AP World History POD #8 – The Middle Kingdom

AP World HistoryPOD #8 – The MiddleKingdom

Yuan & Ming Empires

Class Discussion Notes

Bulliet et. al –

“Mongol Domination in China,1271-1368”, pp. 352-355

Collapse of Mongol Rule

“After conquering northern China in the 1230s,Great Khan Ogodei told a Confucian adviserthat he planned to turn the heavily populatedNorth China Plain into a pasture for livestock.The adviser reacted calmly but argued thattaxing the cities and villages would bringgreater wealth. The Great Khan agreed, buthe imposed an oppressive tax-farming systeminstead of the fixed rate method traditional inChina.” (Bulliet, p. 352)

China suffered under this system

Khubilai Khan

Created the Yuan Empire in 1271 /Grandson ofGenghis

Secured trade routes / Exchange of expertsbetween eastern and western Eurasia /Transmission of information, ideas, and skills

He began to use Confucian ideas in theformation of laws but was always willing tolisten to Buddhist and Daoist leaders andadvisers

Tibetan Buddhist Monks

Lamas – Tibetan Buddhist priestsbecame popular with Mongol rulers

Mongols liked their idea of a militantuniversal ruler bringing the whole worldunder control of the Buddha

Beijing

Capital city of the Yuan Empire (the old capitalof Karakorum was too geographically remote)

Located at the eastern terminus of the caravanroutes originating near Tabriz

Forbidden City – a closed imperial complexwith wide streets and a network of linked lakesand artificial islands

“Xanadu” (ZAH-nah-doo) – the summer retreatof the Khan located in Inner Mongolia

Yuan Society

According to the law of the land Mongolsranked highest followed by the Central Asians,Middle Easterners, the northern Chinese andfinally the southern Chinese

Mongols were the empire’s warriors

Central Asians & Middle Easterners were theempire’s census takers and tax collectors

Northern Chinese outranked the southernChinese by way of being put under Mongol rulealmost two generations earlier

Yuan Government

Rulers stressed census taking and taxcollecting (Persian, Arab & Uigher officialsstaffed these jobs, while Muslim scholarsworked at calendar making)

Organized China into provinces with centralappointment of provincial governors, taxcollectors and garrison commanders

Systemized control of all parts of the empire

Yuan Economy

Cities prospered by being on the caravan routes in thenorth and the Grand Canal in the interior

Merchants were a privileged group

Corporations shared the risk of doing business

Agriculture could not keep up with the demands of empireas the lands were damaged by war and overtaxed

Paper money was printed but was distrusted by thepeople and a copper coinage was created bringingstability to the economy

The gentry began to move to the countryside as the citylife no longer supported scholarship as the commerciallife became supreme

Cottage industries dotted the countryside

Population Loss

It is estimated that approximately 40% ofthe population of China was lost duringthe Yuan Dynasty’s reign

Causes are speculated to include –prolonged warfare, rural distress causingpeople to engage in female infanticide,bubonic plague, a southward flight ofrefugees and flooding on the YellowRiver

Fall of the Yuan

“In the 1340s strife broke out among theMongol princes. Within twenty years farmerrebellions and inter-Mongol feuds engulfed theland. Amidst the chaos, a charismatic Chineseleader, Zhu Yuan-zhang (JOO yuwen-JAHNG),mounted a campaign that destroyed the YuanEmpire and brought China under control of hisnew empire, the Ming, in 1368” (Bulliet, p. 354)