The reign of the Yuan Dynasty is very short. If it is counted from Kublai Khan, it is only more than 100 years. Even if it is counted from Genghis Khan, it is only 150 years. The Yuan Dynasty should be counted from Kublai Khan. , A total of 109 years. The development of the Yuan Dynasty has gone through three stages, which are more than 30 years in the Kublai Khan period; in the middle 30 years of the troubled times of 9 emperors, and 30 years of stability in the Shun Emperor period.
Military expansion
After the Yuan Dynasty gained power in the Southern Song Dynasty, it launched a large-scale expedition to the Japanese Peninsula. One route was along the Tsushima Strait and the other launched an attack on Japan. A navy organized in Ningbo, eastward to Japan. The scale of this expedition was very large, with the number reaching 140,000. In addition, there were as many as 20 reinforcements in the later period. After landing in Japan, the Yuan army fought two naval battles and won. An unprecedented typhoon blew, and the Yuan army lost more than half of it. In the process of preparing to return, it was attacked by Japan, and the entire navy was almost wiped out.
At the same time, Kublai also hit Vietnam. Both attacks encountered Vietnam’s strategy of fortified walls and clearing the country. Everything that could be burned was burned, and those that could hide were hidden. This raiding strategy of the Yuan Dynasty It no longer works, because you can't get logistical supplies without looting. Coupled with the rainy season in Vietnam, the miasma is very heavy, and many people are unaccustomed to the water and soil and die of illness in Vietnam. Also when the Yuan army was about to retreat, it was ambushed by the Vietnamese army. This war against Vietnam consumed many outstanding generals in the Yuan Dynasty, including those who had made great contributions during the attack on the Southern Song Dynasty.
Kublai Khan’s conquest and looting, relying on the exploitation of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, to expand strategically, whether Japan, Vietnam or Java , Myanmar,None of them succeeded, causing a great loss of national strength. It was not until the death of Kublai that Yuan Chengzong stopped using external troops.
Slowness of Sinicization
The biggest problem with the rule of the Yuan Dynasty was the slowness of Sinicization. The nomads seized the world by looting and entered the farming civilization. They must be managed in accordance with the governance of farming civilization, but the Yuan Dynasty failed to achieve normal Sinicization. Although Kublai was very interested in the management of the Central Plains dynasty, he had organized special personnel to study, but his interest was transferred to Buddhism in the later period, so the whole sinicization was abandoned halfway, which had a great impact on the policies of the emperor of the later Yuan Dynasty. For example, most emperors of the Yuan Dynasty did not speak Chinese. This is very different from the Qing Dynasty and Northern Wei . The Qing Dynasty had a very good understanding of Han culture from Nurhachi to Kangxi Qianlong. The Northern Wei Dynasty even required nobles over 30 years old to have Speak Chinese, otherwise they will not be hired. If the emperor is not proficient in Chinese, how can he communicate with the Han ministers?
The Yuan Dynasty followed the grassland culture. In more than 30 years after Kublai Khan, 8 emperors were replaced. Unlike the eldest son system of the Central Plains culture, the early conquests and looting allowed them to adopt the method of nobility recommendation. The previous emperor could have the power to recommend, but the final throne was decided by a collective meeting of all the palace nobles.
Economic crisis
The recommendation of the nobles led to a very large intermediate variable, especially in the absence of military achievements, everyone’s supporters were the same, so the princes privately promised to form gangs, and some even engaged in assassination activities to eliminate dissidents. Therefore, the Yuan Dynasty was in a state of infighting for most of the time after Kublai Khan, and the national power was consumed very large. Although the Yuan Shun Emperor took the throne to alleviate this phenomenon, the Yuan Dynasty's national power was already much weaker at this time.
I just mentioned that in order to fight for the throne,Everyone bribed each other, and all the promises made in the early election process must be honored by all ethnic groups every year. Therefore, every emperor must distribute money to the princes and nobles after coming to power, which created a huge financial gap. How can these gaps be filled? The people of the Yuan Dynasty came up with a clever way to print banknotes instead of using copper coins or gold and silver as currency. We all know that if the printing of banknotes is not guaranteed in kind, it will cause inflation. This kind of uncontrolled printing of banknotes in the Yuan Dynasty will lead to the collapse of the entire financial system.
Yuan Dynasty’s corruption
Yuan Dynasty’s corruption can be said to be unprecedented. In other dynasties, because of , Confucianism and the cultural influence of the scholastic officials, the corruption is still concealed by the cultural influence of the Yuan Dynasty. "The officials are accustomed to greed, and they are no different from thieves. They are no longer ashamed, and people are not blamed. Those who are quite self-defeating in the meantime are different from one another." The entire court is accustomed to corruption. Corruption in many dynasties was in the last years of the dynasty, and the early dynasties were very clean. Zhu Yuanzhang adopted a zero-tolerance policy in the early Ming dynasty and beheaded for embezzlement. However, the Yuan Dynasty was corrupt at the beginning. In 1303, Yuan Chengzong punished a corruption case, and the entire team of eight prime ministers was almost done in one go.
This is actually brought about by the raiding culture of nomads on the grasslands. In the early days, all officials in Mongolia were paid without salaries. They were paid through looting, but at this time they entered the farming civilization and could no longer be like before. Robbery, but the political system still has not changed, which led to the entire Yuan Dynasty's corruption cannot be eliminated.
Religious activities of the Yuan Dynasty
The emperor of the Yuan Dynasty believed in Tibetan Buddhism, which is different from the Gelug Sect of Tibet that we now believe in. At that time, the Sakya Sect was believed in in the Yuan Dynasty. The Sakya faction must often engage in some ritual activities, all on a relatively large scale. These nobles in the Yuan Dynasty, including the emperor, frequently held such Buddhist activities. These activities, legal ceremonies,In the later period, it became a means of showing off wealth, and the expenditure was very huge. This was one of the reasons why the Yuan Dynasty over issued currency.
By the 14th century, severe disasters broke out across the Eurasian continent, not only accompanied by severe cold, but also more frequent floods and droughts than in previous years. Severe plague and famine broke out in the European continent during the same period, and the population dropped sharply by a quarter. According to records of the late Yuan Shun Emperor, there will be famines almost every year, and the country's relief has been far behind, so peasant uprisings broke out. Among them, the most active is white lotus .
White lotus religion is very popular among the people. This religion does not need to be a monk. You can follow the normal rhythm of life. You can farm when you farm, and sleep when you sleep. The cost of religion is very low. They mainly declare: the end of the world the king of Ming reincarnation, only the king of Ming can save everyone, after the end of the world, believers can enter the world of bliss. This religion was particularly popular in troubled times, including the late Ming and Qing dynasties. It was very popular. We can often see this white lotus religion in " Huang Feihong ".
The demise of the Yuan Dynasty
These uprisings spread from south to north, like the sky full of stars, and the nobles of the Yuan Dynasty have lost the fighting power that swept the Eurasian continent in the past and could not suppress these peasants. These peasant uprisings included Zhu Yuanzhang, Chen Youliang , etc. Finally, Zhu Yuanzhang unified the south, launched a northern expedition in 1368, and captured the capital of Yuan Dynasty. The emperor of the Yuan Dynasty fled to Mongolia with aristocratic officials.
These remnants of Mongolian forces who fled back, although under the banner of Yuan, persisted for many years, but gradually gave up. Although both the Ming and Qing dynasties fought against Mongolia,But Mongolia as the Yuan Dynasty has ended.
The Yuan Dynasty was the only dynasty established by nomads (the Qing Dynasty was not a nomad, it was semi-agricultural and semi-nomadic). After entering the Central Plains, the farming civilization failed to effectively change the way of thinking. At the same time, this is why they can return to Mongolian grassland and live smoothly.
The truth of history
The Yuan Dynasty originated from the grassland peoples. The grassland peoples are located in the hinterland of Eurasia. The climate here is bad, the weather is cold or dry. Only during the war, the farmers in the Central Plains will migrate here. For the people in the hinterland of the Central Plains, it is simply not suitable for survival. At the same time, this harsh environment has also created their national character, strong physique, and inherently aggressive, because under this harsh environment, they must struggle to survive. In order to compete for limited resources, the grassland tribes killed each other, and Mongolia was unified because of Genghis Khan. In order to fight against the harsh weather conditions, they formed a culture of predation. People in this harsh environment are destined to be better at fighting than in a warm environment. After the Yuan Dynasty entered the Central Plains, it slowly degraded.
If this kind of plundering culture has enough space for them to continue to expand, this kind of regime system may be able to continue rolling, but once the development is limited, such as encountering the sea to the east and encountering the south Wetland miasma, this model cannot continue. When the grassland nomads entered the farming civilization, killings could no longer maintain order. In the end, they were assimilated by the Han people in the Manchu and Qing dynasties. . This is a historical mystery that will never be solved, the mystery of grassland civilization and farming civilization.
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