Kublai Khan

Mongol ruler (r. 1260-1294)

• Born: September 23, 1215
• Birthplace: Mongolia
• Died: February 18, 1294
• Place of death: Dadu (now Beijing), China

As a Mongol general and the great khan, Kublai helped conquer and came to rule over an empire that encompassed most of Eurasia. He founded the Yuan Dynasty of China and brought the Mongols to the peak of their power and influence.

Early Life

Kublai Khan (kew-bli kahn) was born somewhere in the Mongol heartland, but the exact site cannot be agreed on by scholars. He was the son of Tolui and the grandson of Temüjin, who had become Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire. Kublai’s three surviving brothers were Mangu, Hülagü, and Arigböge. At the time of Genghis Khan’s death, Kublai was only twelve years old, but he was already an accomplished horseman; as he matured, he gained a reputation as a warrior of great personal courage.

In 1251, Mangu succeeded his cousin Güyük (r. 1246-1248) as great khan of the Mongol Empire. Güyük had succeeded his father, Ogatai (r. 1229-1241), who previously had succeeded his father, Genghis Khan (r. 1206-1227). Kublai served his older brother successfully as a general and led military campaigns for him in South China against the forces of the collapsing Song Dynasty (960-1279). Kublai added Sichuan, Yunnan, and Hukawng (now in Myanmar) to Mangu’s domains, and one of Kublai’s commanders initiated the invasion of Vietnam . During his part in the conquest of the Song, Kublai gradually came under the influence of Chinese civilization. Under Mangu, the Mongol Empire also expanded southwestward into Persia, Mesopotamia, and Syria.

When word of Mangu’s death in 1259 reached Kublai in China, he quickly concluded a truce with his Song adversaries and returned to the Mongol capital of Karakorum. On May 6, 1260, Kublai had himself proclaimed great khan of the Mongol Empire. Kublai’s right to succeed was severely challenged by his youngest brother, Arigböge, and a four-year civil war ensued between the two, culminating in 1264 with the triumph of Kublai Khan.

Life’s Work

Not surprisingly, the great khan Kublai took a view of China that was somewhat different from that of his predecessors. In 1264, he moved his capital from Karakorum in Mongolia to Khanbalik (known to the Chinese as Dadu, now Beijing) in North China. He initiated new action in 1267 to complete the conquest of the Song Dynasty in South China in 1279. Kublai proclaimed his dynasty the Yuan (origin) Dynasty in 1271 and ascended the dragon throne of China, thus establishing himself and his heirs as the legitimate successors to the Song Dynasty until 1368. By 1279, he had accomplished something that the Song had failed to do the unification of China under one ruler. Moreover, in less than one hundred years, Kublai and his Mongol predecessors had established an empire larger than that which it had taken the Romans four hundred years to assemble a millennium earlier.

In 1276, Kublai’s authority was challenged in the west by Kaidu, khan of Transoxiana and Kashgaria (Chinese Turkistan), and the struggle that followed did not end until a decade after Kublai’s death. Meanwhile, Kublai Khan’s armies subjugated Burma and Indochina in the 1280’s but failed in their invasions of Japan through Korea in 1274 and again in 1281 (in part because of typhoons, the kamikaze or “divine wind,” in the Sea of Japan) and in their invasion of Java in 1293. The Mongol Empire was not a naval power, and its armies did not fare well in the tropics. Kublai also abandoned the further conquest of Europe with the destruction of Kievan Rus as too troublesome, costly, and generally unrewarding.

China was the jewel of his empire (which eventually encompassed 80 percent of Eurasia), and Kublai tried to keep it free of war. The Sinicizing of Kublai continued after he became emperor; eventually, he even accepted conversion to Buddhism , yet was tolerant toward all religions and philosophies except Daoism. Kublai had his heirs educated as Chinese; he also established the right of succession only for his descendants. The new Mongol “square character” alphabet used during the Yuan Dynasty was designed by the Tibetan lama Pagspa for Kublai; Pagspa also governed Tibet for him. Kublai Khan introduced the use of Chinese paper money for the whole Mongol Empire and created a more unified monetary system from 1282 to 1287. This reform led directly not only to the stimulation and expansion of commercial activity across the Mongol Empire but also to inflation, when the new paper currency ceased to be backed effectively by or convertible to hard money.

Kublai Khan’s reign also was characterized by extensive patronage of the arts and learning and by an ambitious program of public works, including the construction of an extensive network of roads and the rebuilding and extension of the Grand Canal between Beijing and Hangzhou. A new law code for China was promulgated in 1291. To the Chinese, Kublai Khan was known as the emperor Shizu, the ablest and most enlightened of the Yuan rulers. He established a luxurious court, including a fabled summer retreat at Shangdu (Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Xanadu”). Yet he and his Mongols were never beloved by their Chinese subjects and were always viewed as alien overlords by them.

To enable the culturally inferior and greatly outnumbered Mongols to maintain control over China, Kublai Khan readily employed foreigners over native Chinese as administrators and advisers and also kept the top offices in Mongol hands. He was tolerant of Christianity, and among his subjects there were many followers of the Nestorian church. Kublai also admitted and allowed himself to be advised by Roman Catholics, the most famous of these being the Polos from the Republic of Venice.

Between 1262 and 1266, two merchant brothers, Niccolò Polo and Maffeo Polo, journeyed across Eurasia to the seat of the great khan in search of trade. They arrived back in Venice with desired merchandise from the East as well as an invitation from the great khan for Christian missionaries to come to China and a request for an alliance with the Christian West and its Crusaders against Islamic Egypt. This tolerance of Christianity and apparent but unfulfilled promise of a joint crusade against Islam probably was responsible for the linking of Kublai Khan to the medieval Christian Prester John legends.

Under the protection of a solid gold pass (paisa) of safe conduct from Kublai Khan himself, the Polo brothers set off for China in 1275, this time accompanied by Niccolò’s son Marco. They did not arrive in Europe until 1295. During these years at Kublai’s court, they served him as advisers, administrators, and ambassadors. Their adventures were many, and they came to experience much of his vast but somewhat shaky empire. Marco Polo’s account of his travels and experiences, Divisament dou monde (fourteenth century; The Travels of Marco Polo, 1579), is an invaluable European source on Kublai Khan and the Mongol Empire.

By the time of the Polos’ return to Venice, Kublai’s control had weakened so much that he could no longer guarantee their safety via the overland route they had originally traveled some seventeen years before. Consequently, they departed China by sea for the Middle East. In 1294, Kublai Khan died in Khanbalik (known to the Chinese as Dadu; now Beijing). He was succeeded by his grandson Temür (Chengzong; r. 1294-1307). In 1368, the last Mongol emperor of China, Shundi, was overthrown and left Beijing for Mongolia. The Mongol Yuan Dynasty was replaced by the Chinese Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and the remaining Mongols were driven out of or absorbed by a resurgent Chinese civilization.

Significance

Kublai Khan created one of the largest empires in the history of the world; at the heart of the Mongol Empire under Kublai Khan was China. The Mongols reached the greatest extent of their power and influence under Mangu and his brother Kublai, but how unified their “state” was certainly is open to question.

Under Kublai, there were no more than three million Mongols to control a domain stretching over 80 percent of Eurasia, consisting of many thousands of square miles and containing numerous diverse peoples. By necessity, this empire had to be decentralized and relied heavily on Mongol-supported local administrators. It did this effectively for about two centuries. At the same time, the Mongols were forced to discriminate ruthlessly against the often culturally superior peoples they came to control. This practice was no more apparent than in the Yuan Dynasty’s rule over China, enforced by a rigid caste system separating the rulers from the ruled. Despite such rigidity, even Kublai, the most effective of the Yuan emperors, had trouble maintaining control.

In the final analysis, the Mongols were spread too thin over their great empire, and their initial military-technological advantage was not sufficient to make up for their numerical and cultural inferiority to those whom they had conquered. Gradually, the Mongols were absorbed or overthrown by their conquered peoples. Hence, although Kublai Khan’s military and political achievements were significant, they also were fleeting.

Major Rulers of the Yuan Dynasty, 1279-1368

Reign

• Ruler

1279-1294

• Kublai Khan (Shizu)

1294-1307

• Temür Oljeitu (Chengzong)

1308-1311

• Khaishan (Wuzong)

1311-1320

• Ayurbarwada (Renzong)

1321-1323

• Shidelbala (Yingzong)

1323-1328

• Yesun Temür (Taiding)

1328-1329

• Tugh Temür (Wenzong Tianshundi)

1329

• Tugh Khoshila (Mingzong)

1329-1332

• Tugh Temür (Wenzong)

1333-1368

• Toghon Temür (Shundi)

Bibliography

Benson, Douglas S. The Mongol Campaigns in Asia: A Summary History of Mongolian Warfare with the Governments of Eastern and Western Asia in the Thirteenth Century. Chicago: Author, 1991. A detailed military and diplomatic history of the Mongolian Empire in which Kublai Khan is seen as a major figure. Contains maps and illustrations.

Dīn, Rashīd al-. The Successors of the Genghis Khan. Translated by John Andrew Doyle. New York: Columbia University Press, 1971. This book is the classic contemporary Islamic account of the Mongol Empire from the death of the Genghis Khan through the reign of Temür Khan, grandson of Kublai Khan. The largest chapter is reserved for the life and achievements of Kublai Khan.

Larner, John. Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999. A discussion of the Polo family, Marco’s relationship with Rustichello, the making of the book, and the explorer’s influence. Contains maps of the fifteenth century. Bibliography and index.

Marshall, Robert. Storm from the East: Genghis Khan to Khubilai Khan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. A popular history of the Mongol Empire, from its beginning to the invasion of Europe and later China, to its ultimate fall. Contains dynastic tables, illustrations, maps, bibliography, and index.

Nicolle, David. The Mongol Warlords: Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, Hülegü, Tamerlane. Poole, England: Firebird, 1990. An examination of the major Mongol rulers. Bibliographies and index.

Onon, Urgunge, trans. The Secret History of the Mongols: The Life and Times of Chinggis Khan. Rev. ed. Richmond, England: Curzon, 2001. A literal and annotated translation of a work written only a generation after Genghis Khan’s death.

Polo, Marco. The Travels of Marco Polo. Translated by Ronald Latham. 1958. Reprint. New York: Penguin Books, 1996. One of the best translations into English of Marco’s book. Contains a brief but good introduction by the translator.

Rossabi, Morris. Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988. A readable yet comprehensive biography, of interest to both the scholar and the layperson. Includes notes, a glossary of Chinese characters, extensive bibliographies of works in Western languages and works in Oriental languages, and an index. Illustrated.

Roux, Jean-Paul. Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2003. An examination of Genghis Khan and the empire that he created.