Chapter 23 Chapter Six: Kublai Khan's Reforms

Kublai Khan (1215-1294 A.D.), the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, was honored as Emperor Xue Chan in Mongolian.The grandson of Genghis Khan and the fourth son of Ruizong Tuolei, his mother is the Empress Dowager Zhuangsheng, his mother is the Empress Dowager Zhuangsheng, his brother Xianzong Mengge, younger brothers Xu Liewu and Ali Buge.Kublai Khan was born in a noble family of the royal family. He was loving and intelligent since he was a child, and he received a good education since childhood.His mother, the Empress Dowager Zhuang Sheng, admired the culture of the Central Plains, and often invited Han Confucian scholars to Helin to lecture on the scriptures and Taoism to Kublai Khan, and accepted the influence of Confucian ideas such as "cultivating one's morality and family, governing the country and the world".When he was in the "Qiandi", he wanted to visit the deeds of the previous emperors. He heard that when Tang Taizong Li Shimin was the king of Qin, scholars of literature from all over the world talked about governance, and finally brought peace. Volume 12 "Neihan Wang Wenkanggong").At the same time, he also had a lot of contacts with Yelu Chucai, a famous minister who assisted Genghis Khan and Wokuotai Khan, and his son Yeluzhu.Yelu Chucai used the Confucian classics to influence the Second Khan in order to change the original Mongolian rule mode and adapt to the needs of expanding the territory.Although his ambition was unfulfilled and he "died in anger [yiyi]", it greatly shocked Kublai Khan's thoughts.He "thinks about making great achievements in the world, and the old officials of Yanfan Mansion and scholars of literature from all over the world ask to rule the way" ("Yuan History Shizu Jiyi"), watching the changes of the current situation with his keen political eyes.

The era of Kublai Khan was the prosperous period of the Mongolian Khanate.From Genghis Khan to Wokuotai Khan, the Mongolian cavalry launched large-scale southern expeditions and western wars year after year.In the war to conquer the Jin Dynasty in the south, the production and social economy in the Central Plains were severely damaged, causing heavy disasters to the people.Prominently manifested in the following aspects: Mongolian custom, "Anyone who attacks a city and the enemy adds arrows and stones will refuse his life, and if he conquers, he must be killed" ("Yuan Shi Yelu Chucai Biography").The city is broken, and most of the others, except craftsmen, cannot be spared.In 1211 AD, when the Mongolian army reached Juyongguan, "the people killed were piled up like rotten logs."They conquered Datong, traveled to the capital of Jinzhong (now Beijing), and broke through more than 90 counties of Jin. "Thousands of miles east of the two rivers, the people were slaughtered, the children of gold and silk, cattle, sheep, horses and livestock, all swept away, the houses were burned, and the city and the hills" ("Song History Chronicle" Volume 85 "Mongolian Invasion of Gold" ).In the autumn of 1213 A.D., the left-handed Wanhu Mu Huali was ordered to lead his troops to "attack Mizhou (now Zengcheng, Shandong) and slaughter it".In 1219 A.D., Mu Huali led his troops to attack Jiangzhou (now Jiangxian County, Shanxi Province) in Keke (ke Ke), Lan, Ji and other prefectures, pulled out its city, and slaughtered it. Hebei Baoding) ", "Weizhou (now Henan Jixian) massacre" and so on, killed a total of 18.47 million people (Volume 2 of "Yuan Dynasty Jielu"). Although this number is exaggerated and untrue, the massacre of the city is true Because of Mu Huali's idea of ​​conquest and plunder is very clear, for the newly attached people, "there must be a pit, and there will be changes in the end." During Wokuotai, some Mongolian nobles actually said: "The Han people are of no benefit to the country. Empty people think it is pasture. "("Yuan History Yelu Chucai Biography") Therefore, the act of killing innocent people continued. In 1235 AD, Kuochu, the son of Taizong Wokuotai, led an army to attack the Song Dynasty in a large scale southward, in De'an (now Anlu, Hubei) It was strongly resisted by the local army and civilians. De'an City fell, and "the hundreds of thousands of its people were all captured and slaughtered" ("Yuan History Zhao Fuzhuan"). When Guiyou and Mengge were in power, they were still "killing only for profit". Until the early days of Kublai Khan's proclaiming of Khan, when the Southern Song Dynasty was destroyed, some Mongolian nobles were still "beneficiary of their plunder, and happy to slaughter the city."

In 1235 A.D., Mongolian cavalry besieged Zaoyang and then plundered the prefectures of Xiang, Deng, and Ying, and "returned tens of thousands of people, cattle and horses".Wo Kuotai once issued an edict to drive the captives away, and promised that "the plunderers will privately control their masters".Whoever plunders the population belongs to whom.He also ordered that "the slave who is guilty will be killed by the master" ("Yuan Shi Biography of Ali Hague").In the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, Mongolian aristocrats slaughtered and plundered people everywhere.In the Jinghu area in the south of the Yangtze River, the Mongolian general Ali Haiya "resigned 3,800 households and confiscated them as domestic slaves."The rest of the survivors voted for Yihaoyou more, and "hidden themselves as domestic slaves for a long time".A large number of Han people were forced by the Mongolian princes and aristocrats to force their mouths and songs, and they were at the mercy of their masters. They were regarded as private property and could be bought, sold and gifted at will.Kekou lost his personal freedom and his social status was the lowest.The barbaric slavery rule of the Mongolian nobles was a great devastation to social productivity.

Turn farmland into pasture.During the period of Emperor Taizong, the Chinese envoy Bie Diesi said: "Although the Han people are acquired, they are useless. It is better to get rid of them all, so that the grass and trees will flourish and be used as pasture land." Gongshen Daobei"), this idea of ​​replacing the highly developed agricultural economy of the Central Plains with his own relatively backward nomadic production mode had a certain influence on Okuotai Khan.The Mongolian cavalry entered the Central Plains, and the rice, wheat and crops were in a mess.They smashed dikes, looted cattle and other livestock, directly destroying agricultural production.In the busy season of spring plowing, farmers will have no animal power to cultivate.The Han official Wang Ji, who returned to Mongolia, asked the Mongolian military camp stationed at Lugou Bridge to retrieve thousands of cattle and distributed them to farmers to relieve their urgent needs. However, these cattle were less than 1/10 of the number of cattle that were looted.It can be seen that the main livestock cattle of the farmers were basically looted.After the Mongolian nobles entered the Central Plains, they also seized large tracts of land and forcibly occupied civilian land, ranging from a thousand hectares to as many as 100,000 hectares.They "do not plow or crop, call it grassland, and only release livestock" ("Zou Yi of Famous Officials of Past Dynasties" Volume 66 "Taiping Yulan Ce").The Mongolian princes and nobles turned a large amount of fertile land into pastures, and a large number of farmers lost their land. "Farmers cannot be contented in the fields."The expansion of the Mongolian grasslands to the Central Plains is compatible with their nomadic economy, but it is fatal to the advanced agricultural production methods of the Central Plains.

After the Mongolian nobles went south, they tried to use their own social political system and economic form to transform the advanced Central Plains region, which deepened the social crisis.When you are sweating, because of "different laws and regulations", "external and internal centrifugal".Meng Ge proclaimed Khan, followed the ancestral system, and did not cross the threshold, but the contradictions within the ruling group continued to intensify.At the beginning of entering the Central Plains, the enfeoffment system was implemented.The power of the kings and heroes expanded, and the northern Han, Khitan, and Jurchen generals who belonged to Mongolia in the early days had strong landlord arms and became powerful warlords on the separatist side.As the courtier Hao Jing pointed out: "Stealing the feudal system of the country is not only private and strong, but also shared with relatives and sages, and shown as a great duke. Divide the country and let the kings enjoy it, just like the princes of the Yin and Zhou; The Bo ruled his own way, just like the Tang Dynasty's vassals; he also made the princes share the land of the Han, and the princes and uncles each belonged to them, so it was like the counties and states of the Han." ("Hao Wenzhong Public Collection" Volume 32 "Hedong Crime Words") The two political forces of enfeoffing kings and Han warlords increasingly threatened the centralization of power.

Due to years of continuous wars, coupled with "abuse of punishment and abuse of government", violent expropriation and urgent taxation, and "the people cannot be treated", a large number of northern people were forced to flee south.In the past, there were more than one million households in the world, but now it is "halved, or one-third less than the old one." "There are no residents in the city, and the fields are full of wilderness", "there are no buckets, millet, feet, and silk in the warehouses and treasuries", and there are dilapidated and desolate scenes everywhere.Under the high pressure of the Mongolian aristocratic rule, the masses of the people took up arms and fought resolutely.They organized themselves to fortify the walls and clear the fields, relying on mountains and rivers as their strongholds, and frequently blocked the Mongolian cavalry. "The Jin people moved to Bian, and Heshuo stole it." "There are as many heroes in Hebei as a cow's hair".Among the many rebels, the most influential ones were the more than 100,000 rebels led by Hou Qi, who was active in Zhongtiaoshan, Shanxi, and the Red Coat Army led by Peng Yibin who moved to Shandong and Hebei.When Kublai Khan came to the throne, massive uprisings broke out in Zhangzhou and Jianning, Fujian.This shows that after the Mongolian nobles settled in the Central Plains, various social contradictions became increasingly intensified.

Facing this intricate new situation, how to consolidate the regime of the Mongolian nobles?The ruling group was divided into two factions. One was the old-fashioned faction who adhered to the old traditions of the ancestors, who stubbornly insisted on governing the Central Plains with the old Mongolian system; The struggle between the two sides was fierce.At this time, Kublai Khan appeared on the stage of history as a Mongolian aristocratic reformer (Figure 4).

---

Notes: