U368 Mongol Conquest
Week 12, Monday:  Chinese form, (mostly) Mongol content

 

  1. Symbols of rule:  years, calendars, Confucian and imperial temples, dynasty
  2. Policies and Institutions
    1. Chinese-style official class:  unusual in Eurasia (cf. Rashid al-Din, p. 277-8)
    2. Qubilai's government organization based on Jin/Chin system
      1. Secretariat (with Ministries), Bureau of Military Affairs, Censorate
      2. Buddhist and imperial household organization separate
    3. Central organs largely limited to central province (N. China)
      1. Empire:  12 (or so) Branch Secretariats/Xing(zhongshu)sheng
      2. Personnel selection main organ of centralization:  26,690 positions
  3. Qubilai's personnel policy
    1. Bilingual Admin.:  Mongolian and very colloquial, Mongolized Chinese
      1. Qubilai (& most later emperors):  spoken, not written, Chinese
      2. Administration bilingual
      3. Chinese of official Yuan documents heavily Mongolized
    2. Qubilai's personnel system:  codifies dynastic stratification
      1. No examination system; protection (yin) privilege regular path
        1. Military system still largely hereditary
      2. Ethnic stratification for officials
        1. Mongols (excludes Naiman & Önggüds who are semuren)
        2. Semuren ("Colored Eye People"):  Muslims, Uighurs, etc.
        3. Han (North Chinese, including Kitans, Jurchen, etc.)
        4. Southerners (Nanren, former Sung people)
      3. Local officials:  Han or Nanren; Darughachis Mongol or Semu
        1. Often ignored in practice, esp. darughachis often Han
      4. Exams reinstated, 1315:  25% for each ethno-legal category
  4. Power politics in the Yuan
    1. Bureaucratic factionalism not ethnic, but Confucians vs. financiers
      1. Chengxiangs/Grand Councilors (2):  mostly Mongol Confucian aristocrats
      2. Pingzhangs/Managers (4) usually Mongol and semu financiers
    2. Extra-bureaucratic forces
      1. Prince Jingim (d. 1285) powerful, only his descendants ascend throne
      2. Keshig and old nökêr families:  keshig shifts headed by nöker families
        1. Usually strongly Confucian in tone, also dominate Secretariat
      3. Ordos and Quda lineages:  Qonggirad and Ikires rivals
        1. Qonggirad empresses dominate succesion to 1328
        2. 1285 on controls Muqali's old tammachi/"five touxia (appangages)"
      4. New guards regiments:  Qïpchaqs, Alans, and others
        1. Became core military force; joined coup d'etats in 1323, 1328
    3. 1328-1355, Mongol & semu Confucians displace quda, keshig elite
      1. Koreans made new empress, low-born chengxiangs control guards
      2. Emperor largely cloistered, does not command troops
    4. Yes, dynasty was "evolved," but not under Qubilai, and not by Chinese