Jebe

Jebe

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Jebe (simplified: 哲别, traditional: 哲別, pinyin: Zhébié, jyutping: zit3 bit6), the Divine Archer (神箭手), was a Mongol general under Temüjin, later Genghis Khan. Once an enemy general who shot Temüjin in battle, he was sheltered by the young Guo Jing, entered Temüjin’s service, and became Guo Jing’s teacher in archery and the spear. Years later he let Guo Jing escape against the Khan’s orders.

Biography

Enemy of Temüjin

Jebe first fought against Temüjin as a black-robed general on the side of the Tayichiud. In the battle on the earthen hill his arrows never missed, and he shot Temüjin in the left side of the neck and killed his horse under him with a second arrow. Temüjin won the battle, and his men swore to catch Jebe and tear him apart. Wounded and alone, Jebe came to the hut of the six-year-old Guo Jing begging for water, and the boy hid him in a haystack.

When Jochi arrived with his soldiers, Guo Jing refused to say where Jebe was, even when Jochi whipped him bloody, and his sheepdog fought off Chagatai’s mastiffs. As Jochi raised his dao over the boy, Jebe sprang out of the haystack to save him, then threw down his weapon. Saying that a great eagle had fallen to be bitten to death by ants, he asked to die at the hands of a brave man instead, and Temüjin set him to a contest with his friend Bo’orchu. Jebe asked for a bow but no arrows. He caught or dodged Bo’orchu’s arrows and shot them back, struck Bo’orchu with an arrow whose head he had broken off, and then asked that his life be spent not for himself but to spare the boy. Bo’orchu in turn knocked him from his horse with a headless arrow and begged Temüjin to spare him. Won over by Temüjin’s bearing, Jebe knelt and swore in song to serve him.

In Temüjin’s service

Temüjin made Jebe a captain of ten under Ögedei. Jebe became a close friend of Bo’orchu, took Guo Jing and his mother Li Ping to Temüjin’s camp, and looked after them out of gratitude. When the Jin prince Wanyan Hongxi threw a spear at Guo Jing, Jebe knocked it aside with an arrow.

In the battle against the Naiman, Jebe rode at the front of Jelme’s charge, eager to repay Temüjin for his life. At Wang Khan’s camp that evening Senggum forbade the “mere leader-of-ten” to drink from his golden cup. Temüjin drank the cup himself, then named Jebe as one of the two bravest men of the day, promoted him to leader of a hundred, and gave him his own iron helm filled with wine. Jebe said that a golden cup set with jewels was not worth the Great Khan’s iron helm.

Guo Jing’s teacher

While the Six Eccentrics of Jiangnan taught Guo Jing and Tolui hand-to-hand fighting, their teachers in riding, archery and battlefield skills were chiefly Jebe and Boroqul. Guo Jing called him shifu. At a hunt, Jebe handed his own bow to Guo Jing and told him to kneel and aim for the neck, and Guo Jing brought down two black eagles with one arrow. Guo Jing gave Jebe the credit, and Temüjin laughed that the shifu was a Jebe and the pupil was a Jebe too.

When Senggum and Jamukha trapped Temüjin on a hill, Jebe rode down with Guo Jing to bring in Chagatai and Tchila’un. He and Boroqul fought two of the Four Ghosts of the Yellow River hand to hand and were disarmed, and Guo Jing came to their aid. In the breakout Jebe shot Senggum in the right cheek and knocked him from his horse. When Temüjin was proclaimed Genghis Khan, Jebe was made a commander of a thousand.

Mission to the south

Jebe went south with Tolui and Boroqul on a mission to the Song. Pursued by Jin troops, they held out in a flagpole basket until Guo Jing, recognising one of Jebe’s leopard-head iron-banded arrows, drove off the pursuers. Later, travelling with Tolui, Boroqul and Huazheng, Jebe heard Yang Kang falsely claim that Guo Jing was dead, and wept for him. The party was then captured by Ouyang Feng and Qiu Qianren and tied to trees until Guo Jing and his companions freed them. Before them all Guo Jing declared that he would keep his word and marry Huazheng, and Jebe then took his leave and rode off with the others.

The western campaign

Jebe won many victories for Genghis Khan in the years that followed. When Guo Jing was given command in the campaign against the Khwarezmian Empire, he learned the art of war from Tolui, Jebe, Subutai and Boroqul, and it was on Jebe’s advice that he went to apologise to Jochi and Chagatai. After Khwarezm fell, Genghis Khan sent Jebe and Subutai with two tumens after the fleeing Shah; they pursued him as far as the region of Kiev on the Dnieper and routed the combined armies of the Rus’ and the Kipchaks.

Letting Guo Jing go

When Guo Jing broke out of the Mongol camp with the body of his mother, Jebe led the troops that caught him. His first arrow snapped the head off Guo Jing’s spear, and his second, aimed at Guo Jing’s chest, had its head broken off. He let Guo Jing bury his mother, knelt and bowed four times at her grave, then gave Guo Jing his quiver, iron bow, long spear and horse and told him to go: “Years ago you risked your life for me. Am I not a man, that I would not risk mine for you?” He reckoned that his merit would earn him a flogging at most. When Tolui arrived, Guo Jing said that Jebe had been about to take him to the Khan, to shield him.

Personality & traits

Jebe was proud and fearless. Captured, he asked only to die at a brave man’s hands; he spared Bo’orchu in their contest; and he walked out of Wang Khan’s tent with his head high when Senggum shamed him. He did not forget a debt: he offered his life for the boy who had hidden him, cared for Guo Jing and his mother, and risked the Khan’s punishment to repay him.

Martial arts abilities

Jebe’s archery was uncanny, and with an empty bow he held his own against Bo’orchu. His arrows never missed; he could catch or deflect arrows shot at him; and he could hold back a killing shot by breaking off the arrowhead. His hard arrows, bound with wrought iron carved with a leopard’s head, were two liang heavier than ordinary arrows. He also fought with the long spear and the dao, but as a battlefield general he lacked the close-quarters skills of jianghu fighters.

Relationships

Guo Jing

Jebe owed his life to Guo Jing and became his shifu in archery and the spear. He repaid the debt by letting Guo Jing escape the Mongol pursuit.

Temüjin

Jebe shot Temüjin as an enemy, was spared, and served him faithfully thereafter.

Bo’orchu

Bo’orchu, his opponent in the contest that won him his life, became a close friend.

Tolui and Boroqul

Jebe taught Tolui with Boroqul and travelled south with them both.

Behind the scenes

Name

The novel explains that in Mongolian jebe means both “spear” and “master archer”, and that his archery earned him the name until no one remembered his real one.

Historical basis

Jebe is based on the historical Jebe (died c. 1223), originally named Jirqo’adai, of a people subject to the Tayichiud. According to The Secret History of the Mongols, he admitted shooting Temüjin’s horse in the battle with the Tayichiud, and Temüjin spared him and renamed him Jebe. With Subutai he led the long pursuit to the west that defeated the Rus’ and the Kipchaks at the Kalka River in 1223.

See also

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