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Yuan dynasty8/6/2023 Nevertheless, by the 1100s, there was a growing backlash from some Jurchen elite against the Jurchen’s increasing adoption of Chinese ways. Unlike the Khitans, the Jurchens were quick to adopt Chinese language, dress, and rituals. Like the Khitans before them, the Jurchens found that Chinese political institutions were effective not only at ruling the Chinese majority, but also at controlling their own nobles. The Jurchens’ military success derived in part from their use of Chinese experts in military siege warfare. The Khitans were eventually brought down by the Jurchens, a tribal people originating in the mountains of eastern Manchuria whose descendants would later found the Qing Dynasty. Nevertheless, they remained distinct from the Chinese population, predominantly preserving their tribal customs. Ultimately, the reigning elite of the Khitan became culturally ambidextrous, adroit in both Khitan and Chinese ways. They also adopted many governing institutions from Chinese practices. The Khitan, for example, adopted hereditary succession on the Chinese model so that son would succeed father. The nomads’ ultimate success in conquering and ruling China derived in part from the skills and experience they acquired co-habituating with the Han Chinese in these frontier areas. Some non-Chinese viewed themselves as part of their ethnic tribe, while others acknowledged the Chinese government and assimilated into the Chinese population. Frontier non-Chinese might remain as herdsman, or they might become farmers or soldiers in Chinese military units, while the ethnic Chinese continued farming, engaged in forced government service, or served in the military, much as they had in the past. Yet such campaigns could not be indefinitely sustained and, within a generation or two, alliances often broke down and allied tribes would again return to combat.ĭuring the time leading to the formation of the Yuan Dynasty, the changing border zone between the steppe and China-proper was a large, fluid frontier settled by both nomads and ethnic Chinese where differences of ethnicity and ways of life between the two were not always clear-cut. Loyalty and duty held the alliances together, as did the spoils of war campaigns. However, while the building of these alliances may have been initiated by one or a few chiefs, they were not, nevertheless, autocratic major decisions were collectively reached at assemblies of military leaders. At times, a strong tribal leader would build large coalitions. The alternative to fighting was to form alliances. Clans and tribes regularly preyed on each other, seizing cattle, horses, and women. All men were trained as potential warriors, learning to ride and shoot at a young age. Patrilineal, the nomad families lived in clans which would merge into tribes with tribal chiefs selected for their military skill. Mongol soldiers training for battle Despite the strong tribal affiliations of the various peoples of the steppe, the social organization of these nomads was remarkably similar. Over the course of four centuries, parts of China were increasingly conquered by nomads who each formed their own dynasties – the Khitan’s Liao Dynasty, (907-1125), the Jurchen’s Jin Dynasty (1125-1234), climaxing with the Mongol’s Yuan Dynasty (1234-1368) which eventually encompassed all of China when the Southern Song finally capitulated to the Mongol conquest in 1276. Before the Yuan – Conquest of Northern China by the Tribal Dynasties of the Liao and Jin 907-1234 Chinese technologies such as paper printing, gunpowder and the compass spread to the distant reaches of the world over the Silk Road trade routes, influencing development trajectories in places as far-away as Europe. These items were to remain China’s preeminent foreign currency generators throughout the Yuan dynasty. Chinese exports of tea, silk and porcelain soared. The Mongols brought China renewed access to the Silk Road. This international reach contributed to making the Yuan one of China’s most international courts. Yet the Mongols also kept many Mongol customs and were influenced by the traditions of the distant parts of its wide-reaching Empire which, at its zenith, controlled not only China but also large parts of the Middle East, Russia, and Eastern Europe. The Mongols used Chinese traditions to consolidate their rule over the Chinese people. Eventually, what the Mongols wanted was all of China. Increasingly, by the end of the Song Dynasty, when the Chinese refused to trade on what the Mongols felt were acceptable terms, the herders resorted to raids to get what they wanted. Map of the Mongol Empire The Yuan marked the only time that China was entirely conquered by the Mongols.
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