万历六年阿拉坦汗青海之行始末考

A Study on the History of Altan Khan′s Journey to Qinghai in 1578

万历六年(1578年),阿拉坦汗以迎佛为名,前往青海,在仰华寺与西藏僧人索南嘉措会面。在蒙汉史料中有关此次青海之行原因的记载截然不同,蒙文史料宣称阿拉坦汗迎佛是出于宗教热情,而汉文史籍则认为阿拉坦汗前往青海迎佛是为了掩盖他打击瓦剌的真实目的,并以军事上的失败而告终。结合多种史料分析,万历六年阿拉坦汗青海之行并非单纯的宗教行为,阿拉坦汗本人对战争不感兴趣,但其麾下鄂尔多斯部试图借此机会发动对瓦剌的战争。然而瓦剌远走,行踪难觅,加之明廷催促阿拉坦汗尽快东归,此行基本上没有爆发大规模的战斗,更无明廷所言的瓦剌大败阿拉坦汗。

In 1578,Altan Khan went to Qinghai in the name of welcoming the Buddha and met with the Tibetan monk Sonam Gyatso at Yanghua Temple.The reasons for this trip to Qinghai are completely different in the Mongolian and Chinese historical records.The Mongolian historical records claim that Altan Khan welcomed the Buddha out of religious enthusiasm,while the Chinese ones believe that Altan Khan′s visit to Qinghai to greet the Buddha was to cover up his true purpose of attacking the Oirat,which ended up with a failure.Through the analysis of various historical materials,it can be concluded that the trip of Alatan Khan to Qinghai in the sixth year of the Wanli reign was not purely a religious act.Altan Khan himself was not interested in war,but his subordinate Ordos tried to take this opportunity to launch a war against Oirat.However,Oirat′s whereabouts were difficult to find,and coupled with the Ming court urging Alatan Khan to return east as soon as possible,there was basically no large-scale battle on this trip,let alone the Ming court′s claim that Oirat had defeated Alatan Khan.