Khubilai Khan and His Advisers, Jenghis Khan
Miniatures, Court of Akbar

Khubilai Khan's Approach to Ruling China

Khubilai Khan's Approach to Ruling China

Convinced that he could not count exclusively on Chinese officials to assist him in governing the subjugated country of China, Khubilai Khan recruited a multicultural group of advisers and administrators to help him rule China.

He gathered together Muslims from Central Asia and Persia (as shown in this Persian work), Buddhists from Tibet, Christians from Europe, Nestorians from West Asia, Uyghur Turks from Northwest China, and Confucians from Korea, along with numerous Chinese, to serve in the bureaucracy that administered the so-called "Middle Kingdom of China."

The use of foreign advisers might not have always been successful, however. According to Marco Polo's account, there was even a plot by the native Chinese to overthrow one of Khubilai Khan's most trusted — and, unbeknownst to Khubilai, most corrupt — advisers, Achmath the Bailo. Read the account, from The Book of Ser Marco Polo: The Venetian Concerning Kingdoms and Marvels of the East (translated and edited by Colonel Sir Henry Yule), here: Chapter XXIII: Concerning the Oppressions of Achmath the Bailo, and the Plot That Was Formed Against Him [PDF]