6.26 The far east: a.d. 1201 to 1300

The far east

Back to The Far East: A.D. 1101 to 1200

China and manchuria (southern sung to 1279, yuan after 1264)

Before the Mongols hit China in this century it was more populous, productive, wealthy, orderly and stable and had a more advanced science and technology than contemporary Europe. It was the world's greatest power and its culture the most splendid, with the Jurchen Chin, now Sinicized considerably, ruling in the north and the Sung in the south. Hangchow, at the height of the Southern Sung days, is said to have had a population between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000, with 17 amusement districts, including theaters with multiple tiers of balconies. Although coke was probably known to the Chinese at this time, they did not utilize it, waiting for England to do so five centuries later as the breakthrough inaugurating the industrial revolution. They did have excellent steel, however, and China was probably the original source of damask steel, as we have previously intimated. (Ref. 260 )

China bore the brunt of the Mongol invasion more than any other country. It has been postulated that the gradual drying up of the regions behind the northwestern frontier, making the desert incapable of supporting the hardy Mongol population, had forced them, under their fiery leader Genghis Khan, to win new fields. He had ridden some 1,200 miles across the Gobi Desert and pierced the Great Wall of China, invading the independent Chin Empire as early as 1211. Then, while preparing to invade Khwarizm, the khan had left the eastern campaign against the Chin to Mukali. In this conquest of northern China, the Mongols caused immense destruction. Much of the land went out of cultivation, ninety some towns were left in rubble and Peking burned for more than a month in 1215. When Mukali died, the emperor of Chin signed a treaty with the Great Khan's impudent vassal, the king of the Tibetan Tanguts of the imperial state of Hsi Hsia. Later in the 1220s Genghis again personally started for China but decided to liquidate the Tanguts on the way. When the Mongols reached the Tangut stronghold at Ning-Hsia on the old China Wall, the old khan had actually died enroute, but the gates were forced open and every living creature was slaughtered. On the return to Mongolia Genghis was buried, along with 40 jewelled slave girls and 40 fine horses. (Ref. 8 , 101 , 137 , 27 )

Genghis Khan's successors, Ogedei, Mangku and Kublai in turn continued aggression against the Southern Sung, with Kublai finally establishing the Yuan