The Yuan dynasty was founded by a Mongol named Kublai Khan. He was the grandson of the famous Genghis Khan who ruled the largest empire ever in Asia, reaching from Poland in Europe all the way to Korea in east Asia. Kublai Khan fought against the previous empire, the Song dynasty, for 40 years before finally defeating them and starting the Yuan dynasty in A.D. 1279.
Like his grandfather, Kublai Khan was a great warrior, but he faced the problem of finding a way to rule in traditional Chinese style while keeping power in the hands of the Mongols. Kublai was successful because he kept the civil-service bureaucracy, but staffed it with foreigners, especially Mongols, Turks and Persians. But, he got rid of the civil-service exam, and instead chose his officials from noble foreign families. In this way, Kublai was able to maintain control without giving power to the former Song dynasty’s civil-servants (government officials).
Chinese belief systems were largely unaffected by Yuan rule, despite the fact that the Mongols did not strongly support any Chinese belief system. Kublai Khan retained the belief system of his ancestors, called shamanism, which believes that good and bad spirits pervade (are spread throughout) the earth, and can only be summoned and heard by priests called shamans. At his court in Dadu, Kublai Khan had hundreds of shamans who read the stars and communicated with the spirits of nature and fate on behalf of the Great Khan. Chinese commoners continued to practice their traditional beliefs of Buddhism and Daoism (Laozi). During Kublai Khan’s rule, Buddhism flourished. The number of Buddhist temples and monasteries rose to 42,000 with 213,000 Buddhist monks and nuns.
Under Yuan rule, the native Chinese people were treated badly. Kublai Khan developed a strict hierarchy of social classes. On top were the non-taxed Mongols, second were the non-Chinese government officials (Turks, Persians, etc.), then came the northern Chinese. And finally, at the bottom, were the southern Chinese. Under the Khan, no Chinese were allowed to walk the streets after sunset or carry a weapon. They could not learn the Mongol language or marry a Mongol. These rules applied to all Chinese, including northerners, even though they had lived with the Mongols for 150 years before the rise of the Yuan dynasty.
Yuan rule was not popular among the Chinese because of the human suffering and loss of money that occurred due to Mongol governmental practices. The Mongols took land away from many Chinese and turned it into pastureland for their horses and flocks of livestock. This meant that many Chinese became poor because they could no longer grow crops. Because of this the amount of food available to the Chinese decreased and many of them died of disease and starvation.
Under Kublai Khan, China maintained an advanced, efficient transportation and communication system (which included a postal system of relay horses that traveled between stations). But, later Mongol rulers did not maintain roads and canals. These roads and canals were in poor condition and therefore were unusable. Due to this, Chinese farmers and merchants could not get their goods to market. So once again, they lost money.
During the Yuan rule a young man from Italy arrived in China named Marco Polo. He had traveled across the Silk Road with his father and uncle to trade with the Chinese. Enthralled with the country, Marco Polo stayed in China and spent 17 years in the service of Kublai Khan as an ambassador and civil-servant (government official). As a government official he had the opportunity to travel all across China and much of Asia. Upon returning to Europe, a book was published about his adventures called A Description of the World. In it he described many of the accomplishments of the Chinese. He described rocks that burned (coal), money made from mulberry trees (paper money), mountains of jewels (pearls and gems), palaces whose walls were plated in gold and silver and decorated with dragons, beasts and birds, and much more. The China he described was so amazing that few Europeans believed him.
The closing years of Kublai Khan’s reign were marred by the failure of his attacks on Japan, his ill health and the problem of his succession – it was not agreed upon as to who would be the next leader when he died. This gave rise to difficulties for the rest of the Yuan period and weakened the dynasty.
Soon after Kublai Khan’s death there was an onset of administrative inefficiency and corruption. The next emperors rejected much of Kublai Khan’s programs and ran into debt using a variety of bad financial practices. Finally in 1368 the dynasty fell and the Mongol court fled from China. Thus ended the Yuan dynasty.
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