The Rise and Fall of the Mongol Empire in ChinaAfter consolidating the spoils of the Song Dynasty, Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, unified the Mongol Empi

The Rise and Fall of the Mongol Empire in China

After consolidating the spoils of the Song Dynasty, Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, unified the Mongol Empire into four khanates: the Ilkhanate in Persia, The Chagtai Khanate in Central Asia, Golden Horde in Russia and the Yuan in China. 

To consolidate the rule over Chinese territory,  the Grand Canal was rebuilt, new paper currency was issued, a postal system was established, and a census was held.

The emperor patronized the pluralistic cultural identity of Chinese civilization, a melting pot of Hans, Buddhists, Daoists, and other groups that co-existed within the Chinese territory for centuries.  

However, the Han identity of the population was not legitimized fully as the needs of a greater Mongol Empire outweighed the needs of Yuan-led China, sowing the seeds of resentment within the Han populace.

The Mongols used the “Phags-pa” as the official writing system in bureaucracy, lawmaking, and day-to-day communication within the government. Due to this, some Han Chinese elites had to adopt Mongol names and lifestyles for the sake of their upward mobility.

This resentment was exacerbated as the Mongols also imposed a social hierarchy over different ethnic groups. For example, a Mongol has to pay only one-tenth of the tax that a Chinese has to pay for the exact land. Mongols were exempted from any entrance exam required to enter into academia such as school or other higher academic endeavours while Chinese had to pass such exams to get the same privileges. A Mongol can be appointed as governor or a minister, while a Chinese would be limited to being employed as a clerk or an assistant sending a sublime message that the merit was limited to Mongolian descendants and not to Han descendants. 

This latent conflict was expressed through discontented rebel groups spread across the empire. Such rebel groups consolidated into a “millenarian doctrine” preached by Maitreya Buddhism leading to the formation of a Daoist-Buddhist group known as the White Lotus Society which opposed such systematic discrimination against Han Chinese. 

In 1352, a Buddhist monk and peasant named Zhu Yuanzhang joined a popular movement known as the “Red Turban Revolution” supported by the White Lotus Society. The revolution had a sole aim, to overthrow the Mongol rule and restore the Han rule over China. Zhu Yuanzhang who was born within the margins of Yuan-dictated society and found solace in a Buddhist monastery after the death of his family members, became the face of this movement.

Taking this opportunity, the Red Turban rebels brought the population of China under a common leader, Zhu Yuanzhang, who finally overthrew the Yuan rule and established the Ming Dynasty. 

Surprisingly, the revolution faced a very minimal reaction from  Mongols as their empire was waning into the abyss, the sole reason being that they spread themselves too thin over a vast geography under a centralized rule, ending the era of Yuan after 97 years of rule.  

The Yuan Dynasty

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