Yelü Chucai (;
Mongolian: Urtu Saqal, 吾图撒合里, "long beard"; also
Yeh-Lu Ch'u-Ts'ai) was a
Mandarin statesman of
Khitan ethnicity with royal family lineage to the
Liao Dynasty. Well versed in
Buddhist scriptures and a practitioner in
Daoism, Yelü Chucai had become best known for his service as the chief adviser to
Chingis Khan. Yelü Chucai's father
Yelu Lu, served with the
Jurchen Jin Dynasty, which defeated the Liao Dynasty in
1125, and it was the unified Mongolian army under Chingis Khan that began a war of conquest against the Jin Dynasty in
1211. Both Jurchen and Khitan rebels joined the Mongols in the fight against the Jin Dynasty, and Yelü Chucai joined Chingis Khan's administration in the year
1218 at the age of 28. He lived from
1189 to
1243. In death, Yelü Chucai was honoured with a tomb beside
Beijing's Kunming Lake, later moved to the gardens of the
Summer Palace.
The Khitans and Mongols were united by their common enemy of the
Jurchen Jin Dynasty. This is shown in the well-known words pronounced by Chingis Khan, at the end of July, when he met Yelü Chucai for the first time at his
ordos in the Sāri Steppe (west of the great bend of the Kerulen River): "Liao and Jin have been enemies for generations; I have taken revenge for you." To which Yelü Chucai replied, "My father and grandfather have both served the
Jin respectfully. How can I, as a subject and a son, be so insincere at heart as to consider my sovereign and my father as enemies?" The Mongol is said to have been impressed by this frank reply, as well as by Yelü Chucai’s looks (he was a very tall man with a magnificent beard reaching to his waist) and sonorous voice. He gave him the nickname "Urtu Saqal" (Long Beard) and placed him in his retinue as an adviser.
He did his best to convince the Mongols to tax rather than slaughter conquered peoples. In
Grousset's Empire of the steppes, it is reported that
Ögedei would tease him, saying "Are you going to weep for the people again?". The wise chancellor had great words to temper the barbaric leanings of Mongol methodology, stating to Chingis Khan's son and successor to the throne; that empires may be conquered on horseback, but could not be ruled on horseback.
While
Northern China was capitulating under the Mongol onslaught, Yelü Chucai instituted several administrative reforms, like separating civil and military powers and introducing numerous taxes and levies. In response to the tough resistance the Mongol army faced while trying to conquer the Jurchen Jin's southern capital of
Kaifeng, some Mongol officers in high command recommended the complete razing of Kaifeng and the deaths of all it's occupants. But Yelü Chucai convinced Chingis Khan to rule and tax the people, and make use of their extraordinary talents instead of killing all of them in order to further their own riches.
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/yeh-lu-chu-tsai/. He was six-foot eight-inches tall and had a waist-length beard.
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