The Yuan Empire: Mongol Conquest and Rule in China, 1271-1368

The Yuan dynasty was a Mongol-led state that ruled China from 1271 to 1368. Kublai Khan proclaimed the dynasty in 1271, but its conquest of the Southern Song was not complete until 1279. Its main capital, Dadu, stood at the site of present-day Beijing, while Shangdu served as a seasonal imperial centre. Yuan rulers drew on Mongol imperial traditions and Chinese forms of government, but the state they built in China was not the same as a restored, unified Mongol Empire: the other Mongol-led khanates to the west largely governed themselves.

The Yuan’s fall from China in 1368 did not end Mongol rule at once. The imperial court retreated north and continued to claim the name Great Yuan, in a state commonly called the Northern Yuan. That later history is distinct from the Yuan government based in China.

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Kublai’s consolidation and the creation of the Yuan

Mongol armies had conquered the Jin dynasty in 1234 and taken control of much of northern China before Kublai founded the Yuan. Under the Great Khan Möngke, Kublai was given authority over Mongol-held territories in China. He established a base at Kaiping, later known as Shangdu, and worked with Chinese Buddhist and Confucian advisers as he developed the means to govern settled agricultural regions.

Möngke died in 1259 while campaigning against the Southern Song. The ensuing struggle over the Mongol leadership divided Kublai and his brother Ariq Böke. In 1260, separate assemblies supported each claimant as Great Khan. Kublai won the civil war, and Ariq Böke surrendered in 1264. The conflict weakened any prospect of a single Mongol government: the western khanates increasingly acted independently, even when Yuan rulers continued to claim authority over them.

Kublai also faced opposition within the lands he controlled. In 1262, Li Tan, a son-in-law of a powerful official, revolted against Mongol rule. After suppressing the rebellion, Kublai became more cautious about relying on Chinese advisers, while continuing to use Chinese administrative practices. This balancing act shaped his government: it had to maintain Mongol authority and satisfy the needs of a large population accustomed to established Chinese institutions.

Kublai moved his headquarters toward the former Jin capital, ordering a new capital built near it. The city became known as Dadu, or Great Capital, and as Khanbaliq. In 1271 he declared the dynasty’s formal name, Great Yuan, invoking the language of traditional Chinese dynastic succession and the Mandate of Heaven, the claim that a ruler’s authority was sanctioned by Heaven. The proclamation did not mark the completion of the conquest; Southern Song resistance continued for several more years.

The conquest of the Southern Song

The Southern Song controlled the wealthy and densely populated lands south of the Yangtze River. To reach them, Yuan forces had to overcome fortified positions and contend with the Song’s river and naval forces. The siege of Xiangyang, which lasted from 1268 to 1273, removed a major obstacle to advancing into the Yangtze basin. After the city fell, Yuan armies moved south, drawing on Mongol forces, Chinese commanders, and soldiers who had changed sides.

Yuan troops captured the Song capital, Hangzhou, in 1276. The surrender did not end the war. Song loyalists continued resistance farther south, and in 1279 Yuan forces defeated the last major loyalist force at Yamen. The young Song emperor died during the defeat, ending the Southern Song. The conquest brought northern and southern China under Yuan rule. It also added new troops to the Yuan military: soldiers who surrendered from the Song were organized in units known as the Newly Submitted Army.

Campaigns beyond the Song frontier

Kublai also demanded submission from rulers beyond China. His fleets attacked Japan in 1274 and 1281, drawing ships and soldiers from Korea and China. Japanese resistance, the difficulties of supplying armies overseas and destructive storms defeated these attempts. Campaigns in mainland Southeast Asia also encountered determined opposition and difficult conditions. A fleet sent against Java sailed in 1292 and fought there in 1293 before withdrawing.

These operations show both the reach and the limits of Yuan power. The conquest of the Song had required successful river warfare and an enormous supply effort; victory there did not guarantee success across the sea. Ships, provisions and troops demanded revenue and labour even when an expedition failed to secure lasting control.

Governing a varied empire

Kublai’s government combined the authority of the Mongol ruler with administrative structures adapted from earlier Chinese states. The Central Secretariat managed civil government in the capital region and other directly administered areas. Branch Secretariats, often called provinces, handled administration across much of the wider territory. These were not provinces in the modern sense: their boundaries and responsibilities could change, and their authority depended on the region and the officials assigned to it. Below them, officials administered circuits, prefectures, and counties.

In local government, Mongol-appointed overseers known as darughachis could serve alongside local administrators. The court also made practical arrangements with established rulers and local leaders. In Yunnan, for example, members of the former ruling Duan family retained positions under Yuan authority, while local chieftains could be recognized as officials. Such arrangements let the central government extend its influence without replacing every local authority with officials from the capital.

Other regions had separate administrative arrangements. The Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs dealt with government in Tibetan regions as well as religious matters. The imperial household and guard also had roles outside the ordinary civil bureaucracy. These overlapping authorities meant that Yuan rule did not operate in exactly the same way everywhere: central institutions, local officials, military power, and arrangements with regional leaders all contributed to governing.

Access to office and privilege was unequal. Yuan administration is often described through four ranked categories: Mongols; Semu , a broad designation for various people from western and Central Asian regions; Han , which generally covered northern populations under former Jin rule; and Nan , the southern subjects of the former Song.

Kublai did not restore the Chinese imperial examination system. His government relied on recommendations and other routes to office, including privilege and service connections. In 1315, Emperor Ayurbarwada Buyantu Khan reinstated examinations based on Confucian texts. The system allocated places by the Yuan’s ranked categories and gave Mongol and Semu candidates easier questions than candidates in the other groups. The examinations created a route into government for some candidates and reinforced the study of Confucian learning, but they did not remove unequal access or become the only means of appointing officials.

Revenue, currency, and the costs of rule

The Yuan government depended on agriculture, trade, taxes, and state-controlled sources of revenue. Kublai supported policies intended to encourage agricultural and commercial growth, while maintaining monopolies on important goods such as salt and iron. Government transport and communications helped connect distant parts of the realm, and the Grand Canal was extended to serve Dadu. These systems helped move goods and support administration, but they also required resources and reliable revenue collection.

Paper money became a central part of the Yuan monetary system. The court issued jiaochao banknotes, printed on paper made from mulberry bark, for circulation across the state. Their usefulness depended on public confidence in the government’s ability to maintain their value. Military campaigns and major state projects placed pressure on the treasury, while changes to the currency and repeated issues of notes later contributed to inflation. During Külüg Khan’s brief reign, from 1307 to 1311, the government faced severe financial difficulty and debt.

Rivalries over the throne

Succession disputes became a recurring weakness of Yuan politics. Kublai’s intended heir, his son Zhenjin, died in 1285, before Kublai himself died in 1294. Zhenjin’s son Temür succeeded as emperor and ruled from 1294 to 1307, maintaining many of Kublai’s policies. The next ruler, Külüg Khan, introduced monetary changes that added to the court’s financial problems. Ayurbarwada, who ruled from 1311 to 1320, supported Confucian learning, restored the examinations, and pursued administrative and legal reforms.

Ayurbarwada’s son Gegeen Khan continued reform, but was assassinated in 1323 in a coup involving rival princes and officials. Yesün Temür succeeded him, but after Yesün Temür’s death in 1328, rival courts based at Dadu and Shangdu each backed a claimant. The conflict, known as the War of the Two Capitals, ended with Tugh Temür’s victory. He briefly yielded the throne to his brother Kusala, who died four days after meeting him; Tugh Temür then returned to power. Powerful officials, including El Temür, exercised considerable influence over the court during this period.

Toghon Temür became emperor in 1333. Court factions remained influential, but Toqto’a’s appointment as a leading official in 1340 brought a period of reform. Among the court’s projects was the completion in 1345 of official histories of the Liao, Jin, and Song dynasties. These efforts did not resolve the underlying problems of succession, finance, and political control.

Rebellion and the loss of China

From the late 1340s, droughts, floods, and famine added to hardship in the countryside. The government’s efforts to manage the Yellow River included large public works that required labor and supplies; demands placed on local people and abuses by officials added to resentment. In 1351, the Red Turban Rebellion began and grew into a wider movement of regional uprisings. Some rebel leaders used the language of restoring the Song, but the insurgencies were not a single unified force.

In 1354, Toqto’a led a large army against the rebels. Toghon Temür dismissed him amid fears of betrayal. The decision weakened central military direction, and the court increasingly depended on regional commanders whose interests it could not reliably control. Meanwhile, Zhu Yuanzhang rose within the wider rebel struggle, established a base in the lower Yangtze region, and defeated competing forces. In 1368 he founded the Ming dynasty and sent an army north.

Ming forces captured Dadu in 1368. Toghon Temür fled to Shangdu, ending Yuan rule from China’s capital. He remained a ruler north of China until his death in 1370. The court that retreated to Mongolia continued to use the name Great Yuan and is commonly called the Northern Yuan. The Ming claimed to have succeeded the Yuan as China’s ruling dynasty, while the Mongol court maintained its own dynastic claim beyond the territory it had lost.

For the wider setting, see The Yuan Dynasty: History, Institutions and Society in China.