Northern Yuan

Examples of Northern Yuan in the following topics:

• Decline of the Yuan Dynasty

  • The Yuan remnants retreated to Mongolia after Yingchang fell to the Ming in 1370, and there formally carried on the name Great Yuan in what is known as the Northern Yuan dynasty.
  • According to Chinese political orthodoxy, there could be only one legitimate dynasty whose rulers were blessed by Heaven to rule as emperors of China, and so the Ming and the Northern Yuan denied each other's legitimacy as emperors of China, although the Ming did consider the previous Yuan it had succeeded to have been a legitimate dynasty.
  • They tried again in 1380, ultimately winning a decisive victory over the Northern Yuan in 1388.
  • About 70,000 Mongols were taken prisoner, and Karakorum (the Northern Yuan capital) was sacked.
  • Eight years later, the Northern Yuan throne was taken over by Biligtü Khan Ayushiridara, a descendant of Ariq Böke, instead of the descendants of Kublai Khan.

• The Mongol Invasions

  • It was the first foreign dynasty to rule all of China and lasted until 1368, after which its Genghisid rulers returned to their Mongolian homeland and continued to rule the Northern Yuan dynasty.
  • As such, the Yuan was also sometimes referred to as the Empire of the Great Khan.
  • Under the reign of Genghis's third son, Ögedei Khan, the Mongols destroyed the weakened Jin dynasty in 1234, conquering most of northern China.
  • A portrait of the founder of Yuan dynasty, the Mongolian Kublai Khan.
  • Connect the Mongol invasions to the establishment of the Yuan dynasty

• Painting under the Song Dynasty

  • Ma Yuan was a Southern Song painter of the Song Dynasty.
  • As court painters, Ma Yuan and Xia Gui used strong black brushstrokes to sketch trees and rocks and pale washes to suggest misty space.
  • Walking on Path in Spring by Ma Yuan (马远 c.1190 - 1279年）)
  • Ma Yuan was one of the most prominent Chinese painters of the Song Dynasty.
  • Compare and contrast the Northern and Southern Song styles of painting.

• Kublai Khan

  • By 1271 he had renamed the Empire the Yuan Dynasty and conquered the Song dynasty and with it, all of China.
  • He stabilized the northern regions by placing a hostage puppet leader in Korea named Wonjong in 1259.  
  • However, the Yuan Dynasty often functioned as an independent khanate from the rest of the western Mongol-dominated regions.
  • Southern Asian regions often agreed to Yuan rule and taxation only in the face of more bloodshed and terror.
  • Kublai Khan made significant reforms to existing institutions under the Yuan Dynasty.

• Rise of the Ming Dynasty

  • It succeeded the Yuan dynasty and preceded the short-lived Shun dynasty, which was in turn succeeded by the Qing dynasty.
  • For a brief period during the dynasty northern Vietnam was included in Ming territory.
  • The Mongol-led Yuan dynasty (1279–1368) ruled before the establishment of the Ming dynasty.
  • In 1352, Zhu joined one of the many insurgent forces that had risen in rebellion against the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty.
  • The last Yuan emperor fled north into Mongolia and Zhu declared the founding of the Ming dynasty after razing the Yuan palaces in Dadu (present-day Beijing) to the ground.

• The Southern Song Era

  • After capturing Kaifeng, the Jurchens went on to conquer the rest of northern China, while the Song Chinese court fled south.
  • Kublai Khan officially declared the creation of the Yuan dynasty in 1271.
  • By 1276, most of the Song territory had been captured by Yuan forces.
  • Other members of the Song imperial family continued to live in the Yuan dynasty, including Zhao Mengfu and Zhao Yong.
  • Compare and contrast the Southern Song era with the Northern Song era

• Rise of the Tang Dynasty

  • The Sui unified the Northern and Southern dynasties and reinstalled the rule of ethnic Han Chinese in the entirety of China proper, as well as sinicized former nomadic ethnic minorities within its territory.
  • Li Yuan was duke of Tang and governor of Taiyuan during the Sui dynasty's collapse.
  • Li Yuan rose in rebellion in 617, along with his son and his equally militant daughter Princess Pingyang, who raised and commanded her own troops.
  • On the news of Emperor Yang's murder by General Yuwen Huaji on June 18, 618, Li Yuan declared himself the emperor of a new dynasty, the Tang.
  • Li Yuan, known as Emperor Gaozu of Tang, ruled until 626, when he was forcefully deposed by his son Li Shimin, the Prince of Qin, conventionally known by his temple name Taizong.

• Art of the Middle Kingdom

  • The time from the Five Dynasties period to the Northern Song period (907–1128 CE) is known as the "Great age of Chinese landscape".
  • In the south, Dong Yuan, Juran, and other artists painted the rolling hills and rivers of their native countryside in peaceful scenes done with softer, rubbed brushwork.
  • Dong Yuan painted the rolling hills and rivers of his native countryside using soft, rubbed brushwork.
  • Li Cheng was among the great landscape painters from northern China.

• Ceramics under the Song Dynasty

  • During the Song and following Yuan dynasties, porcelain made in the city and other southern Chinese kiln sites used crushed and refined pottery stones alone.
  • Trends in illustration styles among the gentry notably shifted from the Northern (960–1127) to Southern Song (1127–1279) periods, influenced in part by the gradual embrace of the Neo-Confucian political ideology at court.
  • Left item: A Northern Song qingbai-ware vase with a transparent blue-toned ceramic glaze, from Jingdezhen, 11th century.
  • Center item: A Northern or Southern Song qingbai-ware bowl with incised lotus decorations, a metal rim, and a transparent blue-toned glaze, from Jingdezhen, 12th or 13th century; Right item: A Southern Song miniature model of a granary with removable top lid and doorway, qingbai porcelain with transparent blue-toned glaze, Jingdezhen, 13th century.

• Painting under the Yuan Dynasty

  • The Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) saw the consolidation of poetry, painting, and calligraphy into a unified canon of classical Chinese art.
  • In Yuan poetry, qu was the main development, which was used among other poetic forms by most of the famous Yuan poets.
  • Wang Meng was a famous painter of the Yuan Dynasty, and one of his most famous works is the Forest Grotto.
  • The later Yuan dynasty is characterized by the work of the so-called "Four Great Masters".
  • Wang Meng and the great masters of the Yuan Dynasty exclusively painted landscapes, which they believed to be the visible key to the invisible reality.