China under Mongol Rule:

*Yuan Dynasty (1260-1271-1279-1368)

Mid-to-Late Imperial China

Mid-Imperial China

Northern Dynasties

Liao (Kitan) Dynasty (907-916-1125)

Xi Xia (Tangut) Dynasty (ca. 982-1038-1227)

Jin (Jurchen) Dynasty (1115-1234)

China-based Dynasty

N. Song (960-1127)

Capital at Kaifeng

S. Song (1127-1279)

Capital at Hangzhou

Late Imperial China

Yuan (Mongol) (1260-1279-1368)

Ming (1368-1644)

Qing (Manchu) Dynasty (1644-1911)

Views of Mongols

Traditional

Barbaric Oppressors

Yuan official history

Produced during Ming Dynasty

Social ranking system

Mongols

Semu “People of Various Categories”

Kitans, Jurchen, Uighurs, Middle Easterners and others (Marco Polo)

Northern Chinese

Southern Chinese

Revisionist trend in scholarship

Cultural exchange

Religious tolerance

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

War, murder and plunder

Census undercount (Brook, pp. 42-45)

Mongol appanages in North China?

Ming undercount?

Corruption?

Mongol early misunderstanding of agriculture, 1215-1250

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

Old chronology

Black Death of Europe, 1347-52

New chronology

Spread with Mongol Conquests

Conquest of Jin Capital, 1215

Succession to Khan of Khans

Khubilai Khan (1215-94)

Grandson of Genghis Khan

Brother of Mongke

Born North China

Defeated brother Arigh Böke in civil war

Empire divided into khanates

Khan of Khans, r. 1260-1294

Founded Yuan dynasty, 1271

Conquered S. Song, 1279

Conquest of South

Ecological barriers

Insufficient grasslands
Terrain unsuited to cavalry warfare

Waterways
Forests
Mountains

Overcoming barriers by 1279

Chinese Infantry
Navy
Siege warfare

Xiangyang, 1267-1272

Middle Eastern counterweight trebuchet

Mongol Integration into China

Zhao Mengfu (1254-1322), “Sheep & Goat,” (Hansen, pp. 333-35)

According to Hansen, why does this painting symbolize contemporary elite Chinese attitudes towards the Mongols? Why is the painting representative of new trends in literati painting?

Mongol Impact on China

Semu “People of Various Categories”

Middle Easterners and others (Marco Polo)

Agriculture

Crop exchanges

Economy

Long distance trade

Technological exchanges

Transfer of Technology and Goods

Iran: Cobalt blue glaze + China: Porcelain=Chinese Blue-glazed Porcelain

Smithsonian Museums Freer Gallery of Art, Room 12: "The Peacock Room in Blue and White"

Gunpowder and firearms

China Gunpowder 6th c.

Fire arrows, 9th c.

Mythbusters reconstruction of fire arrow weapon, ca. 1500

Bombs 11th c.

Cannon 13th c.

Mongol Empire

Rapid spread of technology