Yuan dynasty
Kublai proclaims the dynastic title “Great Yuan”
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗Kublai named the dynasty after an abstract phrase in the Book of Changes rather than after a homeland, a fief or a conquest.
18 December 1271
Kublai issued an edict proclaiming “Great Yuan” as the formal dynastic title of his regime on 18 December 1271 — the fifteenth day of the eleventh lunar month, Zhiyuan 8.
The edict explained that “Yuan” came from qianyuan, the “original creative force” in the Book of Changes, deliberately choosing an abstract classical principle rather than a place-name or hereditary fief.
A surviving early-fourteenth-century copy of the Yuan Statutes preserves the decree and its explanation of the name.
What else the edict carried
The edict says senior court worthies had memorialised that Kublai's completed enterprise required a magnificent formal title.
As another capstone measure, Kublai prohibited further use of precedents derived from the fallen Jin dynasty's law code.
Official documents could now identify the regime as Great Yuan.
What it did not do
It did not rename the capital. The city was still called Zhongdu on that date and became Dadu in March 1272.
Nor did it start a new era: Zhiyuan had begun in 1264, and the following year remained Zhiyuan 9. The Southern Song still held southern China, whose last resistance was defeated only in 1279.
A respected 1981 English-language study converted the date as 18 January 1272; the recent Cambridge History and the standard conversion of Zhiyuan 8, eleventh month, day 15 support 18 December 1271.
Sources
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What the sources leave uncertain
- A respected 1981 English-language study converted the date as January 18, 1272. The recent Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire and the standard conversion of Zhiyuan 8, eleventh month, day 15 support December 18, 1271.
- ‘Founding of the Yuan dynasty’ is a useful conventional label, but Kublai had ruled since 1260 and the Southern Song continued to hold southern China until 1279.
- The edict presented Great Yuan as a universal title, although Kublai’s effective authority over other Mongol khanates was limited.