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

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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.

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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?

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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

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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.

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Brutal Dictator and an American Ally – Chiang Kai-shek

October 21, 2010

Casey DuBose wrote a comment wanting proof for the claim that 30,000 were killed during the 2/28 massacre in Taiwan. Here is the proof and more.

Arts & Humanities listed Chiang Kai-shek with other dictators responsible for horrible atrocities and claimed he is responsible for at last one million deaths.

The Taipei Times published a piece on the front page of the paper on Tuesday, February 27, 2007, and said, Former dictator Chiang Kai-shek was a murderer and President Chen Shui-bian said Taiwan’s former authoritarian regime and its leaders were responsible for the massacre of tens of thousands of civilians slain in 1947.

On a site that lists the death tolls for the major wars and atrocities of the twentieth century, Chiang Kai-shek was given credit for 10,214,000 democides from 1921 to 1948.

In another post about Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, enotes.com says, “From 1927 to 1949, Chiang’s troops used murder, torture and other brutal tactics to wipe out the communists.”

Then Scaruffi.com lists a century of genocides from 1900-2000 and Chiang Kai-shek was credited with the deaths of 30 thousand in a popular uprising in Taiwan in 1947.

I read at the Boston Examiner that several thousand protesters marched in Taipei on February 28, 1947 against the brutality (that took place the day before) but were met with bullets. Martial law was declared and even though things had settled down by the time the Nationalist soldiers arrived the massacre began almost immediately.

East Asia posted an Austrian Perspective by Christian Schafferer, who said the infamous 1947 “2-28 Incident” resulted in ten to thirty thousand civilians killed and Taiwan’s governor executed.

I discovered a book on the topic, Representing Atrocity in Taiwan, The 2.28 Incident and the White Terror by Sylvia Li-Chun, who is the Notre Dame Assistant Professor of Chinese at the University of Notre Dame.

The most powerful evidence comes from the monument in Taiwan to the incident, which says, “Within a few months, the number of deaths, injured and missing persons amounted to tens of thousands.  Keelung, Taipei, Chiayi and Kaohsiung suffered the highest number of casualties. It was called the February 28 Incident.”

Then from the Asia Times, “They slaughtered civilians at random to terrorize the Taiwanese into submission, and carried out a targeted campaign to wipe out the Taiwanese elite – local leaders and intellectuals – who represented the biggest threat to KMT rule. To this date the numbers killed are uncertain, but historians estimate 30,000.”

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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 » | Chinese history, history, Taiwan | 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

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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.

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