China under the Mongols:

Yuan Dynasty (1260-1279-1368)

Views of Northern Dynasties and Yuan

Traditional: Barbaric Oppressors

S. Song views of Jin and Yuan to the north

Yuan official history

Produced during Ming Dynasty

Social ranking system

Mongols

Semu “People of Various Categories”

Northern Chinese

Southern Chinese

Revisionist trend in scholarship

Cultural exchange

Allsen is representative

Religious tolerance

Gender relations

Recent research on Mongol and Inner Asian elites in China

Nativists vs. Assimilationists

Mongol Conquest and Controversy

Population

100 million, N. Song

120 million, S. Song and Jin combined (1200)

70 million, Yuan (1290)

60 million, Early Ming (1393)

Theories

Traditional

Murder and plunder

Census undercount

Mongol appanages in North China?

Ming undercount?

Mongol misunderstanding of agriculture

Ecological impact

1 tumen=10,000 men, 150,000 horses, 1,500,000 sheep

Tax policies

Irregular taxation until ca. 1250

Reforms of Mongke (r. 1251-9)

Disease

Bubonic plague, 1347-52

Climatic cooling

End of dynasty

Khubilai Khan (1215-94)

Grandson of Genghis Khan

Born N. China

Brother of Mongke

Khan of Khans, r. 1260-1294

Founded Yuan dynasty

Conquered S. Song, 1279

Theories of End of Mongol Conquests

Mongol internal politics

quriltais

civil wars

Ecological barrier theory J. M. Smith/Lindner

Ayn Jalut, Syria 1260

Hülegü vs. Mamluks

Japan 1274, 1281

Kamikazee "divine wind"

Conquest of South China

Ecological barriers

Insufficient grasslands
Terrain unsuited to cavalry warfare

Waterways
Forests
Mountains

Overcoming barriers

Chinese Infantry
Navy
Siege warfare