The ethnic aspect of the Yuan Empire’s liquidation

Efimenko Nikolai Aleksandrovich ORCID: 0000-0002-4003-5887 Student, Department of Regional Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119991, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1, p. 13 efimenko200205@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction

If you look at the whole diachrony of Chinese history, the Han ethnic group, which laid the foundation and the root concepts of Chinese culture, has always occupied the largest percentage of the entire population. Since the most ancient times, the sedentary peoples who lived in the Central Plain region of China, in order to separate themselves from the nomads, called themselves the Huaxia ethnic group. If you look at this lexeme from the point of view of its composition, then this word consists of two morphemes: hu? and xi?. If you look at its semantics, the morpheme of the hu? originally had the meaning of "flower blossoming" (1,554-555), and the morpheme of the xi? had the meaning of "a person living in the territory of the Central Plain of China". However, at that time, apart from cultural signs, people had nothing else in common. This situation changed only after Emperor Qin Shi Huang created the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC) and ended the period of feudal fragmentation. Despite the importance of the Qin Dynasty in Chinese history, it could not last long due to the unsuccessful policies of the second emperor of the Ershi dynasty, Huang di, and quickly fell. And only in the next era, the era of the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD), the importance of the unity of the Chinese people could be expressed in the fact that for the first time the concept of "Han" appeared, where the ethnic group, in addition to cultural, also began to have political significance, uniting people belonging to the same state.

In this paper, we will analyze the importance of Chinese nationality using the example of the rapid decline of the Yuan Empire, since this is the first dynasty where for the first time rulers of non-Han origin, but nomadic conquerors, were on the throne.

In order to obtain an objective result, various sources were used in the research process, of which various chronicles are the main ones. We took as a basis not only the chronicle of Yuan Shi ^[2], which is one of the 24 official chronologies of dynastic stories written during the Ming Dynasty, but also chronicles showing the realities on the part of the Mongols, such as the "Secret Legend of the Mongols" ^[3] and "Origins Mongolia" () ^[4]. This is done to consider the issue from two sides and obtain more objective conclusions. Various historical studies will also be used, which will be indicated in the main part.

Many works have been written on the causes of the liquidation of the Yuan Empire, where various aspects were analyzed and emphasized. For example, in Wang Miao's article "Excessive talent and the demise of the Yuan Dynasty: conclusions based on economic research " (-) ^[5] The author considered the economic aspect of the demise of the empire. The article says that the most important reason for this death was the excess of the emperor's awards to his subjects, which led first to inflation, and then to an economic crisis and a change in power. Researcher Liu Haiwei in his article "Reflections on the cultural factors of the death of the Yuan Dynasty"^[6] examines the cultural aspect of the collapse of the empire and puts forward the opinion that the stubbornness of the Mongol Khans and fluctuations between the Mongolian and Han cultures ruined them. In Cao Hanqi's long-standing article "Issues of social confrontation of the Yuan Dynasty"^[7], the author shows the problem of estates and discrimination of the Han population.

Most of the works investigating this issue identify three aspects: economic, cultural and social. Our work will be based on the ethnic aspect, which has not been considered separately before. With its help, we can identify a new point of view on the liquidation of the Yuan Empire and explain these historical events from another angle.

The main part

After the creation of the state, Khan Kublai, as an outstanding Genghisid, understood that his people were no longer Mongols, but mostly Han Chinese and they had to somehow reconcile with the terrible changes for the Chinese. The Han ethnic group has always been the overwhelming ethnic group in China, because it was they who created the Chinese civilization. From the very beginning, they led an economic lifestyle, and the people, in turn, considered the nomads villains who want to take their territory and rob ordinary people.

Throughout the Chinese history, the dynasties have changed endlessly and the changes were grandiose – not like in Russian history, where the Romanovs came to power after the Rurikovich, who were even blood relatives of the Rurikovich. In China, one dynasty replaced another, completely new rulers came to power, and the only thing that united all the rulers was their belonging to the Han ethnic group. Therefore, it was not the ruler's family that was very important to the people, but his ethnic origin, the people needed this Han correctness. And when suddenly the ruler was a representative of another ethnic group, the people fought with him to the last, until they received their Han emperor.

This theory can be confirmed by considering the numbers of the “prosperity period". In ancient China, almost every dynasty had its own period of prosperity, and if we analyze all the dynasties of great unity, then we will have an interesting picture. There have been 10 such dynasties in China (if you don't count the controversial Northern Song Dynasty, then 9):

1. The Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC) did not have periods of prosperity.

2. The Western Han Dynasty (202 BC- 8) had 3 periods of prosperity: ? ? (Wen Jing Zhi zhi), (Han Wu Sheng Shi), (Zhao Xuan Zhong Xing).

3. The Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) had 3 periods of prosperity: Guan Wu Zhong Xing, (Ming Zhang Zhi Zhi), (Yun Yuan Zhi Lun).

4. The Western Jin Dynasty (266-316) had 1 period of prosperity: (Tai Kang zhi zhi).

5. The Sui Dynasty (581-618) had 1 period of prosperity: (Kai Huang Zhi zhi).

6. The Tang dynasty (618-907) had 8 periods of prosperity: (u de JI JI), (Zhen Guan Zhi Zhi), (young Hui Zhi Zhi), (at Zhou Zhi Zhi), (Kai yuan Shen Shi), (yuan Hae Jung Shin), (Hui Chan Jung Shin), (Yes Zhong Zhi JI).

7. The Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) had 3 periods of prosperity: (Jian Long Zhi Zhi), (Xian Ping Zhi zhi), (Ren Zong Sheng zhi).

8. The Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) had no periods of prosperity.

9. The Ming dynasty (1368-1644) had 8 periods of prosperity: (Hong JI JI), (Yun Le Shen Shi), (Ren Xuan JI JI), (Cheng Hua Xin Feng), (Hong JI Jung Shin), (Jia Jing Zhong xing), (LUN Qing Xin Zheng), (WAN Lee Jung Shin).

10. The Qing Dynasty (1636-1912) had 1 period of prosperity: (Kang Qian Sheng Shi).

If we collect the data obtained, we will see that only the Qin Dynasty, which lasted 14 years, and the Yuan Dynasty did not have periods of prosperity. Short and not very successful dynasties, such as the Western Jin Dynasty and the Sui Dynasty, had one period of prosperity, while great dynasties like Tang or Ming had as many as 8 periods of prosperity.

Of the above dynasties, only two had non—Han rulers - the Yuan and Qing dynasties. Despite the fact that in all 276 years, the Qing Dynasty had only one period of prosperity, even it is extremely controversial. Most Chinese researchers believe that this period cannot be considered the heyday of the dynasty. So, in the article by Li Qiang, Xu Kangning and Wei Wei, "Did "Kang Qian sheng shi" exist?: analysis based on economic data" ^[8] after analyzing the economic data, a direct conclusion was made that "Kang Qian Sheng shi" did not exist. Even the current President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping ^[9] expresses a negative opinion about this period.

Strangely enough, almost only foreigners speak well about this period. But if you think about it, it is understandable, because it was a period of crazy fascination for foreigners with China. In addition, during the Qing Dynasty, the trials of literary figures were unusually strong in order to write only what was beneficial to the government. And foreigners, who for the most part had no chance to see China with their own eyes, gained knowledge about the Qing Empire either from translated Chinese books or from travelers' notes, which were certainly subjective. They did not have the opportunity to see the realities of the Qing Empire.

From the above data, the main conclusion can be drawn: it was extremely important for the people that their ruler was ethnically like them – was a Han Chinese.

If we go back to the Yuan Empire, then Kublai Khan certainly knew the passion for the ethnic group among the Han population, but it was impossible to show other Genghisids that he was also a Han ruler, of course. The only way out, which he used in the future, was to behave differently in front of the Han and Mongols. The Han people saw a foreign ruler who quickly became Chinese after the conquests, and only the highest officials and nobles of the Mongol Empire knew that before them was not the Son of Heaven, but the great Khan.

The official name of the state of (Da yuan) appeared for a reason. But, unfortunately, almost all Chinese historians put forward only one version of the creation of this name: according to the records in the historical document "Jian Guo haozhao", Kublai took the concept of Da yuan from the "Book of Changes" ^[10], namely, he used the famous Chinese philosophical concept of (da zai qian yuan) as the basis, which was the highest substance and spiritual aspiration in Chinese philosophy, and the d? yu?n is an abbreviation of this concept. And this shows that the Mongolian Khan adapted to Chinese culture and took Chinese philosophy as the basis of his statehood. However, this theory raises a lot of questions, since Kublai, as the grandson of Genghis Khan, fought for the throne of Khan all his life, and showing his strong love for Chinese culture could clearly cause serious problems with other khaganates.

However, if we look at this issue from a more global perspective, we will see a different picture. After the great Khan Munke died in 1259, a relatively short time of turmoil came to the Mongol Empire. Almost all the rulers of other Mongolian states were in favor of Arig-Bugi, who was the seventh son of Tolui and the younger brother of Munke, becoming the new khan. But Kublai was not happy with the fact that they wanted to transfer power to his younger brother, and not to him. Therefore, in 1260, Kublai rebelled, created his own state, declared himself the great khan and wanted to create his own Mongol Empire. Therefore, if we look at the official name of the Mongol Empire itself, it will be YekeMongol Ulus (the Great Mongolian State), and “new Mongolia" used the name Dai ?n Yeke Mongghol Ulus. This name already existed before, but Kublai gave it a more important meaning: by doing this he separated his Mongolia from Arig-Bugisky, and Dai ?n (expanse) phonetically sounds in Chinese almost like (Da yuan).

If we combine these facts, the historical event will become more understandable: inside the state, the name of the state was given such that it was suitable for Han thinking, and in the foreign policy aspect, the name showed a completely different one – one that was used as an argument for the orthodoxy of the khan's title of Kublai and his state. 

If we consider the cultural aspect of this issue, then politics during the Yuan Empire was also inclined to preserve the Han foundation. As an example, one can cite adaptation to Confucian traditions and taking Confucian philosophy as the basis of government, since it was not only a good excuse for the centralization of power, but also an indicator of the soft power of Han culture, which the Chinese population certainly liked. Kublai did the same with the language: Chinese remained the main language in China, but Mongolian was necessary in the then aristocratic society; thus, the problem of preserving the local language was solved and at the same time the elitism of Mongolian was emphasized.

Nevertheless, the ethnic issue remained unresolved throughout the entire period of the Yuan Empire, and in the social aspect, the Han Chinese were in a depressed position, since the Yuan Empire had a policy of dividing people into classes: the Mongols entered the first class, the colored—eyed people entered the second class - these are the peoples living in the Western Region, the Jurchens entered the third class, Khitan and northern Han Chinese. The fourth class included Southerners who were also ethnic Han Chinese, but had previously been subjects of the Southern Song.

This policy was not officially spelled out in any document, but this division of people into 4 classes was manifested in all laws. As an example, we can take the judicial code of the Yuan Empire (Yuan Dian Zhang) ^[11]. There, in article 42, it is written that if a Mongol killed a Han Chinese, then he will have to be beaten with a stick 57 times and he must pay for the funeral of the victim, but if a Khan killed a Mongol, then the Han Chinese must be immediately executed and the property taken away. Or as it is written in the chronicle (Geng Shen Wai Shi) ^[12]: """ ("Han Chinese and Southerners do not have the right to have any weapons") or "," ("When Mongols and Samu beat Han Chinese and Southerners, they do not have the right to strike back").

It can be said that it was this policy that ruined the Yuan Empire. However, if you look deeper, it will be known that the basis of the end of the Yuan Empire was the dislike and disobedience of the Han people to other peoples. And therefore, all 98 years of the existence of the Yuan Empire were turbulent, and in the annals of officially recorded peasant uprisings can be counted several times every year. Using data from Zhou Dingchu's article "Historical features and social causes of peasant uprisings under the Yuan Dynasty"()^[13], it can be noted that peasant uprisings had the following features:

1. Many Han landlords participated in the uprising together with their peasants, they gave the peasants material support, sometimes even were the leaders of the uprisings. 

2. Uprisings were often accompanied by the slogan ( ("Let's restore the Song Empire").

3. Peasant uprisings were not against landlords and did not fight for land or their rights. The goals of the peasant uprisings were: (to reclaim the Central Plain) and (to resume the good times of the Song Empire).  

All these facts show only one thing — the ethnic Han Chinese of the middle and upper classes opposed the Mongolian government, not wanting to compromise with it, and were on the side of the peasants, even though they were not subjected to unfair laws and damage because of their origin. If we take the southern part of China, then the Southerners rebelled several hundred times in the entire Yuan history. Each time the uprisings were suppressed in bloody and brutal ways, but this did not calm people in any way, and the number of uprisings only grew.

This position of the Han peasants and feudal lords directly led to the weakening of agriculture in the country, and the government was forced to find a new foothold instead of agriculture, which eventually became trade. To strengthen the role of trade, new tax laws and a single paper and silver currency were created throughout the country. But in the end, this led to inflation of paper money and an economic crisis, which greatly accelerated the process of empire disintegration.

On January 23, 1368, the head of the Red Armband troops, Zhu Yuanzhang, announced the creation of the Ming Empire, and on September 14, 1368, with his motto ", , , ("Expel the Mongols, return Chinese lands, give stability to society, save the people"), he captured the capital Dadu and forced the Yuan Emperor Togong Temur Retreat to the north.   

Conclusion

 In order to satisfy the Han population and maintain legitimacy in the eyes of Chinese subjects, the Mongolian rulers conducted an active campaign to promote Chinese cultural and national heritage in almost all areas and spheres of life. However, this could not in any way change the hostile attitude of the people towards the government and their desire to return a ruler who was of the same origin as them and had common ethnic roots, which eventually led to the fall of the Yuan Empire.

It is also important to note that this ethnic pride and contempt for other ethnic groups is an important feature of the Chinese character, which is manifested in almost all historical events concerning interactions with other peoples. This aspect is important to take into account in historical and cultural studies.