The Manchus: second rising
逐鹿中原: the founding of Qing dynasty
Enough procrastination, time to finish the second chapter of Manchu history.
After losing their empire to Genghis Khan in 1234, the Jurchens faded into relative obscurity. Some of the Jurchens who survived the Mongol onslaught stayed in China & were assimilated by the Chinese. Others, however, flipped over the Great Wall & joined other Jurchids brethrens in their Manchurian/Eastern Siberian ancestral homeland, reverting to the hunter/gatherer ancestral lifestyle, only to re-emerge 410 years later to found the Qing dynasty (清朝 in Chinese,
daicing gurun in Manchurian).
During much of the 400 or so intervening years that spanned the Mongol Yuan & Chinese Ming dynasties, the Jurchens were not noteworthy to occupy even a single page in Chinese annals. As disorganized bands of woodsmen, the Juchens traded forest products (notably furs) with the Chinese in exchange for metal tools & textiles, while providing limited mercenary service to the Chinese. Occasionally, the Jurchens would raid Chinese border settlements when these refused to trade, but the Jurchens were considered a minor nuisance by the Ming court rather than a serious threat to their sovereignty. For most parts, the focus of Ming military effort had been the Mongols, who vowed to restore the Yuan dynasty.
All these would change with the emergence of a minor chieftain by the name of Nurhaci
.
