Story 17. The legendary homeland of the Turkic and Mogol (Mongol) tribes, “Arghana Kun” is “a county of the Amlog River”

Story 17. The legendary homeland of the Turkic and Mogol (Mongol) tribes, “Arghana Kun” is “a county of the Amlog River” 

Episode 1. Is Arghana Kun the “Argon River” in the upper reaches of the Amur River? 

Let’s briefly review the facts we have seen so far. 

Once upon a time, a great war broke out between the Tatars and the Mongols, and the Malgal army was defeated and annihilated. At that time, only Kayan and Nekuz barely survived among the Malgal (Mogol) people, and they entered the legendary place called “Ergene Kun” with their newlywed wives and a few servants. 

This land is called “the homeland of all Turkic and Mongol tribes” among the Turkic peoples of Turkey and Central Asia today. 

Up to now, many scholars and researchers who are interested in this “Ergene Kun” have tried to clarify where this “Ergene Kun” is and have provided empirical evidence. 

However, in the efforts of Dr. Jeon Won-cheol to find the historical reality, 

“Ergene Kun” is not a legendary place name but a real place name, 

and also, the “Great War between the Tatars and the Mongols” was 

the war between the allied forces of the four countries of the Malgal (Balhae) 

and the Tang-Silla-Shilwi-Heuksu Malgal. 

The 8th Khan of the Tatar tribe behind this war was none other than Cheon Hyeon-jeong, the grandson of the Goguryeo Daedaero-Makriji Namsaeng, who fled to the Tang at the end of Goguryeo, or Gaebok-sun. The Tatar tribe was a family of generations. 

The family of generations plotted with the Kirghiz Khan (Xianbei Khan), 

the Tang Xuanzong, to weaken Mogol (Mongol) that succeeded Goguryeo, and Balhae, and to separate the Heuksu Malgal, which led to a war between the two countries. 

This was the Balhae-Tang War. 

The legendary ancestor of the Turkic race who died in this war, 

the Malgal (Mongol) ‘Il Han’, was the second son of Daeyabal, the founder of the second royal family of Balhae, ‘Ilha’. 

Kiyan, who barely survived the annihilation of the Mongol army, fled with Nekuz to the legendary homeland of all Turks and Mongols, ‘Ergene Kun’. Here, Kiyan, who became the legendary ancestor of Genghis Khan, was Ilha’s son ‘Gan’. 

His cousin Nekuz was the grandson of Balhae’s second king Daemuye. 

He was the son of Daemuye’s son, Dorihaeng, and was called ‘Nimgeum’ in Malgal. 

So where exactly is the ‘Ergene Kun’ that these two people were said to have gone to? 

As for the location of this legendary region, there is a mainstream theory that it is the “Argun River in the upper reaches of the Amur River” in today’s Russia, 

and a minority theory that it is the “Tannu Uryanghai” in the Tuva Republic of the Russian Federation. If either of these views is correct, the “Great War between the Tatars and the Mogols (Mongols)” that led the legendary ancestors of Genghis Khan to take refuge there should have occurred not far from that region. 

However, the truth of history is not like that at all. 

The “Argun River” region that the mainstream theory speaks of corresponds to the area controlled by Shilwei(室韋). However, there is no record at all in the Eastern History Book that the legendary great war took place there.

 

On the contrary, there is a clear record of a historical great war corresponding to the legend taking place in the land of Balhae, thousands of miles to the southeast. 

Although the war began with Balhae attacking Tang Dengzhou, it was a two-front war in the latter half, with Tang advancing from the continent to the east and Silla advancing from the south of the peninsula to the north of Balhae. 

In the end, the battle at the point where the Mogol (Mongol) army was completely destroyed took place in the area closest to the border between Tang and Silla among the Balhae territories. 

At the decisive moment of history, the battle took place in one area of Balhae, and from the Malgal (Mogol) side that was completely destroyed in the battle, only two families, Kiyan and Nekuz, barely survived and fled to “Ergene Kun.”

 If so, it is only natural that the Ergene Kun fled deep inside Balhae, where they were safest. If so, where was “Ergene Kun”? It was surprisingly the “Amlog River Ne(ui) Gun” nicknamed the Western Capital of Balhae. It was an area that is recorded in as “Balhae Capital Amlog Gun.” 

Episode 2. The problem with the view that the mainstream theory says that “Ergene Qu’n” is the “Argun River” in the upper reaches of the Amur River.

 The view of the Mongolian scholar L. Bilegt is as follows in his 1994 paper and is also quoted in the published under the signature of the President of the Republic of Mongolia in 2004. 

“Kyan and Nekuz went to Ergun Kun, where they saved their lives.

 Many scholars have different ideas about where this region was, but most of them believe that it was the land near today’s Argun or Ergu’ne mo’ro’n, specifically the Argon Mountains in today’s Russian Republic.” 

Bilect refered to it as “Ergun Kun,” and three years after he presented this view, in 1997, Zorigtuyev, a Mongolian Buddhist and Tibetan scholar from the Siberian Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the Republic of Buryatia, also presented the same idea, following the version of the theory previously presented by Japanese scholar Shiratori Kuragachi. Professor Kim Ho-dong, who translated the book in 2002, must have referred to their views, but he repeated the view that “Ergene Kun” refered to the “Argun River basin in the upper reaches of the Amur River in Inner Mongolia,” and even added that “qun means ‘valley, cliff’ in the Molgol language.” 

What are the problems with the mainstream theory? 

They consider the present-day Argun River to be phonetically equivalent to Ergene Kun, that is, the fact that these two names sound similar to each other, as the main evidence for their belief that the two are the same place. 

However, the fact that the names sound similar or the same alone does not mean that the two are the same place. Because there is another river that sounds exactly like “Argun Ha,” which is considered to be Ergene Kun. 

It is the “Argun River,” which flows through Georgia in the Northern Caucasus and the Chechen Republic of Russia. This river clearly sounds exactly the same as the Russian name “Argun Ha,” which many scholars consider to be the same as Ergene Kun. 

However, this river is geographically thousands of miles away from the “Argun Ha” in the upper reaches of the Amur River, and it is also a completely different river historically. And even if the names are similar or the same, there is no “Argun Kon/Kun.” There is no mountain or administrative district name that means Kon/Kun that matches this. 

Even if the “Argun River” basin in the upper reaches of the Amur River is considered “Ergene Kun,” it should be shown what historical connection the “Tatar-Mogol (Malgal) War” mentioned in or , which was the occasion for the two legendary figures to enter the “Ergene Kun,” has with today’s “Argun River.” 

At the very least, it should show historical records of when and where “the Tatar and Mogol (Malgal) tribes fought a great war”. 

However, mainstream scholars have not been able to show which war the “Tatar-Mogol (Malgal) War” is, not a legend, but a historical reality, and they also do not know about the “Balhae and Tang War” that Kiyan and his party went into hiding in the aftermath of that war. 

Also, even if they acknowledged the war between Balhae and Tang and escaped from it, it is too far removed from the fiercely contested battlefield where Kiyan and Takazu fled after being surrounded by enemy forces during the war. 

The Records of Wu Seung-ja in records that “Balhae’s Daemuye led his army to Madosan(Mado mt) and occupied the city.” In wrote, “Ten years later, Daemuye sent his general Jang Mun-ye to attack Dengzhou and Laizhou and killed the military officer Wei Jun, so Tang ordered King Kim Hong-gwang of Silla to attack the southern border of Balhae, but he was unable to win.

 

Han Chang-ryeo’s records that when the king of Balhae reached Mado Mountain, the people fled to avoid forced labor and lost their livelihoods. The Sangseo led his troops to block the road, divided the fields, and piled stones for 160km. The height and thickness were both as much as stone walls, so the enemy could not enter, and only then did the people return home. 

Five thousand cavalrymen of the Heuksu Malgal (黑水靺鞨) and Silwi (室韋) rushed to join the fence, further increasing their power. However, the story in records that after this battle, the Tang army invaded Balhae. If so, the Balhae-Tang war would have spread through this region to the Balhae Bay area and toward the Bakjak-gu (泊汋口) at the mouth of the Amnok River, a strategic point for Balhae’s waterways, which was part of the “Western Capital Amnokbu.” 

The Silla army was advancing toward the southern border of Balhae. The Tang and Silla attacked Balhae by land along the two routes of the continent and the peninsula.

 Therefore, the battle in which Ilha died and Kiyan and Nikuz fled must have taken place somewhere in Balhae, not far from there. The land of Silwi (室韋) where the “Argun Ha” mentioned by the mainstream theory is located is near Hoewonbu, the end of Balhae’s northwestern border, which is hundreds of kms away from Balhae and Tang. 

This means Kiyan and Takaz were also hundreds of kms northwest from Balhae’s political center, a place that would take dozens of days to reach by horseback for the royal family to seek safety. 

Also, the area was under the military control of Silwi (室韋) and Tang, which were hostile to Balhae and were in battle. states that “Kiyan” and “Takaz” escaped a certain area surrounded by enemy forces in the evening, rode horses through the dark night, and arrived at “Argana Kun” at dawn. 

“Kayon and Nukuz were left with their respective wives among those who killed them. When the sun set and the eyebrows turned dark in the battlefield, they got up from their seats, and the horses of the captured people were just the right number for them. So they started to escape on those horses. By sunrise, they had barely reached a certain area… ..” … . A mountain stood there like a sculpture. Could it be said that it was a piece of paper that had fallen from the sky?.... The Turks call this mountain Arka or Kun, which means “a rugged valley.” Arkana Kun was a rugged valley in the land of Balhae, not far from the battlefield that was difficult to reach even after riding for dozens of days, but half a day’s ride on horseback.