AP World History POD #8 – The Middle Kingdom

1. AP World HistoryPOD #8 – The Middle Kingdom Yuan & Ming Empires

2. Class Discussion Notes Bulliet et. al – “Mongol Domination in China, 1271-1368”, pp. 352-355

3. Collapse of Mongol Rule • “After conquering northern China in the 1230s, Great Khan Ogodei told a Confucian adviser that he planned to turn the heavily populated North China Plain into a pasture for livestock. The adviser reacted calmly but argued that taxing the cities and villages would bring greater wealth. The Great Khan agreed, but he imposed an oppressive tax-farming system instead of the fixed rate method traditional in China.” (Bulliet, p. 352) • China suffered under this system

4. Khubilai Khan • Created the Yuan Empire in 1271 /Grandson of Genghis • Secured trade routes / Exchange of experts between eastern and western Eurasia / Transmission of information, ideas, and skills • He began to use Confucian ideas in the formation of laws but was always willing to listen to Buddhist and Daoist leaders and advisers

5. Tibetan Buddhist Monks • Lamas – Tibetan Buddhist priests became popular with Mongol rulers • Mongols liked their idea of a militant universal ruler bringing the whole world under control of the Buddha

6. Beijing • Capital city of the Yuan Empire (the old capital of Karakorum was too geographically remote) • Located at the eastern terminus of the caravan routes originating near Tabriz • Forbidden City – a closed imperial complex with wide streets and a network of linked lakes and artificial islands • “Xanadu” (ZAH-nah-doo) – the summer retreat of the Khan located in Inner Mongolia

7. Yuan Society • According to the law of the land Mongols ranked highest followed by the Central Asians, Middle Easterners, the northern Chinese and finally the southern Chinese • Mongols were the empire’s warriors • Central Asians & Middle Easterners were the empire’s census takers and tax collectors • Northern Chinese outranked the southern Chinese by way of being put under Mongol rule almost two generations earlier

8. Yuan Government • Rulers stressed census taking and tax collecting (Persian, Arab & Uigher officials staffed these jobs, while Muslim scholars worked at calendar making) • Organized China into provinces with central appointment of provincial governors, tax collectors and garrison commanders • Systemized control of all parts of the empire

9. Yuan Economy • Cities prospered by being on the caravan routes in the north and the Grand Canal in the interior • Merchants were a privileged group • Corporations shared the risk of doing business • Agriculture could not keep up with the demands of empire as the lands were damaged by war and overtaxed • Paper money was printed but was distrusted by the people and a copper coinage was created bringing stability to the economy • The gentry began to move to the countryside as the city life no longer supported scholarship as the commercial life became supreme • Cottage industries dotted the countryside

10. Population Loss • It is estimated that approximately 40% of the population of China was lost during the Yuan Dynasty’s reign • Causes are speculated to include – prolonged warfare, rural distress causing people to engage in female infanticide, bubonic plague, a southward flight of refugees and flooding on the Yellow River

11. Fall of the Yuan • “In the 1340s strife broke out among the Mongol princes. Within twenty years farmer rebellions and inter-Mongol feuds engulfed the land. Amidst the chaos, a charismatic Chinese leader, Zhu Yuan-zhang (JOO yuwen-JAHNG), mounted a campaign that destroyed the Yuan Empire and brought China under control of his new empire, the Ming, in 1368” (Bulliet, p. 354)