After reading Genghis Khan, Part 3, share FIVE specific insights you gleaned about the ancient Mongols, and the role they had in shaping the history of greater Asia.
Please use 2-3 sentences for each observation, and cite page numbers, so we can all follow your thinking.
Post your reading response below, as part of this blog thread.
Xie Xie,
Dr. W
NUMBER 1!! WOOOO
ReplyDelete(Pg 196) Khubilai Kahn had an interesting plan for increasing his political place in China. He won the control of China by making himself seem more Chinese then the Sung who were ruling at the time. This helped in his overall goal of unifying all of China.
(Pg 208) Part of the Sung’s fall of power was due to the abandonment of its people. Year after year, peasants, soldiers and merchants left the Sung in search for better opportunities. Many found themselves with the Mongols and believing that hey had a greater protection and freedom.
(Pg 221) Visitors in the Mongol nation were given necklaces with large piece of wood, silver or gold called paiza. The more precious the material symbolized the importance of the traveler, and insures they would be safe from harm. It is much like our modern day diplomats.
(Pg 230), After unifying China Khubilai created a academy of calendars. Their job was to mass-produce a variety of calendars that would help with the unification. If a ruler wanted to control his people, they all need a unified understanding of the year, its holidays and seasons.
(Pg 243) The plague was on at epidemic levels in Mongolia, but when found its way into china it devastated the population. The country was said to have a population of 123 million people before the plague; their population dropped to 65 million at the end of the 14th century. That’s almost half their population!
1. (pg 196) Khubilai took the chinese title that was a translation of a Mongol one but he modified it to Zhiyuan meaning "complete beginning". He used this term as the dynastic name which the Mongol dynasty because officially known in Chinese history. This meant a new beginning for both the Chinese and the Mongols.
ReplyDelete2. ( pg 210) Khubilai took the defeated Sung navy and made them more competent to fight. He enlarged the navy and transformed them from guardians of the coast to a fleet capable of operating on high seas in both commercial and military enterprises. This is very important because Genghis Khan also did this with his prisoners.
3. ( pg 223) The mongol governor created a dozen dams and reservoirs with canals that survived until modern times. The grand canal was used to transport grain and other products and chinese engineering played a huge role in this because they built water projects throughout the the territories. Armies moved by horse through the land and products and goods were transported by water.
4. (pg 242-243) The plague originated in the south of China but the soldiers brought it north with them causing mass destruction. The bacteria lived in fleas which were on rats. The fleas waited for human contact and then infected many people. Chroniclers recorded that 90 percent of the people of Hopei Province died. This is a astonishing and sad number.
5. (pg 261) The west feared the Yellow Peril growing and the Asians examined the concept of Pan Mongolism as a path to creating a common identity. They tried to bring everyone together just like the Mongolian Empire had once done. By doing this they could better fight off the growing power of the Western Nations.
1) 194) Khubilai Khan knew he couldn't conquer China with an army or any size. He had to essentially become Chinese in order to rule China. To be in charge of China, you must be Chinese and the ruling party can convince the people that they are the true Chinese.
ReplyDelete2)211 The Kamikaze was the storm that stopped the Mongols from conquering Japan. Through sheer dumb luck the Japanese had survived the juggernaut of the Golden Horde. The Japanese increasingly faced inward because the only main land contact had been with people who wished to kill them, it must have lead to their isolationist views.
3) 214 The Khubilai Khan was indeed a great leader, but found himself stymied by the Japanese, The Egyptians, and the Javanese people setting the limits of Mongolian expansion for over 50 years. Possibly foreshadowing the slowing of the Mongol empire.
4) 219 With the tremendous emphasis on
religious freedom throughout the Mongol Empire, Rabban Bar Sawma was surprised when he arrived in Europe and found that only a single religion was tolerated. It seems that the religious freedom so entrenched in the Mongol Empire would shift out to the west while the area under that was under Mongol control would become less understanding.
5)231-232 The Mongols by necessity were able to revolutionize logistics, by combining the mathematics from different parts of the world to create a system which was able to quickly and efficiently account for their goods for the year.
1) (pg 200) The Mongols eating habits in the Forbidden City were shocking to the Chinese. Their women mingled with the men, and they were loud and disorderly.
ReplyDelete2) (pg 205) Amazingly, Khubilai Khan tried to create a writing system that would encompass all languages. This never caught on, unfortunately, but was nonetheless a bold and incredible initiative.
3) (pg 212) The Mongols attempted to conquer Japan. Poor weather at sea as well as a general ineptitude for oceanic battle lead to a complete failure to do so. As a result, Japan unified and the Mongols pretended that nothing happened.
4) (pg 219) The Mongols allowed multiple religions to flourish in their kingdom, so long as they followed the command of the country. This was in stark contrast to Europe, which had one religion that guided everyone.
5) (pg 234) Europe benefited the most from the Mongols' peaceful trade initiative. After the fall of Rome, Europe had suffered a distinct lack of cultural growth. They considered Mongol traded goods to be the finest, changing 'Tartar' from a thing of terror to a commodity.
1. Page 197: Through the strategic use of military power, propaganda, and policy Khubilai Khan was able to create a well-structured government. By doing so he was able increase his popularity among the Chinese people by decreasing his Mongol background.
ReplyDelete2. Page 201-202: Mongol crime and punishment was structured in a similar way to modern law enforcement. Khubilai Khan enforced a strict set of laws that utilized fines as a form of punishment, organized the overseeing of legal disputes by size and type of disagreement, and created a set of guidelines for freed prisoners. These laws, along with others, helped establish the Mongol ideal that “all people…should know and be able to act through the law”(202).
3. Page 208-209: Unlike Genghis Khan, Khubilai Khan integrated the Sung dynasty into the Mongol empire through strategic public relations efforts and propaganda campaigns. By projecting Chinese virtues and imitating Chinese lifestyle Khubilai Khan was able to avoid an uprising from the overthrown royal family.
4. Page 220: During the fourteenth century the Mongol trade routes established prior to Khubilai Khan’s rule helped fashion the Mongol Corporation. The title Pax Mongolica or the Pax Tatarica was given to this time period to signify the “era of Mongol peace”(220) that was about to take place.
5. Page 227: Unlike other empires that contained wealth in a dominant city, the Mongol Empire did not construct a single major city. Similarly the Mongols did not impose their culture (language, religion, and even architectural style) onto newly conquered areas.
Page 195-196 Kubulai Khan was conscience of the fact that he wouldn't be able to successfully conquer China with straight brute force, due to the sheer size of the population. Instead he won them over as a leader establishing a Chinese (not Mongol) dynasty, establishing himself and family as Chinese and embracing the Chinese way of life. He played as much a politician a conqueror. "to be more Chinese than the Chinese, or at least more than the Sung."
ReplyDeletePage 197 Khubilai erected Chinese styled tablets and a temple to honor his ancestors. In the temple there were eight chambers each honoring an individual. Despite paternal issues with Jochi he was included in the official lineage line. he portrayed his fallen family in a more civilized manner rather than as Mongol warriors.
Khubilai repaired and built to gain support of the Chinese.
Page 200 In the seclusion of the Forbidden City, Khubilai and his family would revert back to their Mongolian ways, hamming it up having a good old time, drinking, acting in ways the Chinese deemed disgusting.
Page 201- Under Khubilai Khan a more consistent "civilized" justice system was set in place. Punishments where changed from physical punishment to fines. There was a criminal reform program. The was also a movement away from torture. "First use reason to analyze and sormise, and shall not impose abruptly any torture".
Khubilai Khan - The Humanitarian
Page 204 Paper currency usage rapidly expanded during this time. Marco Polo reported it being a fully operational system. It was accepted through out the empire for and payment needs. The bills were recatngles varying in size, a number indicating the value and a vermillion seal.
202 The Mongolians started to crack down on crime and handed out punishments, in some cases death, to those who offended. It was typical of Chinese culture to tattoo the forehead when somebody committed a crime. this way it would always be on their conscious. The Mongols implimented that the forehead was sacred so they would tattoo the arm the then the neck if somebody committed a crime.
ReplyDelete214 K Khan turned hunting from a means of survival to more of a hobby with his brigades across the landscape to hunt game. Elephants and mountain cats. They have started to loose touch wth the basis of ghengis' way of living.
218 The Mongols could conquer anyone by land but not by sea. They struggled getting into Japan and Java. Not all was lost however, they learned from their mistakes and made shpping goods by sea the number one form of transport for food.
Columbus discovered this place while searching for the Monglian Empire. He unlatched a new gate, a new world all while on a conquest to find a shortcut to the greastest empire on earth.
Hen Hao, Genghis posters!
ReplyDeleteMissing:
Katrina
Ryan
Boo Hao - leap on the blog!
Xie Xie,
Dr. W
1. On page 197 it's interesting to see his strategy to becoming a successful Chinese leader, marketing himself as one of the chinese as opposed to an outsider. " He ordered portraits made of all of them in Chinese style so that they looked more like Mandarin sages than Mongol warriors. I think their clever marketing talents would prove useful even in today society.
ReplyDelete2. Although the Mongols did try to adjust minor aspects of chinese culture, they did respect their history and try to learn from it. On 205 "Khubilai built schools and revived the Chinese Hanlin Academy..." I think they Chinese probably do many things differently, I'm looking forward to see what I can learn from that when I travel to China.
3. One thing we can take away from the Mongols is the ability to pull information from other cultures, and use it to their advantage. Then we see the Europeans pull information from the Mongols on page 234 and at this point pulling information from the Mongols is like pulling from most of the world. It's interesting to me to see how even so many years before telephones and internet their is at least to some degree the begging of global culture.
4. On page 249 Weatherford describes how the Mongols were changing strategies as how to best rule China by becoming as un-Chinese as possible. I thought that their old strategy was much better because when people are happy they will listen and you will be able to control them, but when you suppress them it is false usually short lived feeling of control.
5. On page 263 it's interesting how the Nazi's and Soviets would study Genghis Khan and the Mongols to adapt military strategy, but also go as far as attempting to acquire his body to study it. It's incredible how one mans success can influence so many for years to come.
1. In devising a legal code, Khubilai did not replace Chinese law with Mongol so much as reform it to make it compatible with Genghis Khan’s law, and in such a way as to simultaneously win support from both his Mongol and Chinese followers. The law was one more weapon in his struggle for loyalty and support from his subjects, and thus, ultimately over the rival Sung dynasty. (page 200)
ReplyDelete2. To further facilitate the speed and safety of commerce through the empire, Khubilai radically expanded the use of paper money. By the time Marco Polo arrived, the system was in full operation. He describes the money as made from mulberry bark in a form that we recognize as paper but which was still largely unknown in Europe. The paper money was cut into rectangles of varying size, marked with its value and stamped with a vermilion seal. The primary advantage of paper money was that it was much easier to handle and ship than the bulky coins then in use. Marco Polo wrote that the money was accepted throughout the empire: “To refuse it would be to incur the death penalty,” but most people “are perfectly willing to be paid in paper money since with it they can buy anything including pearls, precious stones, gold, or silver.” (page 204)
3. The Mongols trod lightly on the world they conquered. They brought no distinctive architectural style with them. Nor did they seek to impose their language and religion on the conquered since in most cases they forbade non-Mongols to learn their language. The Mongols did not force cultivation of an alien crop nor impose radical change on their subjects’ collective way of life. (page 227)
4. In the effort to remove themselves from the danger of a new Mongol invasion, the Ming initially moved the capital south to Nanjing, a more Chinese venue, but in the attitudes and actions of the majority of people, the rule of unified China was so closely associated with their northern capital that the Ming had to return their court to the old Mongol capital of Khanbalik. The Ming sought to remake the city, remove the Mongol appearance, and build a new Forbidden City in their own style. With short exceptions, the capital has remained there with changing names, and Beijing still serves as capital for China, which occupies roughly the same national borders that it did under the Mongols. (page 251)
5. Genghis Khan shaped the modern world of commerce, communication, and large secular states more than any other individual. He was the throughly modern man in his mobilized and professional warfare and in his commitment to global commerce and the rule of international secular law. (page 267)