Marco Polo (1254-1324) was a Venetian merchant believed to have journeyed across Asia at the height of the Mongol Empire. He first set out at age 17 with his father and uncle, traveling overland along what later became known as the Silk Road. Upon reaching China, Marco Polo entered the court of powerful Mongol ruler Kublai Khan, who dispatched him on trips to help administer the realm. Marco Polo remained abroad for 24 years. Though not the first European to explore China—his father and uncle, among others, had already been there—he became famous for his travels thanks to a popular book he co-authored while languishing in a Genoese prison.

(from: https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/marco-polo)

In 1271, the leader of the Mongol empire, Khan (ca. 1215–ca. 1294), proclaimed the establishment of the Yuan dynasty and declared himself emperor of China, but it was not until 1279 that his conquest of China was completed and the Southern Song dynasty fell. The Yuan dynasty (1279–1368) was the first foreign-ruled dynasty in Chinese history to commandeer all of China. With no experience in the running of such a large and complex empire, the Mongols gradually adopted many Chinese cultural and bureaucratic models. Growing factionalism at court, corruption, and the horrors of natural disasters, however, led relatively shortly to rebellion and, eventually, dynastic collapse.

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The naval Battle of Yamen, also known as the Naval Battle of Mount Ya, took place on 19 March 1279 and is considered to be the last stand of the Song dynasty against the invading Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. Although outnumbered 10:1, the Yuan navy delivered a crushing tactical and strategic victory, destroying the Song.

Today, the battle site is located at Yamen, in Xinhui County, Jiangmen, Guangdong, China.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/XZLa7w2JhZPtwMuX6

The Silk Road

The Silk Road was a network of trade routes that linked Asia with Europe. Traders and travelers began using the Silk Road more than 2,000 years ago. It remained in use until the late Middle Ages. Today, a small part of the old route is a paved highway between Pakistan and China.Silk and other Chinese goods went west, all the way to ancient Rome. Wool, gold, and glass were some of the goods that went east. By ad 1000 travel on the Silk Road had grown less safe, and traffic had declined. The Mongol Empire (The Yuan Dynasty) revived the Silk Road in the around 1270 after conquering the Chinese. This reopening led to the rise of Capitalism and the fall of feudalism. There also was a rise in commerce (trading) towns which led to cultural diffusion and inspire the Renaissance. The reopening of the Silk Road also led to new products coming into Europe.

(from: http://mrclarkskipp.weebly.com/the-silk-road–the-yuan-dynasty.html)

Pax Mongolia

Pax Mongolia: A historiographical term, modeled after the original phrase Pax Romana, that describes the stabilizing effects of the conquests of the Mongol Empire on the social, cultural, and economic life of the inhabitants of the vast Eurasian territory that the Mongols conquered in the 13th and 14th centuries.

The Mongolians revived the Silk Road which was originally established by the Han Dynasty, and established peace throughout their extensive trade routes.

Foreign trade flourished under the Yuan dynasty. The overland trade to Central Asia, the Middle East, and Persia was primarily dominated by Muslim merchants. They imported horses, camels, rugs, medicines, and spices. Chinese textiles, chinaware, lacquerware, and other items were exported.

Examples can be found here.

Paper Money

During the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), banknotes were adopted by the Mongol Empire. In Europe, the concept of banknotes was first introduced during the 13th century by travelers such as Marco Polo who had seen them in use in China. The paper money issued under Kublai Khan was backed by silver, and supplemented by cash and copper cash. The standardization of paper currency allowed the Yuan court to monetize taxes and reduce carrying costs of taxes in goods

After nearly a hundred years of Mongol rule, China returned to native rulership in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). The Ming was founded by a commoner, Zhu Yuanzhang (1328–1398), who established Nanjing as his capital. However, nearly fifty years later, the third Ming emperor relocated the capital to Beijing, which has remained China’s main seat of government ever since. The Ming dynasty’s almost three hundred-year span witnessed unprecedented economic and cultural expansion and the near doubling of its population. The last century of the Ming, however, was besieged by border troubles, crop failure, fiscal instability, and court corruption leading to an overthrow by Manchu invaders from the north, who took Beijing in 1644.

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The best-known sections of the Great Wall were built by the Ming dynasty.

However, several of the original walls were built from as early as the 7th century BC, with selective stretches later joined by Qin Shi Huang (220–206 BC), the first emperor of China. Little of the Qin wall remains. Later on, many successive dynasties built and maintained multiple stretches of border walls.

The Ming Great Wall  built by the Ming dynasty forms the most visible parts of the Great Wall of China today. The Ming walls measure 5,500 miles from Jiayu Pass in the west to the sea in Shanhai Pass, then looping over to terminate in Manchuria at the Hushan Great Wall. This is made up of 3,889 miles of sections of actual wall, 223 miles of trenches, and 1,387 miles of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers.

While the Ming walls are generally referred to as “Great Wall” (changcheng) in modern times, in Ming times they were called “border barriers”.

Ming & Earlier

Perhaps the most well-known of all Chinese ceramics, Ming dynasty porcelain benefitted from China’s return to Han Chinese rule in 1368 after 97 years of the foreign Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. As the internecine struggles abated, Ming pottery flourished in the world-famous ‘porcelain town’ of Jingdezhen and beyond.

Out were the old tastes of Song dynasty monochromes and in were the new appetite for Ming dynasty blue and white porcelain. Not without coincidence, the desire for Ming dynasty ceramics was exacerbated both by China’s economic upturn in the fifteenth century as it shifted towards a market economy and at the same time the European renaissance led to thousands of pieces of spectacular Ming porcelain making their way from China to become prized possessions in Europe’s royal palaces and stately homes.

As Ming dynasty porcelain continued its journey of refinement, there were significant innovations that became benchmarks in the rich and detailed history of Ming pottery including jihong under the Xuande emperor (a blood-red glaze of which it is believed there are fewer than 100 remaining examples in museums), doucai (contending colours) under Chenghua, jiaohuang (yellow glaze) under Hongzhi and wucai (five colour) under Wanli. It was also during the reign of Wanli (1572 – 1620) that production techniques, including mixing kaolin clay and pottery stone in equal proportions enhanced the whiteness of the vessel body, enhancing Ming dynasty blue and white porcelain.

(from: https://www.marchantasianart.com/shop/porcelain-works-of-art/ming-dynasty-porcelain-ceramics/)

Emperor Ming of Han, born Liu Yang and also known as Liu Zhuang and as Han Mingdi, was the second emperor of China’s Eastern Han dynasty. He was the fourth son and second crown prince of Emperor Guangwu. It was during Emperor Ming’s reign that Buddhism began to spread into China.

Buddhism also known as Buddha Dharma, and Dharmavinaya (doctrines and disciplines), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in the eastern Gangetic plain (North Indian River Plain is a 172-million-acre fertile plain encompassing northern regions of the Indian subcontinent) in the 5th century BCE, and gradually spread throughout much of Asia via the Silk Road. It is the world’s fourth-largest religion, with over 520 million followers (Buddhists) who comprise seven percent of the global population.

The Spread of Buddhism