The Lost Tomb : Extras & Special Stories

(Extra: Wu Xie's Private Notes) Chapter 33: Other Related Information 2

007 Dongxia

Information:

Books seldom mention the existence of Dongxia [1], which was under Jurchen [2] rule. At the time of the decline and fall of the Jin Dynasty [3], this national entity had existed for more than seventy years in order to rejuvenate Jurchens and get them to stand on their own.

The territory was comprised of Jilin and the majority of the two Heilongjiang provinces. Along with Mongolia, it once received tributes from Goryeo [4]. It ruled the eastern Liaoning region. The country was originally called Dazhen, and then Dongxia, and it was even called Dongzhen in Korean historical records.

1. Puxian Wannu

First of all, it's necessary to introduce its founder, Puxian Wannu. He was a prominent figure in Northeastern China's history, but neither "History of Jin" [5] nor "History of Yuan" [6] mention much about him. Some of his sporadic deeds could be found in "Ji" and "Zhuan" [7], but that may be related to historians' prejudice against him since they saw him as a "rebel" and a "traitor".

It could also be a result of there not being enough materials for them to compile his history, so it wasn't until hundreds of years later that a special independent biography was written in "New History of Yuan", "the Book of Yuan", and so on.

Note: It still doesn't make sense. Since there weren't enough materials when they were writing "History of Jin" and "History of Yuan", how were they able to write an independent biography for him hundreds of years later? Was the supplementary biography mostly fictitious? It wasn't as rigorous as the previous sporadic records.

In addition, blaming it on the prejudices of historians didn't make sense, either, because history is all about recording the positive and negative. There could only be one reason why there was no record of someone— they were irrelevant. If this man was truly so despicable, people should have been writing of his misdeeds and smearing his name for thousands of years.

This part of history was either deemed irrelevant by historians, or there was no information at all, making it impossible to even fabricate it.

Puxian Wannu was a descendent of Liao people. Throughout history, two things have always been said about him. One was negative and said that he should be criticized because he was a careerist who engaged in rebellion, divided the Jin Dynasty, and weakened the resistance to Mongolia. The other was positive and praised him as a "strange hero of Liaodong", even going as far as to say he was almost as good as Aguda [8].

Due to the lack of historical records, there was even a debate about his name. Some recorded him as Wanyan Wannu, Fuhe Na, Fuxian Wannu, Buxi Wannu, Tuzhu Dashi, Wan Jianu, Yenu, Xiao Wannu, Wan Sunu, etc.

"Fuhe", "Fuxian", and "Buxi" were alternative names of "Puxian", and "Ne" was shorthand for "Wannu". It's possible "Wan Yan" is his given surname.

Note: In other words, the recorded history may be a collection of countless names that were mixed together because of similar pronunciations. This is a typical historical fallacy, which mistakes two people with similar names for one person.

He first appeared in the historical records as a deputy minister of Shangjiu Bureau (Shangjiu Bureau was an institution in charge of training horses) in the sixth year of Emperor Zhangzong of Jin's reign (1206). He was also the lieutenant of right-wing general Wanyan Saibu, and fought against the Song army (from "History of Jin", Volume 12, chapter "Zhangzong Ji [9] Four").

According to Volume 113 of "Wanyan Saibu Zhuan" [10], Wannu launched a sneak attack in conjunction with Wanyan Saibu's frontal assault, and achieved a huge victory over tens of thousands of horsemen from the Song Army's main force that was led by Huang Fubin.