands the loyalty

of many of his grandfather's subjects,

he knows that to continue his legacy and secure his dynasty,

he requires an heir.

1162, Yesugei's wife Hö'elün, gives birth

to their first child and heir to the kingdom.

The boy will be called Temujin, a name taken

from a rival leader captured in a recent battle.

-He was stealing the enemy's name for his son.

To commemorate this event,

this is not unique to Mongolia.

Stealing somebody's name for yourself is a widespread

sort of practice.

That name was indicative of his conquest.

He was celebrating his achievement through that.

The name means pursuer,

somebody who has vision and goal.

And when he was born, he was holding a blood clot

in his right fist.

The clot of blood in his hand when he was born

was an indication of brutality killing.

Sometimes it would symbolize he was such

a strong person and he was God given,

and he had different power.

In years to come, this child,

Temujin will be known as Chinggis Khan.

His extraordinary life is documented in a mysterious

text written in the decades after his death.

Chinggis Khan is described

from the beginning till his end of his life in this book,

the Secret History of the Mongols.

-The Secret History of the Mongols is the only

document in Mongolian that tells the rise

of Chinggis Khan to supreme authority in Mongolia.

The Secret History was lost for a long time.

It was lost in Mongolian, but preserved in Chinese.

Chinese scholars, Mongolian scholars,

and then English scholars have worked extremely hard

reconstructing the original middle Mongolian.

This translation makes it literate in a way

that it had not been before.

It makes readable what is actually extremely difficult,

a collection of stories that were,

common in Mongolia at the time in the mid-13th century.

It tells incidents that are crucial to understanding

Chinggis background and his psychology.

One story is about Chinggis Khan himself

and his family, and the other half is how Chinggis

built Mongolia as a country.

It's a very poetic book to read.

Secret History is now considered not only

literature, but also Mongolia's first ever

historic documentation of the founding of the country.

Historians once painted Chinggis Khan

as a savage barbarian, ruthless in his quest

to conquer the world, but in The Secret History

of the Mongols, he is revealed to be an exiled Prince,

a sophisticated leader and a military tactician,

unveiling how a nomadic boy born on the Mongolian steppes

becomes one of the greatest rulers

the world has ever known.

Temujin is nine years old, and his father sets out with him

to find a bride, a wife from a powerful noble house

will strengthen their dynasty.

Temüjin's mother was from a prestigious family

who had long provided wives for Mongol rulers.

They ride towards her homeland in search of the perfect match.

Before they reach their destination,

they are stopped by a senior Noble who tells them

of a premonition he had the night before.

-The man says, I saw a magic dream last night.

The white Falcon came on to me holding sun in the one hand

and the moon in the other hand, and that was sitting on me,

your son has fire in his eyes.

I have a girl, and she had also fire in her eyes.

Maybe it might work.

They accept the leader's offer and go

to meet his daughter.

This girl will one day stand by Temujin's side

as his powerful wife.

Her name is Börte.

That moment changes Temujin's life totally.

His father ends up making this betrothal

as a sort of alliance in waiting.

Marriage was always a political objective and very

useful as a way of finding loyalties in this world,

which was a feuding world.

Börte was one year older than Temujin.

And the two were betrothed.

They know that later, when their children

grow up, this will form a powerful marriage alliance

between their two houses.

Then Yesugei decided to leave Temujin

at Börte place and went back by himself.

For Yesugei he was traveling back to his own camp.

He stopped at a Tartar camp.

The Tartars were enemies of the Mongols,

and they recognized him.

On the steppe, for those of the aristocratic

class, they were always engaged with hosting each other,

there was a good deal of civility as well as

occasional hostility.

There are these customs that exist to help normalize

society, even in times of hostile relations to allow

societies to function on the steppe and as you're traveling

across the steppe, if you came to a camp,

hospitality was given.

If you violated the hospitality,

then this could lead to other issues.

Yesugei Ba-atur didn't realize the depths

of the animosity that these particular Tartar noblemen

must have held for him.

The relationship was a combination of feuding

and friendship.

They seemed friendly.

And he is poisoned by the Tartars.

He began to feel ill.

Getting sicker and sicker on the way back home.

By the time he reached his own camp,

he was extremely sick.

He told one of his followers, bring my son,

Temujin back, because Tartar just poisoned me and I'm dying.

Temujin races across the steppe towards his home,

but he is too late.

His father, Yesugei has succumbed to the Tartars

lethal poison.

His followers left without the protection of a strong leader,

abandoned their kingdom in search of a new ruler.

As soon as Temujin's father died,

the entire structure of the tribe had to change.

Somebody should lead immediately after him,

or his tribe was about to dissolve.

Temujin was too young.

Those days, women didn't lead, so Hö'elün couldn't lead

the tribe, so there was nobody who would inherit

the leadership of the tribe.

When the followers left, Hö'elün probably saw

the hard hard reality that suddenly there is no sheep,

no horses, only they were left.

The young Temujin, born a noble prince,

is now reduced to poverty.

His family must fight for survival on the harsh

Mongolian steppe, but rival leaders keep watch.

Temujin's very existence is a threat to their power.

On the death of his father,

Temujin kingdom seems to dissolve.

They lost probably 1000s of their subjects,

with all of their livestock, hundreds of 1000s of animals,

but almost certainly, they would have had some things.

They certainly had horses with just a dozen servants,

or something very minimal, but it would have been terribly

poor and harsh in comparison to what the family

would have been used to.

Especially during winter time,

it should be very isolated, quite deprived, quite lonely.

It's nine months of cold season, you know,

and there should be lots of endurance needed to survive

in that land.

-They survived, therefore, on their own,

it's a few tents, a very small group of people

who were really under the authority

of Temujin's his mother.

This is absolutely characteristic

of Temujin's mother.

She was clearly enormously powerful, strong-willed.

Temujin's mother did gather berries and fruits

and go fishing and go hunting.

His mother proved extremely strong,

managed to hold the family together.

The whole family wouldn't have

survived without her.

The family struggles for several years

in the unforgiving landscape.

As Temujin and his brothers grow older and mature,

they learn to hunt and catch fish to support their mother.

-Bringing a child in a steppe environment

means he learns all these survival instincts,

and they were trained from the childhood archery

and being good warriors on horseback.

So, when boys started growing up,

they started hunting and they started bringing food

to the family.

So who brings fish? Who brings birds, etc?

That's how they probably were ranked.

After years of abandonment and isolation,

tensions grow between Temujin and his older,

half-brother Bekter.

Temujin and his brother Qasar quarrel

with the half-brothers, the sons of a secondary wife

of their dead father.

The two sets of boys quarrel over, apparently a fish.

Bekter and Temüjin were probably

fighting for power.

Young Temujin and his brother went to his mother

and complained.

But she ignored it.

The reaction of Temujin is really striking.

They get their bows.

Qasar, one of Temjin's brothers, comes up

from the front and approaches Bekter

who's on the top of a hill.

Temujin, meanwhile, is sneaking up from behind,

and when he sees him coming,

he realizes what they're going to do.

And Bekter told them,

if you want to kill, just kill me.

Don't kill my brother, Belgutei.

Leave descendants from my family.

And that's precisely what happened.

He was shot in a most cowardly way,

Surrounding this poor half-brother

and shooting him in the back as well as the front.

And died.

-His elder brother was domineering.

He was very powerful, and therefore he was a challenge

to his authority, so had to be killed.

The fact that Temujin shot from

the back shows that he was quite manipulative.

That was a tragic and dark family secret,

that was the secret of the Secret History, I think.

The shadowy side of Temujin is woven

into the fabric of the Secret History,

and that's one of the fascinating features

of the work. It's included

lots of incidents that got edited out

of some of the other historical materials,

all sorts of really rather shameful events,

particularly in the early part of his career.

This is written to tell the lessons

of the past mistakes and past achievements

to the next generations, containing the life lesson,

containing the family lesson to the next generation,

in order not to be repeated or not to forget.

To show that this is precisely

how you do not behave.

If you're trying to create loyalty,

you don't kill your own brother.

When Temujin's mother Hö'elün learns

of Bekter's death, she is distraught.

She confronts Temujin, questioning how he could

turn against his own brother.

Hö'elün said, always be united

and always be peaceful among each other,

because there is no one but us in this world.

We don't have any friends except our shadows.

When you don't have any friends except our shadows,

you should be friends with each other.

Temujin's hunger for power has ended

his brother's life.

News of the murder reaches a rival nobleman

who was once part of his father's kingdom.

He believes Temujin growing ambition must be stopped.

The nobleman realizes these kids

are now growing up.

So, when he hears news of the killing, he decides to act.

The nobleman arrives with his day guards.

Now the day guards were sort of like the personal bodyguard

or police force, if you like, of the time

the nobleman's guards shout they just want Temujin.

And Temujin flees away.

Temujin hid for nine days.

Time passes, he's got nothing to eat.

He eventually decides, better than starving.

I just go out.

And that's when they finally arrest him

and take him away to punish him.

Temujin is held captive, watched over

by his rivals, the Tayichiud.

They don't kill him.

He's still of royal rank.

Even a senior nobleman doesn't just kill somebody outright

when they're descended from one of the most famous Khans

of the region.

Instead, he's punished by being forced to wear a Cangue,

wooden yoke or collar.

It's really unpleasant. You can't feed yourself.

You can't lie down properly when you're wearing this thing.

The Tayichiud that is the ruling house who've captured him,

took the opportunity to humiliate him.

So, when he was arrested,

Tayichiud was hoping that from this humiliation

he will not come out as leader in future.

Everybody saw his humiliation.

That's what they're calculating on, you know?

So The Ruler was sealing his own leadership by belittling

Chinggis that way.

And so Temujin was then rotated between

the houses of the subjects of the noblemen spending

a day in each one, wearing his Kang.

Every family, When he's spending a night,

he would observe the family and see

who is supporting him.

Young Temujin would have known very well that the key

to survival was security.

The only way to build security was to create loyalty and win

over the local Family Clans and get them to work together.

He found only one supportive family among

the all those families that he's been around

It is a man called Sorkan-Shira and his family

who take pity on Temüjin.

They were sympathetic when he visited.

They let him take the Cangue off so he could get

a good night's rest.

After a few months, Tayichiud have a big feast.

The Secret History recounts that the Tayichiud

hosts a banquet in celebration of the first full moon

of the summer, Temujin is taken to the feast by a young captor.

And ever alert, he senses an opportunity.

When the Tayichiud were feasting,

Temujin manages to break away from his captive,

knocking him on the head with the Khan,

and then he runs off and escapes.

He takes refuge in the Onon River,

evading his captors who scour the banks.

Night time in Mongolia's freezing,

freezing cold that actually shows how desperate he was

and how tough he was.

Among the searchers is Sorkan-Shira,

who spots Temujin hiding in the river.

So Sorkan-Shira sees him and lets him

stay hidden and makes some excuse so that Temujin

is not discovered by anyone but him.

And then Sorkan-Shira told him,

go to your mother, go to your family.

Don't come back to Tayichiud.

Instead of fleeing, Temujin slips back into

the Tayichiud camp in search of Sorkan-Shira.

He knows that to return home safely, he will need help.

Sorkan-Shira is not very pleased, because he said,

didn't I tell you to just run.

Nevertheless, he takes him in and helps him take off

the Cangue and they hide him for several days.

After three days Temujin's captors are still

hunting for him, growing desperate,

they begin to suspect that he might be hiding among

their own ranks.

He was almost found when the Tayichiud

started looking for him amongst each other.

Sorkan-Shira said, no sense to look here.

And they left as soon as Tayichiud search group left.

Sorkan-Shira told Temujin that we can't hide you anymore.

And they give him provisions and a horse

so he can return to his family.

This daring escape by the young Temujin displays

the cunning and courageous spirit that will one day

help him realize his destiny as a powerful leader

on the Mongolian steppe.

Temujin has escaped his captors and begins the treacherous

journey back to his family,

riding for days and nights he is eventually reunited

with his mother and his brothers.

After Temujin came back to his camp,

The Secret History describes it.

How big a relief for Hö'elün, the mother,

because they were so afraid that Temujin will not return,

but they happily reunited.

Years pass, and Temujin works tirelessly

to rebuild the kingdom that was lost after his father's death.

Although young, he is persuasive and charismatic.

He forms a loyal bond with a boy from another noble family.

The boy's name is Jamuqa.

So Jamuqa is one of the most important

characters in The Secret History,

and he was clearly of central importance

to Temujin life and the early part of his career.

they were generally as close as kids are at that age.

Now 16, Temujin must consider his future

and the prospect of marriage, the time has come for him

to be reunited with Börte.

That is the bride he was betrothed to

from another influential noble house nearby,

and this is a key moment in Temujin's career.

Temujin blindly goes to the east

of Mongolia to find out whether she's still waiting

for him or if she's already married.

And Börte was there waiting for Temujin.

They are married,

the union provides Temujin with Börte, wisdom and counsel.

But it is her dowry that is immediately vital

for Temujin's ambition.

And her mother gives to Temujin's mother

a really fine gift, a beautiful sable coat.

-Now, sables are not big creatures.

Are like sort of weasels, and they have a very beautiful,

silky black coat.

Sable coat is a very valuable item

for a nomadic family even today.

Sable fur was associated

with very senior status.

This was going to come in very useful.

When Temüjin returns with his new bride

and this very princely gift, he and his brothers immediately

go to the neighboring kingdom, the Khanate of the Kerait

and give this to the ruler To'orul to sort of reforge

an alliance that had been endured between

Temujin father and the King of the Kerait

he probably swears loyalty to him.

Now the Kerait is a big, stable and large kingdom

in the central part of what's now Mongolia.

He must have been one of the most influential,

powerful rulers in the area.

To'orul Khan is someone who was an ally of Temujin's father,

Yesugei Ba-atur were both Ander, so sort of bond of loyalty

that should never be broken, a blood brotherhood.

This link is something that Temujin reactivates.

To'orul had some political influence.

He was leading the largest tribe with the most expensive

pasture of that time.

So, Temüjin saw that To'orul Khan's resources

will be very helpful for him.

The ruler of the Kerait,

makes this extraordinary promise.

He says, in return for this sable coat,

I will reunite your scattered kingdom.

Temujin, the kind of semi exiled,

reduced prince is now being supported

by the most powerful local ruler as the new ruler

of a large section of the Mongolian steppe.

So, his fortunes were transformed by the gift

of the sable cloak.

So, it's clear there must have been something about Temujin

the secret of history mentions how his contemporaries

praised him. Thought he had personality,

fire in his eyes.

But the old narrative, it was treated as a sort of puzzle

as to why a kind of simple barbarian people would create

an amazingly successful empire.

So, one way to try and explain this apparent contradiction

was charisma,

he obviously did have a commanding presence.

The king himself, To'orul, seems to trust him enormously,

supports him. So, all of these qualities,

I think were parts of his amazing character,

but he is still only one of many contenders

for these senior royal positions.

I think at this stage in his career,

Temujin really is concerned with re-establishing what he's lost.

After all, his father had ruled most of the kingdom

that had been established by Temüjin's great grandfather,

and Temüjin has been deprived of it and wants to get it back.

But perhaps even beyond that, he's on the cusp

of something bigger.

He enters the courtly politics of the Kerait Khanate

this kingdom, and is doing very well at it.

It may be that the possibility of something even bigger begins

to occur to him, that he realizes he might go further,

and, in fact, perhaps even reunite and reestablish

this much bigger kingdom.

Temujin's influence is growing stronger,

but as his power increases, so do the dangers.

The Mongolian steppe is a land of endless rivalry,

and an old enemy is preparing to strike at the heart

of Temujin's family.

Temujin's happiness with Börte

didn't last long.

A serving woman is sleeping.

She wakes up because she hears the sound of hooves.

It was Merkit, the longtime rival

of Temujin's father.

They came to kidnap his wife, Börte.

There was so many Merkits

and if they fought back, everybody would be killed.

There was a general scattering of the group.

Hö'elün Temujin mother immediately organizes

them. They jump on the available horses.

Amongst them, Temujin himself,

who took a local horse and fled.

but there is no horse for Börte,

poor Börte is left.

And you might think this was an act of cowardice,

but in fact, he knew that Börte was going to be kidnapped,

whereas he himself would have been killed.

Börte the bride is captured,

but Temüjin and his mother and brothers and so on,

they've all escaped.

This is a really dramatic moment in the young Temüjin career.

He seemed to be on the cusp of so much,

but now he's lost his bride.

The problem is, at the moment, he doesn't command

very much of anything.

So, if he's going to get his bride, Börte back again,

he is going to need help.

Börte has been kidnapped by the Merkit

and Temüjin needs to get her back.

Merkit was a really strong

and established tribe.

Temüjin didn't have soldiers, didn't have army,

didn't have anyone to help him bring Bush Börte back.

So Temüjin immediately enlists

the support of the ruler of the neighboring kingdom,

probably now his overlord, To'orul, Ong Khan,

the ruler of the Kerait.

To'orul, Ong says, for the sable coat

that you gave me last year, I will bring your wife back.

So To'orul says that he will raise

two divisions. Just how many 1000 people

is in each one, we don't know,

but nominally it means 10,000 troops.

So, he's going to raise 2-10,000 troop units

to support Temujin to get his bride back.

But it will not be strong enough to beat

the Merkit immediately.

He said, you should go to Jamuqa and ask for Jamuqa's help.

So, if Jamuqa can help you, I can help you.

Jamuqa and Temujin became Andas.

That means that they are not just family friends.

They are battle friends.

And this is very important

for the young Temujin. Jamuqa is going to raise another two

of these divisions.

Turns out one of these will actually be placed under

the command of Temujin himself.

Temujin is put in charge of a unit of 10,000 troops.

This is an important milestone for the young,

soon to be ruler Temujin.

He has endured poverty for a decade,

and is slowly becoming a fearsome leader and warrior.

This is his first true test of leadership.

-Some months later, the time came to rescue Börte.

When meeting up with Jamuqa Temujin came late,

Jamuqa told him off a bit of a strip for being late.

And the reason he did this is because if you have an army

waiting to go into action, they need feeding,

and they would have eaten a lot of the pasture.

Temujin puts this in the Secret History as a lesson

for everybody not to be late.

Said, Mongols should not be late.

This new army start marching up north

towards the Merkit territory to retrieve Börte,

because this is a really big force.

There's really nothing that the Merkit can put together

that's going to stop them.

And they move up.

Temüjin Jamuqa and To'orul soldiers

attacked Merkit.

Overtaking and eliminating

the Merkit resistance.

They conquer the Merkit.

They destroy the Merkit.

There are lots of suffering happening

for the Merkit families.

Temujin forces sweep through the enemy camp,

laying waste to everyone in their path.

The Merkits caught off guard attempt to flee,

but many are cut down in the chaos.

Temujin runs through the ruin camp,

calling out for his kidnapped bride.

Temujin is running around, calling her name,

and eventually he discovers Börte

living in somebody else's home.

It seems that Börte has been assigned to a minor nobleman

to look after.

The couple fined each other and fall

into each other's arms and becomes, once again,

part of Temujin household.

Temujin has emerged victorious,

rescued his bride

and shown his rivals that despite his youth,

he is a force to be reckoned with.

However, even though Temujin has reclaimed what was lost

after his father's death, a new ambition will now consume him

the battle to dominate all of the Mongolian steppe.