Why Does Mongol Need To Keep Chinese Culture

1: According to Marco Polo, the Khan received gifts of gold and silver, pearls and precious stones. He also received 100,000 white horses, and 5,000 elephants draped in cloth with birds and other animals. One other thing that occurred was that a giant lion came to the Khan, and flung itself down in a prostrate position, and seemed to acknowledge the Khan as his ruler. This supposedly happened on New Year’s Day.
2: There was disease that killed many of the Chinese soldiers, and their having of horses also helped the Mongols win the war very much.
3: To keep Chinese culture separate from Mongol culture, the Kahn and the Mongols used some Chinese systems of government, but only to strengthen the Mongol rule. Also, the Chinese had low class jobs, while the Mongols had higher class jobs such as scribing.
3: Millions of people
died during the Mongol invasions, and the two societies staying more separated caused a collapse of progress in China. Much wealth was lost too, because the Mongols burned many cities.
4: Although the culture and life of the Chinese was heavily disrupted, trade prospered under the Mongol rule. This is because the Chinese shunned foreigners.
5: With the boom in trade, the West gained new crafts and materials such as paper and gunpowder.
6: There was heavy taxation because some of the rulers kept restricting trade, so many of the peasants rebelled. Because of this, the Ming ruler sent armies to fight the peasants, but lost in 1644. Then they started a new dynasty, the Qing, which lasted until 1912.
7: Emperor Taizu had a civil service examination system, encouraged scholars, started public works projects, and gave land to the homeless. This perpetuated ancient traditions.
8: To help close “the gap” between the rich and the poor, Taizu abolished slavery, seized large estates, gave land to the homeless and poor, and raised taxes on the rich.
9: A despot is a person who holds ultimate power, and can do whatever they wish. They usually do so very cruelly.
10: Emperor Taizu is described as a despot because he abolished the position of prime minister, and controlled all governmental departments directly, to increase his power.
11: Emperor Zheng He explored the west to bring back treasures to show the power and wealth of China.
His ships brought back many animals. Now although they did go westward, you may say that they failed their mission because they did not reach the Americas. I disagree, though, because the prime meridian was not demonstrated yet, and at the time, everywhere could have been considered West and East, since the Earth is relatively round. Although that was not discovered yet, so to the knowledge of the country, they almost reached the edge of the world. They did travel westward, and there was no eastern hemisphere. Therefore i believe that they succeeded, while we failed to judge the hemispheres incorrectly. (by judging the two at
all)
12: A junk is an ancient Chinese sailing ship.
They were about 10x as large as European ships, and could carry just about 500 people.
13: When Europeans came to China, they brought potatoes and corn, while asking for tea and silk.
14: The Manchu tribe defeated the Ming dynasty, and began the Qing dynasty.
15: While the Qings restricted trade, the Yuans reestablished it, and the Quing had no slaves, while the Yuan
did.
16: The Qing limited trade because they saw no benefit from interacting with other nations, and preferred to keep Confucian traditions.
17: Beijing is located 40 degrees latitude, and 116 degrees longitude. It is China’s capital, and has a history of 3 millenia.
18: Western China was mainly grazing area, while the East was mainly farming. This explains the placement of Beijing, because it was near large corn, wheat, and cotton fields, while it is also close enough to grazing area to get mined minerals such as gold.