The creation of the geographical space of Xanadu of the Yuan Dynasty and the establishment of a unified multiethnic state

Abstract

From the establishment of a seat of government by Kublai Khan, Emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty, at his residence at Jinlianchuan Prairie to the construction of the city of Kaiping, and from thence to the establishment of Kaiping as Xanadu, the northern capital of the Yuan Dynasty, a series of pivotal historical events influencing trends within the Yuan Empire took place in this steppe city. Shizu ultimately chose to implement a two-capital system, traveling back and forth between Xanadu and Khanbaliq to handle court administration and attend simultaneously to the needs of the Central Plains and the grasslands. By means of this structure, the Mongolian rulers declared their ownership of the territories of the Central Plains as well as the steppe, establishing their dominance and control by means of a ceremonial symbol. Analyzing the political and historical significance of this geographical space from Kaiping to Xanadu makes it clear that this region was an important historical artifact for the evolution of the Chinese people as an ethnic community with pluralistic unity. That the Yuan Dynasty achieved the integration of ethnic minorities and Han Chinese as one family as well as territorial unification represents a great step forward in Chinese history.

Keywords:

• Jinlianchuan Prairie
• Kaiping
• two-capital system
• Xanadu of the Yuan Dynasty

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Acknowledgments

This paper is a partial result of the “Study on Identification with the Family and State in Jiangnan During the Yuan Dynasty and Multiculturalism” (Project No.: 18LSB007), a general project of the Philosophy and Social Sciences Program of Jiangsu Province.

Notes

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46 The Yuan Dynasty began with Kublai Khan. The emperor’s sons were enfeoffed as princes and went to serve as senior local officials north of the Gobi Desert and in other places, “with an emphasis placed on military garrisons, as a supplement to the bureaucratic system.” “Service by imperial princes as senior local officials was a special form of enfeoffment for the sons of the emperor and the imperial princes during the period of the Yuan Dynasty, and was also an important means of controlling strategic points along the border.” See Li Zhi’an, Yuandai fenfeng zhidu yanjiu (Study of the enfeoffment system of the Yuan Dynasty), Tianjin: Tianjin guji chuban she, 1992, p. 194.

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56 Lü Simian, Lü zhu Zhongguo tongshi (Lü’s general history of China), Shanghai: Huadong shifan daxue chuban she, 1992, p. 441.

57 Henri Lefebvre, Espacio y política, p. 46.

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Notes on contributors

Pan Qing

Pan Qing is an editor of the Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences.