Name: Yuan dynasty
Start: 1271
End: 1368

Summary

The Yuan dynasty was Kublai Khan's China, the Chinese face of the Mongol world empire and the first dynasty to rule the whole country from Beijing. Its roots run to 1206, when Temüjin was proclaimed Genghis Khan and welded the steppe tribes into the war machine that took Western Xia in 1227, the Jin in 1234, and then rode west in three great campaigns to Hungary, Syria and the China seas. Kublai, fourth son of Tolui, won the succession war of 1260–1264 against his brother Ariq Böke, and in 1271, on the advice of the Confucian Liu Bingzhong, took the dynastic name Great Yuan from the Book of Changes, fixing his capital at Khanbaliq, modern Beijing. In 1279 his admirals destroyed the last Song fleet, and for the first time Tibet, Yunnan, Mongolia and China proper obeyed one court. Yuan government paired Mongol princes with Chinese-style ministries, kept the Grand Canal and the post roads running from Korea to Karakorum, printed paper money that astonished Marco Polo, and patronised Tibetan Buddhism, Islam and the southern literati alike. But the conquest elite never trusted the southern Chinese, reserving office for Mongols and Central Asians, and plague, Yellow River floods and White Lotus rebellion hollowed the fisc. In 1368 Zhu Yuanzhang's armies entered Khanbaliq; the last emperor fled to the steppe, where his heirs kept the Yuan name alive as the Northern Yuan.

In depth

Politics and institutions

The Yuan dynasty was proclaimed by Kublai Khan in 1271, but it was part of a larger Mongol imperial system. The Mongols ruled China through a dual administration that combined Central Asian and Chinese institutions, with Mongols and Central Asians privileged over northern Chinese and southerners. The capital at Khanbaliq (Beijing) became the seat of a court that was cosmopolitan, militarized and dependent on Mongol military power.

Yuan government was shaped by the tension between conquest and administration. Mongol law, Chinese bureaucracy and Central Asian fiscal practice coexisted, while the examination system was interrupted for long periods. The dynasty's reliance on non-Chinese officials and its system of ethnic quotas limited integration, and after the 1350s rebellion and fiscal collapse destroyed its control of the south.

Economy and finance

Yuan China was linked to the wider Mongol world through trade, taxation and paper currency. The Grand Canal was extended, maritime commerce flourished and the state experimented with paper money on a vast scale. These policies stimulated exchange, but inflation, military expenditure and the costs of ruling a huge empire strained the fiscal system.

Society and culture

Yuan society was hierarchical and multi-ethnic. Mongol law and Chinese custom coexisted, and the examination system was interrupted for long periods. Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and Daoism all found patrons, while drama and vernacular literature flourished. The period's cultural openness was real, but it rested on conquest and unequal status.

Military and frontiers

The Yuan army was the most powerful in East Asia, combining Mongol cavalry with Chinese infantry, siege engineers and naval forces. Kublai's failed invasions of Japan and Java showed the limits of Mongol power at sea, while the dynasty's reliance on Mongol and Central Asian troops created tensions with the Chinese elite. By the fourteenth century, rebellion and fiscal crisis had eroded its military advantage.

Legacy and influence

The Yuan dynasty integrated China more tightly into Eurasian exchange and left a lasting administrative geography. Its capital became the basis of Ming Beijing, and its postal, fiscal and military institutions influenced later dynasties. The Mongol conquest also reshaped Chinese identity and the memory of foreign rule, which remained potent in later political thought.

Record

Capital: Khanbaliq (Beijing)

Government: absolute monarchy

Currency: cash; Chao

Population: 83,873,000 (1330)

Area: 13,720,000 km² (1330)

Timeline

1271Kublai Khan proclaims the Yuan

1279The Song fall; China is reunited

1351The Red Turban revolts begin

1368The Yuan withdraw from China

Notable figures

Kublai Khan

Marco Polo

Yuan dynasty