Mongol leader Kublai Khan a man of war and poetry

Mongol leader was immortalised in a poem composed by a drug addled Englishman

History: A 1294 painting of Kublai Khan, by Nepalese artist Anige. Public domain

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure dome decree.

These words, from English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1797 poem Kubla Khan, paint a romantic picture of the medieval Chinese emperor Kublai Khan, grandson of the formidable Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan. The poem describes Kublai’s fabulous summer palace in the city Xanadu or Shangdu, in what is now Inner Mongolia. It is a city that contrasts both nature’s beauty and savagery, a place where Kublai contemplates an impending war.

While we remember Genghis Khan for his military prowess and ruthless conquests, Kublai, thanks partly to Coleridge, is seen as more refined, more civilised, a man of statecraft and learning who consolidated Mongol rule, particularly over China. He built cities, sponsored arts, literature and science and also wrote poetry.

Yet he was also a skilled general who had to fight his way to power and who continued expanding the empire once he was in power.

A statue of Kublai Khan in front of the Parliament House on Sukhbaatar Square in Ulan Bator.

Kublai Khan was born on September 23, 1215, the fourth son of Tolui, the fourth son of Genghis Khan, by his favourite wife, Borte. Genghis had unified the Mongol nation and then built an empire that stretched from the Pacific to the Caspian Sea.

Before his death Genghis chose his third son Ogedei as his successor, but when Genghis died in 1227 Tolui acted as regent for two years until Ogedei was officially acclaimed as “Khan” or great leader in 1229 at a kurultai (meeting of Mongol lords).

Tolui died in 1232 as Ogedei expanded the empire into Rus (Russia) in the east and into China. When Ogedei died in 1241, his wife Toregene Khatun took over as regent until her son Guyuk was old enough to be elected leader in 1246. The leadership had passed to Kublai’s generation.

When Guyuk died in 1248 a power struggle occurred from which Kublai’s brother Mongke emerged to be acclaimed leader in 1251. Kublai was now thrust into the role of trusted general. He was given authority over the ongoing conquest of China.

Patten Wilson’s 1898 illustration of Xanadu from the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Coleridge.

Kublai was an admirer of Chinese culture, although it is not known whether he learned to read the language, and he hired advisers steeped in Chinese thought.

One adviser told him: “I have heard that one can conquer the empire on horseback, but one cannot govern it on horseback.” In other words they had conquered China by force but to keep China they needed more than military might. Kublai’s solution was to show his dedication to Chinese culture.

In 1252 Kublai commissioned Chinese architect Liu Bingzhong to build an impressive Chinese-style new summer capital at Kaiping, which was renamed Shangdu or Xanadu.

From this base he continued the battle against the Sung dynasty in China.

When Mongke died in 1259, Kublai was occupied on a military campaign while his younger brother Arigboge was in Mongolia planning to have himself named Khan.

In 1260 Kublai had himself acclaimed emperor at Shangdu, while 10 days later Arigboge did the same at the Mongol capital of Karakorum.

Poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

The two brothers fought each other for the right to rule. Kublai emerged triumphant in 1264, but resentment continued to seethe among those Mongols who supported Arigboge and felt Kublai had become too Chinese.

Although Kublai was now free to concentrate on the battle against the Sung, it took until 1279 before all of China was under Mongol rule. He named himself the first of the new Yuan Dynasty.

To aid his rule over a nation the size of China, Kublai appointed Mongols and other foreigners to important posts. Among them was the great Italian traveller Marco Polo, who conducted fact-finding missions to all parts of the empire and whose books about his time in China introduced Kublai Khan to the West.

He initiated public works programs and patronised artists, inventors and scientists. Under his rule China flourished but he was perceived as ignoring his Mongol homeland and his failed military campaigns in Korea and Japan, compounded with other extravagances, caused inflation.

He died in 1294, leaving his grandson Timur as ruler.

COLERIDGE AND KHAN

Samuel Taylor Coleridge famously composed his poem Kublai Khan while in a drug induced sleep, after reading about Khan ordering the building of a palace. When he woke he had about 300 lines in his head, but only managed to jot down 57 lines before he was interrupted. The poem was left as a fragment and was unpublished for years. When it was finally published in 1816 critics were at first unkind, but it later became one of his most famous and most often quoted works.

Originally published as Mongol leader Kublai Khan a man of war and poetry