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History of the dynasty as a whole

The Mongols were an obscure peoples who lived in the outer reaches of the Gobi Desert in what is now Outer Mongolia. They were a pastoral and tribal people that did not really seem to be of any consequence to neighboring peoples. By the mid-thirteenth century however, the Mongols were a force to be reckoned with! They had overpowered Korea and the Muslim kingdoms of Central Asia and had twice penetrated Europe. In 1234, they defeated the Jin dynasty of northern China. They then focused on subjugating the Song dynasty, which governed the regions south of the Yangtze River. The Song's military vulnerability and political instability allowed the Mongols, who had adopted the Chinese dynastic title of "Yuan" (meaning "first") in 1271, to move on in. They captured Hangzhou in 1276, and thus defeated the last Song emperor in 1279. The Mongols now held what proved to be the largest contiguous land empire in world history. Under the leadership of Genghis Khan (also known as "Chinggis") and then of his descendants, the Mongols in the 13th century carved out an empire stretching from what is now Korea and western Russia in the north to Myanmar and Iraq in the south. The Mongol Empire linked Europe and East Asia, initiating the first direct contacts between China and the West. Chinese silks and ceramics arrived in Europe and stimulated European demand for these products, inspiring the search for a sea route to East Asia.

With the defeat of the Song dynasty though, Mongol leader and grandson of the great Genghis, Kublai Khan realized that he had to establish political and administrative institutions similar to those native to China in order to attract the support of his subjects. After all, why should the people obey him and not oust him like he just did the previous dynasty? So, Kublai assumed the Chinese title of emperor and reestablished a Secretariat to advise him on policy. He and the later Yuan rulers wished to portray themselves as supporting the Chinese ideology of Confucianism (among many other traditions soon to be discussed), so they restored many Confucian rituals and recruited prominent Confucian scholars to advise the emperor and to perform the important task of writing the histories of the immediately preceding dynasties. The most obvious evidence of Mongol integration into China was Kublai's shift of the capital from Karakorum in Mongolia to Khanbalik (what we now know as Beijing) in China. In 1266 Kublai ordered the construction of the new capital based on Chinese models.

Despite Kublai's efforts to stay relatively "Chinese," the Mongols did deviate from some Chinese patterns. Kublai abolished the traditional Chinese civil service examinations, which had been the age-old traditional basis for entry into the bureaucracy that administered China. Instead, he recruited an international group of advisors and administrators to assist him in ruling China. Also differing from traditional practices was the power that he allocated to censors: they spied on the bureaucracy and reported abuses in the government and the military! Perhaps this has its advantages though in that Kublai could thus have eyes and ears through out China in addition to a much more authoritarian style of control. I find it hard to see any faults with these changes in policy. Although they were radical, Kublai did have a rather successful period as a ruler.

Also unlike previous dynasties, the Yuan rulers fostered trade and bestowed merchants a higher social status. Anybody who studies China can tell you, social status was everything and the merchants never had it! They were the lowest of the low. Also moving up in terms of social scale were the artisans, physicians, scientists, and engineers. They were all granted higher status and greater rewards. In an even greater change of pace though was the status of the scholar-official class, the traditional Chinese elite. They were often excluded from positions of authority and thus were generally hostile toward Mongol rule. For instance, the court divided the population into classes: the Mongols at the top, and the Chinese scholar-official class at the bottom. The army was divided into a Mongol force, composed principally of cavalry, and a solely Chinese division of infantry. This sort of division contributed to general Chinese dissatisfaction with Yuan rule.

The Yuan court also initiated the project of extending the Grand Canal (this canal was built primarily for linking up sections of China, namely to make transport of goods easier and on top of that, possible.) connecting the Yangtze and Yellow rivers to Khanbalik. Such government support for merchants, together with the peace imposed on much of Asia by the Mongols, resulted in the greatest expansion of commerce in Eurasian history, so we can certainly say, they weren't all bad.

On the topic of commerce though, the economic policies were somewhat in accordance with previous traditions. The Yuan rulers did not try to convert China into the Mongol-style nomadic economy; instead, they fostered agriculture as they did the merchants. Early Yuan emperors sought to protect the peasants by devising a regular, fixed system of taxation.

In 1291 the Mongols enacted a new legal code that was based primarily on Chinese legal traditions. However, one must note that the Yuan regime was generally authoritarian.

The Yuan was the shortest lived of the major dynasties. From the time that Kublai occupied Beijing in 1264 to the fall of the dynasty in 1368, a mere hundred years had passed, relatively short in comparison to previous dynasties. Kublai was a highly successful emperor as was his son, but the later Yuan emperors could not stop the slide into powerlessness. For one thing, the Beijing Khans lost legitimacy among the Mongols still in Mongolia who thought they had become too Chinese. The fourteenth century is accentuated by Mongolian rebellions against the Yuan. On the other hand, the Chinese never accepted the Yuan as a legitimate dynasty but regarded them rather as bandits or an occupying army. Now you see the problem. The failure to learn Chinese (translators were often required for Mongol/Chinese communication) and integrate themselves into Chinese culture greatly undermined the Mongol rulers. After all, the Chinese weren't even ruling China!

As with all Chinese dynasties, nature conspired in the downfall; the Yellow River changed course and flooded irrigation canals and so brought on massive famine in the 1340's (partially attributable to the lack of maintenance). The decline of the Yuan coincided with similar declines in all the other Khanates throughout Asia. Finally, a peasant, Chu Yuan-chang (a.k.a. "Zhu Yuanzhang"), led a rebel army against the Yuan. He had lost most of his family in the famine, and had spent part of his life as a monk and then as a bandit leader. He took Beijing in 1368 and the Yuan emperor fled to Shangtu. When he drove the Yuan from Shangtu back to Mongolia, he declared himself the founder of a new dynasty: the Ming (1369-1644).

Notable People/Culture:

• The Mongols

  The Mongols were a group of loose tribes that would gather regularly during annual migrations; although they elected chiefs over the tribes at these meetings, they never unified into a single people. Their religion focused on a sky-god that ruled over nature deities, similar to Japanese Shinto as well as some of the fundamentals to Taoism (which is interesting in that Taoism was the least favored, although tolerated, philosophy of the Mongols.), and the gods communicated to them through shamans. All that would change however, under the leadership of a powerful and vigorous leader named Timuchin or Genghis Khan.

  During the time of the Yuan, the Mongols' own social practices affronted many Chinese. First, the prominent roles played by Mongol women in government clashed with the status accorded to Chinese women. Second, education was no longer the principal vehicle for social mobility. Previously, education was almost vital for the elite class to maintain such a status. After all, how could somebody pass the Government Eligibility Exam without an education? (This is just an example--keep in mind that this test was no longer valid.) Third, the Mongols supported non-Chinese religions and restricted Taoism. Fourth, the Mongols' fascination with hunting, their taste for meat, and their relatively frequent use of alcohol repelled many Chinese

• Genghis Khan

  Timuchin was the son of a poor noble in his tribe. Born sometime in the 1160's, he gradually unified the disparate Mongol tribes and, in 1206, was elected Genghis Khan, or "Universal Ruler" (also spelled Chingghis or Jenghiz Khan). He began to vigorously organize the Mongols into a military force through conscription and taxes on the tribes. With his small army (no more than one hundred and twenty thousand men), he managed to conquer far larger armies in densely populated areas because he was perhaps one of the greatest military innovators in human history. His army was perhaps the best-trained horsemen in all of human history! They fought on horseback with incredible efficiency; they could hit targets with a superhuman precision while running at a full gallop. Their speed and efficiency struck terror in their opponents who frequently broke ranks. In addition, Genghis Khan organized his troops into decimal units (one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand), and would send hand signals through the fighting to these decimal units. The result in battle was simply mind-boggling. Genghis Khan could literally move troops around in the heat of a battle as easily as he would move chess pieces. Moreover, his armies were incredibly mobile and could cover superhuman distances with numbing speed. Finally, Genghis Khan was ruthless towards people who resisted the advances of his army. If a town or city fought back, he laid siege to the town and, at its conclusion, would exterminate its inhabitants. When news of these tactics spread, Mongol armies easily and successfully took over towns that would surrender as soon as the Mongols showed their faces. The Mongols literally decimated populations in Western Asia and China as they advanced. As a result of all these tactics, the Mongol armies spread out like wildfire. They marched inexorably south into Chin territory and west into Asia and even Europe. When Genghis Khan died, Mongol armies were poised to conquer Hungary, which they would have accomplished had not their leader died.

  Genghis was primarily interested in conquering China because of its great wealth. While Mongol armies spread quickly west, Genghis Khan preceded cautiously in expanding southward, conquering first the northern Tibetan kingdom and later the Chin empire. When he died in 1227, he had just finished conquering the northern city of Beijing. By 1241, the Mongols had conquered all of northern China.

• Kublai Khan

  The Mongolian Empire, so vast in its reach, was separated into four khanates, each ruled by a separate khan and overruled by a Great Khan. The Kipchak Khanate, or Golden Horde, ruled Russia; the Ilkhanate ruled Persia and the Middle East, the Chagatai Khanate ruled over western Asia, and the Great Khanate controlled Mongolia and China.

  In 1260, Kublai Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan, became Great Khan. Four years later he relocated his capital from Mongolia to Beijing in northern China, and in 1271 he adopted a the dynastic name of the Yuan. Kublai Khan had become the emperor of China and decided to start a new dynasty; within a few short years, the Mongols had conquered all of southern China.

  Initially, the Mongols pretty much ruled over China as bandits, sucking out as much wealth as they could. But Kublai Khan slowly adopted Chinese political structures and political theories. In particular, Kublai built a strong central government in order to cement his authority as a foreign ruler over China. During the T'ang dynasty, the Emperor had slowly become an absolute ruler; Kublai Khan finished that process and made the Emperorship absolutely autocratic.

  Kublai established his capital at Beijing and built a magnificent palace complex for himself, the Forbidden City. An architectural triumph, the Forbidden City contained elements of Arabic, Mongolian, western Asian, and Chinese architectural styles; it also contained a vast area of Mongolian nomadic tents and a playing field for Mongolian horsemanship. The Forbidden City of Kublai Khan, then, was in many ways a protected sanctuary of Mongolian culture. This aloofness from the Chinese exemplified by the Forbidden City was carried over into almost every other aspect of Mongolian rule.

• Yuan Philosophy

  Buddhism in particular found a welcome home among the Mongols who had in part adopted it. Taoism remained vital throughout China, and Confucianism continued. However, the foreign rule of the Mongols allowed for a certain amount of revolution and renewal in Chinese thought. Because the Mongols held Confucianism in contempt in the early years of their rule, the new philosophy of Neo-Confucians, founded in the last century of Sung rule, took hold in China and eventually eclipsed the older forms of Confucianism (Neo-Confucianism was perhaps the first major overhaul of Confucianism. Confucian scholars claimed that some of the ideals of Confucianism were lost through time and these new ideals were what was lost. Whether this is true or not, it was essentially a blend of Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and other popular Chinese philosophies.). The new examination system of 1315 was based entirely on Neo-Confucianism thus enshrining it as the state philosophy for many centuries.

  Curiously, the Mongols, though Buddhist, did not really support or patronize Buddhism, which was largely left to its own devices. They favored Tibetan Buddhism but really did not financially support the monasteries. When the Mongol rulers decided that too many Buddhists were escaping military service, they instituted a literacy test on Buddhist scriptures. Anyone who couldn't demonstrate literacy in the scriptures lost their military exemption. This put the Mongol rulers in direct conflict with the major Buddhist masters; the central school of Buddhism was Ch'an, or "Meditation" Buddhism. It stressed the primacy of the master over scripture and the silent transmission of religious truth. For that reason, Ch'an Buddhism had no written doctrine. Under pressure from the Mongols, the Ch'an Buddhists began to record their doctrine in a series formulations called kung-an or, in Japanese, the koan.

  Nonetheless, the Mongol rulers were very preoccupied with religions. Kublai Khan in particular invited all sorts of faiths to debate at his court. He allowed Nestorian Christians and Roman Catholics to set up missions, as well as Tibetan lamas, Muslims, and Hindus. The Yuan period, in fact, is one of vital cultural transmission between China and the rest of the world. Europe formally met China during the reign of Kublai Khan with the arrival of Marco Polo, who served as an official in Kublai's court from 1275-1291 (little information was available on Marco's role in Kublai's court). For all this vital interaction with foreign cultures, very little seems to have rubbed off on Chinese culture. The cultural interaction was not really a cultural exchange, for the situation was perhaps too unstable. The Yuan and the Chinese had no cultural direction, no syncretic goal that they were aiming at, so the cultural interaction never really got beyond the formal practice of simple disagreement and argument.

Culture/Technological Advancements

The Mongols' cultural contributions to China won greater approval. Some of the "boom" in this culture though can be partly attributed to the Mongols' extensive West Asian and European contacts.

Chinese poetry from the Yuan Dynasty

The Yuan court favored and patronized artisans, resulting in remarkable advances in the manufacture of textiles, jewelry, and in the creation of the first blue-and-white porcelains. Their support for the theater fostered a golden age of Chinese drama. Literature and painting also flourished under their rule, hence the novel and the increased use of the written vernacular. The arrival of foreigners at court also contributed to cultural developments such as a written Mongol script, a more accurate calendar, and innovations in medicine.

Western musical instruments were introduced to enrich the Chinese performing arts. From this period dates the conversion to Islam, by Muslims of Central Asia, of growing numbers of Chinese in the northwest and southwest. Nestorianism and Roman Catholicism also enjoyed a period of toleration. Lamaism (Tibetan Buddhism) flourished, although native Taoism endured Mongol persecutions. Confucian governmental practices and examinations based on the Classics, which had fallen into disuse in north China during the period of disunity, were reinstated by the Mongols (in the hope of maintaining order over the previous social elite). Advances were realized in the fields of travel literature, cartography and geography, and scientific education. Certain key Chinese innovations, such as printing techniques, playing cards, and medical literature, were introduced in Europe, while the production of thin glass and cloisonne became popular in China.

The first records of travel by Westerners date from this time. The most famous traveler of the period was the Venetian Marco Polo, whose account of his trip to the Great Khan's capital, and of life there astounded the people of Europe.

Sorghum, a.k.a. "Auspicious Grain"

The Mongols undertook extensive public works. Road and water communications were reorganized and improved. To provide against possible famines, granaries were ordered built throughout the empire. The city of Beijing was rebuilt with new palace grounds that included artificial lakes, hills and mountains, and parks. During the Yuan period, Beijing became the terminus of the Grand Canal, which was completely renovated. These commercially oriented improvements encouraged overland as well as maritime commerce throughout Asia and facilitated the first direct Chinese contacts with Europe. Chinese and Mongol travelers to the West were able to provide assistance in such areas as hydraulic engineering, while bringing back to the Middle Kingdom new scientific discoveries and architectural innovations. Contacts with the West also brought the introduction to China of a major new food crop--sorghum--along with other foreign food products and methods of preparation.