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Y204: Genghis Khan and the Explosion From the Steppes c.1167–1405

The Reign of Khubilai Khan 1264–1294: law, religion, court life and campaigns abroad

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 2

Overview

Recall questions on Khubilai’s legal code, his treatment of Buddhists, Daoists, Confucians, Christians and Muslims, court ritual, Dadu and Shangdu, the Grand Canal, the Japanese and South East Asian campaigns and his authority beyond China.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What place did Nestorian Christians and Muslims hold at Khubilai's court?

Key term

What was the character of Khubilai's legal code?

Key term

What was the relationship between Dadu and Shangdu?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What was the character of Khubilai's legal code?

    Model answer

    Issued in 1291, it abandoned the framework of the earlier Chinese codes, listed far fewer capital offences than the Song had done, and applied different procedures and penalties according to the offender's class.

  2. 2

    How did Khubilai treat Buddhism?

    Model answer

    He favoured Tibetan Buddhism above other faiths, appointing the lama Phags-pa as his imperial preceptor and commissioning him to devise a script capable of writing all the languages of the empire.

  3. 3

    How did Khubilai treat the Daoists?

    Model answer

    He allowed the Buddhists and Daoists to argue their case before him, and when the Daoists lost he ordered their disputed texts destroyed, though he did not suppress the religion itself.

  4. 4

    Explain Khubilai's relationship with the Confucians.

    Model answer

    He employed Confucian advisers, adopted Chinese ritual and honoured the Confucian temples, but by withholding the examinations he denied the Confucian elite the power that would have made that patronage meaningful.

  5. 5

    What place did Nestorian Christians and Muslims hold at Khubilai's court?

    Model answer

    Nestorian Christians were well established at court, his own mother having been one, and Muslims were prominent in finance, administration, astronomy and siege engineering, though he restricted some Muslim practices late in the reign.

  6. 6

    Describe the character of Khubilai's court ritual and patronage.

    Model answer

    He combined Chinese imperial ceremony with steppe customs such as the great tented feasts and the Mongol new year, and he patronised drama, painting, astronomy and medicine, drawing specialists from across Asia.

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