The Yuan Dynasty or Mongol Period (1212-1368)

What kind of people were the Mongols?

A nomadic, pastoral people of the Eurasian steppes north of China, who herded sheep, oxen, goats, and horses.

Temujin Oge- aka Genghis Khan (1162-1227 AD)

-Killed his father and became renowned for his military skills and political savvy

-Weak and divided until he unified them

-1206, got proclaimed Chinggis (Genghis Khan)- “fierce ruler” or Great Khan of the Mongol clans

What kind of army did the Mongols have?

-Made up of 1000-horse units

-led by appointed commanders loyal to him

-had an elite bodyguard of 10,000 sons & brothers of the commanders

Did the Mongol soldiers go through hardships?

Yes, they endured great hardships and were legendary for their endurance and speed.

Did the Mongols have any laws or script written out?

Yes, they had instituted simple, draconian laws and adopted the Uyghur script, even though he himself was illiterate.

Mongol Expansion

-Set to forage the largest contiguous land empire in history

-Demanded full submission from neighboring states or faced annihilation

-Those submitted -had power vs. Not submitted- were slaughtered

-Genghis would marry off his daughters to allied kings & send his new son-in-law into battle

-Often, SIL) would die in battle, giving daughters complete control of the kingdom

Who did the Mongols destroy?

-The Tanguts of the Xia Kingdom were attacked first and destroyed in 1207. (Song Dynasty notes)

-Took out the Jin Dynasty of the Jurchens (Song notes), swept across the North China Plain in 1212-1213 & razed more than 90 cities

-The Jurchen capital of Zhongdu (near Beijing) was sacked in 1215, it burned for over a month

What happened in 1219 for the Mongols?

-Genghis led 200,000 warriors into Central Asia

Where did the Mongols rule?

-Ruled an empire from Korea to Manchuria, Mongolia, north China, & across Central Asia through Afghanistan, parts of India, Khurasan (northern Persia), present-day Georgia and Azerbaijan, and to the Duchy of Kiev on the Caspian Sea.  Genghis ruled more territory than any other single ruler in history!

What happened to Genghis after he died in 1227?

-The empire broke into 4 sections ruled by his descendants

-Some who pushed as far as Poland & Hungary

What spread around after Genghis passed?

-The spread of diverse cultures and heritages among new societies & people

-Goods, people, technologies, faiths, & ideas spread far and wide between Persia, China, & beyond

Kublai Khan (1215-1294)

-Grandson of Genghis Khan

-Ruled over Hebei, in northern China, & understood Chinese ways & culture

-Had Chinese advisors who spoke some Chinese

What was the new capital called in Kublai Khan's reign?

-Was given the Jurchen territory in north China

-New capital was called SHANGDU (visited by Marco Polo & memorialized as “Xanadu” by the British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

Where did Kublai Khan relocate in 1264?

-Relocated to Zhongdu and re-named it DAIDU (now Beijing), initiated Chinese court rituals and adopted a chinese name for his dynasty, The YUAN- meaning “origin”

What kind of religion did Kublai Khan promote?

-Promoted Confucian Scholars & recognized the sacredness of Daoism & Buddhism, and Muslim scholars to the court.

South China: The Southern Song

-South of China, the Yangzi had never been ruled by nomads from the north

-Kublai assembled a river fleet in 1268 to capture the heavily fortified city of Xiangyang to control the Yangzi Valley

-The siege lasted 5 years, which involved thousands of boats & soldiers

-Employed Chinese, Korean, Jurchen, and Persian experts in warfare

-Muslim engineers designed an artillery piece that hurled a 100lb. rocks

-Song leaders & officials were disorganized and uncoordinated & the emperor was a boy, and was DOMINATED by his MOTHER, who was not liked.

What happened to the Southern Song in 1279?

-Despite Song raising 200,000 soldiers in the final phase, Mongol scare tactics demoralized the Song

-The queen mother surrendered the capital after the Mongols massacred more than one million civilians in Hangzhou, the most populous city on earth, but probably not afterwards

-Song resistance collapsed

Yuan Rule

-No Eurasian Mongol empire existed by the time the Song was defeated

-Most of Asia was ruled by Mongol successor states, which fought among themselves

-The Yuan Dynasty of Kublai Khan included China proper, Korea, Mongolia, Manchuria, and Tibet

-Little assimilation. No adoption of Chinese by the Mongol rulers & most spent their summers in Mongolia

-Mongol officials pitched trad. nomadic tents on the palace grounds rather than sleeping in the palace

-Kublai discouraged the Mongols from taking Chinese women, as they were considered “too delicate” for a Mongol

-Only allowed Mongol women into the palace

Chinese Life Under the Mongols

1. The Chinese were not forced to adopt Mongol customs

2. Philosophical & religious traditions remained

3.Literary traditions continue

Economic Hardships from the Mongols

-Large # of northern Chinese had their land expropriated and given to Mongols

-Many Chinese were forced into serfdom or slavery

-Taxation extremely high

-Increase inflation was so ruinous to North China that it took centuries to recover, esp. the iron industry

Discrimination under the Mongols

-Mongols maintained an ethnic hierarchy that placed the Chinese at the bottom of their own society

-Intermarriage was discouraged

-The Chinese were not allowed to take Mongol names or try to pass themselves as Mongols

-Sometimes were encouraged to learn the Mongol language and sometimes not

-Not allowed to own weapons or congregate in public or even traffic in bamboo

-If fought back against the Mongols, there was harsh punishment

-Mongols were only fined for the murder of a Chinese person

The population decline in China

-Northern Song Pop. by 1100:100 million

-By 1207:120 million combined North & South

-By 1209: down to 60 million & remained there for a century

Reasons for population decline

1. Initial devastation & slaughter by Mongol armies

2.Turmoil & civil war in the final years of the Yuan

3.The spread of Eurasian plagues. 1 million people from 1232-1235

Decline and Downfall of the Yuan

-In the Bun”ei Wars in 1274, Kublai Khan attempted to invade Japan following the Kamakura Shogunate's refusal to submit. The invasion fails due to a storm.

-1281, the second invasion of 150,000 was attempted but was crushed by a typhoon known to the Japanese as Kamikaze. Less than half made it

-Another war against the Tran Dynasty of the Kingdom of Annam (Vietnam), which was bad because the Mongols suffered from tropical diseases & cavalry was rendered ineffective in the mountainous jungles. Failed again in the battle of Bach Dang in 1288.

-They tried one more time, but it was eventually disastrous because of the Sea-borne invasion of Java in 1292. The fleet was never heard from again

• Kublai Khan dies in 1294

• The Yuan Dynasty was left with financial problems, military defeats, and dynastic disputes

Yuan Dynasty Achievements

-Reunified China and fostered N/S interactions

-Reinvigorated trade along the old Silk Road

-Rebuilt the northern section of the Grand Canal and connected it to Beijing

-Strengthened China’s sense of itself and gave it the confidence of staying power