Ming forces.—Advance of Su tu, the Ming general, to the Kerulon.—Death of the Mongol heir. Succession of his son Tukus Timur, 1378.—Defeat of Tukus Timur by Chu forces.—Assassination of Tukus Timur.—Civil war roused by Yissudar.—Invitation of the Emperor of China to Buin Shara to declare himself vassal.—Invasion of Mongolia by a Chinese army.—Yung lo’s advance to the Kerulon.—Defeat of the Mongols.—Death of Buin Shara, 1412.—The Manchu dynasty.—End of Mongol power 384 THE MONGOLS CHAPTER I CLASSIFICATION, MYTH AND REALITY From an obscure and uncertain beginning the word Mongol has gone on increasing in significance and spreading geographically during more than ten centuries until it has filled the whole earth with its presence. From the time when men used it at first until our day this word has been known in three senses especially. In the first sense it refers to some small groups of hunters and herdsmen living north of the great Gobi desert; in the second it denotes certain peoples in Asia and Eastern Europe; in the third and most recent, a worldwide extension has been given it. In this third and the broad sense the word Mongol has been made to include in one category all yellow skinned nations, or peoples, including those too with a reddish-brown, or dark tinge in the yellow, having also straight hair, always black, and dark eyes of various degrees of intensity. In this sense the word Mongol co-ordinates vast numbers of people, immense groups of men who are like one another in some traits, and widely dissimilar in others. It embraces the Chinese, the Coreans, the Japanese, the Manchus, the original Mongols with their near relatives the Tartar, or Turkish tribes which hold Central Asia, or most of it. Moving westward from China this term covers the Tibetans and with them all the non-Aryan nations and tribes until we reach India and Persia. In India, whose most striking history in modern ages is Mongol, nearly all populations save Aryans and Semites are classified with Mongols. In Persia where the dynasty is Mongol that race is preponderant in places and important throughout the whole kingdom, though in a minority. In Asia Minor the Mongol is master, for the Turk is still sovereign, and will be till a great rearrangement is effected. Five groups of Mongols have made themselves famous in Europe: the Huns with their mighty chief Attila, the Bulgars, the Magyars, the Turks or Osmanli, and the Mongol invaders of Russia. All these five will have their due places later on in this history. In Africa there have been and are still Mongol people. The Mamelukes and their forces at Cairo were in their time remarkable, and Turkish dominion exists till the present, at least theoretically, in Egypt, and west of it. Not restricted to the Eastern hemisphere the word Mongol is still further used to include aboriginal man in America.