China Under Mongol Rule

by John D. Langlois Jr. (Editor)

Overview

Encompassing history, politics, religion, and art, this collection of essays on Chinese civilization under the Mongols challenges the previously held views that Mongol rule had only negative consequences.

Originally published in 1981.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691615134
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	07/14/2014
Series:	Princeton Legacy Library , #340
Pages:	516
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 6.10(h) x 1.00(d)

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China Under Mongol Rule

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By John D. Langlois Jr.

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 1981 Princeton University Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-691-10110-1

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

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JOHN D. LANGLOIS, JR.

I. The Founding of the Yüan By Khubilai

On a date which corresponded to January 18, 1272, Khubilai, grandson of Chinggis Khan, proclaimed the edict which determined that the Mongol regime in China would thenceforth bear the title Yiian. The edict reads as follows:

"[We] have nobly accepted the splendid mandate covering the entire world and giving a place of abode to the exalted ruler. There must be an elegant title to link the many kings [who will follow] and to record [the deeds of] the succession. The origin of [the practice of giving titles to dynasties] is found in antiquity, and is not something only our house has done. Thus the word t'ang [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], which conveys the idea of vastness (tang [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), was taken by the sage-king Yao [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. as the name by which he was known, and the word yü [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], which conveys the idea of happiness (lo [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), was taken by Shun [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] as his title. Coming down to the ages when Yü [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and T'ang [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] arose, their respective dynastic titles Hsia [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and Yin [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] convey the ideas 'great' and 'central.' As the generations followed, the practice [of naming dynasties] came to differ greatly from that of antiquity. Some availed themselves of opportunities and founded dynasties, but they did not take their titles on the basis of ideas (i [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]). The Ch'in [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and the Han [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] took names based on the places at which they arose. The Sui [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and the T'ang [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] took names from the appanages with which [their founders] had been enfeoffed. In all these cases, they fell prey to the ingrained habits of common people. In essence, they adopted momentary measures of expediency for the sake of control. To evaluate all of them with utmost fairness, can they be free from criticism?

"Our Great Progenitor, the Sagelike Martial Emperor [Chinggis Khan], grasped the sign of the Creative (ch'ien [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) and arose in the northern land. With a spirit-like martiality he accepted the imperial design. Majestically, he stirred the heavenly sound; he greatly expanded the territory of the realm to a breadth never before equalled. Presently the venerable worthies have come to the court to present memorials conveying their requests, saying that since the grand enterprise has already been completed it is appropriate to promulgate a magnificent title. According to the ancient institutions, that is so, and it is no different in Our Mind.

"Ta Yüan [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] ['Great Yuan'] shall be the title of the dynasty. As such, it derives from the principle of ch'ien-yüan [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] ["the original creative force"] in the Book of Changes. The great government gives forms to a multitude of things, but who is it that assigns a title to the great deed of establishing the beginning? We alone have brought peace to the myriad lands. This is particularly in accord with the essential importance of embodying benevolence. In our endeavors there are continuities and discontinuities, but our Way connects Heaven and humanity. Indeed! The taking of a title from an idea is not for the sake of lavishing praise upon ourselves. May the dynasty abide in prosperity forever so as not to be unworthy of the difficult efforts [of the founder]. Let all join efforts to match what Heaven endows. Together we will make this great title celebrated. That the multitude will comprehend our perfect compassion, this edict is promulgated, thinking that it will facilitate complete understanding."

This edict is of great value in any effort to understand the way in which Khubilai and his advisers sought to justify and define the new order in China.

Naming the dynasty "Yüan" was part of a deliberate policy to set historical precedent. By seizing an ideologically sound and prestigious symbol from the Book of Changes, Khubilai avoided the use of a place-name. Had he clung to Chinese tradition, he would have taken a name from his point of origin, in his case perforce one somewhere outside China, and that in turn would have been a constant reminder to the Chinese that the regime was a regime of conquest. By naming the dynasty Yüan, "the origin," Khubilai in effect let the dynasty set its own precedent. Identifying the dynasty with the generating principle of the cosmos enabled Khubilai to extend the universal pretensions of traditional Chinese monarchy to their natural limits. His attempt to cite classical precedent (the references to Yao and Shun) may have softened the surprise caused by his departure, but it did not undo the nature of the startlingly new notion of what a dynasty was.

The allusion to the Book of Changes brilliantly served Khubilai's plan to win acceptance in China as a legitimate ruler. The words in the edict "embodying benevolence" (t'i jen [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) appear in the wen-yen [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or "commentary on the text" attached to the first hexagram in the Book of Changes. In this commentary, which formed the "seventh wing" of the ancient classic, it states that "Of all that is good, sublimity (yüan [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) is supreme. ... Because the superior man embodies humaneness (t'ijen), he is able to govern men." In other words, the allusion to this passage in the Book of Changes implies that precisely because the ruler Khubilai has fulfilled the requirements suggested by the word yüan, he is qualified to hold the Mandate of Heaven and to rule t'ien-hsia [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], "All under Heaven."

The step taken in 1272 had actually been anticipated much earlier. About six weeks after Khubilai had held his khuriltai (acclamation ceremony) in 1260, he promulgated an edict in Chinese in which a Chinese-style reign-name was pronounced. From that year, the Mongols in China used the Chinese system of dating. The reign-name taken was Chung-t'ung [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or "Pivotal Succession." The edict announcing the adoption of this reign-name was drafted by the scholar Wang O [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (1190–1273). In it the ruler explained that the name was designed to convey the principle of an empire united under one house. Furthermore, he stated that "it takes as its model the orthodox beginning (cheng-shih [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) [of a ruler's suzerainty] found in the Spring and Autumn Annals, and embodies the original creative force (ch'ien-yüan [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) found in the Book of Changes."

In other ways, too, Khubilai astutely set out to develop supplementary sources of legitimacy. These sources, he hoped, would enhance the ability of his regime to induce the willing compliance of his subjects. Just six weeks after the new dynastic title had been proclaimed, on the date corresponding to March 4, 1272, an edict issued by Khubilai renamed the Yüan capital city Ta-tu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], "the great capital." This city had been one of the capital cities of the preceding Jurchen Chin [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] dynasty and was on the site of modern Peking. K'ai-p'ing fu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (near the modern city of Dolon in a bend of the Luan [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] River in Inner Mongolia), where Khubilai had been elevated to the position of khaghan ("khan of khans") in 1260, was renamed Shang-tu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], "the upper capital." Construction of the palaces in Ta-tu received high priority from the khaghan. The design of the new city had been drawn up on the basis of the capital city outlined in the ancient Chinese classic of government, the Chou li [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (The Rites of Chou). The Yüan shih [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (Yüan History) notes that construction of palace buildings on the site of the capital began as early as the spring of 1266. Walls and other buildings were constructed during the ensuing years, and in early spring 1272 quarters for the Chung-shu sheng [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (Central Secretariat) were completed, a full four years before the capture of the Southern Sung capital Lin-an [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (modern Hangchow [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), and seven years prior to the defeat of the last remnants of the Sung loyalists.

Khubilai's dynasty, after it had become entrenched on the soils of both sedentary China and nomadic Mongolia, naturally took on a complex nature. As a conquest dynasty, it depended heavily on military supremacy. But as a dynasty which drew upon the collective experience of the Jurchens, the Khitans, and other non-Han peoples who had ruled parts of China, it saw and attempted to exploit the advantages of civil legitimacy that were uniquely well developed in the Chinese political and intellectual tradition.

The transformation of the idea of a dynasty by Khubilai in 1272 was an important innovation designed to enhance the regime's civil legitimacy. By this effort the symbolic importance of the throne of China was universalized — more fully so than any preceeding Chinese dynasty had ever succeeded in doing.

The dynasty also sought to develop religious legitimacy that would appeal to peoples outside the settled regions of China — to the Uighurs and Tibetans and any Han Chinese who inhabited Inner Asia and who were heavily influenced by Buddhism. In the religious sphere, the role of the khaghan was universalized by a process that Herbert Franke describes as "sacralization."

The religious aura of the khaghan which derived from his role as a Buddhist cakravartin king was expressed in the languages of the Tibetans, Uighurs, and other Inner Asians. It was thus directed primarily outside China to the larger Mongol empire, although Chinese Buddhists would also have been part of the audience. The political and ideological legitimacy which employed Chinese imagery and allusions and which was expressed in Chinese writing was aimed towards the Chinese and sinicized peoples of the Chinese cultural region. Throughout the Yuan era, then, these two systems of legitimacy coexisted, giving the regime in China a split or double image.

II. The Successors of Khubilai

The rulers after Khubilai inherited the latter's schema, according to which the Yüan was a universal empire coeval with the cosmos. Some rulers were able to enhance that schema further. Tugh Temur, for example, whose posthumous temple name was Wen-tsung [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] ("the cultivated ancestor") (r. 1328–1332), founded the K'uei-chang Ko [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (Pavilion of the Star of Literature). The pavilion served as the imperial library and art collection and housed the compilation project that produced the Ching-shih ta-tien [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] ("Great Compendium for Governing the World"). But most of the Yuan rulers after Khubilai were unable or disinclined to enhance the dynasty's legitimacy in this way, and instead had a very poor grasp of the stabilizing effect that ideological and symbolic legitimation can bring to bear on a political regime.

Mongol succession practices, however, worked against sound dynastic principles, even though the Chinggisid line was never challenged as the legitimate source of heirs to the throne. The history of Mongol succession in Yüan times is one of assassinations, coups d'état, enthronements of youthful incompetents, fratricide, and domination by non-Chinggisid warlords. The Chinese sources naturally tend to understand these events in the light of Chinese dynastic history. The Yüan shih does this, in part because its compilers clearly thought of the Yüan as a legitimate Chinese dynasty, and in part because the Mongols to some degree had adopted Chinese dynastic principles and had upheld them in some instances. Nevertheless, the legacy of what Joseph Fletcher has dubbed "bloody tanistry" was so deeply imbedded in political practices that echoes of it can be traced throughout later Chinese history.

Khubilai was the first Mongol ruler of China to designate an heir apparent. He named his son Chen-chin [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] the heir in order to predetermine the succession and thereby avert the armed struggles that were endemic in Mongol political life. But Chen-chin died before Khubilai, and although Khubilai later named another heir apparent, the chances for a smooth succession by a groomed heir were reduced. Nevertheless, after Khubilai's death succession remained within the line of descent from Chen-chin. Chen-chin's son Temür succeeded Khubilai. The succession at this juncture was peaceful only because Temür's elder brother Kammala agreed to go along with the selection of Temür in a show of grace, and also to avoid a showdown with two very powerful Mongol leaders who supported Temür's candidacy.

Temür saw the need for choosing an heir apparent, but the man he chose (his son) died before him. The succession then passed to his second elder brother's sons, one after another (Fig. 1). These were Hai-shan [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and Ayurbarwada, sons of Darmabala. Both men were supported by a powerful Mongol leader. Hai-shan, who was the elder son, named his brother heir apparent, and because Hai-shan's powerful sponsor favored Ayurbarwada's succession, the transfer of power upon Hai-shan's death was peaceful. Similarly the son of Ayurbarwada assumed the throne without incident upon the latter's death. This man, whose name was Shidebala, had been named heir apparent, thus carrying forward the Chinese-style principle of dynastic succession. But things changed abruptly in 1323, when Shidebala was assassinated. His assassins put the son of Kammala on the throne. The accession of Kammala's son Yesiin Temur was proclaimed by an edict in colloquial Chinese.

Yesün Temür, in trying to continue the semblance of order, named his son Aragibag the heir apparent. When Yesün Temur died in Shang-tu in 1328, Aragibag ascended the throne there, backed by a powerful faction. At the same time, however, a rival faction led by El Temur had different plans for the empire. Evidently wanting to repay debts he had incurred under Hai-shan, El Temür established Hai-shan's son Tugh Temür as the new ruler. Tugh Temür ascended the throne in Ta-tu, and a civil war erupted between the two contending factions. Meanwhile Tugh Temür also faced a rival in his brother Khoshila, who marched towards Ta-tu from the far west. Tugh Temür yielded the throne to his elder brother and went forth into the steppe to greet him. At their meeting, Khoshila died, probably killed at El Temür's command. El Temür then attacked Shang-tu and eliminated Aragibag's faction, capturing the throne again for Tugh Temür, who reascended it in 1329.

Three years later Tugh Temür died, whereupon another struggle for succession erupted. Tugh Temür's designated heir had died prematurely. The crisis was resolved unsatisfactorily with the accession of the seven-year-old Irinjibal. Irinjibal, the son of Khoshila, ruled for less than two months before an abrupt demise. Irinjibal's elder brother Toghon Temür was elevated after a half a year of wrangling between the rival sponsors. He was thirteen, and he was the last Yiian emperor of China. Toghon Temür ruled from 1333 to 1370, although the last year or more of his reign was spent fleeing from Chinese troops in Mongolia after the Chinese took Ta-tu in the summer of 1368.

(Continues...)

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Table of Contents

• FrontMatter, pg. i
• Contents, pg. v
• List of Illustrations, pg. vii
• Note on Transcription of Mongolian Names and Terms, pg. xi
• Abbreviations Used in the Notes, pg. xiii
• I. Introduction, pg. 1
• Structure and function in the Yiian Imperial Government, pg. 25
• Chinese Official Historiography at the Yuan Court: The Composition of the Liao, Chin, And Sung Histories, pg. 56
• Southern Chinese Scholars and Educational Institutions in Early Yuan: Some Preliminary Remarks, pg. 107
• Political Thought in Chin-hua under Mongol Rule, pg. 137
• Wu Ch’eng and the Perpetuation of the Classical Heritage in the Yuan, pg. 186
• Yu Chi and Southern Taoism during the Yuan Period, pg. 212
• The Muslims in the Early Yuan Dynasty, pg. 257
• Tibetans in Yuan China, pg. 296
• The Role of Wu-hsing in Early Yiian Artistic Development under Mongol Rule, pg. 331
• The Impact of the Reunification: Northern Elements in the life and Art of Hsien-yü Shu (1257?-1302) and Their Relation To Early Yuan Literati Culture, pg. 371
• Mongol Influence on the Development of Northern Drama, pg. 434
• Appendix 1, pg. 467
• Appendix 2, pg. 469
• Index, pg. 473
• List of Contributors, pg. 489