A tug ( , , or توغ ) or sulde (, ) is a pole with circularly arranged horsetail hairs of varying colors arranged at the top. It was historically flown during the period of the Mongol Empire and also by the Turkic tribal confederations such as the Duolu (Tuğluğ Confederation),[ Довідник з історії України. За ред. І. Підкови та Р. Шуста. — Київ: Генеза, 1993.] Among the Ottomans, the tug, as a sign of power and rank of , was in use before the introduction of combat troops. Based on the number of tugs attached, a pasha was called "two-tug" and "three-tug."
In the 17th century, it was also adopted by East Slavs paramilitaries, the Cossacks and , under the name bunchuk (, ), which is the reflection of the original Common Turkic word bōnčuk. It is still used by some units of the Polish military.
History
Early history
According to
Gerard Clauson, the Turkic word
tu:ğ, for traditional Turkic standards made from horse-tails or bunches of horse-hair, was borrowed from
Middle Chinese *
dok 纛 "banner, standard" (whose ancestor is
Old Chinese *
du:g (ZS)
[Zheng Zhang (Chinese: 鄭張), Shang-fang (Chinese: 尚芳). 纛 – 上古音系第二千四百八十九字 纛. ytenx.org 韻典網 (in Chinese). Rearranged by BYVoid.] ~
dˤuk[Baxter, William H. & Sagart, Laurent (2014) Baxter-Sagart Old Chinese reconstruction, version 1.1 (20 September 2014): order: by Mandarin and Middle Chinese ( pdf) p. 23 of 161] and one of whose many descendants is
standard Chinese dú). In contrast, according to linguist Sevan Nişanyan, the author of the first etymological dictionary of Turkish, it is more likely in terms of cultural history that the Chinese word
tu or
dú is borrowed from
Turkic languages or Mongolic.
Annemarie von Gabain (1955) (apud Maenchen-Helfen, 1973) was inclined to derive Chinese 纛 *
duok from Turkic *
tuɣ; however, Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen thought that the loan direction had been apparently from Chinese into Turkic, as 纛 (GS 1016) was the same as 翿
dào <
d'âu <
d'ôg, "staff with feathers" (GS 1090z) 斿 (variant of 旒)
liú ~
yóu <
iâu <
diôg "pendants of a banner" (GS 1080a) 游
liú ~
yóu < "pennon" (GS 1080f), which had been attested in the
Classic of Poetry and
Zuo Zhuan, centuries before the first appearance of the
Xiongnu.
[Maenchen-Helfen, Otto J. (1973). The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture. University of California Press. p. 411][Clauson, Gerard (1972). An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-13th Century Turkish. Oxford University Press. p. 464] Chinese observers stated that the medieval Göktürks displayed a tuğ decorated with a wolf's head at their camp's gate in order not to forget their origin from a she-wolf ancestress.
[ Zhoushu vol. 50. quote: " 旗纛之上，施金狼頭。侍衞之士，謂之附離，夏言亦狼也。蓋本狼生，志不忘舊。"][ Suishu vol. 84 quote: "故牙門建 狼頭纛，示不忘本也。"] A Western Turkic tribal confederation, the
Duolu, was possibly named after tuğ, if Old Turkic
Tuğluğ (𐱃𐰆𐰍𐰞𐰍), which was "mentioned in the Chinese annals under various names:
Duolu MChnL
tuet-lǐuk...,
Dulu 都陸 MChnL
tuǝ-liwk,
Duolu 咄禄 MChnL
tuet-luk", means "have flags (banners), have standards".
It was also used by Mongolic tribes too. The white-haired banner is used as a peacetime symbol, while the black banner was for wartime. Usage of the horse tail is symbolic because horses were central to the Mongols' livelihood. This is similar to the use of horse tail hairs for the morin khuur. The original white banner disappeared early in history, but the black one survived as the repository of Genghis Khan's soul. The Mongols continued to honor the banner, and Zanabazar (1635–1723) built a monastery with the special mission of flying and protecting the black banner in the 17th century.[Jack Weatherford Genghis Khan, p.XVI] Around 1937, the black banner disappeared amidst the great purges of the nationalists, monks and intellectuals, and the destruction of monasteries.
, early 14th-century miniature from a ms. of Rashid al-Din's "History of the World" (Edinburgh University Library)]]
Modern era
The Nine White banners
The Nine White banners came into renewed significance in Mongolia after democracy was adopted in the early 1990s as a symbol of the traditional Mongolian state, replacing the previous
communist red flags.
The state banner flown by the Mongols, the , is composed of nine flag poles decorated with white horse tail hairs hanging from a round surface with the Mongolian symbol of the 3 pronged flame, which appears on the Soyombo symbol (Representing the past, present, and future
Black banners
The Dörvön khölt khar sulde
[ Монгол Улсын бүх цэргийн хар сүлдний товч танилцуулга] (Дөрвөн хөлт хар сүлд) or the was used in wartime. It is made of black horse tail hairs and flown in the same fashion. According to the illustrated Japanese chronicle
Mōko Shūrai Ekotoba, the banner of the Mongolian Yuan fleet that invaded Japan was black. The modern Mongolian black banners are kept in the Ministry of Defense.
Tugs in the Mongolian military
Within the Mongolian Armed Forces, the black tug is used as the
finial in military colours' flagpoles, while the white tug is used by the Mongolian State Honor Guard and is the finial in the colours of the civil security services.
See also
-
Flag of Mongolia
-
Historical colours, standards and guidons
-
Banners of Inner Mongolia
Notes
-
Wendelin Boeheim (1890). Handbuch der Waffenkunde: Das Waffenwesen in seiner historischen Entwickelung vom Beginn des Mittelalters bis zum Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts. E. A. Seemann, Leipzig. [8]
-
William Erskine. A history of India under the two first sovereigns of the house of Taimur, Báber and Humáyun. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1854. Pg 265. [9]
-
Zdzislaw Zygulski, Ottoman Art in the Service of Empire, Hagop Kevorkian Series on Near Eastern Art & Civilization, New York University Press (1992).
-
Angelo Paratico Una Feroce Compassione, Gingko Edizioni, Verona (2022).
External links
