Sons and Daughters of Genghis Khan

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Edutainment > Articles on Art > Mongolia Artists > The Sons and Daughters of Genghis Khan

In order to enjoy the art works by Wu Enqi and Shan Dan it is certainly not necessary to know anything about Genghis Khan or the Mongolian people. But art has always been embedded in historical and cultural roots. And it is more fun to know what is behind these images of gorgeous landscapes, horses and tough-looking people.

This article was meant as a background information for auction # 159 by artelino from February 6-10, 2005 - "The Sons and Daughters of Genghis Khan" - featuring art prints by Wu Enqi and Shan Dan. Both artists were born and raised in the vast grasslands of the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia, former homeland of Genghis Khan.

Genghis Khan (1162(?)-1227) and the Mongol Tribes

Genghis Khan was born under his real name Temujin as the son of a Mongol tribal leader. The Mongols were nomads living in the region North of the great Gobi desert and South of Siberia. They followed a kind of shamanistic religion and considered themselves as favored people and chosen by the gods to rule others. The Mongol nomads were organized in different clans that occasionally fought against each other. Temujin first made himself a name by defeating the Tartars, and then by and by unified the different tribes under his rule. In 1206 he changed his name to Genghis Khan, meaning something like "The Universal Leader".

After the unification of the Mongol tribes, Genghis Khan ruled over a population of only roughly 700,000 people. But the Mongols should soon conquer large parts of Asia at an incredible speed - Northern China, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Iraq, Persia and Asia Minor. When he died in 1227, his empire reached from Russia to the Yellow Sea. His four recognized sons divided the empire in four regions and expanded the Mongol empire even further. Under Genghis Khan grandson Kublai Khan (1215-1294), the Mongol Empire reached its largest expansion - the largest realm in human history. After failed attempts to conquer Japan (two huge Mongol fleets were destroyed by tempests off the coast of Japan), the Southeast Asian countries with Vietnam and Birma and Indonesia, the Mongol empire slowly declined over a period of two centuries.

Military and Political Supremacy by Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan was a brilliant military leader and statesman at the same time. Used to a life in the saddle of horses from childhood on and to the hardships of life in the Mongolian grasslands, the nomad warriors were hard to beat. Their major weapon was the bow and arrows. And they could move on their small horses and with all their experience as nomads very fast from one place to another - even under extreme temperature conditions and other harshness. European knights in their heavy armor were devastatingly beaten at Liegnitz in 1241 (long after Genghis Khan's death) and later in Hungary. Only the news that his father, the Khan, was on the death bed, made Batu, the leader of the Mongol army in Europe, suddenly retreat back to the East. Historians assume that otherwise the whole of Europe might have come under Mongol rule.

But it was more the strategy and tactics that made the Mongol armies so successful. Genghis Khan spared those who surrendered, and brutally destroyed those who opposed him without any pardoning. Those who had surrendered were preferably integrated as allies. Genghis Khan who was forced to lead a modest life and who had experienced much injustice as a youth, chose his advisors and generals by their merits and capabilities and not by status of birth. Even former enemies could raise into a responsible position if they were loyal towards Genghis Khan. It was a kind of "Mongol citizenship" based on loyalty and accepting a certain "way of life" instead of ethnic origins and race.

Genghis Khan had introduced a legal system within the Mongol people, called Yasa or Yassa. It regulated precisely what was not allowed. The usual punishment was the death penalty. The Yasa ended the tribal feuds among the Mongols. Central issues of the Yasa were the outlawing of theft of lifestock, abduction of women, forced marriages for money or stealing of property.

Genghis Khan tolerated religious freedom in the countries that he had subdued. He promoted trade, science and arts in his empire. And although he had been illiterate himself at least in his younger years, he adopted a system of written characters from one of the peoples he had subdued. Torture was officially outlawed. But "The Great Leader" had no scruples to butcher whole populations of cities who had dared to resist. But he spared people of higher education like doctors, scientists and artists or people with skills useful to him. These were often relocated in his huge empire to serve him somewhere else. The fear of Genghis Khan's retaliation paved many ways for conquests without fighting a battle.

The Mongol People Today

The descendants of Genghis Khan are today mainly dispersed over the Republic of Mongolia as an independent nation with its capital Ulaan Baatar, and in the South the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia as a part of China.

Until the break-up of the former Soviet Union, Mongolia had been under strict Communist control and strong influence by Moscow. Since 1990 the Republic of Mongolia is in transition to a market-oriented economy. With 1.560.000 square kilometers Mongolia is nearly 38 times larger than Switzerland, but has only 35% of Switzerland's population - 2.6 million against 7.31 million.

The Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia is the homeland of Wu Enqi and Shan Dan. It borders in the North to the Republic of Mongolia and to Russia and is the third largest Chinese province with 1.1. million square kilometers. With 24 million inhabitants it is by far more densely populated compared to the Republic of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia is the homeland of Genghis Khan and holds a Mausoleum of the "Great Ruler". But the location of his real tomb remains unknown until our days in spite of some recent archaeological attempts.

Wu Enqi and Shan Dan

In February 2005, artelino held an auction with works by Wu Enqi and Shan Dan. Both artists were born in the Grasslands of Inner Mongolia. Wu Enqi, born 1953 and Shan Dan, born 1954 are a married couple who live in Tongliao in the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia.

Both received a solid art training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and have received great honors in China with their art prints making the tradition of Mongol nomads alive in their images. Shan Dan had a solo exhibition at the China Museum of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1998. Wu Enqi is Vice president of the Inner Mongolia Printmakers' Association. Both Wu enqi and Shan Dan received the renowned Luxun prize (Lu Xun) in 1999.

For detailed biographies/resumes of the two artists, please follow their linked names.

More Leading Artists from Inner Mongolia

In late summer of 2007 we received another consignment of art prints by leading artists from Inner Mongolia. This time the prints were consigned directly by the artists. It was the result of a cooperation between artists from Yunnan and their colleagues from Inner Mongolia. The consignment was huge and comprised a very large number of artists that we could present for the first time in artelino auctions. Among the consignment were also 24 prints that had taken part in a touring exhibition in China in 2007 - see Mongolian Artists' Prints Touring Exhibition.

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