Lesson 11: The Yuan Dynasty（510words）

The Yuan Dynasty was the first nationwide unified dynasty in China's history, founded by a minority nobility. The territory of the Yuan dynasty "exceeded the Yin Mountains in the north, the Liusha in the west, the Liaozuo in the east, and the sea in the south", surpassing the Han and Tang dynasties. Today, Xinjiang, Tibet, Yunnan, the Northeast, Taiwan and the islands in the South China Sea were all within the Yuan dynasty's dominion. The territory of the Yuan Dynasty was the largest in the history of China.

The provincial system

After the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai, with the help of Han intellectuals, gradually established a centralized monarchical system with reference to the ruling style of the Chinese dynasties. At the center, the Central Secretariat was in charge of the administrative affairs of the country, with six ministries of officials, households, rituals, military, penalties, and public works; the Privy Council was responsible for the military affairs of the country and the dispatching of the national army; and the imperial court was responsible for the supervision of affairs.

In the Yuan dynasty, Shandong, Shanxi and Hebei were called "hinterland" and were directly under the central province of Zhongshu; in other regions, there were 10 provinces in Lingbei, Liaoyang, Henan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Gansu, Yunnan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Huguang, except for the Tuban and Uyghur regions. Under the provinces, the system of roads, prefectures, states and counties was inherited from previous generations. This system of administrative division and management, known as the "provincial system," had far-reaching effects in history.

Yuan Dynasty's jurisdiction over frontier areas

In order to effectively govern the vast frontier areas, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty set up corresponding administrative agencies in the northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest regions according to the conditions of each region to strengthen the central government's rule over these regions. For example, in the southeast, the Yuan dynasty set up the Penghu Inspection Department on Penghu Island to govern Penghu and Ryukyu, which was the first time in history that a central dynasty formally established an administrative agency in Taiwan.

The Mongol rulers began to use troops and recruit surrender to the Tibetan region as early as the attack on the Southern Song Dynasty, and later the representatives of the Mongolian nobility and the upper echelons of the Turfan political and religious representatives agreed together that all parts of the Turfan would be subordinated to Mongolia. Thereafter, the Mongol rulers began to investigate households and set up post stations in Tibet. After the establishment of the Yuan dynasty, it exercised administrative power over the Tibetan region and set up this area as a separate administrative region under the direct control of the Xuanzheng court, which was in charge of various military and civil affairs in Tibet. The court also set up local institutions, levied taxes and stationed troops in the region to carry out complete and effective management. Since then, Tibet has officially become a local administrative region under the direct jurisdiction of the central government.（510words）