Yuan Dynasty

• Dates: 1271-1368
• Chinese/Japanese: 元 (Yuán / Gen)

The Mongol Yuan Dynasty was the first foreign dynasty to rule over all of China. Founded by Kubilai Khan in 1271, the Yuan took Hangzhou (the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty) in 1276, and had complete control of China by 1279. The dynasty eventually fell to a peasant rebellion, the Han Chinese leader of which then established the Ming Dynasty in 1368.

The Yuan Court established a new capital at Dadu; this marks the origins of the city that is later renamed Beijing. The Court maintained various elements of the nomadic Mongol traditions and identity, while also adopting many elements of Chinese culture and ways of doing things. A dual government on the Liao model was put into place, in which both Mongol and Chinese modes of rule and administration were employed, governing the two separate populations. The government was headed by a chancellor, who was second in authority only to the Emperor, and who oversaw the Six Boards of government: the Boards of Rites, Revenue, Civil Appointments, War, Punishments, and Public Works. Towards the end of the dynasty, this chancellor came to exercise more de facto power than the emperor himself.

A tiered system of social status was implemented based on ethnicity, with Mongols at the top, other nomadic peoples next, followed by Han Chinese from northern China, and then, on the bottom, Han Chinese from southern China, who comprised roughly 80 percent of the population of the Yuan Empire. Han Chinese throughout the empire were forbidden from riding horses, possessing firearms, speaking the Mongol language, or intermarrying with Mongols. Many Chinese scholar-officials retreated to the countryside, excluded from government service, and philosophically opposed to serving under barbarian invaders in any case. The Confucian civil service exams were discontinued after the Mongol invasion, not being brought back into use until a generation later, in 1315.

The dynasty practiced considerable religious tolerance, however; Tibetan Buddhism was adopted as the religion of the Court and of the state, but Nestorian Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and other religions were well tolerated within the empire.

A system of so-called tax farmers (local or regional intermediaries who collected taxes on behalf of the central government) was established, along with an extensive communication system based around a network of post-towns. Metal or wooden paiza tablets ("Mongol passports") were required for one to be permitted use of the inns, supplies, and horses at these post-towns.

Following the successful rebellion of Zhu Yuanzhang and establishment of the Ming Dynasty in China in 1368, the Mongol leadership split into number of confederations, under separate khans, one of whom continued to rule in the name of the Yuan Dynasty. The Mongols never again regained control of China, but did continue to threaten and harass the Chinese Empire for more than two hundred years. In 1449, one khan managed to kidnap the Ming Emperor, and Mongol forces threatened the walls of Beijing in the mid-16th century. It was not until 1571 that the Ming managed to establish a formal peace with the Mongols.

Emperors of the Yuan Dynasty

• (Genghis Khan, Emperor Taizu of Yuan, r. 1206-1227)
• (Ogodei Khan, Emperor Taizong of Yuan)

1. Kubilai Khan (r. 1260-1294)

...

1. Emperor Renzong of Yuan, Ayurbarwada (r. 1313-1320)
2. Emperor Huizong of Yuan (r. 1332-1368)

Preceded by: Southern Song Dynasty

Yuan Dynasty 1271-1368

Succeeded by: Ming Dynasty

References

• Valerie Hansen, The Open Empire, New York: W.W. Norton & Company (2000), 335-369.