CNN's
Intro: The Mongols, united under their great leader Genghis Khan at around 1206
A.D., would use their revolutionary tactics and mobile brand of warfare to
subdue China. The new Yuan dynasty was established by Kublai Khan, Genghis'
grandson.
The Yuan was the first dynasty in China to establish direct contact with the West. Marco Polo, who stayed in Kublai Khan's court for years, was just one of several Europeans who brought back stories about the famed empire of "Cathay," with its capital of what is now known as Beijing.
How could we add change this description of the Yuan to reflect a different
approach to interpreting the Yuan?
Alien Rule: The Liao, Jin, and Yuan Dynasties 907-1368
What overlap is there between the Yuan and the Song according to Ebrey's periodization?
How do we explain for the rise of Chinggis Khan?
How did the Mongols management style differ from the preceding Jurchen (Jin dynasty)?
What was the Han Chinese response during the Yuan dynasty?
Because the ethnic and cultural lines between herders and farmers are blurred in N. China, can you argue that there is evidence of multi-cultural; multi-ethnic Chinese heritage? Some guidelines: 1) historical relationship between herders and farmers, 2) cross-cultural contact, 3) sinification, 4) "Universal Confucianism," 5) other world religions, 6) definitions of "Chinese"
Khitan -- Liao dynasty (907-1125)
Jurchen -- Jin (1125-1234)
Mongol -- *Yuan* (1215/1276-1368)
Traditional herder/farmer relations
Contrasting methods of government, mobility, elections, flogging corrupt officials,
*Chinggis Khan* (1162-1227) Was he a great leader?
"no greater joy than to . . . "
decimal hierarchy, body guards, human shields, population of China during this period
Islam
hereditary status by occupation
"A Mongol Governor," Menggu and Chinese assimilation
N. Han Chinese as a different ethnic group!
Contrast Song/Yuan Chinese response to the West versus the Tang response
Painting and Calligraphy, *bamboo*
The elite:
"A Schedule for Learning," using Zhu Xi's ideas 150 years later
"A Scholar-Painter's Diary"