Yuan dynasty
Mongol-led dynasty of China (1271–1368) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Yuan dynasty (Chinese: 元朝; pinyin: Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan[10] (Chinese: 大元; pinyin: Dà Yuán; Mongolian: ᠶᠡᠬᠡ
ᠶᠤᠸᠠᠨ
ᠤᠯᠤᠰ, Yeke Yuwan Ulus, literally "Great Yuan State"[note 4]), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division.[note 2] It was established by Kublai (Emperor Shizu or Setsen Khan), the fifth khagan-emperor of the Mongol Empire from the Borjigin clan, and lasted from 1271 to 1368. In Chinese history, the Yuan dynasty followed the Song dynasty and preceded the Ming dynasty.
Great Yuan | |||||||||||||||
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1271–1368 | |||||||||||||||
Status | Khagan-ruled division of the Mongol Empire[note 2] Conquest dynasty of Imperial China | ||||||||||||||
Capital | |||||||||||||||
Common languages | |||||||||||||||
Official script | 'Phags-pa script[5] | ||||||||||||||
Religion | Buddhism (Tibetan Buddhism as de facto state religion), Mongolian Tengrism/Chinese Heaven worship, Shamanism, Taoism, Confucianism, Chinese folk religion, Chinese Nestorian Christianity, Roman Catholic Christianity, Judaism, Chinese Manichaeism, Islam | ||||||||||||||
Government | Monarchy | ||||||||||||||
Emperor[note 3] | |||||||||||||||
• 1260–1294 | Kublai | ||||||||||||||
• 1332–1368 | Toghon Temür | ||||||||||||||
Chancellor | |||||||||||||||
• 1264–1282 | Ahmad Fanakati | ||||||||||||||
• 1340–1355 | Toqto'a | ||||||||||||||
Historical era | Postclassical Era | ||||||||||||||
5 May 1260 | |||||||||||||||
• Kublai's proclamation of the dynastic name "Great Yuan"[8] | 5 November 1271 | ||||||||||||||
1268–1273 | |||||||||||||||
4 February 1276 | |||||||||||||||
19 March 1279 | |||||||||||||||
1351–1368 | |||||||||||||||
• Fall of Khanbaliq | 14 September 1368 | ||||||||||||||
• Formation of Northern Yuan dynasty | 1368–1388 | ||||||||||||||
Area | |||||||||||||||
1310[9] | 11,000,000 km2 (4,200,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
Currency | Jiaochao banknotes, Chinese cash | ||||||||||||||
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Although Genghis Khan's enthronement as Khagan in 1206 was described in Chinese as the Han-style title of Emperor [note 3][6] and the Mongol Empire had ruled territories including modern-day northern China for decades, it was not until 1271 that Kublai Khan officially proclaimed the dynasty in the traditional Han style,[13] and the conquest was not complete until 1279 when the Southern Song dynasty was defeated in the Battle of Yamen. His realm was, by this point, isolated from the other Mongol-led khanates and controlled most of modern-day China and its surrounding areas, including modern-day Mongolia.[14] It was the first dynasty founded by a non-Han ethnicity that ruled all of China proper.[15]: 312 [16] In 1368, following the defeat of the Yuan forces by the Ming dynasty, the Genghisid rulers retreated to the Mongolian Plateau and continued to rule until 1635 when they surrendered to the Later Jin dynasty (which later evolved into the Qing dynasty). The rump state is known in historiography as the Northern Yuan dynasty.
After the division of the Mongol Empire, the Yuan dynasty was the khanate ruled by the successors of Möngke. In official Chinese histories, the Yuan dynasty bore the Mandate of Heaven. The dynasty was established by Kublai Khan, yet he placed his grandfather Genghis Khan on the imperial records as the official founder of the dynasty and accorded him the temple name Taizu.[note 3] In the edict titled Proclamation of the Dynastic Name issued in 1271,[8] Kublai announced the name of the new dynasty as Great Yuan and claimed the succession of former Chinese dynasties from the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors to the Tang dynasty.[8] Some of the Yuan emperors mastered the Chinese language, while others only used their native Mongolian language and the 'Phags-pa script.[17]
Kublai, as a Khagan (Great Khan) of the Mongol Empire from 1260, had claimed supremacy over the other successor Mongol khanates: the Chagatai, the Golden Horde, and the Ilkhanate, before proclaiming as the Emperor of China in 1271. As such, the Yuan was also sometimes referred to as the Empire of the Great Khan. However, while the claim of supremacy by the Yuan emperors was at times recognized by the western khans, their subservience was nominal and each continued its own separate development.[18][19][page needed]