Kublai Khan's Great Achievement - Book Report/Review Example

 Kublai Khan's Great Achievement Author Introduction Morris Rossabi is a well-known Professor of History at City University of New York and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University. He was born in Alexandria, Egypt. He got the Ph.D. degree in Chinese and Central Asian History at Columbia University. He has written so many books and specially the author of Asian History and Modern Mongolia books: such as From Khans to Commissars to Capitalists (2005), Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times (1988 and 2009), and Voyager from Xanadu: Rabban Sauma and the First Journey from China to the West (1992). Morris Rossabi has become a source of information about China for the students and the other scholars. China is known as a well developed nation in the world for several decades; so there is the need of Chinese history knowledge that how it became a great nation. Morris Rossabi is one of the knowledge providing sources that is providing the historic information to its readers. No doubt, Rossabi is one of the best modern scholars who worked on Chinese and the Mongolian history. By reading the book “Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times”, the readers enjoys the periods of several cultures of West, China and the Central Asia while Khubalai Khan was ruling there by facing many challenges. “Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times” by Morris Rossabi Khubilai Khan, who lived from 1215 to 1294, is known as a great leader and a renowned figure in the history. Morris Rossabi wrote different aspects of Khubilai Khan’ ruling ways and about the people of China that were from different cultures and traditions. In the book “Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times”, Morris Rossabi presented several efficient steps taken by Khubilai Khan during his life and time. “Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times” is actually a biography that is written straightforwardly about the life of Khubilai Khan, who established a new China by facing different hardships and struggles. As a military commander, Khubilai Khan won many regions by adding in the realm of Mongol [Man14]. Book Review/ Thesis Statement “Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times” is combination of different cultural, traditional, religious, militants, love, hate, wars and other aspects during the life of Khubilai Khan, and also his management system to run a huge state with peace and love. After reading the book, I observed some important things to recommend for others to read it as soon as possible; This book is a great source to prove the abilities of Rossabi as a great history writer, who is very beneficial for the students and the other scholars. The book is not only about the Chinese culture, but also describes the different aspects of Europe and the other countries. Firstly, the book was published in the English language, so it got popularity all over the world as a serious biography. The book describes the life of a great and fascinating leader, who ruled in a vast emperor very wisely by keeping balance within different types of people. Although, Khubalai Khan got the title of Great Khan, but could not stop to a scattered nation into four groups from inferior to superior. In his early age, Khubalai Khan could not get great achievements, but after 60s he conquered the southern Sung dynasty. Khubalai Khan faced many personal and serious issues, such as personal life tragedies, alcoholism, obesity, military reverses etc. Khubalai Khan introduced a great agriculture system to fulfill the needs of foods for everyone within the empire. He introduced some group’s managements to run the economy very efficiently by assigning them different duties to serve the nation. After reading the life of Khubalai Khan, the reader is convinced to say that the Khubalai Khan was really a good ruler and a great leader. Summary of the Book The book “Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times” was written about the life of Khubilai Khan, who was the greatest Mongol Emperor of China and was also the founder of Yuan Dynasty in China. Khubilai Khan was born in the year of 1215 and died in the year of 1294. He was very intelligent to lead the vast empire of different nations very wisely by adopting different cultures and traditions to his governance system [Cal14]. Early life of Khubilai Khan Khubilai Khan was the grandson of the Genghis Khan (1165-1227), who was the founder of the Mongolian Empire. He was the fourth numbered son of Tule and favourite grandson of Genghis Khan. At the age of twelve, Khubilai Khan learnt many warrior skills to face the situations in the battle fields. In 1251, Khubilai Khan controlled the eastern part of Chinese territories and became the Mongol Empire as a Great Khan. He arranged a group of Chinese intellectuals to bring changes for unifying the system of China under the Mongolians. Khubilai’s brother Mongke was leading an expedition in the war of western China against Chinese Sung Dynasty, but Khubilai was unhappy with its progress. In 1259, Mongke was killed during war and Khubilai was elected as Mongke’s successor, but the youngest brother of Khubilai disturbed the election process and presented himself as a Khan at Karakorum, Mongolia. Khubilai Khan did fight with his brother and defeated him in 1264 [Cal14]. The administration of Khubilai Khan Under the administration of Khubilai Khan, the Mongols liked to adopt the system of “divide and rule”. Another important point was that the Mongols and central Asians were remained separated from the life of Chinese life. Khubilai Khan was in the favour of adopting the every religion; he organised the governance system into three separated branches to deal with the civilian affairs, supervision to the military, and keeping an eye on the higher authorities. The reorganisation by the Khubilai Khan developed a new city “Peking, China” in 1267. Khubilai Khan introduced his ruling system by naming the “Yuan Dynasty” in 1271. In 1278, Khubilai Khan finished the Sung dynasty system and became a great leader of a vast empire that was stretched across the two countries. Khubilai Khan was found of business, arts and science activities. He introduced the concept of paper money for his own empire and also ordered to create the new alphabets for the Mongol Language, which was resembled to the Chinese writing. He established the system of sea-transport by developing the inland river and the canal routes for the movements of the grains to all of the population. As an emperor of great China, Khubilai Khan asked for gifts and loyalties from other states inside the empire. Some states; such as Annam and Korea cooperated to present gifts, but many other states ignored the messengers of Khubilai asking for gifts and loyalties. Two times, the poor quality forces of Mongols were destroyed by the Japanese army or by storms from 1274 to 1281. Khubilai Khan tried to win many battles during his rule, but the Mongols were ever defeated against their armies [Cal14]. Interactions with the West Khubilai Khan was the first one in China, who started to contact with Western countries by introducing trading rules for the Mongols and the central Asians in the presence of effective postal servicing system. The power of Mongol enabled the Chinese to visit freely many countries within the Empire of Mongol, Russia, Persia, and the Mesopotamia [Cal14]. Exchanges of Missions Several missions were exchanged between the Khubilai Khan and the Pope. In 1266, Khubilai Khan called two Vetian merchants “Polo Brothers” to carrying the request of pope for hundreds of Christian scholars and the technicians. Then the Polo Brothers met to the Pope Gregory in 1269 and got his best wishes and blessings. Marco Polo was the first one, who was the reason of direct contact between China and the West [Cal14]. The legacy of Khubilai Khan The ruling period of Khubilai Khan was very great for thirty four years, when he died in 1294. He is remembered as a great leader in the history, as he managed a huge and vast state with a thoughtful manner. He was very famous amongst the Chinese, and got the second Genghis amongst the Mongol Rulers. He tackled many issues by maintaining a proper system between different traditional people by keeping peace and love in the huge empire. During his ruling time, there was only one issue that he was very interested in Chinese traditions rather than Mongolians or other traditions. It is concluded that Khubilai Khan did great job for his nation, even some issues were remained to solve out [Cal14]. Conclusion After reading the book, I have analyzed some important aspects: The writer Morris Robbasi is a great person to make the reader to read the biography of the Khubalai Khan very eagerly. The writing style of the writer is very simple and easy for every type of the reader. The life of the Khubalai Khan was very challenging, but he never gave up himself and faced every challenge very efficiently. Khubalai Khan was a patriotic hero, who did not care his brother in terms of serving the nation. He also punished many people, who were not loyal to the country. As a great Emperor, Khubalai Khan cared for every caste and religion people. He respected every culture and tradition that made him a more respectable leader. Food provision is the basic right of everyone, and Khubalai Khan proved it by introducing reforms in agriculture system. The nations should keep friendly relationships within their neighbor countries, as it ever results in positive outcomes. Khubalai Khan proved it by keeping contact with different countries. After the death of Khubalai Khan, everyone remembers him as a great hero, which is a great achievement and honor after death. Bibliography Man14: , (Manz n.d.), Cal14: , (Klein 2014), Read More