The Mongol Empire & Yuan Dynasty (1279 – 1368 AD) – Part 5/5

October 22, 2010

Most of the kingdoms of Asia paid tribute to Kublai Khan. They knew there was nothing to gain to fight the massive Mongol empire and army.

However, Kublai did not control one country — Japan.  He sent emissaries to ask Japan to accept him as their emperor.

Every offer was met with the execution of his envoys.

He enlisted Koreans to crew the Song navy to carry his army to an island off Japan’s coast where the Japanese forced stationed there were defeated.

However, a storm destroyed Kublai’s fleet.

This did not stop Kublai and in 1281, a second invasion was launched.

This time the Japanese were better prepared and for two months the armies fought. Then another storm hit and destroyed the second fleet.

The Japanese armies soon overwhelmed what was left of the Mongol army.

Kublai Khan wanted to ready another invasion force, but his advisors talked him out of it.

Kublai then abandoned his military campaigns and turned to court life.

A few years later, his most loved wife died then his son and heir. This broke his heart and he became depressed.

All of his trusted advisors died and were replaced with corrupt officials while Kublai Khan becomes more isolated from the public and his government.

He died alone in his palace at 80.

Soon after he was gone, rebellions broke out and the Ming Dynasty replaced the Mongols.

Return to The Yuan Dynasty – Part 4 or start with Part 1

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

Subscribe to “iLook China”!
Sign up for an E-mail Subscription at the top of this page, or click on the “Following” tab in the WordPress toolbar at the top of the screen.

About iLook China

Leave a Comment » | China, Chinese history | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Democracy in Exile – Yea, Right!

October 21, 2010

I read a misleading post at Global Voices that was titled China and Tibet: Democracy in Exile. My first thought was, “When was Tibet ever a Democracy?”

I also thought about double standards and hypocrisy, which I’ll get to later.

Here’s what the author said in the first sentence at Global Voices, “Being a Tibetan in exile is a loss that manifests in many forms: the loss of homeland and natural rights fall within that.”

What were those natural rights that were lost?

Most Tibetans in exile gave up land and millions of serfs who were treated no better than slaves. What was lost were positions of power and wealth.

Before 1950, when Mao’s Red army occupied Tibet, there had been no democracy or republic in Tibet – ever.

The next quote shows Tibet before 1950.

“Lamaism is the state religion of Tibet and its power in the Hermit Country is tremendous. Religion dominated every phase of life.… For instance, in a family of four sons, at least two, generally three, of them must be Lamas. Property and family prestige also naturally go with the Lamas to the monastery in which they are inmates.

“Keeping the common people or laymen, in ignorance is another means of maintaining the power of the Lamas. Nearly all of the laymen (serfs) are illiterate. Lamas are the only people who are taught to read and write.”  Source: October 1912 National Geographic Magazine, page 979.

Between 1912—when those words appeared in National Geographic—and 1950, Tibet did not change.

What we have in Global Voices is clever manipulation to elicit support for the Tibetan separatist movement.

In fact, Tibetans have the same chance to be free from China as Hawaiians have of being free of the United States. There is a separatist movement in Hawaii and the circumstances of Hawaii and Tibet being occupied and ruled by nations that are more powerful is similar.

The only difference is that a reluctant Tibet was ruled over by the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties from 1277 to 1913 when Great Britain convinced Tibet to break from China at the same time the Qing Dynasty was collapsing.

See Why Tibet?

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

4 Comments | Buddhism, Buddhist, China, Chinese history, history, media, politics, Tibet | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Mongol Empire & Yuan Dynasty (1279 – 1368 AD) – Part 4/5

October 21, 2010

In the I-Ching, The Book of Changes, “Yuan” appears and means the origins of the universe.

In the war against the Song Dynasty, his army was up against the great fortress city of Xiangyang.  Beyond was the Yangtze River and the heart of the Song Empire.

It would take five years to take Xiangyang.

Once Kublai’s army was across the Yangtze, Song generals and armies switched sides.

In the Song capital of Hangzhou, the emperor was only four years old. His aging mother handled affairs of state.

In 1276, the Empress Dowager admitted defeat and surrendered.

Now that China was unified, Kublai decided to improve communications between the north and south.

To accomplish this, three million laborers extended the Grand Canal to carry grain north to his new capital.

Kublai Khan worked to improve the economy and reform agriculture and treated the Song nobility well.

Under Kublai, China became a world-trading center and the merchants’ status and prosperity improved.

He ruled justly showing that he was a wise leader who loved his subjects—not what most would expect from someone who grew up in a nomadic, warrior culture.

Instead, he became more of a Confucian style ruler. However, he was still a Mongol at heart and he craved new conquests.

Continue to Part 5 or return to The Yuan Dynasty – Part 3

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

Subscribe to “iLook China”!
Sign up for an E-mail Subscription at the top of this page, or click on the “Following” tab in the WordPress toolbar at the top of the screen.

About iLook China

3 Comments | China, Chinese history | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Mongol Empire & Yuan Dynasty (1279 – 1368 AD) – Part 3/5

October 20, 2010

While Mongol nobles gathered in the capital of Karakorum to decide who the next great khan would be, Kublai decided to stay and conquer the Song Dynasty before going north.

Messengers started to arrive from his mother urging him to return north. Kublai had two rivals who wanted to be the great khan.

A secret council was held in Karakorum, a rebellion was plotted, and his rival’s army marched on Shang-Tu and Chung-Tu, both important cities in Kublai’s area of northern China.

With no choice, Kublai broke off the war with the Song Dynasty and led his army north to Shang-Tu. where he gathered supporters and was elected the great khan of the Mongols.

He was forty-four years old.

However, his younger brother, one of the rivals, did not give up his claim to be the great khan. In 1261, the two armies met in battle on the Chinese border.

Kublai Khan won and his younger brother surrendered.

Deciding he wanted a new capital, construction was started in 1266 on the site where Beijing stands today.

It would take 30,000 men five years to complete the new city.

Kublai Khan was now ready to conquer the Song Dynasty. At first, he tried diplomacy but the Song Dynasty refused to surrender. The Song Dynasty held about 50 million people and the terrain was rugged and humid.

To fight the Song Dynasty, Kublai Khan knew they had to learn naval warfare and build a navy. The Mongols had never been a sea faring race but this did not stop him.

Continue to Part 4 or return to The Yuan Dynasty – Part 2

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

Subscribe to “iLook China”!
Sign up for an E-mail Subscription at the top of this page, or click on the “Following” tab in the WordPress toolbar at the top of the screen.

About iLook China

Leave a Comment » | China, Chinese history | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Triumph in Chile Leads to Criticism of China

October 20, 2010

On the “media menu” in America, there is “Hypocrisy” listed near the top of the front page, and it is cheap.

In a New York Times piece of China Cheers Rescue Halfway Around the Word, we learn that the state owned media in China has been covering the rescue operation to save 33 miners in Chile.

How the New York Times turned good news in Chile into a criticism of China is another story.

If you read the entire piece in the Asia Pacific section of the NYT, go to the bottom to see what I’m talking about.


Rush Limbaugh Lies

In the conclusion to the piece, David Barboza, the reporter, quotes someone identified as Mr. Guan, the poet and blogger, who wrote a few lines of verse about Chile’s rescue on the Web, “What the government (of Chile) did warms our hearts. They didn’t suppress the truth, they didn’t secretly pay anyone money, they don’t make irresponsible statements, they don’t forgive those who should be responsible for it. And they don’t laud themselves with clichés.”

If the NYT didn’t make a point that this was aimed at China, anyone could make a case that the same verse is about the media in America.

 


Glen Beck Lies

 

Have you listened to people like Rush Limbaugh or Glen Beck or read Ann Coulter or how about lies and deceit in political campaign Ads?

In fact, who is Mr. Guan, the poet and blogger? I used Google Blog Search and Google and came up with zero. Did Barboza fabricate Mr. Guan?

The United States Department of Labor documented 1,546 average deaths for all mining fatalities and 81,341 injuries between 1936 to 1940 in the U.S.  Between 2006 to 2007, they reported 69 deaths and 11,800 injuries.

 


Ann Coulter Lies


Then “In one of the most scandalous crises in workplace safety in the United States, over 10,000 coal miners have died needlessly from black lung disease (from the inhalation of coal dust) in the last decade.” Source: Chesapeake Climate

In addition, the NYT made no effort to mention that there is evidence that China is eager to lower the number of coal mining fatalities as reported by Internet Marketing Strategy for Business.

More research using Google shows that fatalities in mines are a global problem. I found a post in All Africa.com about South Africa’s high mine fatalities.

However, what did David Barboza, the New York Times reporter do? He dug up a poet called Mr. Guan. The truth is that the media in America is free — free to lie.

See more about Unbalanced Reporting 

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar. 

Leave a Comment » | America, China, media, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »