Day of Empire_ How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--And Why They Fall - Amy Chua [68]
Different theories have been proposed to explain Khubilai's exclusionary policies. It might be thought that he was simply an anti-Chinese Mongol supremacist. Nothing could be further from the truth. Having spent virtually his entire life in the Middle Kingdom, Khubilai unabashedly admired the refinement of Chinese culture, the beauty of Chinese architecture, and the order of Chinese society. In striking contrast to his predecessors’ savage treatment of northern China, Khubilai destroyed almost nothing in southern China. On the contrary, he made a point of repairing temples, shrines, and other public buildings damaged by war. He surrounded himself with Chinese advisors and ruled with moderation and enlightenment. Khubilai's sympathetic approach to China angered many of his more traditional relatives, who, consistent with past Mongol practices, simply wanted to plunder and exploit China.
Moreover, Khubilai displayed what is arguably the ultimate form of ethnic tolerance. Not only did he refrain from imposing Mongol customs on the Chinese, but he embraced, at least on the surface, Chinese culture for himself, his court, and the ruling class. He adopted a Chinese title and posthumously assigned his ancestors Chinese names. He built a Chinese capital based on an ancient Chinese model, followed Chinese imperial rituals, and established a Chinese dynasty, known to this day as the Yuan, meaning “the origin” or “great beginnings.” He eagerly promoted Chinese art, music, and drama, laying the groundwork for what became the Peking Opera. Although he probably remained illiterate, Khubilai also allowed Chinese literature and scholarship to flourish, building Chinese schools and reviving the Hanlin Academy, traditionally reserved for the brightest scholars in the Middle Kingdom. According to the historian David Morgan, “for literary artists there may well have been greater freedom of expression [under the Mongols] than under some more ‘respectable’ dynasties.”39
Interestingly, having excluded the Chinese from the highest governmental posts, Khubilai filled these posts not with Mongols but principally with non-Chinese foreigners. Recognizing that the Mongols themselves lacked the experience and numbers necessary to govern a society as complex as China's, Khubilai recruited talented Uighurs, Khitans, Persians, central Asians, and Europeans as China's governors and top ministers. Thus, a (notoriously corrupt) native of Tashkent served as Khubilai's minister of finance for twenty years, and a Muslim father and son also from central Asia served as successive governors of the Yunnan Province. Even Marco Polo apparently served as a Yuan official, in the city of Yangzhou, near Nanjing. Marco Polo later boasted to his fellow Venetians that he had been Yangzhou's governor, but this was not true. More likely, he helped administer the government's salt monopoly—a position that just didn't have the same ring to it.
Below the highest, foreign-filled government posts, Chinese continued to occupy lower civil servant positions. Indeed, Khubilai kept much of the existing (and very effective) Chinese bureaucratic apparatus while creating new offices to address problems of special Mongol concern, such as the Section for Retrieving Lost Animals. Within each department, Khubilai systematically mixed Chinese and foreigners: Each office was staffed according to ethnic quotas, specifying the required number