Yuan - (1260 - 1368)

In 1210 the leader of the Mongols, Genghis Khan, set his sights on the border state of Jin. He invaded and destroyed its capital, Beijing, in 1215. In 1227 he destroyed 99 percent of the population of Xixia in the Northwest, from which that area would never recover. The Mongols have been called the most pitiless and savage race know to history and they showed those characteristics in each successive move toward China. The Chinese army resisted for forty years the onslaught of the Mongol hordes, but the outcome was inevitable. Even before the last Song emperor perished in 1279, the Mongols had proclaimed their rule and named their dynasty the Yuan.

Because the Chinese were more valuable alive and taxable, they were spared the worst of the atrocities that had been visited upon their neighbors. Even so, the long wars and administrative collapse of the Song had left the Yuan in charge of a greatly weakened and impoverished nation. The taxpaying populace had been reduced from over 100 million under the Song to less than 60 million.

Kublai Khan followed his father as ruler of the Yuan Dynasty. Though he was an admirer of the Chinese culture, his administration was still ruthless and corrupt. A succession of seven emperors followed him in the forty years after his death.

The Chinese broke into open rebellion against the brutal tactics of the last Khan and in 1348 began a campaign against the Mongols which ended in 1368 with the expulsion of the last of the Yuan Dynasty leaders.

The contrast between Song and Yuan tastes in arts and ceramics could not have been greater. While the refined taste of the Song court had fueled the work of artists and kilns throughout China, the Yuan court betrayed its nomadic roots with garrish colors and showy, almost barbaric flavor.

Advances were made, however, especially in the areas of underglazed painting in blue and red as well as modeling in relief under the glaze. The major kiln site of Jingdezhen was creating a molded and engraved ware called shufu (privy-council) wares for the imperial court. The extravagent blanding of techniques which caracterizes much of Yuan ware can be seen in the development of the combination of underglazed blue and red coupled with openwork panels. Two of the most outstanding examples of early blue and white underglazed porcelain are the temple vase pair in the Percival David Foundation collection. These vessels from the Yuan Dynasty show that this technique was much advanced by that time.

Next dynasty -> Ming