The Yuan Dynasty: A History of China

The Yuan Dynasty began with a problem the Mongols had never faced on the battlefield: after conquering an empire, how do you govern it—and who gets to rule when the Great Khan dies?

The Yuan Dynasty: A History of China follows the Mongol imperial story from Genghis Khan and the succession of Ögedei through Kublai Khan’s establishment of the Great Yuan and into the political struggles that shaped Mongol rule in China. Along the way, figures such as Yelü Chucai, Töregene Khatun, Möngke, Ahmad Fanakati, Crown Prince Zhenjin, Khayishan, Ayurbarwada, Toghon Temür, and Wang Baobao confront problems of succession, taxation, corruption, court intrigue, military power, religion, and the difficult relationship between Mongol traditions and Chinese institutions.

The story moves from kurultai politics and imperial family rivalries to financial reform, palace coups, factional struggles, the Red Turban rebellions, and the rise of Zhu Yuanzhang and the Ming.

Written as accessible narrative history rather than a textbook chronicle, the book explains complicated political struggles through the people making the decisions: emperors, princes, ministers, generals, reformers, and rivals who rarely agreed on what the Yuan Empire should become.

It is a history of conquest, government, ambition, loyalty, bad judgment, political survival, and the unusually difficult task of turning a steppe empire into a dynasty ruling China.