Was 'Da Yuan' a Chinese Dynasty?

The Mongol Empire, which had begun as a nomadic state in 1206 under the leadership of Chinggis Khan, after three generations of conquest, grew into the largest continental empire in human history. In the 1230s, the Mongol army conquered most of the Pontic steppe and Russia; in 1258, they destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate and subdued most of West Asia; and in 1276, they vanquished the Song Dynasty in Southern China. Scholars, however, believe that in spite of this astonishing success, the empire could not maintain unity, and consequently was divided into several large regional polities.

One of these polities was the so-called "Yuan dynasty," whose territory covered most of present day China and Mongolia. At first it replaced the Jin and the Southern Song, but later was superceded by the Ming. In this sense, the Yuan can well be viewed as forming a long dynastic chain in China, i.e., Han, Tang, Song, Ming and Qing. Nonetheless, the Yuan was created not by the Han people but by the Mongols, and so it is not surprising that scholars have situated this dynasty in the same category with states like Liao (Qitans), Jin (Jurchens) or Qing (Manchus). K. Wittfogel labelled them the "conquest dynasties," while more recently they have been bundled together as "alien regimes."¹

So how should we perceive this dynasty? Is it a "Chinese" dynasty or an "alien" regime? Before we answer this question and comprehend the essential identity of this dynasty, we need to address a couple of questions relating to the dynastic title of "Da Yuan." The first question is: When did this dynasty begin? 1271 would be a strong candidate for its year of birth because in that year Qubilai promulgated the dynastic title of "Da Yuan (大元)." It is little wonder that many school textbooks take this year as the beginning of the Yuan. However, Qubilai called himself qa'an, i.e., emperor, in 1260 and in the same year he proclaimed a reign title of zhongtong 中統. Generally speaking, the beginning of a new dynasty in China was marked by these two events: the assumption of emperorship and the proclamation of the reign title (chengdi jianyuan 稱帝建元). In fact, many scholars espouse the view that in 1260 the "unified" Mongol Empire came to be divided and the Yuan dynasty emerged. So the year 1260 could be another candidate.

The second question is: Did Qubilai abdicate the rest of the empire and satisfy himself with becoming a regional ruler when he proclaimed the dynastic name of "Da Yuan?" From the sources available we cannot find evidence confirming he actually did so. In 1260 he assumed the title of qa'an in order to become his brother Möngke's successor, and he aspired to nothing short of ruler of the entire Mongol Empire. And in 1271 nothing remarkable happened, thus indicating that there was no reason for Qubilai to relinquish the rest of the empire, nor renounce the title of supreme ruler, qa'an.

It seems that the source of our problems lies in the ambiguity surrounding the phrase "Da Yuan," an ambiguity distorting both its meaning and historical reality. Why did Qubilai proclaim the dynastic title with Chinese characters and how did he, not to mention the Mongols, understand that title? We know that the Mongols had called their empire, Yeke Mongγol Ulus, i.e., the Great Mongol Nation. Then what happened to this Mongol title? Did Qubilai and the Mongols abandon it? These are the questions this article attempts to address, and we hope that the answers permit us to have a clearer grasp of the phrase "Da Yuan" and its historical reality.

The Rise of Qubilai

The year 1260, when Qubilai was enthroned as qa'an, the great khan and the supreme ruler, has been widely regarded as "a turning point" in the history of the Mongol Empire, especially in the process of transition from the united empire to the successor states.² In 1259, one year before, Möngke, his brother and predecessor, while leading a huge army to conquer the Southern Song, met a sudden death in Sichuan, at...