Summary and Comments on Masaaki Sugiyama's "World History from a Nomadic Perspective" - An exciting book that shatters our preconceived notions! To gain a multifaceted view of history
Introduced here is Masaaki Sugiyama's "World History from a Nomadic Perspective," published by Nikkei Inc. in 2011.
Let's take a quick look at the book.
World history looks different when viewed from the perspective of nomadic peoples. From the Scythians and the Xiongnu to the Turks, Uyghurs, Khitai, and the Mongol Empire, this book uses a vast amount of original historical documents to redraw human history from the perspective of the peoples of the steppes. An expanded edition of a long-selling collection.
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This book is a work that overturns the image of nomads that we vaguely imagine. It is also a terrifying work that questions not only the existence of nomads, but also our very understanding of history.
At the beginning of this book, the author states
Fourteen years ago, in October 1997, Nikkei Inc. published a book titled "World History from the Nomadic Perspective: Beyond Ethnicity and National Borders. For a long time now, nomads have always been associated with a negative image, both in the West and in the East. It has been almost a standardized practice for historians, historical researchers, ethnographers, historians of civilization, critics, and writers to speak of nomads in stereotypical images of barbarism and slaughter.
In addition to the contempt for Asia that originated in the modern West and a sense of superiority or "racism" as the flip side of that contempt, prejudice and preoccupation by Japanese and Chinese scholars helped to create an extremely simplistic and naive "image of the villains of history In addition to a sense of superiority or "discriminatory thought," prejudice and preoccupation by Japanese and Chinese scholars helped to create an extremely simple and naive "image of historical villains. Such a picture had become commonplace in high school textbooks on world history, and the stereotypical image of history imprinted by studying for entrance examinations and the like had taken root in the minds of students without their being aware of it. The main motif in writing this book was "It's not really like that. ......
Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Masaaki Sugiyama, World History from a Nomadic Perspective, p. 3-4.
I have recently been reading books on Chinese history in the process of studying Buddhism, and it is true that I had an image of nomads as fighting people from Mongolia and northern China. Although I knew in my mind that this was not the whole story, this book made me realize that "nomadism and aggression" were always associated with each other.
Also, I was previously studying on the subject of Shinran and Dostoevsky and came to know the term "Tatar yoke" in Russian history. For more on this, see.Takeo Kuriusawa, "Tatar Kubiki: A Study of Mongol Domination in Russian History," a recommended reference book for understanding the connections between Russia and Asia!As I mentioned in the article "The Tatar Yoke", this is exactly what this book is about. The Tatar Yoke, in short, is the domination of Russia by the Mongols. I will give you a brief outline of the process below.
According to the book above, the center of the region was still Kiev, Ukraine, which in the 13th century was still not yet a dynasty-centered state in Russia.
In 1237, however, such a situation underwent a significant change.
The Tatars, or Mongols, appeared in Russia. The commander at that time was Batu, the grandson of Genghis Khan. The Mongol army, famous in Japanese history, was about to invade Europe at last.
Once the Russians seemed to have driven the Tatar army back, they were only scouts.
The Tatar army reappeared in 1240 and attacked with an incomparable force, and in no time Kiev fell. In no time, Kiev fell and the Principality of Kiev was destroyed.
Their advance was unstoppable and the whole of Russia was overrun and decimated by the Tatar army.
Then, in 1243, southern Russia came under the power of the Tatars and the Kipchak Khanate was established.
Henceforth, all of Russia would be forced to pay taxes to the Tatars.
This was the beginning of the tatar yoke.
However, this book, "Nomads to World History," had the following to say about these Russians and Tatars.
The Russian Empire was born out of Mongol hegemony. The expansion and growth of the Russian empire can be seen as the reverse of Mongol domination. The Russian empire, while carrying the shadow of Mongol domination in its constitution for a long time, was very reluctant to have it overtly stated on the surface. Rather, it continued to cry out loudly that the Mongols were an evil power that had brought nothing but misfortune to Russia.
The Russian tsar used the myth of the Russian people's deliverance from the evil rule of the Mongols as one of the justifications for his rule. The Russian Orthodox Church continued to play the role of enshrining the myth.
The image of Mongolia as the evil one and the ChristianhellThe famous "story" of the "Tatar yoke," which is a combination of the word "Tatar" (Mongolia was sometimes called by the name of Tatar, a powerful tribal alliance before the integration of the plateaus. The famous "story" of the "yoke of Tatars," in which Mongolia is a self-proclaimed name and Tatars are other names, emerged from the above. Russia is sucked in by the Tatars, or Mongols, from hell. It is just like the yoke of a car tied around the neck of an ox.
The bulls are Russian, and the Mongolian people are flopping down on a cart pulled by an ox. Such "stories" were included in elementary school textbooks during the Soviet era. Hatred is often a creation. However, one can only feel sorry for the people of Kulm Tatar and the Republic of Tatarstan, who were forced to take the name "Tatar" by the Russians. They were forced to bear the image of an evil entity, along with feelings of hatred. The smell of "scapegoating" for domination is strong.
Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Masaaki Sugiyama, World History from a Nomadic Perspective, p. 429-431
I have read many books on Russia, and this was a poignant point for me. I was puzzled as to why I had not noticed this at all.
The book will carefully explain that the nomads and Tatars were not all about cruelty.
What is a nomad? What kind of world did they live in? What kind of preconceptions do we have about the nomads?
I wrote "shattering preconceived notions" in the title of this article, and that is exactly what happened. At least, I was shattered to my heart's content.
This is despite the fact that I have been reading a variety of genres and trying to look at things from as many different perspectives as possible. I am extremely embarrassed by this fact.
I am sure many of you will feel the same way as I do after reading this book. It was a very painful book. This book was originally recommended to me by a senior monk who is also an expert on Chinese history. I have been wanting to introduce this book on my blog for a long time, so I am happy to finally be able to do so here. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you.
I highly recommend this book to everyone. The above is "Masaaki Sugiyama's "World History from a Nomadic Perspective" - An exciting book that shatters our preconceived notions! To gain a multifaceted view of history".
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