In official Chinese histories, the Yuan dynasty bore the Mandate of Heaven, following the Song dynasty and preceding the Ming dynasty. As such, the Yuan was also sometimes referred to as the Empire of the Great Khan. However, while the wester khans at times recognized the claim of supremacy by the Yuan emperors, their subservience was nominal and each continued his own separate development.
He and his successors expanded the Mongol Empire across Asia. Kublai was unable to read Chinese but had had several Han Chinese teachers attached to him since his early years by his mother Sorghaghtani. He sought the counsel of Chinese Buddhist and Confucian advisers. Kublai built schools for Confucian scholars, issued paper money, revived Chinese rituals, and endorsed policies that stimulated agricultural and commercial growth. He adopted as his capital city Kaiping in Inner Mongolia, later renamed Shangdu.
The Mongol force that invaded southern China was far greater than the force they sent to invade the Middle East in Kublai depended on the cooperation of his Chinese subjects to ensure that his army received ample resources. He bolstered his popularity among his subjects by modeling his government on the bureaucracy of traditional Chinese dynasties and adopting the Chinese era name of Zhongtong. Civil strife had permanently divided the Mongol Empire. Kublai Khan. A portrait of the founder of Yuan dynasty, the Mongolian Kublai Khan.
The population of North China did decline somewhat, though earlier estimates that there was a catastrophic decline in population have subsequently been revised.
It is also true that the Mongols eliminated one of the most basic of Chinese institutions — the civil service examinations. The examinations remained banned until , and even after the ban was lifted, they were no longer the only means to officialdom for the Yuan Dynasty, the dynasty that the Mongols founded in C.
The Mongols perceived China as just one section of their vast empire. And they classified the population of their domain in China into a hierarchy of four groups — with the native Chinese at the bottom. Genghis Khan now broke through the Wall and attacked northern China, which his forces ravaged and plundered. In the spring of they descended on the Jurched capital at Zongdhu.
There had been a coup there and the newly installed Golden Khan did not feel secure enough to face a prolonged siege. He offered substantial rewards if the Mongols would withdraw, including enormous quantities of gold, silver and silk, as well as thousands of horses.
He gave Genghis Khan a Jurched princess as a wife and acknowledged the Mongol chieftain as his overlord. Satisfied, Genghis Khan left to return to Mongolia, leaving the Jurched regime to continue in China and pay him tribute as their overlord, but the Golden Khan soon broke the agreement. He aband-oned Zhongdu and moved his court to the city of Kaifeng, far to the south. Genghis Khan was infuriated at what he considered a betrayal. In he marched back to Zhongdu. Many of its people also felt betrayed by the Golden Khan and the Mongol siege starved the city into submission.
Genghis Khan went back to Mongolia, leaving his subordinates to sack Zhongdu, which they did with enthusiastic thoroughness and zeal. In his last years Genghis Khan extended his sway over northern China, invaded Afghanistan and pressed on into Georgia, Russia and northern Persia.
Cities were taken and populations ruthlessly massacred.
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