The Significance of the Yuan Dynasty

The traditional view of Chinese historians was that the Mongol conquest was a disaster. They devised a system of economic exploitation and practiced racial discrimination which so antagonized the Chinese people that it was inevitable that they should eventually be driven from the country. It is also held that the Mongol occupation proved to be a setback to the development of Chinese society due to the ending of the progress achieved during the Song period. This led to the fact that the succeeding Ming dynasty became an introverted and non competitive state. It has also been suggested that the Mongol rule introduced a level of brutality into government that had not previously existed. This in turn was to affect the subsequent behavior of Ming emperors, the first of whom ordered the public flogging of ministers who offended him.An important aspect of the Yuan period was that it brought about the reunification of the country and that despite the adverse criticism by the Ming rulers, the Mongols may have been more humane than the Song (960 - 1279) and that the Han (206 BC - 220 AD) people had actually flourished during their reign.