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

• 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.

• Origins of the Song Dynasty

  • It succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and was followed by the Yuan dynasty.
  • The Song dynasty was divided into two distinct periods, Northern and Southern.
  • During the Northern Song (960–1127), the Song capital was in the northern city of Bianjing (now Kaifeng), and the dynasty controlled most of what is now Eastern China.
  • The Later Zhou was the last of the Five Dynasties that had controlled northern China after the fall of the Tang dynasty in 907.
  • Song military forces then turned north against the Northern Han, which fell to Song forces in 979.

• Trade and Currency under the Yuan

  • During the Yuan dynasty, trade flourished and peace reigned along the newly revived Silk Road, contributing to a period known as the Pax Mongolica.
  • The Yuan government first used woodblocks to print paper money, but switched to bronze plates in 1275.
  • The Yuan minister Bolad was sent to Iran, where he explained Yuan paper money to the Il-khanate court of Gaykhatu.
  • Foreign observers took note of Yuan printing technology.
  • Marco Polo documented the Yuan printing of paper money and almanac pamphlets called "tacuini."

• Genghis Khan

  • He was born around 1162 in modern-day northern Mongolia into a nomadic tribe with noble ties and powerful alliances.
  • During the same period, Mongol assaults on China replaced the Sung Dynasty with the Yuan Dynasty.
  • Genghis Khan as portrayed in a 14th-century Yuan-era album.

• Religion Under the Tang Dynasty

  • In an age before Neo-Confucianism and figures such as Zhu Xi (1130–1200), Buddhism began to flourish in China during the Northern and Southern dynasties, and became the dominant ideology during the prosperous Tang.
  • In his bid for power, Li Yuan had attracted a following by claiming descent from the Taoist sage Laozi (6th century BCE).