AS CHINESE AND other diplomats urge a halt to brutal wars raging in Israel and elsewhere today, this may be a good time to remember one of the most extraordinary meetings between a peacemaker and a ruthless warrior.
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The two characters in this story are Qiu Chuji (丘處機), a Taoist master, and Genghis Khan, the bloodthirsty military leader who created the largest contiguous empire in world history—a record still unbeaten today.
Unbeatable in battle, the Great Khan could snatch physical items whenever he wanted. But wisdom was a different matter. Genghis Khan wanted answers to the big questions of life, and for that he needed the wisest person on earth. He was advised that Taoist master Qiu Chuji was the man with the answers.
In 1219, Genghis Khan wrote a letter to Qiu Chuji, expressed his admiration and respect, and called for a meeting.
Qiu Chuji, aged 73, selected eighteen disciples with him and set out from Shandong in 1220. Wars were raging in many places, and the ancient Silk Road had been cut off. So they had to travel north and then west, following the Greater Khingan Mountains into modern-day Inner Mongolia, crossing the Mongolian Plateau into today’s eastern Iran. They finally met the Great Khan on the southern bank of the Amu Darya in 1222. This was near the area now known as the Hindu Kush.
After thanking Qiu Chuji for making a long and arduous journey, the Khan asked the two biggest questions of the time. The first was whether the Philosopher’s Stone existed – the mythical substance that could turn base metal into stone.
The Taoist master said it did not exist.
Khan moved onto the second big issue: the existence or otherwise of a medicine that could enable him to life forever.
“Is there any ‘potion of immortality’?” he asked.
“No, sire,” the monk said.
The Khan was undoubtedly disappointed, but he liked honest people. He asked:
“Then do you have a solution to prolong longevity?”
“Yes,” said Qiu. “It is to respect and love your people.”
Khan decided that he already did that. “I live and eat with my people on the steppe, lead from the front in every battle, and treat my soldiers as my bloody brothers,” he said. “Is that not enough?”
“Not enough,” said the Taoist master. “You should forbid the massacre of people, and never be bloodthirsty, sire.”
It was a brave demand to make—but Genghis Khan was not angry. In fact, he seemed pleased by the conversation, which was recorded in the book Xuanfeng qinghui lu (玄風慶會錄).