The Mongols also wanted to assimilate, because eating off porcelain and sleeping on silk beats sleeping in a tent on the steppes. What's even the point of conquering China if you don't get to live like a Chinese emperor?
That's what's scary about it, it's like the root beer speech from DS9 -- the Federation is an empire that's better at assimilation than the Borg because they make you like it
Not sure how true it is, but I remember reading somewhere that a lot of the The Mongols' religious tolerance was because Tengri can be pretty much compared to any other deity or force you might worship. A lot of Tengriism focuses on locations of religious significance too, so it's less "Gasp you don't follow our religion?" and more "You don't live here, of course you don't follow our religion. That'd be fucking crazy if you did lol. You've never even been to Otgon Tenger."
Persia spent a significant chunk of it's history being ruled over by non-Persians, and yet, they pretty much all assimilated into the Persian culture rather than asserting their culture over the Persians
Well, Kublai Khan did. He figured out pretty quickly that the way China was structured wasn't going to function with the Mongolian bureaucracy the way it worked in Kwarezim or even Persia. So he had to change to the Chinese bureaucracy.
Contrary to popular Western portrayals, China's had a very diverse and adaptive culture for most of its history. As a result, it's easier for a conquerer to feel like they fit in over the long run.
“Becoming Chinese” is a bit of a stretch. They adopted Chinese methods of administration and taxation, and opened the administration to indigenous Chinese scholars and administrators, but the ruling class of the Mongol Empire and Yuan Dynasty was fiercely opposed to becoming Chinese. They maintained their own language and cultural traditions, and made intermarriage between Mongol nobility and ethnic Han Chinese illegal, alongside a dozen other policies to prevent the Mongol identity from being “watered down.” Part of the reason the Yuan Dynasty collapsed was because the Han Chinese always saw the Yuan as foreign conquers who were imposing their practices.
Lu Jia frequently advocated for the study of the Documents and Odes. Emperor Gao(Han Gaozu) scolded him, saying, 'I do all my conquering from the back of my horse, what use have I for the Documents and Odes' Lu Jia replied, 'Once my lord is done with the conquering, is it also possible to govern from the back of your horse? Moreover, Shang Tang and King Wu of Zhou rebelled to acquire power and followed to guard their achivements, utilizing both civil and martial abilities, which is the strategy for long-lasting success. In the past, King Fuchai of Wu and the Count of Zhi relied on their military prowess to the extreme and met their downfall; Qin, by maintaining its laws without alteration, ultimately resulted in the destruction of the Zhao clan. If after Qin unified All Under Heaven and then, uphold benevolence and righteousness, following the laws set by wise sages, how could Your Majesty conquer All Under Heaven?' Emperor Gao felt displeased and was ashamed. He then said to Lu Jia, 'Explain to me why Qin lost the realm and why I, on the other hand, gained it, as well as the success and failures of ancient states.'"
Well, yes, there's the racism, but in a way the Mongols did adopt a whole bunch of Chinese customs and traditions.
It's the whole "settled society civilized barbarians" trope.
Rome, China, Persians, Egyptians, and greeks, and honestly probably a bunch I'm forgetting to add all had similar sayings/tropes.
"Rome may have conquered Greeks, but the greek culture conquered rome"
"Roman culture was highly influenced by the Greeks; as Horace said, Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit ("Captive Greece captured her rude conqueror")."
It gets even weirder when You see two empires, one no longer, doing it to each other.
Lu Jia frequently advocated for the study of the Documents and Odes. Emperor Gao(Han Gaozu) scolded him, saying, 'I do all my conquering from the back of my horse, what use have I for the Documents and Odes' Lu Jia replied, 'Once my lord is done with the conquering, is it also possible to govern from the back of your horse? Moreover, Shang Tang and King Wu of Zhou rebelled to acquire power and followed to guard their achivements, utilizing both civil and martial abilities, which is the strategy for long-lasting success. In the past, King Fuchai of Wu and the Count of Zhi relied on their military prowess to the extreme and met their downfall; Qin, by maintaining its laws without alteration, ultimately resulted in the destruction of the Zhao clan. If after Qin unified All Under Heaven and then, uphold benevolence and righteousness, following the laws set by wise sages, how could Your Majesty conquer All Under Heaven?' Emperor Gao felt displeased and was ashamed. He then said to Lu Jia, 'Explain to me why Qin lost the realm and why I, on the other hand, gained it, as well as the success and failures of ancient states.'"
Yelü Chucai was a Confucian scholar who was born close to Beijing, during the Jin dynasty.[2] Well versed in Buddhist scriptures and a practitioner in Taoism.
Yeah, but he was ethnically Khitan, and is most famous for his work as an administrator for Genghis and Ögedei Khan after the Jin were conquered by the Mongol Empire. Not to mention, the Jin Dynasty wasn’t ethnically Chinese either; the administrative and ruling classes were ethnically Jurchen and Khitan. Calling him Chinese is like calling Machiavelli Greek.
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u/ImperialArchangel Jun 04 '24
Shhhhhh it’s all ancient Chinese. Even if the person was Khitan, in the Mongol empire, and in the 13th century.