The Yuan dynasty, officially the Great Yuan, was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai (Emperor Shizu or Setsen Khan), the fifth khagan-emperor of the Mongol Empire from the Borjigin clan, and lasted from 1271 to 1368 AD. In Chinese history, the Yuan dynasty followed the Song dynasty and preceded the Ming dynasty.
Although Genghis Khan's enthronement as khagan in 1206 was described in Chinese as the Han-style title of emperor and the Mongol Empire had ruled territories including modern-day northern China for decades, it was not until 1271 that Kublai Khan officially proclaimed the dynasty in the traditional Han style, and the conquest was not complete until 1279 when the Southern Song dynasty was defeated in the Battle of Yamen. His realm was, by this point, isolated from the other Mongol-led khanates and controlled most of modern-day China and its surrounding areas, including modern-day Mongolia. It was the first dynasty founded by a non-Han ethnicity that ruled all of China proper. In 1368, following the defeat of the Yuan forces by the Ming dynasty, the Genghisid rulers retreated to the Mongolian Plateau and continued to rule until 1635 when they surrendered to the Later Jin dynasty (which later evolved into the Qing dynasty); this rump state is known in Chinese history as the Northern Yuan.
After the division of the Mongol Empire, the Yuan dynasty was the khanate ruled by the successors of Möngke. In official Chinese histories, the Yuan dynasty bore the Mandate of Heaven. The dynasty was established by Kublai Khan, yet he placed his grandfather Genghis Khan on the imperial records as the official founder of the dynasty and accorded him the temple name Taizu. In the edict titled Proclamation of the Dynastic Name issued in 1271, Kublai announced the name of the new dynasty as Great Yuan and claimed the succession of former Chinese dynasties from the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors to the Tang dynasty. Some of the Yuan emperors mastered the Chinese language, while others only used their native Mongolian language, written with the ʼPhags-pa script.
Kublai, as a khagan (great khan) of the Mongol Empire from 1260, had claimed supremacy over the other successor Mongol khanates: the Chagatai, the Golden Horde, and the Ilkhanate, before proclaiming as the emperor of China in 1271. As such, the Yuan was also sometimes referred to as the Empire of the Great Khan. However, even though the claim of supremacy by the Yuan emperors was recognized by the western khans in 1304, their subservience was nominal and each continued its own separate development.
In 1271, Kublai Khan imposed the name Great Yuan (Chinese: 大元; pinyin: Dà Yuán), establishing the Yuan dynasty. According to the "Decree on the Establishment of the National Title", Dà Yuán (大元) refers to a clause on the first hexagram (乾; Qian) from the Commentaries on the I Ching which states , "great indeed is the primal unity" (大哉乾元; dà zāi Qián Yuán; 'Great is Qián', 'the Primal'). The abbreviated dynastic name "Yuan" (元) was also widely used during the Yuan period. Examples include expressions such as Huáng Yuán (皇元, "Imperial Yuan") and Wǒ Yuán (我元, "Our Yuan"), both of which employ only the single character Yuán to denote the dynasty.
The Mongolian-language counterpart was Dai Ön Ulus. The Chinese term Dà Yuán was rendered as Dai Ön in Mongolian and often used in conjunction with (or sometimes replaced by) the term "Yeqe Mongɣul Ulus" ("Great Mongol State"). Dual language Chinese-Mongolian steles from 1335, 1338, and 1362 paired Chinese inscriptions such as Huáng Yuán ("Imperial Yuan") and Dà Yuán ("Great Yuan") with Mongolian inscriptions including Yeqe Mongɣul Ulus, Dai Ön qemeqü Yeqe Mongɣol Ulus (lit. "Great Mongol State called Great Yuan"), and Dai Ön Yeqe Mongɣol Ulus (lit. "Great Yuan Great Mongol State"). The name "Great Yuan" was also officially used in Yuan-era Tibet on the seals of the Imperial Preceptors affixed to Tibetan-language decrees.
As per contemporary historiographical norm, "Yuan dynasty" typically refers to the realm with its main capital in Dadu (modern-day Beijing). While the name Yuan was understood among Han Chinese literati during the Yuan era to be the dynastic title adopted by Kublai for the dynasty he founded in China, Mongols of the Yuan dynasty saw Da Yuan as the Chinese expression for Yeke Mongghol Ulus, the Mongolian name for the Mongol Empire despite the empire's division. The western khanates are not known to have referred to the Mongol Empire (or its division) as Da Yuan. While the Yuan rulers claimed supremacy over all Mongol successor states, in practice the other khanates were independent.
After the fall of the Yuan dynasty in 1368, the title "Great Yuan" continued to be used by the Yuan remnants who retreated to Mongolia, known as the Northern Yuan (1368–1635) until 1388, but certain Mongol leaders still evoked the name on occasion up to the early 17th century.
The Yuan dynasty is sometimes also called the "Mongol dynasty" by westerners, akin to the Qing dynasty sometimes being referred to as the "Manchu dynasty" or "Manchu Dynasty of China".
Genghis Khan united the Mongol tribes of the steppes and became Great Khan in 1206. He and his successors expanded the Mongol empire across Asia. Under the reign of Genghis' third son, Ögedei Khan, the Mongols destroyed the weakened Jin dynasty in 1234, conquering most of northern China. Ögedei offered his nephew Kublai a position in Xingzhou, Hebei. Kublai was unable to read Chinese but had several Han teachers attached to him since his early years by his mother Sorghaghtani. He sought the counsel of Chinese Buddhist and Confucian advisers. Möngke Khan succeeded Ögedei's son, Güyük, as Great Khan in 1251. He granted his brother Kublai control over Mongol held territories in China. Kublai built schools for Confucian scholars, issued paper money, revived Chinese rituals, and endorsed policies that stimulated agricultural and commercial growth. He adopted as his capital city Kaiping in Inner Mongolia, later renamed Shangdu.
Many Han Chinese and Khitan defected to the Mongols to fight against the Jin. Two Han Chinese leaders, Shi Tianze, Liu Heima (劉黑馬, aka Liu Ni), and the Khitan Xiao Zhala (蕭札剌) defected and commanded the 3 Tumens in the Mongol army. Liu Heima and Shi Tianze served Ögedei Khan. Liu Heima and Shi Tianxiang led armies against Western Xia for the Mongols. There were 4 Han Tumens and 3 Khitan Tumens, with each Tumen consisting of 10,000 troops. The three Khitan Generals Shimobeidier (石抹孛迭兒), Tabuyir (塔不已兒), and Zhongxi, the son of Xiaozhaci (蕭札刺之子重喜) commanded the three Khitan Tumens and the four Han Generals Zhang Rou, Yan Shi, Shi Tianze, and Liu Heima commanded the four Han tumens under Ögedei Khan.
Möngke Khan commenced a military campaign against the Chinese Song dynasty in southern China. The Mongol force that invaded southern China was far greater than the force they sent to invade the Middle East in 1256. He died in 1259 without a successor at the Siege of Diaoyucheng. Kublai returned from fighting the Song in 1260 when he learned that his brother, Ariq Böke, was challenging his claim to the throne. Kublai convened a kurultai in Kaiping that elected him Great Khan. A rival kurultai in Mongolia proclaimed Ariq Böke Great Khan, beginning a civil war. Kublai depended on the cooperation of his Chinese subjects to ensure that his army received ample resources. He bolstered his popularity among his subjects by modeling his government on the bureaucracy of traditional Chinese dynasties and adopting the Chinese era name of Zhongtong. Ariq Böke was hampered by inadequate supplies and surrendered in 1264. All of the three western khanates (Golden Horde, Chagatai Khanate and Ilkhanate) became functionally autonomous, and only the Ilkhans truly recognized Kublai as Great Khan. Civil strife had permanently divided the Mongol Empire.