The Yuan dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China, proclaimed on 18 December 1271 by Kublai Khan, which succeeded the Song dynasty and preceded the Ming dynasty. It also functioned as a continuation of the Mongol Empire, which had been founded by Genghis Khan in 1206, but which subsequently split into four autonomous states. The emperors of the Yuan dynasty thus comprise both Kublai's successors as rulers of China and his predecessors up to his grandfather Genghis, who was retrospectively presented as the founder of the dynasty.
The rulers of the Yuan dynasty were nominally superior to those of the other three post-Mongol states, but each was de facto independent of the others and occupied with their own territories. Kublai founded the Yuan dynasty to appease his Han Chinese subjects and began to continue their imperial traditions, such as taking temple names and era names. He and his successors nevertheless retained the Mongol title of khan.
Although the reigns of Kublai and his successor Temür were generally peaceful, weaknesses in the Yuan administration became apparent and led to a gradual breakdown of political stability. By the mid-14th century, the Yuan state became impossible to govern, and in 1368 the last emperor, Toghon Temür, was forced to flee China. His descendants continued to rule a rump state in Inner Mongolia, known as the Northern Yuan, until 1634.
Through years of campaigning, Genghis Khan (c. 1162 – 1227) unified the tribes of the Mongolian steppe and was crowned khan of the Mongol Empire, or Yeke Monggol Ulus, in 1206. The campaigns of the following decades saw Mongol armies invade and conquer China, Central Asia, Persia and much of the Middle East, and Russia.[1] However, different branches of Genghis Khan's line became dominant in differing areas. As a result, by 1265, the once-united empire had begun to split into four independent states: the Golden Horde in Russia, the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia, the Ilkhanate in the Near East, and a regime in China which was ruled by Genghis's grandson Kublai Khan and which was nominally superior to the rest.[2]
To appease his Han Chinese-majority population, Kublai declared the foundation of a new imperial dynasty titled Da Yuan. Essentially a way to convey the Yeke Monggol Ulus in Chinese conventions, the Yuan was officially proclaimed on 18 December 1271.[3] As the dynasty was seen as a continuation of the Mongol Empire, contemporary writers retroactively described Genghis as having founded the Yuan in 1206;[a] the post-1271 emperors styled themselves as Mongol khans.[5] They continued the tradition, dating from the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC), of the ruling head of state being known as huangdi, or emperor.[6] In Chinese historical texts, emperors of the Yuan dynasty, along with the Tang and Song dynasties, are referred to by their temple names; they also had posthumous names and normally multiple era names.[7]
Kublai presided over the final conquest of the Song dynasty, which had preceded the Yuan. Although his reign was generally long and prosperous, weaknesses in the Yuan's economy, society, and administration became apparent after the death of his successor Temür in 1307, culminating in two decades of near-anarchy between 1320 and 1340.[8] Although the emperor Toghon Temür then managed to set up a stable government, an economic crisis led to a breakdown of the social order, and the powerful warlord Zhu Yuanzhang, having forced Toghon Temür to flee, established the Ming dynasty in 1368.[9] Members of the Yuan dynasty continued to rule a rump state in the Mongol heartland, commonly known as the Northern Yuan, until 1634.[10]
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