Portrait of Kublai Khan drawn shortly after his death on February 18, 1294.
Statue of Kublai Khan in Sükhbaatar Square, Ulaanbaatar.
Portrait of young Kubla.
忽必烈
Kublai Khan was born in September 23, 1215, the place of birth is unknown. He was the fourth son of Tulë, one of the four sons of Genghis Khan by his favorite wife, Bourtai. Strong, brave, and intelligent, Kublai was Genghis's favorite grandson.
In his early years, through frequent contacts with the Chinese, Kublai became aware of the potential of the Chinese literati as his future political allies. As early as 1242, he had begun to summon men of culture to his quarters in Karakorum in the Gobi Desert to offer counsel on political affairs, including the famous Buddho-Taoist Liu Ping-chung, who advised him on the Confucian principles of government and the application of Chinese methods for administrative and economic reforms.
In 1253 he received the district of Ch'ang-an (Sian) in the Wei River valley (in modern Shensi) as a personal fief and began to establish a permanent territorial administration. Many of the Chinese advisers became his key administrators. Kublai was also entrusted by Möngkë to take command of expeditions aiming at the unification of China under the Mongol emperor. Meanwhile, he waged a campaign against the western province of Szechwan and took the provincial city Chengtu in 1252. From there his armies marched south and without much difficulty conquered the Thai kingdom of Nanchao in modern Yunnan Province. The unexpected death of his older brother Möngkë not only brought the war to a complete halt but precipitated a crisis of succession.
He stimulated, that the Mongol administration adopted a Sinicized bureaucracy. The presence of an institutional duality under Kublai earmarks the complexity of the Mongol rule in China. Meanwhile, Kublai proceeded with his operation against the Southern Sung which had been delayed by internal feuds. After 5 years of siege, Kublai captured the twin cities of Hsiang-yang and Fan-ch'eng on opposite sides of the Han River in 1273. Three expeditions against Burma (1277, 1283, 1287) brought the Mongol forces to the Irrawaddy delta, but again Kublai had to be content with the acknowledgment of a formal suzerainty.
The Khmer kingdom of Kambuja, however, submitted in 1294. Under Kublai, the Mongol ruling oligarchy adopted divide-and-rule tactics. For tactical and practical reasons, Kublai adopted a conciliatory policy toward the Chinese. He revived the state cult of Confucius, ordered the protection of the Confucian temples, and exempted the Confucian scholars from taxation. In later years Kublai relied more on his central Asian administrators for support.
Kublai inaugurated a system of sea transport around the hazardous Shantung coast and also developed the inland river and canal routes. The problem of transporting food to the capital was eventually solved by extending the Grand Canal system north to Peking from the Yellow River. Under Kublai, the opening of direct contact between China and the West, made possible by the Mongol control of the central Asian trade routes and facilitated by the presence of efficient postal services, was another spectacular phenomenon in the Mongol Empire.
Kublai became increasingly despondent after the deaths of his favorite wife and his chosen heir Zhenjin. The failure of the military campaigns in Vietnam and Japan also haunted him. He sank into depression due to the loss of his family, his poor health and advancing age. Kublai weakened steadily, and on February 18, 1294, he died at the age of 78.
Kublai must be regarded as one of the great rulers in history, he became the first non-Han emperor to conquer all of China. He also founded the Yuan dynasty and ruled as the first Yuan emperor. Kublai Khan was the first to develop system of sea transport in the Mongol Empire. He was also well-known as the patron of Muslim scholars and scientists, contributed to the construction of the observatory in Shaanxi, creation of the accurate maps of the Silk Road, invention of the "Muslim trebuchet".
Besides, Kublai was a prolific writer of Chinese poetry, though most of his works have not survived, the most famous - the Selection of Yuan Poetry.
Kublai himself was a convert of Lamaist Buddhism. Kublai was well known for his toleration of foreign religions. Under Kublai, religious establishments of the Buddhist, Taoist, Nestorian, and Islamic orders were all exempted from taxation, and their clergy acquired local land rights and economic privileges.
In the eyes of Kublai, the restoration of Chinese institutions and customs was a tactical maneuver in his impire rather than a capitulation to the Chinese political style. In reality, outside the bureaucracy, much of the Mongol practice still prevailed. He dividedpopulation of China (about 58, 000, 000 in 1290) into a hierarchy of four social classes: the Mongols; the central Asians; the northern Chinese, Koreans, and Jürchen; and the southern Chinese. The first two classes enjoyed extensive administrative, economic, and judicial privileges; the third class held an intermediate position; whereas the fourth, the most numerous of all, was practically excluded from state offices.
He was a vigorous, shrewd, and pragmatic ruler and was close in spirit to Genghis Khan.
Kublai first married Tegulen but she died very early. Then he married Chabi of the Khongirad, who was his most beloved empress. After Chabi's death in 1281, Kublai married Chabi's young cousin, Nambui, presumably in accordance with Chabi's wish.
He was the founder and first Great Khan of the Mongol Empire.
He was the director of the Secretariat and head of the Bureau of Military Affairs from 1263, but was sickly and died young.
Qutlugh Kelmysh Beki married the king Chungnyeol of Goryeo and became empress of the Goryeo.
