Kublai Khan

Kublai Khan or Khubilai Khan (1215-1294) was a Mongol emperor.

He was the son of Tolui and Sorghaghtani Beki. After his brother Möngke died in battle in 1260 he became ruler of the Mongol Empire that their grandfather Genghis Khan had created. Kublai's Khan's brother was Hulagu, the conqueror of Persia and founding of the Ilkhanate.

The empire was separated into four khanates, each ruled by a separate khan and overseen by the Great Khan. The Kipchak Khanate (also called the Golden Horde) ruled Russia; the Ilkhanate ruled the Middle East, the Chagatai Khanate ruled over western Asia, and the Great Khanate controlled Mongolia and eventually China. The empire reached its greatest extent under Kublai with his conquest of China, completed with the final defeat of the Song Dynasty in 1279. He became emperor of China (元世祖 忽必烈) and founded the short-lived Yuan Dynasty.

He ruled well, promoting economic growth with the rebuilding of the Grand Canal, repairing public buildings, extending highways and introducing paper currency. He encouraged Chinese arts and demonstrated religious tolerance, except to Taoism. His capital was at Beijing (then Cambuluc or Dadu 大都 lit. big capital). The empire was visited by several Europeans, notably Marco Polo in the 1270s who may have seen the summer capital in Shangdu (上都 lit. upper capital or Xanadu?).

He conquered Dali (Yunnan) and Goryeo (Korea). Under pressure from his Mongolian advisors Kublai attempted to conquer Japan, Myanmar and Vietnam. All those attempts failed and the cost of these expeditions and the paper currency he created caused inflation.

Kublai Khan in fiction

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote a poem fragment in 1798 entitled "Kubla Khan" which invokes Kublai Khan among opiated imagery of exoticism. It begins "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree..."
• Kublai Khan also appears as a character in Italo Calvino's book Invisible Cities, together with Marco Polo.