A History of China (48 page)

Khubilai (1215–1294) generally chose governmental institutions similar to the traditional Chinese ones. The six ministries founded during the Tang dynasty remained in place, and the system of local government scarcely ­differed from the structure in the Song dynasty. However, there were a few fundamental ­differences. Khubilai abolished the civil-service examinations as the only avenue to officialdom because he did not want to rely exclusively on the Chinese to staff his government. Examinations in Chinese based on knowledge of Confucianism would limit the pool of candidates for bureaucratic posts. Recommendations, perceived merit, and inherited positions were the principal roads to social mobility. Even when the Mongol court restored the examinations in 1315, they were not the sole means for entrance into the bureaucracy. This policy resulted in the development of an international coterie of ­officials, with Mongols dominating the military and the ­hierarchy, supported by Chinese, central Asian Muslims, Turks, Tibetans, and others. Most officials were Chinese, but the Mongols placed checks on them by appointing censors who traveled around the country incognito to survey the performance of ­officials and to report directly to the emperor about malfeasance and bribe-taking. Although the censors apparently ­conducted their work professionally and efficiently, corruption persisted among both Chinese officials and Mongol nobles.

Khubilai principally deviated from Chinese patterns in his social policies. Like the traditional Chinese emperors, he supported the peasantry through waiving taxes in times of distress and by setting up local organizations to ­provide information on optimal agricultural practices and to supply legal and police functions. However, he differed from the Chinese in his treatment of other social groups. For example, although the Chinese prized the beautiful bronzes, jades, porcelains, and textiles produced by artisans, they traditionally accorded craftsmen a relatively low social status because they worked with their hands, not their minds. The Mongols in the steppes had few artisans because of their frequent migrations and their ensuing inability to transport the often heavy tools and equipment required for such work. This paucity of craftsmen led the Mongols to value Chinese craftsmen and to provide them with tax and corvée exemptions, as well as special privileges. Such favorable treatment resulted in a Chinese craft renaissance during the Mongol era. The Mongols and Khubilai in particular also prized occupations that offered ­practical benefits. He especially valued doctors because the Mongols’ rugged life and ensuing culinary and alcoholic excesses often led to severe illnesses and, on occasion, to early death. He also prized scientists such as astronomers, who could provide information on weather conditions and could offer, in their guise as astrologers, predictions that appeared plausible to the Mongols.

Merchants were probably the group that benefited the most from Mongol rule in China. Confucian officials had relegated merchants to a low social ­position, portraying them as exchangers, not producers, of goods. Bureaucrats considered merchants of lesser importance than the scholar-official class that dominated the government and even of lesser importance than the peasantry, who produced the most significant commodities. Mongol attitudes differed from those of the Chinese because they so desperately needed and craved ­foreign goods. Thus, Khubilai and his successors reduced tax burdens on ­merchants and eliminated sumptuary regulations aimed at traders. They also made positive contributions to commerce. The government built roads and canals to facilitate travel, made greater use of paper money, allowed ­merchants to stay at state postal stations while on their travels, and offered low-cost loans to merchant organizations undertaking long-distance trade along the Silk Roads. A trade revolution ensued, resembling the craft revolution that the Mongols had, in part, prompted. Merchants from Asia and then Europe reached China. The Mongols’ domination of much of Asia also facilitated merchants’ journeys.

Foreign missionaries, scientists, entertainers, military men, craftsmen, women, sailors, and physicians accompanied the arrival of merchants, creating a much more multiethnic and multireligious China in a global environment. Central Asian and Iranian Muslims were the most numerous and influential of these foreigners. Their positions in the social hierarchy as second only to the Mongols, with north Chinese third and south Chinese fourth, attested to their importance. The khans recruited many Muslims from central Asia and Persia. For example, Jamal al-Din, who arrived from west Asia, assisted in the construction of astronomical instruments and an observatory and in the development of a new calendar. Iranian physicians helped in the translation of Iranian medical texts into Chinese and the building of Iranian-style hospitals in the Mongol capital in China. A few Muslims from west Asia served in the Mongol military and offered skills in using catapults in besieging towns and cities. Khubilai selected the Muslim Saiyid Ajall Shams al-Din (1211–1279) to be the first governor of the newly conquered region of Yunnan in southwest China. Saiyid Ajall followed the Mongol lead in tolerating a variety of religions, not merely Islam, in his domain and, in fact, fostering Confucianism and Chinese civilization in an area inhabited by non-Chinese peoples. Khubilai also chose Muslims to manage the dynasty’s financial administration. Muslim officials devised budgets and acted as tax collectors because of their perceived expertise in finances. Khubilai then employed several Muslims as superintendents of maritime trade in the southeastern port cities, giving them responsibilities for collecting tariffs and taxes, banning contraband, and regulating commerce. Muslim communities spread throughout the country as a result of the esteem in which the Muslims were held. Relations with the Islamic world outside China benefited enormously from favorable policies toward the Muslims within the country. Commerce in Chinese silks and porcelains and west Asian spices and medicines, among other products, grew exponentially during the Mongol era.

Similarly, Mongol support for Buddhism promoted relations with south Asia. The Mongols were not attracted by the more intellectual sects, which required sophisticated reading and understanding of the sutras. They sought instead Buddhist orders that entailed relatively easy practices and had practical benefits. Tibetan Buddhism, with its emphasis on the esoteric and magic and its toleration of monks playing an active role in secular and political life, was particularly appealing. Khubilai recruited a young Tibetan monk named the
ʾ
Phags-pa Lama (1235–1280) to teach his family the precepts of Tibetan Buddhism.
ʾ
Phags-pa turned out to be successful in initiating Khubilai’s wife Chabi (1227–1281) into the mysteries of Tibetan Buddhism, and Khubilai rewarded him with the title of State Preceptor and eventually appointed him the ruler of Tibet.
ʾ
Phags-pa, in turn, assisted his benefactor by proclaiming that Khubilai was a reincarnation of Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, and a “Chakravartin” or “Universal King,” which bolstered Khubilai’s credentials as ruler of China.

Khubilai continued to rely on
ʾ
Phags-pa for a variety of tasks. When Khubilai sought to develop a written script that could be used for many languages in the Mongol domains, he entrusted
ʾ
Phags-pa with the responsibility of creating that script.
ʾ
Phags-pa’s Square Script was based on the Tibetan and Sanskrit languages and was phonologically sound. It received the court’s blessing, but it proved impossible to persuade the population to use a script mandated from the top. The government employed the script on such official documents as passports, seals, and paper money, and potters decorated a tiny group of ­porcelains with it. In any event, ‘Phag-pa’s manifold contributions prompted the court to provide tax exemptions for Buddhist monasteries, to construct temples, to incorporate Buddhism into court rituals, and to fund the production of ritual objects and sculptures.

Despite these appeals to foreign religions and peoples, Khubilai and his successors recognized that China was the center of their newly subjugated domains. They had to win over the Chinese. Khubilai responded by making concessions to Chinese culture. He first restored Confucian rituals at the court. Because Confucianism and China could not be separated, his use of these ceremonies impressed the Chinese. His construction of temples for his ancestors also fit in with traditional Chinese practices. Even more convincing was his shift of the capital from Khara Khorum in Mongolia to north China. In 1267, he ordered the construction of Daidu, in the vicinity of modern Beijing. Perhaps as significant, he had the capital built to Chinese specifications. Although Khubilai employed quite a few non-Chinese to design and construct the city, Daidu did not differ substantially from earlier Chinese capitals, except in its massive scale. Once Khubilai had chosen a capital in China, he adopted a Chinese name for his dynasty. “Yuan” derived from the
Yijing
, one of the most notable texts in the Chinese canon.

Khubilai and the Mongols supported specific features but not all of Chinese culture and art. They did not value cultural manifestations that required sophisticated knowledge of the Chinese language. Poetry, which was traditionally an attribute of a good Confucian, did not interest the Mongols and would not secure their support. Similarly, philosophical essays scarcely had an impact on them, although Khubilai and his successors recruited many Neo-Confucian thinkers for their governments. Calligraphy was not an art that they encouraged. They patronized the forms of Chinese culture that they could readily ­appreciate and comprehend.

Theater witnessed a golden age during the Mongol era, and Khubilai even set up stages in the Imperial Palace complex. Dramas, which were characterized by singing, dancing, pantomime, and acrobatics, appealed to them. The Yuan plays had their antecedents in less formal Song-dynasty expressions. Storytellers held audiences (consisting principally of nonelite individuals) spellbound with tales of great heroes, of love affairs, and of corrupt officials. In such cities as Kaifeng and Hangzhou, actual performances developed from storytelling. Audiences were captivated by both puppet shows and live actors. In Yuan times, historical events were popular in theater. Colorful and well-known figures were often the principal characters. Yang Guifei, the consort of a Tang-dynasty emperor who had had great influence over the emperor until her execution, and the Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang, who had traveled to central Asia and India, were popular in such dramas. Judge Bao, based upon a real Song-dynasty personage of the eleventh century, was a heroic figure in a series of plays. He was depicted investigating instances of official corruption and malfeasance that harmed ordinary people and then punishing the criminals. Love stories that showed romance triumphing over arranged marriages or over obstacles imposed by the different class backgrounds of couples were a staple in these dramas. Such stereotypes as villainous officials and lovely heroines, including courtesans, abounded and appealed both to Chinese and foreign audiences. The use of the colloquial language rather than the somewhat arcane classical Chinese also found favor with the common people. Songs with dynamic music, played on the lute and the zither, enlivened performances and added to their popularity. The elite and later critics were entranced by the poetic lyricism in the songs, while general audiences enjoyed the stories and the spectacle.

The visual arts, which naturally did not necessitate knowledge of the Chinese language, received the greatest Mongol patronage. Although some artists refused to work for or cooperate with the Mongols, several major ­painters were willing to serve the foreigners who had, in fact, unified China after several centuries of disunity. The painters opposed to the new Mongol leadership either retired or rejected Mongol offers of bureaucratic positions. In contrast, Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322), who turned out to be the most renowned Yuan-dynasty painter-calligrapher and was a descendant of the Song imperial family, accepted official posts in the Ministry of War and as president of the Hanlin Academy, the most prestigious organization for the country’s scholars, and still had the leisure time to paint. Li Kan (1245–1320), a famous painter of bamboo, became the minister of personnel. Patronage of these and other painters fostered the efflorescence of Yuan-dynasty painting. A few of the ­artists could be described as court painters. Liu Guandao, who in 1281 painted a portrait of Khubilai Khan on a hunt, could be classified as part of this group. Emperor Renzong (r. 1311–1320) was the ruler most active in ­support of painting and initiated the practice of commissioning imperial ­portraits. Mongol patronage naturally influenced the painters’ subjects. It is no accident that paintings of horses were extremely popular and that Zhao Mengfu’s “Sheep and Goat” was one of his most famous works. Bearing in mind the greater freedom enjoyed by elite women in Mongol society, it should be no surprise that this period saw a Chinese female painter – Guan Daosheng (1262–1319), Zhao Mengfu’s wife – rise to prominence for the first time.

Figure 7.1
Liu Guandao,
Khubilai Khan
, ink and color on silk. National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan / The Bridgeman Art Library