YUAN DYNASTY

Pinyin Yuan, also called Mongol Dynasty (12061368), dynasty established in China by Mongol nomads. Yan rule stretched throughout most of Asia and eastern Europe, though the Yan emperors were rarely able to exercise much control over their more distant possessions. The dynasty was established by Genghis Khan (c. 11621227) and gained control of China under his grandson Kublai Khan (121594). Genghis had occupied North China in 1215, but it was not until 1279 that Kublai was able to effect the capture of South China. Proclaiming the Yan dynasty, he established a Chinese-style administration. The Yan was the first dynasty to make Peking (then called Ta-tu) its capital, although 15 centuries earlier the Ch'in capital, Yen-ching, was situated close by. The Yan rebuilt the Grand Canal and put the roads and postal stations in good order; and their rule coincided with new cultural achievements, including the development of the novel as a literary form. The vast size of the empire resulted in more extensive foreign trade and foreign intercourse than at any other time before the modern period. Unlike other rulers of China, the Mongols were never totally Sinicized. They continued to maintain their separateness from the native poulation and utilized foreigners, such as the European traveller Marco Polo, to staff the government bureaucracy. Revolts in the mid-14th century overthrew the Yan, making it the shortest lived major dynasty of China. The administrative centrality of the Yan was continued by the succeeding Ming (13681644) and Ch'ing (16441911/12), giving these later Chinese governments a more authoritarian structure than that of previous Chinese dynasties. Unlike the previous ages of the T'ang (618907) and the Sung (9601279), when art was encouraged by the state, artistsespecially those native Chinese who steadfastly refused to serve their conquerorshad to seek inspiration within themselves and their traditions. These painters sought a return in their art to what they viewed as more ideal times, especially the T'ang and Northern Sung. Artists such as Chao Meng-fu and the Four Masters of the Yan dynasty thus firmly fixed the ideal of literati painting (wen-jen-hua), which valued erudition and personal expression above elegant surface or mere representation. There was also an emphasis upon stark and simple forms (bamboo, rocks, etc.) and upon calligraphy, often with long, complementary inscriptions upon the paintings themselves. Against this radical new direction of the native Chinese in pictorial art, there was a conservative revival of Buddhist art (painting and sculpture), sponsored by the Mongols in an effort to establish their authority over the Chinese. In addition to a renewed emphasis upon traditional craft arts (silver, lacquer, and other materials), there were important developments in ceramics, which, while continuing various earlier traditions, included new shapes, decoration, and glazes. Of special merit was the first appearance of the underglaze blue-and-white ware that was to become so popular in later periods and among Western collectors. Under Yan rule the regional music drama that had gone two separate ways during the Sung dynasty was intermixed as Yan-ch'u, Yan drama. Popular song styles became freer than before, and several forms of dancing and acrobatics were added to popular entertainment. Poetry emphasized san-ch' (nondramatic songs), and vernacular fiction grew in popularity. Dramatistsincluding at least a dozen prominent Sinicized Mongolswrote romantic plays of four or five acts in vernacular, with several songs in each act. This new literary genre attracted many men of letters, as well as large audiences.