Yuan Dynasty

V

Social Developments

The social changes initiated during the Yuan period benefited some Chinese but antagonized many others. Merchants, artisans, physicians, scientists, and engineers were granted higher status and greater rewards, but the scholar-official class, the traditional Chinese elite, was often excluded from positions of authority and thus was generally hostile toward Mongol rule. The Yuan's recruitment of non-Chinese for government positions also generated resentment among the scholar-official class.

The court divided the population into four classes, with the Mongols at the top, followed by foreigners from West Asia, South Asia, and Europe (Semuren), the Northern Chinese (Hanren), and the Southern Chinese (Nanren). This division seems to indicate Mongol distrust of the native population, for many of the Mongols and foreigners were uneducated, while most of the Chinese scholar-official class were Southern Chinese, the lowest class under the Yuan system. The division contributed to general Chinese dissatisfaction with Yuan rule. In addition, when the previously abolished civil service exams were reinstated in 1315, many posts were reserved for Mongols and foreigners, and a comparatively small number were left for the Chinese. Exclusion of Chinese entirely from some important government positions and later attempts to limit marriage between Chinese and Mongols also stirred resentment.

The Mongols' own social practices affronted many Chinese as well. First, the prominent roles of court adviser and administrator played by such Mongol women as Kublai Khan's mother Sorghaghtani Beki and his wife Chabi clashed with the status accorded to Chinese women. Eventually the Mongols adopted the Chinese practice of limiting women's political involvement and their property and marital rights. Second, although the court recruited Confucian advisers, educated Mongol princes in Chinese and Mongol, and encouraged literacy, they did not adopt two features characteristic of traditional Chinese society: Education was no longer the principal vehicle for social mobility, and the scholar-official class was not the dominant force in government as it had been during previous Chinese dynasties. Third, the Mongols supported such non-Chinese religions as Islam and Nestorian Christianity and restricted Daoism (Taoism). Fourth, the Mongols' fascination with hunting, their taste for meat, and their relatively frequent use of alcohol repelled many Chinese.

VI

Artistic and Cultural Contributions

The Mongols' cultural contributions to China won greater approval. Like other parts of the Mongol Empire, the Yuan court favored and patronized artisans, resulting in remarkable advances in the manufacture of porcelain, textiles, and jewelry. Their support for the theater, in part, fostered a golden age of Chinese drama. The singing, the acrobatics, and the general spectacle of drama captivated the Mongols and prompted court patronage. More than 170 plays from the Yuan dynasty have survived. Literature and painting benefited from the abolition of the civil service exams as scholars whose official careers had been thwarted turned to these fields. Some used their work as a convenient pretext for rejecting government service under an alien dynasty. A few—including Gong Kai (Kung K'ai), Qian Xuan (Ch'ien Hsüan), and Zheng Sixiao (Cheng Ssu-hsiao)—employed their paintings as a subtle means of protest. However, other painters cooperated with the Mongols and received their patronage. Zhao Mengfu (Chao Meng-fu), the most renowned painter of the Yuan era, held a position at court and occasionally produced paintings (mainly depicting horses and other animals) that appeared to cater to Mongol taste. The painters Gao Kegong (Kao K'o-kung), Li Kan (Li K'an), Guan Daosheng (Kuan Tao-sheng), and the calligrapher Xianyu Shu (Hsien-yü Shu) all benefited from Mongol patronage.

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Similarly, Mongol support for ceramics and sculpture resulted in the creation of the first blue-and-white porcelains, the carvings in the Juyong (Chü-yung) gate to northern China, the Fei-lai Feng Buddhist stone carvings in Hangzhou, and in the varied works of Aniko, a renowned Nepalese sculptor and architect.

The arrival of foreigners also contributed to cultural development. With patronage from Kublai Khan, the Tibetan Buddhist monk 'Phags-pa devised a fine but rarely used written script for Mongol and other languages in the Mongol domains. The Persian astronomer Jamal al-Din built an astronomical observatory in Khanbalik and helped to devise a more accurate calendar; Muslim physicians introduced Persian medicines into China; between 1311 and 1320, Zhu Siben (Chu Ssu-pen) produced a world atlas (Yuditu) based on information learned from foreigners; and foreign merchants introduced the three-stringed guitar, the bowed zither, and cloisonné (a type of enameling) to China.

VII

Decline of the Yuan

The Yuan government's social and financial problems and its foreign policies, together with rifts among the Mongols, ultimately led to its collapse. Discrimination against the Chinese in government and in society alienated many of the Mongols' subjects in China. Its many construction and public works projects created financial problems, which the Mongols exacerbated by oppressive taxation and rampant inflation. Disastrous overseas military campaigns against Japan and Java fueled the financial distress of the dynasty. By the 14th century, the government's fiscal woes resulted in serious underfunding and thus deterioration of public works and the military. Finally, the Mongols themselves were divided between those who were attracted by Chinese culture and those who sought to preserve the pure and untainted Mongol nomadic heritage. The resulting infighting weakened the Mongol's hold over China. Struggles for succession to the throne and disasters, such as floods resulting from improper maintenance of public works, finally led to native Chinese uprisings against the dynasty. One of the rebels, Zhu Yuanzhang (Chu Yüan-chang), and his forces gradually gained strength during the 1350s and 1360s and finally captured Khanbalik in 1368, deposing the Yuan court. He founded the Ming dynasty in the city of Nanjing (Nanking) the same year.

The Mongols managed to unite China for the first time in over 300 years. Although their period of control was brief and was marked by civil unrest and authoritarian misgovernment, the Yuan relaxed the rigorous Confucian hierarchy somewhat, which allowed a new upward mobility for a few in the lower class. In addition, their patronage of artisans and their support of popular culture ushered in a period of great achievement in literature, drama, and fine art.

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