Chapter 26 Section 3 The Dominion of the Pastoral Peoples: The Establishment of the Yuan Empire

Before the Yuan Dynasty, although some frontier ethnic minorities entered the Central Plains and established their own political power, they were never able to rule the whole of China.However, after the rise of the Mongols, after more than 70 years of military conquests, they finally unified most of China and formed the vast Yuan Empire with an unprecedented territory. At the beginning of the 13th century AD, there were seven divided regimes or regions within China: (1) The Mongolian region is dominated by the Mongolian Plateau, west of the present Daxingan Mountains, north of the Juyan Sea and the Yinshan Mountains to the Russian Siberia, there are Mongolian and Turkic nomadic peoples, and the interior is not unified.

(2) Western Liao, present-day Xinjiang and the land between Lake Balkhash and the Amu Darya in the west. (3) The Jinhuai River, the Yellow River Basin to the north of the Qinling Mountains and the area to the east of the Greater Khingan Mountains. (4) Xixia starts from Hetao in the north, extends to Longshan and Hehuang areas in the south, and ends in the west of the Hexi Corridor in the west. (5) South of the Huaihe River and Qinling Mountains (except the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau) in the Southern Song Dynasty. (6) Dali Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and some surrounding areas. (7) Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and surrounding areas in Tubo area.At that time, there was no unified political power, and it was scattered into many tribes.

Among the seven regions, five had unified regimes, among which Song and Jin had the highest degree of unity.The Tibetan and Mongolian regions were divided internally, but the historical task of unifying these seven regions was completed by Mongolia. After Genghis Khan unified the various tribes of Mongolia, he led the Mongolian cavalry to conquer east and west without interruption.In the fourth year of Genghis Khan (AD 1209), Mongolia attacked Xixia and besieged its capital Zhongxing Mansion (now Yinchuan City, Ningxia), forcing Xixia to seek peace and leave.It also attacked Uygur, a vassal state in the Western Liao Dynasty, and took the area of ​​Urumqi, Turpan and Hami in present-day Xinjiang.In the sixth year of Genghis Khan (AD 1121), Mongolia captured Hararu, another vassal state in Western Liao Dynasty, and expanded its territory to the east of the present Balkhash Lake.In the autumn of the same year, Mongolia attacked the Kingdom of Jin, and soon after, it invaded Juyongguan, threatening Jin's capital Zhongdu (now Beijing), and captured a large number of prefectures and counties in present-day Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan.At the beginning of the ninth year of Genghis Khan (1214 AD, the second year of Jin Zhenyou), the Mongolian army arrived in Zhongdu, Jin Xuanzong asked for peace, and Genghis Khan withdrew.In May, Jin Xuanzong moved the capital to Nanjing.The Mongolian army went south again and broke through Zhongdu in February of the following year.In the thirteenth year of Genghis Khan (1218 A.D.), the Mongolian army killed Naiman King Qu Chulu, and all the territory of the original Western Liao Dynasty was occupied by Mongolia.The Mongolian army successively captured Hedong (now the southwestern part of Shanxi), Hebei and Shandong.By the sixteenth year of Genghis Khan (AD 1221, the fifth year of Jin Xingding), the land north of the Yellow River in Jin had basically fallen into the hands of Mongolia.In the 21st year of Genghis Khan (AD 1226), Genghis Khan personally led an army to attack Xixia and captured Gansu and other states.In June of the following year, Mongolia destroyed Xixia. In July, Genghis Khan died of illness and camped in Qingshui (now Qingshui County, Gansu Province).

After his son Wokuotai Khan (Yuan Taizong) succeeded to the throne, he continued to attack the Jin Dynasty and agreed with the Southern Song Dynasty to attack from the north to the south.In the first month of the sixth year of Wokuotai Khan (1234 A.D., the third year of Jin Tianxing, and the first year of Song Duanping), the Mongolian and Song armies broke through Caizhou (now Runan County, Henan), Jin Aizong committed suicide, the last emperor died in the rebellion, and Jin died.In the same year, Wo Kuotai and his ministers agreed to attack the Song Dynasty, and the Mongolian army attacked and defeated the Shang Song army.Since then, the military campaign to destroy the Song Dynasty has lasted for more than 40 years. The war was particularly fierce in Sichuan in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Xiangyang (now Xiangfan City, Hubei) in the middle reaches, and the middle reaches of the Huaihe River.In the second year of Mengge Khan (Yuan Xianzong) (AD 1252), Kublai Khan was ordered to march from Terie (to the west of Yibin City, Sichuan Province) and break through Dali City in December.In four years, Duan Xingzhi, the king of Dali, was captured and the country of Dali fell.

About three years after Naimazhen (AD 1244), Sasijia Pandita, the uncle of the Tibetan religious leader Bhaspa, met with the Mongolian general Kuoduan and expressed his acceptance of the Mongolian Khan’s jurisdiction. The nobles were unwilling to submit to the Mongols.Therefore, after the destruction of Dali, the Mongolian army entered Tubo, suppressed the disobedient nobles, and completely controlled the Tubo area. After capturing Xiangyang and seizing most of Sichuan, Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, issued an order to attack the Song Dynasty in the eleventh year of Zhiyuan (AD 1274, the tenth year of Song Xianchun) and launched a full-scale attack.In the first month of the thirteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1276 A.D., the second year of Song Deyou), Yuan soldiers approached Lin'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang), and the Song court surrendered.Although Wen Tianxiang, Zhang Shijie and others continued to resist in the south, they were finally unable to recover. In the 16th year of Zhiyuan (AD 1279, the second year of Song Xiangxing) Yashan (now Nanhai, Xinhui City, Guangdong) was defeated, and the remnants of the Song Dynasty were also destroyed. up.

At the time of Genghis Khan, Mongolia had no fixed capital.In the seventh year of Wokuotai Khan (1235 A.D.), Erdeni Zhaobeiharhelin was established in Erdeni, Houhangai Province, the upper reaches of the Orkhon River in present-day Mongolia, and it was called Kara Helin, or Helin for short.In the sixth year of Mengge Khan (AD 1256), Kublai Khan built a palace and city on the north bank of the East Lightning River in Zhenglan Banner, Inner Mongolia. It was promoted to Shangdu in four years.In the fourth year of Zhiyuan (AD 1267), a new city was built in the northeast of Jinzhong Capital (now Beijing). In the ninth year of Zhiyuan (AD 1272), it was renamed Dadu and became the capital of the Yuan Dynasty.

Mongolia successively conquered these seven regions, but not all of these seven regions became the territory of the Yuan Dynasty, because during this period, some regions had become the territory of other Khanates.Beginning with the first Western Expedition in the fifteenth year of Genghis Khan (AD 1219), the territory of the Mongolian Empire expanded rapidly, from Central Asia, West Asia to Europe.Genghis Khan implemented enfeoffment in his later years, enfeoffing the lands west of Today Mountain, Altai Mountain, and Irtysh River to his three sons.Since everyone obeyed Genghis Khan, the empire was still unified.When Wo Kuotai was a great Khan, he could also command other ministries, but when it came to Meng Ge (Xianzong) and Kublai Khan (Shizu), the ministries were no longer under the same umbrella.Competing with each other for the position of the Great Khan, the Mongol Empire split into the Yuan Empire and the Four Great Khanates.

Most of the area north of the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang today has been sealed off to the Wokuotai Kingdom, so it has never been under the jurisdiction of the Yuan Empire.After the south bank of the Amu (Mu) River was conquered by Genghis Khan, there was no enfeoffment, so it has been ruled by the Great Khan.Mengge Khan set up the Amu River Province there, but because it was too far away from the Khan's rule area, Mengge Khan merged it into the Ilkhanate in his last year.In the first year of Mengge Khan (AD 1251), Bieshabali Province was established in the area of ​​Urumqi, Xinjiang today, and the seat of the government was Bieshabali (now Beipochengzi, Jimsar County, Xinjiang).The Chagatai Khanate was once owned by itself, and it became the jurisdiction of the Yuan Dynasty again in the later period.The Yili River Basin has not been enfeoffed today. In the twelfth year of Yuan Shizu Zhiyuan (1275 A.D.), the Ali Mali (Ali Mali, Ali Mali) province was established. ) is the governing place.However, the province existed for a shorter period of time, and it was abolished two years later, and later merged into the Chagatai Khanate.Therefore, for most of the period, the territory of the Yuan Dynasty did not include all of present-day Xinjiang.

Since the Yuan Dynasty, the entire Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has become a part of the Central Plains Dynasty, forming an inseparable whole with other parts of China.According to the fact that Lamaism is generally believed in the Tubo area, the Yuan Dynasty placed it under the jurisdiction of the Xuanzhengyuan, the institution in charge of Buddhist affairs in the country (it was called the General System Yuan when it was established at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, and it was renamed in the fifth year of the situation map in the 20th Yuan Dynasty of the Yuan Dynasty). According to local needs, set up branch offices.Set up Tubo and other places (Tuosima), Tubo and other roads (Duogansi), Wusizang, Nali, Sugulusun and other three roads in the territory. As far as the area of ​​Aba Prefecture in Sichuan, the Dogansi Division has jurisdiction over present-day Guoluo Prefecture and Yushu Prefecture in Qinghai to Ganzi Prefecture in Sichuan and Qamdo in Tibet. Wusi Zang Division has jurisdiction over most of present-day Tibet and Kashmir.The Xuanwei Division has jurisdiction over the Marshal's Mansion, the General Manager's Mansion, Wanhu Mansion, Qianhu Mansion, Xuanfu Division, Appeasement Division, Recruitment Division, Wanhu Mansion, and Qianhu Mansion.Some of these institutions manage the military, some handle civil affairs, and some manage both the military and the people.Therefore, although the Yuan Dynasty made full use of religious factors in order to rule Tubo more effectively, and implemented a policy different from that of the Han people in the Tubo area, it also established a set of administrative and military institutions and exercised complete sovereignty.

In addition to the major changes in the present-day Xinjiang region, the territory of the Yuan Dynasty was stable: in the north, it started from the present-day Irtysh River in the west and ended in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk in the east.In the east, it owns the northeastern part of the Korean peninsula.In the southwest, including today's Kashmir region, Bhutan and Sikkim at the southern foot of the Himalayas, today's northeastern Myanmar and northern Thailand. Compared with the territories of the Han and Tang in their heyday, the Yuan Dynasty not only greatly surpassed them in terms of area, but also surpassed them in the degree of control.Except for the Tubo area and the three units directly under the imperial court in today's eastern Xinjiang (Bieshabali, Harahuozhou, and Hamili), the Yuan Dynasty set up Xingzhongshu Provinces (referred to as provinces) throughout the country, including Han and Tang Dynasties. The area north of the Mongolian Plateau and the lower reaches of the Liao River that has never had a formal administrative region.

The Yuan Dynasty had carried out military conquests of the surrounding neighboring countries, and some even set up administrative agencies.However, the rule of the Yuan Dynasty did not last long, and these countries were still independent, so they did not belong to the territory of the Yuan Dynasty.For example, the Yuan Dynasty used troops against Annan (now Vietnam) three times, once occupied Annan, and sent Dalu Huachi (local administrator) to supervise the administration, but under the fierce resistance of Annan, it had to withdraw in the end.The Yuan Dynasty set up the Myanmar-China Province in Myanmar, and it existed for a short time.In the 22nd year of Zhiyuan (AD 1285), the eastern province was set up in Koryo, but the governor (prime minister) of the province was the king of Koryo, and he was still called the king in Koryo, so Koryo was actually only a vassal state of the Yuan Dynasty.