The and the Prosperity of the Yuan Dynasty
6 min readMarco Polo left Venice for the East in the year 1271. During the war between Venice and Genoa in 1298, Marco Polo was caught and put to prison, where he dictated his travels in the East and a writer named Rustigielo in the same cell put down in writing. The notes was later titled Travels in the East, also named the Travels of Marco Polo.
Marco Polo arrived in the capital of Yuan, Dadu(Beijing), in 1275 and traveled for 17 years in China. He was appointed as government official by Kublai Khan and participated in governmental affairs. He had traveled to many parts of China including the North, the Northwest, the Southwest, and the East. In his travels, Marco Polo recorded the political and social situations, customs and religion, products and anecdotes of China and other Asian countries. His writing was direct and vividly interesting. It served as a window for the occidental to knowChina. Writings about China constitutes about one third of the whole work. Prosperous life in Dadu and Yangzhou was depicted in details in his recording. He portrayed the composition of the city of Beijing, the palace architecture, the festival ceremonies of the Emperor, andhunting activities. He was especially passionate towards the beautiful Hangzhou. There were 1.6 million houses in the streets of Hangzhou. The banks along the canal were elegant. There were many canals and ditches, and the water system was very convenient. There were 3,000 bathing ponds. The residents loved cold baths, but they treated the foreigners well by serving them with hot baths. Marco Polo also recorded his travels in the backland of China. The dignified quality of the Chinese was put in action when they rather be killed than be humiliated.
Many powerless people hanged themselves in front of the wealthy officials’ houses for dignity purpose. After someone’s death, his family will make paper figures, paper horses, and paper money according to the custom. There was a great deal of poison grass at the suburb of Suzhou, Gansu. Thousands of horses were poisoned by the grass. Sichuan people collected muskiness under the belly of muskdeer. He also recorded about beautiful concubines and the method to test if the bride was a virgin by pigeon eggs, etc.
Marco Molo was not a writer who only recorded the good side of the Yuan Dynasty. He had also honestly depicted racism in persecution in his work. He recorded the relentlessness of the Mongolians who slaughtered twenty thousand disobedient residents on the way when the corpse of Genghis Khan was escorted back home. The government official of Kublai Khan, Ahmad, clawed money from the people and tyrannized the Han people. He was later killed by revolting Han people. When Mongolians invaded the south of China, they massacred towns of people. The Han residents were extremely hostile towards the Mongolians and the Yuan regime. The residents of Changzhou placed wine jars outside of the town when the Mongolians attacked. The Mongolians were fuddled and massacred the whole town when they awoke.
In 1289, Kublai sent Marco Polo to escort Princess Kukachin to ll Khanate(now Iran) to marry a khan. Marco Polo set out with 14 giant ships in the spring of 1291. They departed from Quanzhou and arrived at Persia via Sumatra and India.
The Yuan Dynasty(1271-1368) was a regime constituted by the Mongolians. It was the first regime governing the whole China by a minority. The Mongolians is an ancient nomad people. In the 12th century, Chief Temujin was made the Khan by all the tribes and was named Genghis Khan. The Mongolians grandually became powerful. It destroyed Western Xia(1038-1227) in 1227 and destroyed Jin(1115-1234) in 1234. It was ready to unite China. After Genghis Khan died, Ogedei, Mongke, and Khublai successively held over the Khan. Their territory enlarged and they established the Mongolian empire constituted of four khanates. Their territory included today’s Russia, most part of Europe, the east bank of the Mediterranean Sea, the valleys of the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates, Persia, and the northwest part of India. The four khanates were actually a combo under military conquest. They have developed into independent countries.
In 1271，Genghis Khan’s grandson Khublai established the Yuan Dynasty in Dadu and was named the First Emperor of Yuan.From then on，Beijing has become the political，economic，and cultural center in China for the next 700 years.In 1276，the Yuan troops attacked the capital of Southern Song，Lin’an（Hangzhou）and united China.The territory of Yuan reached Mongolia and Siberia to the north，the South China Sea to the south，Tibet and Yunnan to the southwest，west Xingjiang to the northwest，and exterior Xinggan Mountains and Okhotsk Sea to the northeast.The area reached 12 million square kilometers.China’s domainwas laid out until the Qing Dynasty.The Mongolians joined China as a minority group since then.
The mausoleum of Genghis Khan in Erdos，Inner Mongolia After Kublai united China，he had twice conquered Japan，Annam（north Vietnam），and Burma. He had made Korea, Burma, and Annam to become dependencies of the Yuan Dynasty.
Domestically, he devided people into four classes, the Mongolians, Color-eyed people(including Muslins and people in the western territory), Han in the north, and Han in the south. The status of Han people was very low. Han people became the target for Mongolians and Coloreyed people to enslave and depredate. Therefore, conflicts among the ethnic groups became a main thread of warfare, especially when the regime was first established and the end of the Yuan Dynasty.
The white pagoda of Miaoying Temple in Beijing, built by Yuan Emperor Kublai in 1271. It is the most ancient and biggest scale Lama pagoda that stilexists in china.
From the Kublai reign, agriculture had developed to a great extent. Since Tonghui Canal was excavated from Beijing to Tongzhou, water transportation was developed. Due to paper currency issuance, domestic commerce became prosperous. Cotton planting in south China has become very popular, thus spinning developed accordingly. The handicraft industry andspinning technology developed rapidly. Huang Daopo was among a group of handicraft workers that brought cotton spinning technology to a higher level. Since Yuan Dynasty executeda rather open policy, ocean shipping and foreign trade developed. Quanzhou of Fujian became a major commercial port in the world. This promoted the communication between Europe and China. Economic progress brought along the development of handicraft and commercial trade. The Yuan Dynasty became one of the richest countries in the world.
Science and technology, literature and art also underwent great progress during the Yuan Dynasty. Astronomy of the Yuan Dynasty was advanced in the world. Great astronomers existed such as Jamal al Din and Guo Shoujing. Jamal al Din made a globe which assmed theearth to be a round ball. Shoushi Calendar compiled by Guo Shoujing was the most advanced calendar in the world. The Agriculture Book compiled by Wang Zhen was an encyclopedia on agriculture that surpassed all the past works. Medicine was also at a very high level. The Muslin Prescription was a collection of all the accomplishments in Chinese history as well as medicines of different ethnic groups. Achievements in literature and arts cannot be ignored either. Guan Hanqing, Wang Shifu, Ma Zhiyuan and Ji Junxiang were representatives in Yuan drama which became a major literary form since Tang and Song poetry. Calligraphers and artists were outstanding as well, represented by Zhao Mengfu.
Running Mongolian horse statue in Beijing Yuan Dadu Wall Park. The city wall of the Yuan Capital was built by tamped clay, thus it was also called dust caty. loday the city wall stulu remainsin 1& ulometers, outslae the city wallis the site of moat. Ihe parkis the mostim-
