The Argun or Ergune (russian: Аргунь, bua, Эргэнэ гол, ''Ergene gol''; mn, Эргүнэ мөрөн, ''Ergüne mörön''; evn, Ергэне ''Yergenye'', zh, 额尔古纳河 ''Éěrgǔnà hé'') is a long river that forms part of the eastern

China–Russia border The Chinese–Russian border or the Sino-Russian border is the international border between China and Russia. After the final demarcation carried out in the early 2000s, it measures , and is the world's sixth-longest international border. The Ch ...

, together with the

Amur The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's List of longest rivers, tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China, Northeastern China (Inne ...

(Heilong Jiang). Its upper reaches are known as Hailar River () in China. The Argun marks the border (established by the

Treaty of Nerchinsk The Treaty of Nerchinsk () of 1689 was the first treaty between the Tsardom of Russia and the Qing dynasty of China. The Russians gave up the area north of the Amur River as far as the Stanovoy Range and kept the area between the Argun River ...

in 1689) between Russia and China for about , until it meets the Amur.

Name

The name derives from Buryat ''Urgengol'' 'wide river' (''urgen'' 'wide' + ''gol'' 'river'). Mongolian word "ergün" (in

Traditional Mongolian alphabet The classical or traditional Mongolian script, also known as the , was the first writing system created specifically for the Mongolian language, and was the most widespread until the introduction of Cyrillic in 1946. It is traditionally written ...

) or "örgön" (in modern Mongolian) means "wide".

Geography

The river flows from the Western slope of the

Greater Xing'an Range The Greater Khingan Range or Da Hinggan Range (; IPA: ), is a -long volcanic mountain range in the Inner Mongolia region of Northeast China. It was originally called the Xianbei Mountains, which later became the name of the northern branch of th ...

in China's

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

, and forms the Chinese side of the two rivers that flow together to produce the Amur (Heilong). Its

confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...

with the Shilka at Ust-Strelka on the Russian side forms the Amur. The Argun is long including its upper course Hailar, and has a drainage basin of .Аргунь

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...

Its main tributaries are the Urov, Uryumkan and

Gazimur The Gazimur (russian: Газимур, also ''Gasimur'' or ''Bolshoy Gazimur'') is a river of Zabaykalsky Krai, Siberia, eastern Russia, a left tributary of the Argun. With a length of and a basin area of , the Gazimur is one of the major East Tra ...

from the left, and the

Gen He Gen may refer to: * ''Gen'' (film), 2006 Turkish horror film directed by Togan Gökbakar * Gen (Street Fighter), a video game character from the ''Street Fighter'' series * Gen Fu, a video game character from the ''Dead or Alive'' series * Gen l ...

from the right.

Kherlen–Argun–Amur

In years with high precipitation, the normally exitless

Hulun Lake Hulun Lake (; mn, hölön nuur Хөлөн нуур, lit. ''foot lake'') or Dalai Nor ( mn, Dalai nuur Далай нуур, lit. ''ocean lake''), is a large lake in the Inner Mongolia region of northern China. Geography It is one of the five large ...

may overflow at its northern shore, and the water will meet the Argun after about . The

Kherlen Kherlen River (also known as Kern or Kerülen; ; ) is a 1,254 km river in Mongolia and China. Course The river originates in the south slopes of the Khentii mountains, near the Burkhan Khaldun mountain in the Khan Khentii Strictly Protecte ...

–Argun–

system has a total length of .

History

In ''

The Secret History of the Mongols ''The Secret History of the Mongols'' (Middle Mongol: ''Mongɣol‑un niɣuca tobciyan''; Traditional Mongolian: , Khalkha Mongolian: , ; ) is the oldest surviving literary work in the Mongolian language. It was written for the Mongol royal fam ...

'' is a legend related to the Ergüne hun Mongol ancestry. In this legend, the Mongols prevailed over other tribes and carried such slaughter among them, that in living remained no more than two men and two women. These two families, in fear of the enemy, fled to the inhospitable terrain, which included only mountains and forests and to which there was no road. Among those mountains was the abundant grass and healthy climate of the steppe. Then, legend tells that in Ergune-Khun, Mongols multiplied and become masters of iron smelting and blacksmithing. According to legend, it is the art of melting iron that has helped them escape from the mountain gorges on scope of the current Mongolian steppes, to the Kherlen (Kelulun) and

Onon River The Onon (, ''Onon gol''; ) is a river in Mongolia and Russia. It is long, and has a drainage basin of .Онон

. Prior to the emergence of the Mongols, the Amur River basin was home to certain tribes of

Jurchen people Jurchen (Manchu: ''Jušen'', ; zh, 女真, ''Nǚzhēn'', ) is a term used to collectively describe a number of East Asian Tungusic-speaking peoples, descended from the Donghu people. They lived in the northeast of China, later known as Manchu ...

, who founded the

Jinn Jinn ( ar, , ') – also Romanization of Arabic, romanized as djinn or Anglicization, anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources) – are Invisibility, invisible creatures in early Arabian mytho ...

(1115–1234) dynasty in northern China. The

Manchu people The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and Q ...

who founded the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

(1644–1912) additionally claimed descent from the Jurchens. Following the

Russian conquest of Siberia The Russian conquest of Siberia took place in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, when the Khanate of Sibir became a loose political structure of vassalages that were being undermined by the activities of Russian explorers. Although outnumber ...

in the 17th century, Russia-China relations were formalized in the 1689

, which established the Argun River as the

. However, prior to the

Amur Annexation The Amur Annexation was the annexation of the southeast corner of Siberia by the Russian Empire in 1858–1860 through a series of unequal treaties forced upon the Qing dynasty of China. The two areas involved are Priamurye between the Amur River ...

Outer Manchuria Outer Manchuria (russian: Приаму́рье, translit=Priamurye; zh, s=外满洲, t=外滿洲, p=Wài Mǎnzhōu), or Outer Northeast China ( zh, s=外东北, t=外東北, p=Wài Dōngběi), refers to a territory in Northeast Asia that is now ...

n territory, China's border extended further to include the so-called

Sixty-Four Villages East of the River The Sixty-Four Villages East of the River were a group of Manchu, Daur and Han-inhabited villages located on the left (north) bank of the Amur River (Heilong Jiang) opposite of Heihe, and on the east bank of Zeya River opposite of Blagoveshchen ...

in present-day

Amur Oblast Amur Oblast ( rus, Аму́рская о́бласть, r=Amurskaya oblast, p=ɐˈmurskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located on the banks of the Amur and Zeya Rivers in the Russian Far East. The administrative ...

, southern

Khabarovsk Khabarovsk ( rus, Хабaровск, a=Хабаровск.ogg, r=Habárovsk, p=xɐˈbarəfsk) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative centre of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia,Law #109 located from the China ...

, and all of

Primorsky Krai Primorsky Krai (russian: Приморский край, r=Primorsky kray, p=prʲɪˈmorskʲɪj kraj), informally known as Primorye (, ), is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia, located in the Far East region of the country and is a part of the ...

. Although the subsequent Amur Annexation fixed the eastern Sino-Russian border at the Amur, it would only be at the

1991 Sino-Soviet Border Agreement The 1991 Sino-Soviet Border Agreement was a treaty signed between China and the Soviet Union on May 16, 1991. It set up demarcation work to resolve most of the border disputes between the two states. Initially signed by China and the Soviet Union, ...

when all

Sino-Soviet border conflict The Sino-Soviet border conflict was a seven-month undeclared military conflict between the Soviet Union and China in 1969, following the Sino-Soviet split. The most serious border clash, which brought the world's two largest communist states to ...

s would be resolved.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Argun River Rivers of Inner Mongolia Rivers of Zabaykalsky Krai Border rivers China–Russia border International rivers of Asia