Kublai Khan

Kublai Khan (September 28, 1215 – February 18, 1294) (Mongolian: Хубилай хаан, Chinese: 忽必烈汗) was the fifth and last great khan (1260-1294) of the Mongol Empire and first emperor of the Yuan dynasty (1271-1294).

He was the second son of Tolui and Sorgaqtani and grandson of Genghis Khan. The civil war between him and his brother Ariq Boke over the succession to his older brother Möngke (died 1259) marked the end of a unified empire.

Early years

In 1251, his older brother Möngke became grand khan of the Mongol Empire, and Kublai was appointed governor of territories in the south of the empire. During his years as governor, Kublai managed his territories well, boosting Henan's agricultural production and increasing social welfare after receiving Xi'an. These acts were welcomed by Chinese warlords and were also essential to the construction of the Yuan dynasty.

During his reign, Khan Möngke planned a major offensive against the Song in the south, the last great kingdom in China that resisted the Mongols. It was decided to launch a double offensive against them, one from the North under the command of the same khan, with Hangzhou as the objective, and another from the East, under the command of Kublai. In 1253, Kublai was ordered to attack Yunnan, and conquered the kingdom of Dali.

In 1258, Möngke gave Kublai command of the Eastern army and summoned him to help him attack Sichuan and, again, Yunnan. Before Kublai could arrive in 1259, he learned the news that Möngke had died. Kublai continued the attacks on Wuhan, but received news that his brother Ariq Boke had called a kurultai in which he had been elected grand khan. Most of Genghis Khan's descendants had accepted Ariq Boke as great khan, but Kublai and his brother Hulagu were against it.

Kublai quickly reached a peace agreement with the Song dynasty and returned to the steppes of Mongolia, with the purpose of opposing the proclamation of Ariq Boke. When he returned to his territories, Kublai convened his own assembly that proclaimed him great khan. Only a small number of people from his family supported his candidacy for the title, however the small number present proclaimed him great khan.

This sparked a three-year conflict between Kublai and his brother Ariq Boke, which would end with the destruction of Karakorum, the Mongol capital, by Kublai's army and his victory. During this civil war, Li Tan, the governor of Yizhou rebelled against the Mongols. The revolt was harshly put down by Kublai, who became very displeased with the Han ethnic group. After becoming emperor, Kublai created several anti-Han laws, such as stripping Han "warlords" of their titles.

Mongol Empire

The empire was separated, creating four khanates, each ruled by a khan and supervised by the great khan. The Golden Horde ruled Russia; the Ilkhanate ruled the Middle East, the Chagatai Khanate ruled central Asia, and the Great Khanate ruled Mongolia and all of China. The empire reached its greatest extent with Kublai's conquest of the Song dynasty in 1279.

Emperor of China

In 1271 Kublai officially created the Yuan dynasty, formally claimed orthodox succession to previous Chinese dynasties, and established the new capital at Dadu (present-day Beijing) the following year. Kublai began a massive offensive against the last remnants of the Song dynasty in the south, ending his conquest of China in 1279. As emperor, Kublai minimized the influence of regional governors who had held immense power during the Song dynasty and before.. His distrust of the Han ethnic group caused him to appoint people from other ethnic groups as officers.

He was the first Mongolian ruler to formally convert to Buddhism, specifically Tibetan Buddhism, thanks to the preaching of the lama Drogön Chögyal Phagpa, of the Sakia school. Despite his conversion, he always showed tolerance towards other religions. However, his conversion to Buddhism was an important boost for this religion, which would later be consolidated with his descendant Altan Khan.

He supported the arts and demonstrated religious tolerance, and had advisors of different religions. He introduced paper money, but it was a disaster due to lack of fiscal discipline and inflation. His empire was visited by some Europeans such as Marco Polo, who claimed to have been his advisor.

He conquered Dali (Yunnan) and Gorieo (Korea). Under pressure from his Mongol advisors, Kublai attempted to conquer Japan, Burma, Vietnam and Java. All attempts were unsuccessful, which further raised inflation. Kublai also forced the warlords of the northeast and northwest to capitulate, creating stability for those regions.

After Kublai Khan was proclaimed Khan at his residence in Shangdu on May 5, 1260, he began to organize the country. Zhang Wenqian, a central government official and friend of Guo who was interested in engineering, astronomy, and skilled instrument making, understood that good astronomical observations depended on expertly crafted instruments. Guo began building astronomical instruments, including water clocks for exact timing and spheres representing the celestial globe.

Zhang advised Kublai as an expert in hydraulic engineering to Guo. Kublai knew the importance of water management for irrigation, grain transportation, and flood control, and asked Guo to review these aspects in the Dadu area. To provide a new water supply, it was proposed to connect the supply across different basins; They built new canals with locks to control the water level, which he did in several provinces in China.

Kublai also employed foreign artists to build his new capital; one of them, Araniko, was a Nepalese artist who built the White Stupa, which was the largest structure in Dadu.

Invasions of Japan and Vietnam

Invasions of Japan

Kublai Khan tried twice to invade Japan in search of gold; However, it is believed that both times bad weather destroyed the fleet, or a design error destroyed them. The first invasion took place in 1274, with a fleet of 900 ships, the second took place in 1281, with a fleet of more than 1,170 warships.

Dr. Kenzo Hayashida, a marine archaeologist, led the research that discovered the remains of the fleet from the second Mongol invasion of Japan off the west coast of Takashima. His team found strong evidence that Kublai Khan rushed to build the fleet in just one year (a task that must have taken at least five years), forcing the Chinese to use any craft available, including river boats, in order to reach the goal. Most importantly, the Chinese were forced to build many ships quickly. If Kublai had used ships designed specifically for the ocean, he would probably have achieved his plan and Japan would have been conquered.

In 2006, previous theories that Kublai's fleet consisted only of river vessels were weakened when evidence of ocean-going vessels was found. The new theory is that when the Mongols attempted to use explosives (grenade-like weapons) their lack of experience turned against them as they attempted to use them against Japan.

Vietnam Invasions

In 1257, 1284 and 1287 the Mongols attempted to conquer Vietnam, invading its capital, Thang Long (now Hanoi), always finding that the Vietnamese had evacuated the capital in advance. Disease, lack of supplies, weather, and the Vietnamese tactic of retreating by burning the fields they passed through (to prevent the invading army from having food) ended the first two invasions. The third, which had 300,000 men and a large fleet, was repulsed by General Tran Hung Dao and his troops, who placed iron stakes in the bed of the Bach Dang River just as the tide began to go out. The entire fleet was destroyed or captured by the Vietnamese. The Mongols had to retreat to China, being harassed by Tran Hung Dao's troops.

Recent years

Kublai, in his last years, suffered from gout. He ate too much meat, which aggravated his gout. It is believed that this was also the cause of the death of his favorite wife and also his heir. Kublai fell into depression, dying on February 18, 1294.

In literature

Kublai transcended historically largely thanks to the knowledge we had of him from the work Il Milione by Marco Polo, since it was during his regime that this traveler reached the court of the Mongol emperor. In this work, Marco Polo claims to have even been Kublai's advisor.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge escribió, en 1797, el poema y#34;Kubla Khan", acerca de quien fue, en palabras de Jacob Bronowski, un "monarca constructivo y sedentario en China".

The novel The Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, published in 1972, is a collection of descriptions of fantastic cities, related to Kublai Khan by Marco Polo.

As a poetry writer

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Kublai was a prolific writer of Chinese poetry, although most of his works have not survived. Only one Chinese poem written by him is included in the Selection of Yuan Poetry (元詩選), titled Inspiration Recorded While Enjoying the Ascent of Spring Mountain. It was translated into Mongolian by Inner Mongolian scholar B.Buyan in the same style as classical Mongolian poetry and transcribed into Cyrillic by Ya.Ganbaatar. It is said that once in spring, Kublai Khan went to worship at a Buddhist temple in the Summer Palace in western Khanbaliq (Beijing), and upon his return ascended the Hill of Longevity. (Tumen Nast Uul in Mongolian), where he was inspired and wrote this poem.

This text can be translated as follows in Spanish (via the English version)

Legacy

Kublai's seizure of power in 1260 boosted the Mongol Empire. Despite his controversial election, which accelerated Mongol disunity, Kublai's willingness to formalize the Mongol kingdom's symbiotic relationship with Chinese culture brought the Mongol Empire to international attention. The conquests of Kublai and his predecessors contributed to the recreation of a unified and militarily powerful China. Mongol rule of Tibet, Manchuria, and the Mongolian steppe from a capital in modern-day Beijing preceded the Inner Asian Empire of the Qing dynasty.