88 Facts About Kublai Khan

Kublai Khan proclaimed the empire's dynastic name "Great Yuan" in 1271, and ruled Yuan China until his death in 1294.

Kublai Khan was almost 12 when Genghis Khan died in 1227.

Kublai Khan had succeeded his older brother Mongke as Khagan in 1260, but had to defeat his younger brother Ariq Boke in the Toluid Civil War lasting until 1264.

In 1271, Kublai established the Yuan dynasty and formally claimed orthodox succession from prior Chinese dynasties.

Kublai Khan amassed influence in the Middle East and Europe as khagan.

The imperial portrait of Kublai Khan was part of an album of the portraits of Yuan emperors and empresses, now in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei.

White, the color of the imperial costume of Kublai Khan, was the imperial color of the Yuan dynasty based on the Chinese philosophical concept of the Five Elements.

Kublai Khan was the fourth son of Tolui, and his second son with Sorghaghtani Beki.

Kublai Khan was nine years old and with his eldest brother killed a rabbit and an antelope.

Kublai Khan received an estate of his own, which included 10,000 households.

Kublai Khan quickly came to his appanage in Hebei and ordered reforms.

Kublai Khan invited Haiyun, the leading Buddhist monk in northern China, to his ordo in Mongolia.

When he met Haiyun in Karakorum in 1242, Kublai Khan asked him about the philosophy of Buddhism.

Haiyun named Kublai Khan's son, who was born in 1243, Zhenjin.

Kublai Khan soon added the Shanxi scholar Zhao Bi to his entourage.

Kublai Khan employed people of other nationalities as well, for he was keen to balance local and imperial interests, Mongol and Turkic.

In 1251, Kublai's eldest brother Mongke became Khan of the Mongol Empire, and Khwarizmian Mahmud Yalavach and Kublai were sent to China proper.

Kublai Khan received the viceroyalty over northern China and moved his ordo to central Inner Mongolia.

In 1252, Kublai Khan criticized Mahmud Yalavach, who was never highly valued by his ethnic Han associates, over his cavalier execution of suspects during a judicial review, and Zhao Bi attacked him for his presumptuous attitude toward the throne.

In 1253, Kublai Khan was ordered to attack Yunnan and he tried to ask the Dali Kingdom to submit.

Kublai Khan went south over the grasslands and met up with the first column.

Kublai Khan was attracted by the abilities of Tibetan monks as healers.

Kublai Khan appointed Lian Xixian of the Kingdom of Qocho the head of his pacification commission in 1254.

Some officials, who were jealous of Kublai Khan's success, said that he was getting above himself and dreaming of having his own empire by competing with Mongke's capital Karakorum.

Mongke Khan sent two tax inspectors, Alamdar and Liu Taiping, to audit Kublai's officials in 1257.

Kublai Khan sent a two-man embassy with his wives and then appealed in person to Mongke, who publicly forgave his younger brother and reconciled with him.

Kublai Khan called a conference of Daoist and Buddhist leaders in early 1258.

At the conference, the Daoist claim was officially refuted, and Kublai Khan forcibly converted 237 Daoist temples to Buddhism and destroyed all copies of the Daoist texts.

Kublai Khan decided to keep the death of his brother secret and continued the attack on Wuhan, near the Yangtze.

The Song minister Jia Sidao secretly approached Kublai Khan to propose terms.

Kublai Khan offered an annual tribute of 200,000 taels of silver and 200,000 bolts of silk, in exchange for Mongol agreement to the Yangtze as the frontier between the states.

Kublai Khan declined at first but later reached a peace agreement with Jia Sidao.

Kublai Khan received a message from his wife that his younger brother Ariq Boke had been raising troops, so he returned north to the Mongolian Plateau.

Kublai Khan dispatched Lian Xixian to Shaanxi and Sichuan, where they executed Ariq Boke's civil administrator Liu Taiping and won over several wavering generals.

Chagatayid Khan Alghu, who had been appointed by Ariq Boke, declared his allegiance to Kublai and defeated a punitive expedition sent by Ariq Boke in 1262.

The Ilkhan Hulagu sided with Kublai and criticized Ariq Boke.

When Kublai summoned them to a new kurultai, Alghu Khan demanded recognition of his illegal position from Kublai in return.

Kublai Khan pardoned Ariq Boke, although he executed Ariq Boke's chief supporters.

Kublai Khan reinforced Hulagu with 30,000 young Mongols in order to stabilize the political crises in the western regions of the Mongol Empire.

Kublai Khan named Abaqa as the new Ilkhan and nominated Batu's grandson Mentemu for the throne of Sarai, the capital of the Golden Horde.

Kublai Khan pushed out Great Khan's overseer from the Tarim Basin.

When Kaidu and Mentemu together defeated Kublai Khan, Baraq joined an alliance with the House of Ogedei and the Golden Horde against Kublai Khan in the east and Abagha in the west.

In 1260, Kublai Khan sent one of his advisors, Hao Ching, to the court of Emperor Lizong of Song to say that if Lizong submitted to Kublai Khan and surrender his dynasty, he would be granted some autonomy.

Kublai Khan ordered Mongke Temur to revise the second census of the Golden Horde to provide resources and men for his conquest of China.

Kublai Khan renamed the Mongol regime in China Dai Yuan in 1271, and sought to sinicize his image as Emperor of China in order to win control of millions of Han Chinese people.

Kublai Khan's actions were condemned by traditionalists and his critics still accused him of being too closely tied to Han Chinese culture.

However, Kublai Khan later had Emperor Gong sent away to become a monk to Zhangye.

Kublai Khan succeeded in building a powerful empire, created an academy, offices, trade ports and canals and sponsored science and the arts.

Abagha and Kublai Khan focused mostly on foreign alliances, and opened trade routes.

Khagan Kublai Khan dined with a large court every day, and met with many ambassadors and foreign merchants.

Kublai Khan's armies suppressed the rebellion and strengthened the Yuan garrisons in Mongolia and the Ili River basin.

Kublai Khan considered China his main base, realizing within a decade of his enthronement as Great Khan that he needed to concentrate on governing there.

Kublai Khan heavily relied on his Chinese advisers until about 1276.

Kublai Khan had many Han Chinese advisers, such as Liu Bingzhong and Xu Heng, and employed many Buddhist Uyghurs, some of whom were resident commissioners running Chinese districts.

Kublai Khan appointed the Sakya lama Drogon Chogyal Phagpa his Imperial Preceptor, giving him power over all the empire's Buddhist monks.

Kublai Khan established the Supreme Control Commission under the Phags pa Lama to administer affairs of Tibetan and Chinese monks.

Kublai Khan promoted economic growth by rebuilding the Grand Canal, repairing public buildings, and extending highways.

Kublai Khan decreed that partner merchants of the Mongols should be subject to taxes in 1262 and set up the Office of Market Taxes to supervise them in 1268.

In 1273, Kublai Khan issued a new series of state sponsored bills to finance his conquest of the Song, although eventually a lack of fiscal discipline and inflation turned this move into an economic disaster.

Kublai Khan is considered to be the first fiat money maker.

Yuan Emperors like Kublai Khan forbade practices such as butchering according to Jewish or Muslim legal codes and other restrictive decrees continued.

Kublai Khan was a well learned man in the Confucian and Daoist traditions and is believed to have propagated Islam in China.

Kublai Khan patronized Muslim scholars and scientists, and Muslim astronomers contributed to the construction of the observatory in Shaanxi.

Once his own kheshig was organized in 1263, Kublai put three of the original kheshigs under the charge of the descendants of Genghis Khan's assistants, Borokhula, Boorchu, and Muqali.

Kublai Khan invaded Goryeo on the Korean Peninsula and made it a tributary vassal state in 1260.

Kublai Khan attempted to subjugate peripheral lands such as Sakhalin, where its indigenous people eventually submitted to the Mongols by 1308, after Kublai's death.

Hayashida theorizes that, had Kublai Khan used standard, well-constructed ocean-going ships with curved keels to prevent capsizing, his navy might have survived the journey to and from Japan and might have conquered it as intended.

Kublai Khan had to be content with establishing a formal suzerainty, but Pagan finally became a tributary state, sending tributes to the Yuan court until the Yuan dynasty fell to the Ming dynasty in 1368.

Kublai Khan maintained close relations with Siam, in particular with prince Mangrai of Chiangmai and king Ram Khamheng of Sukhothai.

Kublai Khan encouraged them to attack the Khmers after the Thais were being pushed southwards from Nanchao.

Nevertheless, by 1294, the year that Kublai Khan died, the Thai kingdoms of Sukhothai and Chiang Mai had become vassal states of the Yuan dynasty.

Kublai Khan then sent another envoy to treat for the release of the earlier Mongol delegation sent to Africa.

Zhang advised Kublai Khan that Guo was a leading expert in hydraulic engineering.

Kublai Khan knew the importance of water management for irrigation, transport of grain, and flood control, and he asked Guo to look at these aspects in the area between Dadu and the Yellow River.

Kublai Khan proposed connecting the water supply across different river basins, built new canals with sluices to control the water level, and achieved great success with the improvements he made.

In 1274, Kublai Khan appointed Lian Xixian to investigate abuses of power by Mongol appanage holders in Manchuria.

Kublai Khan sent Bayan to keep Nayan and Kaidu apart by occupying Karakorum, while Kublai Khan led another army against the rebels in Manchuria.

Kublai Khan's force pursued Nayan, who was eventually captured and executed without bloodshed, by being smothered under felt carpets, a traditional way of executing princes.

Kaidu had ridden away before Kublai Khan could mobilize a larger army.

Kublai Khan harshly punished the darughachi appointed by the rebels in Mongolia and Manchuria.

Kublai Khan dispatched his grandson Gammala to Burkhan Khaldun in 1291 to ensure his claim to Ikh Khorig, where Genghis was buried, a sacred place strongly protected by the Kublaids.

From 1293 on, Kublai Khan's army cleared Kaidu's forces from the Central Siberian Plateau.

Kublai Khan regretted this and remained very close to his wife, Bairam.

Kublai Khan became increasingly despondent after the deaths of his favorite wife and his chosen heir Zhenjin.

Kublai Khan turned to food and drink for comfort, became grossly overweight, and suffered gout and diabetes.

Kublai Khan sank into depression due to the loss of his family, his poor health and advancing age.

Kublai Khan tried every medical treatment available, from Korean shamans to Vietnamese doctors, and remedies and medicines, but to no avail.

Kublai Khan was a prolific writer of Chinese poetry, although most of his works are now lost.