1. By Sunnie Lee
The Yuan Empire

2. The Empire
(Yuan VS Song)

3. Yuan Basics
Founded by Kublai Khan (spelled in textbook as Khubilai Khan)
Founded after Mongols conquered Jin and Southern Song in China
First foreign dynasty to rule all of China
Beijing made capital
Shortest Dynasty in Mongol history

4. Government
Mongols did not just copy Song –> adopted practices from other places and brought in immigrant professionals
Didn’t trust locals
Brought in large numbers of Muslims
Class structure
Kublai reformed China and made himself an absolute monarch
Confucians were politically discriminated against
Mongols reserved all central posts

5. Economy Based largely off agriculture
Paper currency –> better central control
Trade with foreign countries –> open policy
Silk Road trade gave Kublai power
Invigorated sea trade routes
Merchants were privileged
Marco Polo - served as Kublai's official for about 17 years.
Helped to shape the thinking of Europeans about China
Kublai Khan first met Marco Polo's father named Nicolo Polo and Maffeo Polo
Kublai had a great interest in Western Europe and Catholicism, and he gave the Polo’s a letter to take to the Pope (invited the Pope to send 100 priests in 1271)

6. Technology Finished Grand Canal Massive mud walls of rammed earth
Wider streets
Linked lakes
Artificial islands
Paper money
Magnetic compass
Guns
Wine making
Opera
Porcelain
Astronomical innovations (Il- Khans imported scholars from China)
Advancements in mathematics (promoted integration of Chinese skill and Middle East ideas)
Anatomy/pharmacology/opt hamology (Islamic doctors and Persian medical texts)

7. Religion
Mongols –> Shamanism – a practice that involves a practitioner (a shaman) reaching altered states of consciousness in order to interact with the spirit world
Also favored Daoism and Buddhism
Yuan had religious freedom
Kublai had Muslim officials –> made Islam a minority religion

8. Life of Farmers in Yuan
Overall bad for farmers and residents of rural villages
90% population lived in countryside – cottage industries linked to urban economies advanced
Village technology included:
Cultivation of mulberry trees (silk)
Cotton fields
Construction of new irrigation systems
Dams
Water wheels
Villagers worshipped technological innovators, such as Huang Dao Po (who brought special knowledge of cotton growing, spinning, and weaving from her native Hainan Island), like local gods

9. Art Sculptures, painting and calligraphy Courts had artists
Dancing, singing and instrumentals
Emperors loved art and encouraged it
Well known artists: Huan Gongwang, Wang Meng, Ni Zan and Wu Zhen

10. Bye-bye Mongols 1340’s – power contests among Mongol princes
Local rebellions
Zhu Yuanzhang set up Ming in 1368
Many Mongols stayed in China, but most moved to Mongolia (“Northern Yuan”)
Not the end of Mongol rule in Eurasia, held off Mongolia and Turkestan
Manchuria – Mongol’s stepping stone to Korea

11. Brief Ming Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew Yuan and ruled as Hongwu
“Distinct, highly centralized, militarily formidable empire.”
Sought to reject Mongols
Drastic changes led to fall
and eventually return to
Mongol ways