1. The Decline and Fall of Yuan China
HIST 1016
10/29/14

2. Economic Reforms
Merchants traditionally looked down on in Confucian culture
Mongol Empire promotes trade
Ortogh – merchant associations
Require foreign
merchants to convert
money to paper money
Banking system
Use of soldiers as security
Transportation
infrastructure

3. Yuan Learning Medicine Astronomy Importation of Indian and
Muslim doctors
Imperial hospitals and
Imperial Academy of Medicine
Emphasize Confucian values of
righteousness and altruism
Astronomy
Jamal al-Din, Persian, Calendar
for Ten Thousand Years
Institute of Muslim Astronomy
Kuo Shou-ching, Calendar
Delivering the Seasons
Bust of Kuo Shou-ching, Beijing

4. Yuan Learning and Confucianism
Translation Chinese to Mongol
Texts with an immediate benefit to ruling elite
Classic of Filiality
Book of History
Ta-hsüeh yen-i (Neo-Confucian guide to practical governance)
Veritable Records (History of Ögödei and Möngke)
Translation Mongol to Chinese
Mongolian Han-lin Academy
Khubilai’s edicts and regulations
Emphasis on colloquial Chinese

5. Written Mongolian First Mongol script produced during Chinggis’s reign
Based on Uighur script, not
conducive to Mongol
Not conducive to representing
Chinese words
‘Phags-pa lama, Tibetan
Buddhist lama, ordered to design new
script
New script based on Tibetan
‘Phags-pa lama and a Christian tombstone employing his script

6. Yuan Arts and Literature
Colloquial Chinese
End of civil exams and lessened emphasis on Confucian classics
Theater
Urban growth = larger
audiences
Theater districts
Increased standing for
actors and entertainers
Literature
Printing presses
Educated and unemployed
bureaucrats
Mural depicting a Yuan Zaju or variety show

7. Yuan Painting Lack of language barrier
Khubilai’s vanity and royal portraiture
Mongol and foreign
influences
Song Imperial Painting
Collection
Employment of painters
in government offices
Liu Guandao, Khubilai Khan on a hunting
expedition, c

8. Chao Meng-fu (1254-1322), A Man and His Horse in the Wind (Ministry of War)

9. Kao K’o-kung (1248-1310), Hill Growing to Green and White Clouds (Ministry of Works)

10. Li K’an (1245-1310), Bamboos and Rock (Minister of Personnel)

11. Chinese-Persian Influences
Abduction of Zal by the Simurgh, Tabriz, ca. 1370

12. Yuan Painting
Yin-shih: Recluse, artists who refused employment by Mongols
I-min: Artists loyal to the Song
Realism -> emotional, express political discontent
Cheng Ssu-hsiao
( ), “the
earth has been stolen
by the barbarians.”
Cheng Ssu-hsiao, Ink Orchid (1306)

13. Ch’ien Hsüan (ca. 1235-ca. 1301), Dwelling in the Floating Jade Mountains

14. Decline of the Yuan Khubilai Khan: Old and sick Expense of Empire
First major campaign –
38 years old
Khagan – 45 years old
Conquest of the Song –
61 years old
Gout – inflamed joints
Expense of Empire
Building projects (Xanadu
and Ta-tu)
Arts and festivities
Infrastructure and public works
Military campaigns

15. Ahmad the Finance Minister
Central Asian Muslim from Tashkent
1262 – appointed to Central Secretariat
Ordered to increase tax returns
From 1.5 million registered
households to 2 million
Increase income from merchants
10,000%
State monopolies of lucrative
industries
Iron, salt, copper, tea, liquor,
vinegar, gold, and silver
Control bureaus oversee monopolies

16. Ahmad the Finance Minister
Villain from Chinese perspective
Manipulated prices for his own benefit
Increased printing of money = inflation and hoarding of gold and silver
Cronyism – filling posts with relatives and other Muslims
Accusations of womanizing
1271 – Administrator of the Supreme Secretariat
1270’s – death of Khubilai’s early Chinese advisors

17. Ahmad the Finance Minister
April 10, 1282 – Ahmad assassinated by Chinese conspirators
Accusations of treachery and corruption
Discovery of one of the crown jewels in Ahmad’s home
Ahmad’s corpse hung in public, run over by carts, and attacked by dogs
Ahmad’s sons executed and property confiscated
Persian sources – administrator tasked with increasing revenues…