Senggum (simplified: 桑昆, traditional: 桑昆, pinyin: Sāng Kūn, jyutping: song1 kwan1), transliterated as Ilga Senggüm, was the heir of Wang Khan and chief lieutenant of the Kerait tribe. In The Legend of the Condor Heroes he is portrayed as Temüjin’s jealous foster brother whose scheming accelerates the rift between the Keraits and the burgeoning Mongol Empire.
Biography
Prince of the Keraits
Senggum grew up as Wang Khan’s favoured son and served as his father’s right hand during campaigns against the Tatars and the Naiman. After the joint Mongol–Kerait victory on the Wulezhai River, the Jin court granted him the rank of “Xiangwen” (详稳, governor), which the Mongols rendered as “Senggüm”—a title that inflated his pride. He began referring to Temüjin as “that upstart of the Yesugei clan” despite the sworn brotherhood between their fathers.
Plotting against Temüjin
When Temüjin sought to cement the alliance by proposing marriages between their children—offering Princess Hua Zheng to Senggum’s son Tusaqa and requesting Senggum’s sister for Jochi—Senggum refused, fearing that marital ties would legitimise Temüjin’s rise. He secretly persuaded Wang Khan to strike first, culminating in the Battle of Halakh Jinsand (合兰真沙陀). The ambush nearly annihilated Temüjin’s camp, and in the novel it is Senggum who orders the volleys that trap Guo Jing and Tolui on a snowbound cliff until the Seven Eccentrics intervene.
Collapse and death
Temüjin retaliated in 1203. The Kerait defences collapsed at Chakirmaut, forcing Wang Khan and Senggum to flee westward. Wang Khan was slain in Naiman territory; Senggum abandoned his father during the retreat, hoping to rebuild power in Western Xia and Tibet. Chronicles state that he eventually reached the oasis of Quqian (modern Kuqa) where local forces killed him—an ending mirrored in Jin Yong’s epilogue, which notes that the “treacherous Kerait prince” died far from home without the burial rites of his ancestors.
Personality and traits
Senggum embodied the old tribal aristocracy’s arrogance. He measured worth by heritage, silk tents, and the number of brass cauldrons in his herds rather than by battlefield merit. His envy of Temüjin’s popularity led him to undermine alliances, to misinterpret Wang Khan’s affection as favouritism toward an adopted son, and ultimately to destroy the Kerait polity he was meant to inherit.
Legacy
Within Jin Yong’s narrative, Senggum serves as the political foil to Temüjin: one clings to birthright, the other to merit. His betrayals explain why Guo Jing and the Seven Eccentrics repeatedly warn against trusting aristocrats who enlist foreign armies to settle personal grudges. Historically, Senggum’s fall opened the door for Temüjin to absorb the Kerait cavalry, accelerating the unification of the Mongol tribes.