Ancient China: The Yuan Dynasty

The Mongolian Conquest

The traditional view of the Mongol rule over China was that it was an unmitigated disaster.
Three charges had been levelled against the Mongols.
a) they discriminated against the Chinese both racially & economically.
b) they failed to build on the technological & economic achievements of the Song period. Thus they contributed to the introverted and non-competitive position developed under the Ming.
c) they instituted practices that contributed to the development of despotism.
The Mongol invasion did cause extensive damage.

Positive Features of the Conquest

The period of Mongol Rule had some positive features.
a) the Mongols reunified China
Adopting the dynastic title "Yuan" entitled them to a place in the Chinese dynastic record.
They became legitimate holders of the Mandate of Heaven.

b) Chinese civilization was not fundamentally altered by the episode of Mongol rule.
In several ways scholarship and the arts benefitted from it.
c) Mongol rule was more humane and less ideological restrictive than that of the Song.
The "pax mongolica" the Mongolian peace which spread across Asia exposed China to vast external influences.
d) the hostility of the Chinese for the Mongols was not so intense.
it did not prevent many Mongols remaining in China after the flight of the Mongol court.

Mongolian Society

The Mongols were pastoral nomads.
By the 11th century they were living as a tribal society in present-day Mongolia.
They were in constant conflict with the Tartars their neighbours to the West
Soon the Mongols began to develop an ethnic consciousness
This was a political situation that was exploited and taken advantage of by Temujin.
He was the son of a tribal leader, who was born in about 1167.
His father had been poisoned by the Tartars.
This grievance motivated him to claim the leadership of his tribe.
He raised a disciplined army divided into groups of 1000 men.
He devised new military tactics 7 strategies.
This enabled him to unite the Mongol tribes .
In 1206 he was acclaimed Genghis Khan (Chinggis Khan)
He was the universal sovereign of the steppe peoples
He claimed to be heaven's chosen instrument.
He declared that all who stood in his way did so in defiance of heaven's will.
He then embarked on a remarkable sequence of conquests..

The Conquests of Chinggis Khan

In 1210 he invaded the Xi Xia
He forced them to pay tribute, thereby cutting China's trade routes to the north-west.Y
In 1215 he captured the Jin capital at Yangjing.
He did not destroy the Jurchen dynasty.
He turned west and seized Bokhara & Samarkand.
He began to recruit China and Khitan officials.
He appointed Mikhali, one of his best generals to administer the Chinese territory.
In 1226 he turned to destroy the Xi Xia kingdom but died during the campaign.
He was succeeded as Khagan or khan of khans by his third son Ogodei.
The Mongol Empire was divided between his sons & grandsons.

Ogodei

In 1251 Mongke became Khagan
After that the Mongol expansion resumed.
Not making a direct attack on the Southern Song, Mongke decided to outflank them.
In 1252 he ordered his brother to attack the south-west.
He destroyed the south-western kingdom of Nanzhao.
Mongke's next objective was the province of Sichuan
But he died in 1259 while pursuing that campaign.
A succession dispute delayed a decisive Mongol attack on China
Mongke had entrusted the administration in north China to his younger brother Khubilai.

Khubilai Khan

Khubilai was willing to accept advice from Confuciasn advisers.
he was also willing to promote the prosperity of the region.
In 1260 he was elected khagan and soon after adopted a reign title.
His chief adviser was a former Buddhist monk named Liu Bingzhong.
His advice encouraged Khubilai to lay out a Chinese state capital at Kaiping.
It was later renamed Shangdu or "upper capital" and became known in the West as Xanadu.
As Emperor of China, Khubilai in 1268 was ready to attack the Southern Song.
The Southern Song continued to assert their claim to the whole of the country.
Khubilai's first objective was to attack the key city of Xianggang. on the Han River.

The End of the Southern Song

Using ships and war engineers, te Mongols battered down the walls.
The city surrendered.
This cleaned the route to the Yangzi valley.
In 1275 Bayan, the main Mongol general met and defeated a large army led by Jia Sidao.
Jia Sidao was the last chief councillor of the Southern Song.
Jia's land policies had already alienated wealthy landowners.
This defeat ensured his dismissal.
Souther Song resistance now collapsed and its court surrendered.
It was only in 1279 that the last Southern Song loyalties were defeated at sea.
The last Southern Song emperor drowned.

China under Mongol Rule

Khubilai had been victorious in China but his other military ventures were less successful.
In 1274 & 1281 he tried to conquer Japan but both times he was driven back.
It was by strong & fierce Japanese resistance. & bad weather.
Campaigns in South-east Asia took them into terrain where he suffered reverses.
This is where military skills were at a disadvantage.
His last years were negative for a number of reasons:
a) military failures.
b) ill-health
c) the death of his favourite wife
d) problems with his succession.

Succession Issues of the Mongols

Mongol customs prescribed that the next in line should go to whichever of the khagan male relatives was acclaimed at a council of notables.
Khubilai tried to follow Chinese customs & nominated Zhenjin.
He was his eldest son by his principled wife.
Zhenjin died in 1285.
Khubilai died in 1294.
He bestowed the succession on his second son - Temur, who reigned until 1307.
Temur continued many aspects of Khubilai's rule.

Succession Struggles

His successor Khanshan was succeeded by his brother, who ruled as Renzong (1311-1320).
Renzong was the most sinicized & cultured of the Mongol rulers.
After Renzong's death the court split into factions.
In 1323 Yesun Temur seized the throne and held it until his death five yers later.
He was hostile to the influence of the Chinese scholar-officials.
After that there were some succession struggles.
Then the throne was held for another five years by Tugh Temur.
He was more committed to the Chinese than to the steppes.
theist Mongol ruler, Toghon Temur came to the throne as a minor.
Hesurvived until the Mongol court fled from China in 1368.

The Rule of Khubilai

Ancient China