Class Materials
Yuan Dynasty in China
Mongol Invasions of Japan
Marco Polo
Primary Sources
Mongol: History, Life and Culture
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Yuan Dynasty in China
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- Scrolls of the Mongol Invasions Annotated [Princeton University]
View individual scenes depicting the Mongol Invasions of Japan. Takezaki Suenaga, a warrior who fought against the Mongols in both 1274 and 1281, commissioned scrolls recounting his actions. This unique record of the invasions, and important eyewitness account, was heavily damaged in the ensuing centuries – according to lore they were even once dropped into the ocean! By the time of their rediscovery in the eighteenth century, the scenes and text of the scrolls were scattered into separate sheets.
- Mongol Invasions of Japan: 1274 and 1281 [Princeton University]
Partner site to above - website devoted to understanding the Mongol Invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281. The failure of the invasions gave rise to the notion of the "divine wind" or Kamikaze, although an exploration of the invasions reveals that the Japanese defeated the Mongols with little need of divine, or meteorological intervention.
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- The Mongol Empire in World History [Education about Asia]
- The Silk Roads: An Educational Resource [PDF] [Education About Asia]
A guide for teachers by the author of this site, Professor Morris Rossabi.
- The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty, [Metropolitan Museum of Art]
Catalogue for the exhibition of the same title, 2010 - view online or PDF. “This exhibition covers the period from 1215, the year of Khubilai's birth, to 1368, the year of the fall of the Yuan dynasty in China founded by Khubilai Khan, and features every art form, including paintings, sculpture, gold and silver, textiles, ceramics, lacquer, and other decorative arts, religious and secular. The exhibition highlights new art forms and styles generated in China as a result of the unification of China under the Yuan dynasty and the massive influx of craftsmen from all over the vast Mongol Empire—with reverberations in Italian art of the fourteenth century.” VIDEO: “The World of Khubilai Khan: A Revolution in Painting,” with Maxwell K. Hearn speaking, on the MET page for the exhibition.
- "All the Khan's Horses" by Morris Rossabi [PDF]
Published in Natural History, October 1994. Reprinted with permission from author.
- "Dietary Decadence and Dynastic Decline in the Mongol Empire," by John Masson Smith [PDF]
Published in Journal of Asian History, 34:1 (2000). Reprinted with permission from publisher, Harrassowitz Publishing House.
- “The Pax Mongolica” by Daniel Waugh [Silk Road Foundation]
A brief assessment of the Mongol impact.
- Who were the Mongols? [National Geographic]
Under the Genghis Khan, the Mongol army became a technologically advanced force and created the second-largest kingdom in history. (June 2019)
- The Weeping Camel [National Geographic]
A mother Bactrian camel and her baby bond in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia. On the publication's Children's site.
- MongolianCulture.com
With many photographs of contemporary Mongolia and an excellent Resource Links page for information on contemporary Mongolia.
- Mongolia Today: “Losing the Eternal Blue Sky” [NPR]
Meet a changing Mongolia. It is a story of internal migration and economic transformation in an era of climate change.
- The Art of Mongolia, an Introduction [AsianArt.com]
Part of an online journal. Article only includes a few images but provides an excellent overview.
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