Kublai Khan Founds the Yuan Dynasty

Kublai Khan (1215–1294) was a grandson of Genghis Khan and a son of Tolui. From early on he recruited Han Confucian scholars, gathering around him Liu Bingzhong, Yao Shu, Xu Heng, Hao Jing and others, known as the "Jinlianchuan Secretariat". After Mongke became Great Khan in 1251, he put Kublai in charge of military and civil affairs in the Han lands south of the Gobi; Kublai built the city of Kaiping (later Shangdu) in what is now Zhengxianbai Banner, Inner Mongolia. In 1259 Mongke died while attacking Diaoyu Castle in Hezhou, Sichuan; Kublai, then besieging Ezhou, made peace with the Southern Song on hearing the news and returned north. In 1260 Kublai took the throne at Kaiping and adopted the era name Zhongtong, the first time the Mongols used an era name. His younger brother Ariq Boke was also proclaimed Great Khan in the northern steppe, and after four years of war Ariq Boke surrendered. Kublai accepted the advice of Han Confucian officials to "follow Han ways", "govern with benevolence" and "avoid needless killing", set up an agricultural promotion office and issued the farming manual Nongsang Jiyao. Following the model of Central Plains dynasties, he established the Secretariat, the Bureau of Military Affairs and the Censorate at the center and introduced the provincial system locally. In 1271, on Liu Bingzhong's advice, Kublai took the name "Great Yuan" from the Book of Changes phrase "Great is the primal power", formally founding the Yuan dynasty; he is known as Emperor Shizu of Yuan. The next year he made Dadu (present-day Beijing) the capital, with Kaiping as the upper capital, and the court moved between the two. The Yuan went on to attack the Southern Song and unified the country in 1279.