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Amursana (Mongolian ; ; 172321September 1757) was an 18th-century taishi () or prince of the Khoid-Oirats tribe that ruled over parts of Dzungaria and Altishahr in present-day northwest China. Known as the last great Oirat hero, Amursana was the last of the Dzungar rulers. The defeat of his rebel forces by Qing dynasty Chinese armies in the late 1750s signaled the final extinction of Mongol influence and power in Inner Asia, ensured the incorporation of Mongol territory into the Qing Empire, and brought about the Dzungar genocide, the Qing Emperor's "final solution" to China's northwest frontier problems.
As a Khoit, Amursana did not rank as part of the Dzungar Khanate's hierarchy and relied on Dawachi for influence among the various Oirat clans. Nevertheless, marriage to the daughter of Ablai Khan, leader of the neighboring Kazakh Khanate, and alliances with various Oirat clan leaders enabled him to build up enough support to call on Dawachi to divide the Khanate's lands between them. Dawachi refused and instead attacked his former ally, forcing him to flee east to Khovd. There, Amursana swore allegiance to the Qing dynasty Qianlong Emperor, bringing with him 5,000 soldiers and 20,000 women and children. He then traveled to Beijing to seek the emperor's assistance in defeating Dawachi and retaking Ili and neighboring Kashgar. Amursana's persuaded the ambitious and glory-seeking Qianlong to back his plan, in addition to granting him a princedom of the first degree (), which entitled Amursana to double stipends and privileges, as a bonus.
Meanwhile, most of the Oirat Khoshut had also defected to the Qing leaving Dawachireportedly a "drunken and incompetent" rulerwith only the Dzungars under his control.
Qing forces captured Ili without a fight and Dawachi withdrew south-west to the Zhaosu County where he made a last stand with his 10,000 men. Dawachi's army was routed and he was captured and dispatched to Beijing. Amursana had hoped to usurp Dawachi's position as head of the Dzungars but Qianlong had already pre-empted such a move. Before the expedition to Ili had set out and fearing the rise of a new Mongolian empire, Qianlong had proclaimed that the four Oirat clans of Dzungaria would be resettled in their own territory each with their own Khan appointed directly by Beijing. Amursana spurned the offer of Khan over the Khoits and demanded to be khan of all Oirats. Amursana was instructed to return to Beijing but sensing danger, he escaped from his escort en route to the Qing imperial resort of Chengde on 24September 1755.
Meanwhile, as he had promised, Qianlong appointed Khans for each of the four Oirat clans in a move designed to prevent them joining the rebellion. Qing troops were once more dispatched in late March, 1756 retook Ili. Amursana escaped and fled to the Kazakh Khanate where his father-in-law, Ablai Khan, refused to hand him over, despite the threat of a Qing invasion of his territory.
Qianlong railed at his generals for their failure to capture the fugitive, saying they were a waste of time and money. He dismissed them and ordered the withdrawal of all troops then appointed Zhaohui commander of a small expeditionary force that was sent to garrison Ili.
Amursana returned to Ili to rally the insurgents and almost annihilated Zhaohui's forces. The hopelessly outnumbered Chinese general, despite putting up a spirited defence, was forced to retreat with 500 soldiers. The rebels cut the post routes to the capital but Zhaohui managed to fight his way back to Barkul, where he pleaded with Qianlong to take more drastic measures against the rebels.
Meanwhile, Qing attention became temporarily focused on the Khalka prince Chingünjav, a descendant of Genghis Khan, who between the summer of 1756 and January 1757 mounted the most serious Khalka Mongol rebellion against the Qing until its demise in 1911. Before dealing with Amursana, the majority of Qianlong's forces were reassigned to ensure stability in Khalka until Chingünjav's army was crushed by the Qing in a ferocious battle near Lake Khövsgöl in January, 1757.
After the victory, Qianlong dispatched additional forces to Ili where they quickly routed the rebels. Amursana escaped for a third time to the Kazakh Khanate, but not long afterwards Ablai Khan pledged tributary status to the Chinese, which meant Amursana was no longer safe.
The Chinese demanded the return of the fugitive and his followers under the terms of Article X to the Treaty of Kiakhta, but the Russians hid the facts behind his flight and death hoping to gain leverage through the possession of his body. After Qing envoys were told that Amursana had died crossing the Irtysh River, they spent the next month dredging it but found nothing. After a long period of wrangling, the Russians finally agreed to ship Amursana's frozen body from Tobolsk to Kiakhta for viewing but refused a request that it be handed over for "posthumous punishment"; they instead buried it. Repeated Qing requests to St. Petersburg for the return of Amursana's corpse were rebutted by the Russians on the grounds that their amicable relations should not be upset by "a few rotten bones". Qianlong piled on the pressure: he placed Russian Orthodox monks in Beijing under house arrest and threatened to cut off trade altogether. In the end, Amursana's body was not returned. Qianlong's insistence that "The state only needs to capture Amursana. When he has died, and his body is retrieved, the entire Dzungar affair can be called a success", failed to convince the Russians to return the body.
Qianlong's obsession with the matter appears to have been influenced by his grandfather Kangxi Emperor's treatment of the body of his arch-enemy Galdan Boshugtu Khan, whose head was placed on public display and his ashes crushed on the military parade ground in the Chinese capital.
On 18October 1768, both parties signed an amendment to Article X of the Treaty of Kiakhta in the Russian, Manchu and Mongol languages prescribing punishments that would apply to future criminals, including defectors. However, as the border with Dzungaria had not been defined at the time of the original 1727 treaty, Amursana and his compatriots did not qualify.
Ja Lama (1862–1922), who fought successive campaigns against Chinese rule in western Mongolia between 1890 and 1922, at first claimed to be the grandson and later the reincarnation of Amursana. He was also the inspiration behind the Burkhanism new religious movement.
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