The reason why the Yuan Dynasty was able to accomplish reunification was that the Song Dynasty reformed its system in the first place, which solved the problem of frequent changes of central power and the problem of local division and separation; in the second place, the integration of ethnic groups reached an unprecedented height, with the Mongols integrating with all the ethnic groups on the Mongolian plateau, the Jurchens integrating with the various ethnic groups north of the Huai River, the Dangxiang people integrating with the ethnic groups in the northwest, and the Mongols integrating various ethnic groups; and the third being the people being war-weary and longing for reunification and stability.
1. Politics.
1. Establishment of the Mongol regime. In 1206, Temujin, the leader of the Mongol tribe in Mobei, unified the steppe tribes and established the Mongol Khanate, which was revered as "Genghis Khan".
2. Expand. In the following half century, the Mongol army successively destroyed the Western Liao, Western Xia and Jin dynasties, subdued the Tibetan tribes, annexed the Dali regime in Yunnan, and also made expeditions to Central Asia, West Asia and Eastern Europe.
3. The establishment of the yuan.
1] In 1260, Kublai Khan ascended the throne and began to implement the traditional political system of the Central Plains and build the capital.
He supported Hulegü in establishing the Ilkhanate, and Hulegu supported Kublai Khan in succeeding to the throne. The Kipchak Khanate, the Ögedai Khanate, and the Chagatai Khanate developed separately, and Kublai Khan only retained the suzerainty in name only, but in fact only ruled the Mongol proper.
Following the system of the Tang and Song dynasties, the central government set up the Zhongshu Province to be in charge of the country's government affairs, the Privy Council to manage the country's military, the Imperial Historical Observatory to be in charge of the nation's supervision, the Hanlin National History Institute to be in charge of the country's culture and education, the system of liuguan officials, and the separation of military and civilian rule. The local governors used the Mongols as the Daru Huachi, the Han (residents of the Yellow River Valley) as the governors, and the Hui people as the same knowledge, so that they could contain each other.
2] In 1271, Kublai Khan named the country Dayuan.
4. Unification of the Yuan Dynasty.
1] In 1276, the Yuan army occupied Lin'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty.
2] In 1279, the Yuan army defeated the remnants of the Southern Song Dynasty and completed unification. Wen Tianxiang, the prime minister of the Southern Song Dynasty, was captured and refused to surrender, but later calmly surrendered in Dadu.
5. Transportation. Post roads were built in all directions, post stations were set up to provide transportation and living services for the personnel on duty, and to transport government materials.
6. Establish a provincial system.
The central prime minister's body is the Zhongshu Province, which appoints officials to handle local affairs on behalf of the Zhongshu Province, and gradually forms a permanent body, called the Xingzhongshu Province, referred to as the Xingzhong Province. There are 10 provinces in the country.
1] Origin. The Jin Dynasty once set up a wide range of provinces on the border. When the Mongols entered the Central Plains, they imitated the gold system and set up Xingshangshu Province to govern a large region of Lufu Prefecture and County, which evolved into the highest local political body. During the reign of Yuan Shizu Zhongtong, Shangshu Province was merged into Zhongshu Province, and local institutions were also renamed Xingzhongshu Province, referred to as Xingzhongshu Province.
2] Meaning. The original meaning of "province" is the palace ban, and by extension, it is the name of the central cardinal and administrative body, so the province originally referred to the temporary central dispatch agency, taking the meaning of exercising power on behalf of the central government. With the unification of the whole country, the provinces were soon transformed into fixed, permanent local administrative regions. The Yuan Dynasty divided Hebei, Shandong, and Shanxi directly under Zhongshu Province, which was called "belly". It is divided into 11 provinces in Henan, Jiangbei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Huguang, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Liaoyang, Gansu, Lingbei and Yunnan. The province has a vast jurisdiction, centralized power, and all-encompassing local military, political, and financial powers, which is obviously different from the previous Song Dynasty's system of dividing local power. In the Yuan Dynasty, the provinces placed prime ministers, pingzhang, left and right ministers, and participated in political affairs, and the names of their administrative agencies and the rank of officials were equal to those of the center, and all the military affairs of a province were all-encompassing. The provincial jurisdiction is not only vast, but also the provincial borders are staggered, so that there are no mountains and rivers to rely on, and the northward gateway is opened, forming a military control situation with the north controlling the south. Because this measure helped to prevent local secession, it was inherited by the Ming and Qing dynasties.
3] Significance. It has strengthened local rule and centralized power, which is conducive to the development of a unified multi-ethnic country and has a far-reaching impact.
Multi-level administrative system at the provincial, road, government, prefecture and county levels.
Zhongshu Province: A member of the Zhongshu Order, a silver seal, a hundred officials, will decide on general affairs, Taizong is a minister, and the ancestor is the crown prince. The right prime minister and the left prime minister each have a member, a product, a silver seal, six officials, a hundred divisions, and the second order. If the order is missing, it will always save trouble, and the son of heaven will take care of all opportunities. The four members of Pingzhang political affairs, from the first product, the second prime minister, all the important affairs of the military state, all of them are helpless.
Xingzhongshu Province: Where eleven, rank from a product, in charge of national affairs, unified counties, towns and borders, and the capital province as the table. At the beginning of the country, there were conquests, and the affairs of the military and civilians were all called provinces, and there was no customization. Between the Central Union and the Yuan Dynasty, the province was divided into provinces, and officials were set up because of things, and officials were not necessary, and they were all provincial officials to lead their affairs. Its prime ministers are all titled to execute a certain provincial department. Later, it was suspected of being extraordinarily heavy, and it was changed to a certain line in the province. All money, food, armor, tun seeds, transportation, and important military affairs are all received. In the twenty-fourth year of the Yuan Dynasty, it was changed to Shangshu Province and restored as before. In the second year of his sophomore year, he changed to Shangshu Province, and the two years were the same. Each province has one member of the prime minister, from the first rank, two members of the Pingzhang, from the first rank, one member of the right Cheng, one member of the left Cheng, and the second rank; two members of the governor's affairs, from the second rank, and one member from each of the two provinces of Gansu and Lingbei; two members of Langzhong, from the fifth grade; two members of the Wailang from the sixth grade; two members of the capital affairs, from the seventh grade; Pengshi, Mongolian Bijachi, Huihui Lingshi, Tongshi, Zhiyin, and Xuanzhi, and the provinces have different personnel. Under the old system of political participation, there were provinces and subordinates of the same party, and they were not dismissed. The prime minister is either or not, especially careful in the selection of people, so it is often lacking. ——"Yuan History: Hundred Official Chronicles"
7. Doji system.
It was a form of compromise in which the central government and the local ruling classes of various nationalities united and struggled with each other in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Under the rule of the Tusi, the land and the people were hereditary owned by the Tusi, and the Tusi formed their own spheres of influence, resulting in a state of division and separation, which led to hatred and war between and within the nation. It is the ethnic policy used by the ruling class of the feudal dynasty to solve the ethnic minority areas in the southwest, and its meaning lies in the "fetters system" of the Tang Dynasty. It prospered in the Ming Dynasty, collapsed in the Qing Dynasty, and ended in the early 20th century.
8. Xuanzheng Yuan.
1] Contents. The Xuanzheng Yuan was the central organ in charge of military and political affairs in the Buddhist and Tibetan areas of the country during the Yuan Dynasty. Led by the emperor. Kublai Khan originally set up the General Yuan, which was later changed to the Xuanzheng Yuan. The officials of the Xuanzheng Yuan can be selected from themselves, and the Zhongshu Province, the Privy Council, and the Yushitai are the four independent official appointment systems of the Yuan Dynasty.
2] Significance. Tibet has officially become a local administrative region under the direct jurisdiction of the mainland's central government.
9. Strengthen governance of border areas
1] Tibetan region: It is managed by the Xuanzheng Yuan directly under the central government. Kublai Khan made Phagsipa the emperor's teacher, and led the Xuanzheng Yuan, which was the general system to manage Buddhist and Tibetan affairs.
2] For the Western Regions: Set up the Marshal's Mansion of the Beiting Prefecture and the Propaganda Department to manage military and political affairs.
3] Taiwan: Set up an inspection department in Penghu, which is subordinate to Jinjiang, Fujian Province, to perform administrative functions.
4] Liaoyang Province in the northeast, Lingbei Province in the north, and Yunnan Province in the south.
Yunnan Province, Yunnan and Guizhou have many toasts, Sichuan, Hunan, Guangxi also have a lot
10. Ethnic blending.
1] The Yuan Dynasty ended the split era of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Liao, Song, Xiajin, Hui, Tubo, Dali and other regimes, and re-realized the great unification. On the one hand, the rulers implemented the "Han law", that is, the Tang and Song dynasties, and on the other hand, they ruled various ethnic groups according to their customs, and different ethnic groups implemented different policies. The Mongol rulers appointed a large number of Semu as officials.
2] The Mongols were originally a nomadic tribe in Mobei, and after Temujin unified the steppe, he gradually integrated other tribes into it.
3] During the Yuan Dynasty, many Mongols moved into the Central Plains and lived together with the Han Chinese.
4] Persians and Arabs from Central Asia and West Asia emigrated to China, where they lived with the Han, Mongolian, and Wuer ethnic groups for a long time, intermarrying constantly, and were gradually absorbed and integrated to form the Hui, the predecessor of the Hui people in the mainland.
5] The Yuan Dynasty fell, and a part of the Mongols, with the court nobility as the core, retreated to the steppe. A large number of Mongolians and Semu people who stayed in the interior gradually merged with the Han people.
11. "Four-class system".
1] Purpose: The Mongol rulers wanted to protect their own ruling interests.
2] Grade
1st class Mongols.
The second class of Semu refers to the people of all ethnic groups in the Northwest and Western Regions outside Mongolia, including the Western Xia, Wu'er, Huihui, etc.
The third class of Han people mainly refers to the Han people in the north, but also includes the Khitan and Jurchen people who have settled in the Central Plains.
The fourth class of Nanren refers to the inhabitants of the former Southern Song Dynasty.
2. Economy.
1. Agriculture.
1] The planting of cotton and other cash crops has expanded.
2] The Yuan Dynasty followed the Tang Dynasty's law of reconciling rents and taxes with Ding tax and land tax in the north, and summer tax and autumn grain in the south. However, the Yuan Dynasty still had a "branch difference" that the previous dynasty did not have, and silk and silver were levied according to households.
3] Colorful household schemes. The type of household registration in the Yuan Dynasty is more complicated, according to the occupation can be divided into military households, civilian households, artisan households, station households, etc., collectively known as the color households, once the household is determined, the generations are inherited, and they must not be changed.
2. Handicrafts.
1] Cotton spinning industry. Huang Daopo.
(1) Background. The promotion of cotton planting has been extended from the Pearl River basin to the Yangtze River basin.
(2) Contribution. "Granny Huang, Granny Huang, teach me yarn, teach me cloth, two tubes, two pieces of cloth. "I learned from the Li people how to use cotton-making tools and weave Yazhou quilts. During the Yuan Dynasty (1295-1296), he returned to his hometown and taught people to make cotton in Wunijing Town, east of Songjiang Prefecture, and taught and popularized weaving techniques such as "Han (churning car, that is, cotton gin), bullet (cotton bow), spinning (spinning wheel), weaving (loom) and weaving techniques such as "wrong yarn color matching, heald thread and flowering".
(3) Role. Songjiang Province became the largest cotton textile center in the country. It has promoted the development of the cotton textile industry, and major changes have taken place in clothing.
2] Craftsmen. In ancient China, professional households engaged in handicraft production were called "artisan households". In the Tang Dynasty, there was already a system whereby craftsmen served regularly in government-run handicraft workshops. In the Song Dynasty, artisans were often forced by the government. After the Yuan Dynasty, craftsmen were incorporated into a special household registration, which was directly managed by a specialized agency, and they were not allowed to leave their nationality and change their careers, but must be passed down from generation to generation and undertake designated labor. In this way, the ruler could easily recruit all kinds of craftsmen. Artisans have no personal freedom, and their creativity in labor is naturally severely restricted.
3] Blue and white porcelain.
3. Business.
1] Banknotes are issued as the main currency nationwide.
2] Yuanda was the largest economic center and commodity distribution center in the north at that time.
3] Hangzhou is known as "the most magnificent and precious city in the world" by foreign travelers.
4] Most of the country's population and tax revenue are concentrated in Jiangnan.
5] In order to smoothly transport the wealth of the south to the north, the Grand Canal was reopened, and long-distance shipping routes were creatively opened, and the main task was to transport grain from the south of the Yangtze River.
3. Culture.
1. Yuanqu.
The main achievement of Yuan Dynasty literature was qu, including sanqu and miscellaneous opera. Yuan Miscellaneous Opera marks the maturity of ancient Chinese opera art, and represents writers such as Han Qing and Wang Shifu.
1] Reason. First of all, the Yuan Dynasty laid the foundation for the rise of Yuan opera by its vast territory, prosperous city economy, grand theaters, lively book clubs, and endless audiences day and night; second, the exchange and integration of various ethnic cultures in the Yuan Dynasty promoted the formation of Yuan qu; third, Yuan opera was the inevitable result of the inheritance and development of poetry and other literary traditions; and the Yuan Dynasty stopped the imperial examination for a long time, and literati flowed into the market to make a living.
2] Contents. Yuan miscellaneous opera developed on the basis of the Jinyuan capital, and just as the southern opera was prevalent, the northern miscellaneous opera matured. A complete theatrical form that blends various performing art forms. And since the Tang and Song dynasties, he has created mature literary scripts on the basis of scripts, lyrics, songs, and rap literature. Yuan Miscellaneous Opera combines poetry, singing, dialogue, music, dance and other performance forms, with a complete storyline and character coordination, marking the maturity of ancient Chinese opera. Among them, the use of actors' virtual actions to express the replacement of time and space scenes in the play has formed a special tradition of free time and space in Chinese opera and the expression of symbolizing virtual actions. Yuan miscellaneous opera and loose song are collectively called Yuan song, and both use Beiqu as the form of singing. Yuanqu four masters: Guan Hanqing, Ma Zhiyuan, Zheng Guangzu, Bai Pu. Wang Shifu's "The Legend of the West Chamber" has a great influence.
3] Evaluation. With its works that reveal the profundity of reality, the wide range of subject matter, the popularity of language, the liveliness of form, the freshness of style, the vividness of depiction, and the variety of techniques, Yuanqu radiates dazzling brilliance in the ancient Chinese literature and art garden.
Original Tomb Murals
2. Technology.
1] Guo Shoujing: The most outstanding achievements were the design and supervision of a variety of astronomical observation instruments, the presiding over the nationwide astronomical survey, and the compilation of a new calendar, the "Time Calendar", in which the measured data was in the leading position in the world at that time.
2] Agronomist Wang Zhen: The "Book of Agriculture" compiled by the compilation integrates the agricultural techniques of the north and the south, and the records of agricultural tools are particularly rich.
3. Art.
Drama. Calligraphy - Zhao Mengfu. Literati painting - Wang Mian.
4. Characters.
Genghis Khan unified all the tribes of the steppe and ordered people to spell Mongolian in the Uyghur script to form the Vultures Mongolian script.
After Kublai Khan ascended the throne, he commissioned Phags-pa to create a set of pinyin symbols, which was also the earliest attempt to pinyin in Chinese.
5. Sino-foreign exchanges.
The spread of the four major inventions to the west was basically completed.
Marco Polo came to the Yuan Dynasty.