bibliography

Websites: http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/images/maps/china-s-sung-large.gif
http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/images/maps/china-yuan-large.gif                                     -Maps

Information i used was from a book.

Kublai khan DIED

   KUBLAI KHAN DIES!

By Nathan Barton

On February 18, 1294 Kublai Khan, the great leader of the Yuan dynasty died! Today, February 20th, we have received some information of what happened. In 1285, Kublai Khan meant to name his son, Chingen-Temur also known as Zhenjin, as his successor. But Zhenjin died nine years before Kublai Khan’s death. So Kublai Khan had no heir to his throne. Nomukhan, someone who was close to Kublai Khan, returned from captivity and told how he resented that Kublai chose his own son, Zhenjin, to be his heir in the first place. “Zhenjin was not fit to be a leader. None the less, Kublai should not have done what he did next” Nomukhan told us. “After an official suggested that he advocate or give up his throne to Zhenjin, Kublai became very angry. As a result he ignored his son and banished him from his sight. Even so, when his son died Kublai Khans still felt resentment and sadness.” Nomukhan said that after Chingen-Temur died Kublai Khan kept out of touch with everyone and stopped paying attention to his advisers. All he did was stay close with his wife Bairam (also known as Kokejin). Chung-wa, a good friend of Kublai Khan told us, “Kublai was getting old, his time was coming and he was not taking care of himself. All the food he was eating and all the wine he was drinking, it wasn't healthy.” He told us that Kublai Khan had Gout and had gotten obese. Kublai's life was not in vain. Before he died, he named his grandson, Temür the crowned prince. Not long after crowning Temür, Kublai’s life ended.  

Journal of a yuan farmer

                 Journal of Chin-wan-A Yuan farmer

January 1st, 1271
    At 5 am today the sun is peaking up, so now I know that the time to work has started. My schedule for today is just like everyday, take care of the animals, water the plants, and hunt some of them for dinner. The life of a farmer is not that bad, I get money from auctioning off meat and crops. But, some other kind of life would be pretty good to see, I mean I like the silence of this, and the enjoyment of being with my family, but, curiosity is always here. I must get to work; I have a long day ahead.

January 5Th, 1271
        Today I am going to the city to auction off some food, maybe today I will get lucky and people will be buying a lot from me, I need the money. Right now I am on the cart heading towards the city with my two children, chin-moue and hou-shi. I am going to show them how to barter and get a good price out of selling these. Who knew my children would be such naturals at selling! We sold the cow for 50 zhong tong yuan bao jiao chao, the goat for 20, and the crops each for 10. We made a lot of money today! 200 zhong tong yuan bao jiao chao! Zhong tong yuan bao jiao chao is the money currency of the Yuan dynasty.

January 27Th, 1271
    Today it will be a little tough to do the crops and tend to the animals, it is raining outside and i suspect a lightning storm. So today I will not be staying outside as long as usual. Since my children are turning 12 soon, I should teach them more about respect. I will teach them to bow at an elder when talking, always say excuse me, and NEVER, EVER, talk back to your elders.

February 12Th, 1271
a month has past since I bought this journal, but today the great Kublai Khan is visiting out city, all must attend his speech. The location is near a pagoda in the middle of the city, a pagoda is a building is a tiered tower with multiple eaves. We must all attend.

February 20Th, 1271
this is the last entry of the journal I can make. I am running out of pages. But, everything is going fine, and will continue on to be fine

Yuan dynasty inventions:paper money

Yuan Dynasty inventions:

Paper Money

    In the year 1260 BC the Yuan dynasty started using ‘paper money’. Paper money was used because it was easier to use than iron, since people started using paper money the other things (iron, copper, and gold) can be used for other material. Paper money became a huge part of the Yuan dynasty, each bill had a special face value and they used the money just like how we use ours today. Unfortunately, the government started making so much of the paper money; it started to become less valuable. Since it became less valuable, they took it from the paper money on wood, to copper. Yet, still the value of the money stayed down, so soon the Yuan dynasty abandoned paper money and went back to metal.

Map of yuan dynasty difference between sung.

Between the Yuan dynasty and the Sung dynasty there were huge differences. For starters the Yuan conquered much more land than the Sung dynasty. Also the Yuan expanded past china into some other countries. On a map the Sung dynasty only had the bottom right corner of china, and the Yuan had almost ALL of china as their land. Apparently the Sung stayed close to itself instead of expanding, while the Yuan expanded, and expanded. So, on the map it shows that the Yuan dynasty expanded land wise faster than the Sung did.