The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 06. Alien Regimes and Border States, 907-1368

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THE REIGN OF

AYURBARWADA

KHAGHAN

513

THE REIGN OF

AYURBARWADA

KHAGHAN

(EMPEROR JEN-

TSUNG),

I I

320

Early orientations

Ayurbarwada's succession to his elder brother Khaishan's throne in April

1311 was the first peaceful and smooth transition in Yuan imperial history.

This was made possible by the fact that Khaishan had designated his younger

brother as the heir apparent in June 1307, in accordance with their earlier

agreement, and had subsequently appointed him as the titular head of the

top central administrative organs, just as Khubilai had done when grooming

Chen-chin to be his successor.

104

In view of the fraternal love between

Khaishan and Ayurbawada and the peaceful way in which one succeeded the

other, one might expect a general continuity in policy and personnel between

the two reigns. But what was to happen early in Ayurbarwada's reign was

actually the opposite: a political purge of Khaishan's chief ministers and a

reversal of most of his policies. These reversals of policies can be traced to

Ayurbarwada's cultural and ideological orientation and his uneasy political

relationship with his late brother.

Since his early teens, Ayurbarwada had been tutored by the Confucian

scholar-official Li Meng, who injected into his impressionable mind Confucian

ethical and political precepts that would strongly affect his future political

attitudes.

' First as a prince in Huai-chou and then as Khaishan's designated

heir apparent, Ayurbarwada had further surrounded himself with such Chinese

scholars as Ch'enHao(

1264—1339),

Wang I, Wang Yiieh (1252—1333), Chao

Meng-fu (1254-1322), Wang Chieh (1275-1336), Chang Yang-hao, Shang

Yeh (1244-1319), Yao Sui (1201-78), and Hsiao K'u (1241-1318); the

artists Shang Ch'i and Wang Chen-p'eng; Chaghan (Ch'a-han), a

se-mu

scholar

from Balkh who was to become a great translator; and Sewinch Khaya (Hsiao-

yiin-shih Hai-ya, 1286-1324), the great Uighur san-ch'ii lyricist. Conse-

quently, Ayurbarwada was not only able to read and write Chinese and appreci-

ate Chinese paintings and calligraphy, but he also had a thorough grasp of

Confucian learning and Chinese history.

Io6

Strongly influenced by Confucian

political ethics as he was, Ayurbarwada was naturally opposed to the exploit-

ative policies carried out by the Department of State Affairs under Khaishan.

104 YS, 22, p. 480; 24, p. 536.

105 YS, 175, p. 4084.

106 On the influence of Chinese culture on Ayurbarwada, see YS, 24, pp. 535—6; Yoshikawa Kojiro, "Gen

no shotei no bungaku," in vol. 15 of Yosbikawa Kojiro

zenshu

(Tokyo, 1969), pp. 232—303, esp. pp.

235-40. Herbert Franke, "Could the Mongol emperors read and write

Chinese?"

Asia

Major,

3 (1952),

pp.

28—41,

esp. pp. 31-3; Dardess,

Conquerors

and

Confucians,

pp. 13-15; and Lo Hsien-yu, "Yuan

ch'aochu ti Han hua shu-i," Min tsu yen chiu, 5 (1987), pp. 67—74,

P- PP- 7'~7

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

514

MID-YOAN

POLITICS

Ayurbarwada's relations with his elder brother seem to have been as po-

litically delicate as they were fraternally warm. Because he was the one who

had actually seized the throne for his brother, Khaishan always seems to

have suspected Ayurbarwada of himself harboring imperial designs. Ayur-

barwada's mentor, Li Meng, had left the government immediately after

Khaishan's accession because he had been accused of having advised Ayur-

barwada to keep the throne for

himself.

Ayurbarwada found it impolitic to

speak out in Li Meng's defense.

107

In view of Ayurbarwada's position,

Wang Yiieh, deputy administrator

(chan-shih ch'eng)

of the heir apparent's

establishment, repeatedly urged him to keep a low political profile.

108

Even

so,

San-pao nu, the manager of governmental affairs of the Department of

State Affairs, and Li Pang-ning, the chief eunuch, had suggested replacing

Ayurbarwada as the heir apparent with Khaishan's own son, Khoshila

(i 300-29).

IO9

Ayurbarwada seemingly exerted little influence over his elder

brother's policies, but his disagreement with them remained concealed

until his own enthronement.

The

purge

Disagreeing with his elder brother's policies and aspiring to make the Yuan

government more Confucian, Ayurbarwada carried out a bloody purge and

reversed most of his elder brother's policies immediately before and after his

accession. On 30 January 1311, only three days after Khaishan's death,

Ayurbarwada abolished the Department of State Affairs and had its chief

ministers - Toghtd, San-pao nu, Yiieh Shih, Pao-pa, and Wang P'i -

arrested and executed.

110

In the following months the Chih-ta paper notes

and coins were abolished and recalled, and the Chung-t'ung and Chih-yuan

notes were restored as the only official currency. A general retrenchment

entailed trimming the bureaucracy to the 1293 level and reducing those

offices that had been raised in rank to the original status they had had in

Khubilai's time. The various public building projects initiated by Khaishan

also were halted.

111

Ayurbarwada enhanced the importance of Confucian scholar-officials in the

government. In addition to appointing Mongols and

se-mu

as grand coun-

cillors, he successively appointed his mentor, Li Meng, and Chang Kuei

(1264—1327), a scholar-general from one of the most distinguished northern

107 YS,

174,

4087.

108

YS,

178,

4140.

109 YS,

138,

3324;

204,

4551.

YS,

24,

537.

in YS,

24,

pp. 545-6, 549, 552.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

THE REIGN OF AYURBARWADA KHAGHAN 515

Chinese military families, as managers of governmental affairs of the Secretar-

iat, giving them a large share of power in running the government. Among

his earliest acts, Ayurbarwada summoned to the capital sixteen older officials

who had served in Khubilai's court, including the famous scholars Li Ch'ien

(1234—1312), Hao T'ien-t'ing

(1261

—1317),

Ch'eng Chii-fu (1249—1318),

and Liu Min-chung (1243-1318), many of whom were subsequently ap-

pointed to high offices, and the others served as councillors."

Ayurbarwada

also repeatedly ordered the selection of learned men to be members of the

Han-lin Academy and the Academy of Scholarly Worthies (Chi-hsien

yuan)."'

His appointment of so many Confucian officials to important posts

was by no means merely decorative. With their guidance and support, early

in his reign the new khaghan was to take some important steps to reform the

Yiian state further along Chinese and Confucian lines.

The revival of the civil

service

examinations

The most important aspect of Ayurbarwada's effort to reform the Yiian state

was his vigorous attempts to make the bureaucracy more Confucian in its

composition. Confucian scholars had not before played an important role in

the Yiian government mainly because their type of learning had never in the

earlier reigns been regarded as an appropriate basis for bureaucratic recruit-

ment. Although most of the high-ranking offices were filled in accordance

with ascriptive criteria - through either heredity or the exercise of the yin

privilege - that is, appointment to a lower office by virtue of one's father's

nomination - most of the officials of the middle and lower ranks came into

service by way of service as clerks. Consequently, most of the officials were

not educated in Confucianism nor were they Confucian in their political

orientation.

To improve the educational standards of the officials appointed through

the yin privilege, it was stipulated in 1311 that the Chinese candidates for

official appointment through the yin privilege would be required to pass a

test in one of the classics and a historical work and that successful candidates

in this test would be given substantive appointments without going through

a probationary period. "* The test was to be optional for the Mongolian and

se-mu

candidates, but they too would be appointed to offices one grade higher

than that to which they were originally entitled if they had passed the test.

And perhaps to reduce the competition for the scholar-officials, the highest

possible rank attainable by any official who had started as a clerical officer in

112 YS, 24, p. 537.

113 YS, 24, pp. 545-8.

114 YS, 83, p. 2061.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

516 MID-YOAN POLITICS

local government was lowered from the fourth to the fifth rank."5 The most

significant institutional change made by Ayurbarwada, however, was to re-

vive the civil service examination system.

The revival of this examination system, which had became increasingly

important as the major channel of elite recruitment under the native Chinese

dynasties, had repeatedly been debated but never put into effect during

Khubilai's reign. Its revival was put off indefinitely for two reasons."

First,

because the Yuan government relied mainly on ascriptive criteria for elite

recruitment, the adoption of the examination system would undermine the

hereditary and yin privileges of the Mongolian, the

se-mu,

and, to a lesser

extent, Chinese elite families. As such it was objectionable. Second, there

was sharp disagreement even among Chinese scholar-officials about the value

of the examination as an effective system of elite recruitment and about

which curriculum should be adopted. One school favored adoption of the

system practiced under the Sung and Chin dynasties, which had tested

candidates' literary skills as well as their knowledge of Confucian classics.

Opposing this view, Neo-Confucian scholars, heavily influenced by the great

Sung master Chu Hsi's ideas about the examinations, urged the exclusion of

literary composition from the curriculum and an exclusive emphasis on under-

standing the classics and current affairs.

Because this debate was inconclusive, no action was taken to revive the

examinations until Ayurbarwada's reign. By then the situation had changed.

The growing need to improve the standard of the civil service and the

expressed desire by the khaghan himself to identify his administration more

closely with Confucianism gave rise to repeated pleas to revive the examina-

tions.

117

By this time, because the ascendancy of Neo-Confucianism had been

clearly established in Yuan official circles, the position formerly propounded

by the Neo-Confucianists was now accepted without much argument by

those involved in the deliberations.

The new examination system, promulgated in 1313 and put into practice

for the first time in the following two years, clearly favored the Neo-

Confucian position. In its curriculum, classical learning was emphasized at

115 YS, 183, p. 4220; see also Hsii Fan, Yuan tai li

chih

yen cbiu (Peking, 1987), pp. 53-4.

116 On the reasons for the long delay in reviving the examination system under the Yuan, see Abe Takeo,

"Gendai chishikijin to kakyo," in his Genda'tshi no kenkyu (Tokyo, 1972), pp. 3-33; Ting K'un-

chien, "Yuan tai te k'o chii chih tu," Hua

hsiiehyiieh

k'an, 124 (1982), pp. 46-57; Yao Ta-li, "Yiian

tai k'o chii chih tu te hsing fei chi ch'i she hui pei ching," Yuan shib

chi

pet fang

min tsu

shib

yen

cbiu cbi

k'an,

6 (1982), pp. 26-59, esp. pp. 33-8; Wm. Theodore de Bary,

Neo-Confucian orthodoxy

and

the

teaming of the mind-and-heart (New York, 1981), pp. 53—4; Yuan-chu Lam, "On the Yiian examina-

tion system: The role of northern Ch'eng-Chu pioneering scholars," Journal of Turkish Studies

(Festschrift

for Francis W. Cleaves), 9 (1985), pp. 15-20.

117 YS, 175, p. 4089; 178, p. 4142; and Huang Chin, Chin-hua Huang

hsien sheng

wen chi (SPTK ed.),

43.

P- 5b-

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

THE REIGN OF AYURBARWADA KHAGHAN 517

the expense of literary refinement. It further prescribed Chu Hsi's version of

the Four Books as the authoritative texts for all candidates and the commen-

taries by Chu Hsi and other Sung masters on the Five Classics in an addi-

tional test for Chinese candidates. This innovation, which was generally

followed in the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties, had a historical significance that

went beyond the Yuan itself and helped consolidate Neo-Confucianism as the

state's orthodoxy."

Besides this, the new examination system had some special features that

reflected the peculiar multiracial society under the Yuan. Under the new

system, Mongolian and

se-mu

candidates not only were given easier tests than

those required of their northern and southern Chinese counterparts; they also

were assured "equal representation" under a racial quota system that prescribed

an equal number of successful candidates at the provincial level - seventy-

five - to each of the four ethnic and geographical groups. Moreover, in order

not to undermine the privileged positions of the old elite families and to upset

the existing system of recruitment, the quota for the successful candidates at

the metropolitan level was purposely kept low, to a maximum of ioo per

examination. The sixteen examinations later administered under the Yuan

produced a total of only 1,139 successful metropolitan candidates (chin-shih).

The number of officials so recruited came to only slightly more than 4 percent

of all ranked civil officials in that period. "

The examination system therefore

by no means posed a serious threat to the interests of the members of the elite

families who enjoyed hereditary or yin rights to official appointment.

The system instituted by Ayurbarwada should be considered a compromise

between the Chinese ideal of equal opportunities in public service and the

sociopolitical realities of the Yuan as a dynasty of conquest. Nevertheless, his

revival of the examination system still had cultural as well as sociopolitical

significance. By making Confucian learning a basis for elite recruitment, it

gave Chinese scholars a legitimate path to officialdom. Southern Chinese

scholars especially benefited, as hitherto they had been largely excluded from

the government under the Yuan. Moreover, the examination system encour-

aged the Mongols and the

se-mu,

especially those who did not belong to elite

families, to study Chinese thought, thus accelerating the sinicization of the

alien conquerors.

120

118 De Bary,

Neo-Confucian

orthodoxy,

pp. 57—66.

119 Yao Ta-ti, "Yuan tai k'o chii chih cu te hsing fei chi ch'i she hui pei ching," pp. 47—8. On the civil

examination system set up by Ayurbarwada and its subsequent development, see also Miyazaki

Ichisada, "Gencho chika no Mokoteki kanshoku wo meguru Mo Kan kankei - kakyo fukko no igi no

saikento,"

Tayoshi

kmkyu, 23 (1965), pp. 428—91; Yang Shu-fan, "Yuan tai k'o chii chih tu," Kuo li

chevg chih

ta hsiith

hsiith

pao, 17 (1968), pp. 99—120.

120 Hsiao Ch'i-ch'ing, "Yuan tai k'o chii yii ching ying liu tung - i Yiian-t'ung yuan nien chin shih wei

chung hsin," Han

hsiith

yen chiu, 5 (1987), pp. 129—60.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

518 MID-YOAN POLITICS

Codification

Codification of the law was another area in which Ayurbarwada's efforts to

reform the Yuan state produced the desired results. Perhaps because of the

unsurmountable difficulties in legislating a uniform legal code for a multi-

cultural society and perhaps also because of the reluctance by the Mongolian

ruling elites to have their power circumscribed by such a code, the Yuan state

had never enacted a national statutory code. Its absence caused the Chinese

officials great anxiety, and various efforts were made to compile laws and

subsidiary legislation to serve as references for use in conducting their duties.

The earliest of those remedial measures, the

Chih-yiian hsin-ko

(Chih-yuan

new code) promulgated in 1291 had been largely a collection of noncriminal

ordinances.

121

Later efforts at codification in the reigns of Temiir and

Khaishan produced few results.

Ayurbarwada quickly took action to remedy this situation. In the same

month that he was enthroned in 1311, he instructed the Secretariat to

systematize the codes and regulations promulgated since the beginning of

Khubilai's reign. This compilation and editing was completed in 1316.

122

The process of reviewing the collection, however, took much longer than

expected. It was not until 1323, more than two years after Shidebala's

succession to the throne, that the code was formally promulgated under the

title Ta Yuan t'ung

chih

(Comprehensive institutions of the great Yuan). The

new code consisted of more than 2,400 legal documents promulgated since

the beginning of the dynasty and was divided into four categories: tuan-li

(decided precedents),

t'iao-ko

(articles and codes),

chao-she

(decrees and amnes-

ties),

and

ling-lei

(miscellaneous ordinances).

123

Though still short of being a comprehensive statutory code, the Ta Yuan

t'ung

chih,

in the view of

modern legal historian, "marked a mature stage in

Yuan legal history because of its substantial content and its adoption of the

structure of the Chinese traditional code as represented in the T'ai

lit," the

code of the Chin dynasty, which, in turn, had been modeled on the T'ang

code.

I24

However, as the code of a dynasty of conquest, the

Ta Yuan

t'ung

chih

did not accept completely the previous Chinese codes. In many ways it

reflected Mongolian customs and the institutional features peculiar to the

121 See Ch'en, Chinese legal tradition under the Mongols, pp. 14—23; and Uematsu Tadashi, "Ishu Shigen

shinhaku narabini kaisetsu,"

Toyoshi

kenkyu, 30 (1972), pp. 1-29.

122 See Ch'en,

Chinese

legal tradition

under the

Mongols,

pp. 24—6; Po-chu-lu Ch'ung, "Ta Yuan t'ung chih

hsii," in Kuo

ch'ao

wen lei, 36, p. 7a.

123 A part of the t'iao-ko section of

the

Ta Yuan t'ung chih has survived and was reprinted in 1930 by the

National Peking Library under the title T'ung chih t'iao ko (Code of comprehensive institutions).

124 Ch'en,

Chinese

legal tradition

under

the

Mongols,

p. 29.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

THE REIGN OF AYURBARWADA KHAGHAN 519

dynasty.

' The Ta Yuan t'ung

chih

and the Yuan tien

chang

(Institutions of the

Yuan),

also compiled in Ayurbawada's reign by either the local government

of Chiang-hsi or private authors, were two milestones in Yuan legal history,

reflecting the Yiian's growing sophistication as a conquest dynasty.

Translation and publication of books

Ayurbarwada khaghan's fondness for Chinese culture and his and his officials'

(especially the Mongols and the se-mu) desire to benefit from Confucian

political wisdom and Chinese historical experience can be seen in the number

and nature of the books translated or published with Ayurbarwada's authoriza-

tion.

126

The Chinese works translated into Mongolian included the Confu-

cian classic Shang shu (Book of history);

127

the Sung compendium compiled

by Chen Te-hsiu (1178-1235), Ta-hsueh yen-i (Extended meaning of the

Great Learning); two works concerned with the great T'ang monarch T'ai-

tsung (r. 627-49), the Chen kuan

cheng

yao (Essentials of the government of

the Chen-kuan period) by Wu Ching (670-749) and the Ti-fan (Plan for an

emperor) written by T'ai-tsung himself for his heir apparent; and the great

history the Tzu chih t'ung

chien

(Comprehensive mirror for aid in government)

by Ssu-ma Kuang (1019-86).

Chinese works published with Ayurbarwada's endorsement include the

Confucian classic the Hsiao ching (Book of filial piety); the Lieh nti chuan

(Biographies of women) by Liu Hsiang (ca. 77-76 B.C.); studies of the

Spring and Autumn Annals by the T'ang scholar Lu Ch'un, as well as the

Yuan official agricultural work Nung sang chi yao (Essentials of agriculture

and sericulture).

I28

125 See Huang Shih-chien, "Ta Yuan t'ung chih k'ao pien," Cbang-kuo she hui

k'ohsiieh,

2 (1987), pp.

157-71;

see also Abe Takeo, "Daigen tsusei no kaisetsu," in his Gendaishi

no kenkyu

(Tokyo, 1972),

PP-

253-3I9-

126 On the translation of Chinese works into Mongolian during the Yuan dynasty, see Walter Fuchs,

"Analecta zur mongolischen Ubersetzungsliteratur der Yiian-Zeit,"

Monumenta

Strica, 11 (1946), pp.

33—46; Herbert Franke, "Chinese historiography under Mongol rule: The role of history in accultura-

tion,"

Mongolian Studies, 1 (1974), pp. 15—26. For some of the studies and annotated translations of

the Hsiao ching, the only surviving Mongolian translation of the Chinese works done in the Yuan

dynasty, see F. W. Cleaves, "The first chapter of

early Mongolian version of the Hsiao Ching," Acta

Orientalia Academiat

Scientarum

Hugaricae,

36 (1982), pp. 69-88; "The second chapter of a Mongo-

lian version of the Hsiao

ching,"

in K. Sagaster and M. Weiers, eds.,

Documenta

Barbarorum.

Festschrift

fur Walter Heissig zum 70. Geburtstag (Wiesbaden, 1983), pp. 272—81; "The eighteenth chapter of an

early Mongolian version of the

Hsiao

ching,"

Harvard Journal of Asiatic

Studies,

45 (1985), pp 225-54.

See also Igor de Rachewiltz, "The preclassical Mongolian version of the Hsiao-ching," Zentralasia-

tischen

Studien, 16 (1982), pp. 7—109; "More about the preclassical Mongolian version of the Hsiao-

ching,"

Zeatralasiatischen Studien, 19(1986), pp. 27—37.

127 On the following translated works, see YS, 24, pp. 536, 544; 25, p. 565; 26, p. 578; 137, p. 3311;

181,

p. 4172.

128 See YS, 24, p. 536; 26, p. 587.

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520 MID-YOAN POLITICS

Although the list of the Chinese works published under Ayurbarwada's

auspices reflects his duty as the Son of Heaven in promoting popular morality

and material welfare, the selection of works for translation also reveals his

pragmatic aims. When he ordered the translation of the

Chen kuan

chengyao,

he gave as his reason the benefits that the state might gain from the work and

expressed his wish that the Mongols and the

se-mu

would study the translated

text. "

It is apparent that the Mongolian monarch wished that the Mongo-

lian and the

se-mu

elites, including

himself,

would learn from Confucian

political philosophy and Chinese historical experience, especially that of the

glorious Tang T'ai-tsung's reign, in order to govern the Yuan state better.

Failure in curtailing

aristocratic privileges

Ayurbarwada's attempt to reform the Yuan state along traditional Chinese

lines could not go very far, as he was unable to centralize the administration

by diminishing the administrative and judicial powers and economic privi-

leges of the Mongolian princes. Despite Khubilai's centralization policies, the

Mongolian princes had been left with considerable administrative, military,

fiscal, and judicial powers in those areas under their appanage administrations

(t'ou-hsia).

*°

Further reduction of their powers was politically hazardous, for

it would have entailed a frontal challenge to one of the most fundamental

principles of the Mongolian-Yuan empire. Ayurbarwada's attempts to reduce

the powers of the princes were aborted precisely for this reason.

In the winter of 1311 the khaghan ordered the abolition of the

jarghuchi

(judges, Chinese:

tuan-shih kuan)

of the various princely establishments and

placed all Mongolian violators of

the

law under the jurisdiction of the battal-

ions

(ch'ien-hu)

to which they directly belonged.

131

Because the

jarghuchi,

representatives of their respective princes, had been in charge of judicial

matters concerning the Mongols under the appanage administration, their

abolition apparently meant the removal of the princes' direct jurisdiction

over the Mongols under them.

The khaghan's order seems to have been

129 YS, 24, p. 544.

130 The literature on the appanages known as the t'ou-hsia under the Yuan is vast. See, for example,

Murakami Masastsugu, "Gencho ni okeru toka no igi," Moko gakuho, i (1940), pp. 169—21;;

Iwamura Shinobu,

Mongoru

shakai keizaishi

no kenkyu

(Kyoto, 1964), pp. 401—69; Paul Ratchnevsky,

"Zum Ausdruck Youhsia' in der Mongolenzeit," in

Collectanea

Mongolica:

Festschrift

fiir

Professor

Dr.

Rintcben zum 60. Ceburtstag (Wiesbaden, 1966), pp. 173-91; and Chou Liang-hsiao, "Yuan tai t'ou

hsia fen feng chih tu ch'u t'an," Yuan shih tun

ts'ung,

2 (1983), pp. 53—76; Hung Chin-fu, "Ts'ung

t'ou hsia fen feng chih tu k'an Yuan ch'ao cheng ch'iian te hsing chih," Cbung-yang

yen

yuan lisbihyii

yen yen cbi so chi-k'an, 58 (1987), pp. 843—907.

131 YS, 24, p. 547.

132 On jargucbi, see Tamura Jitsuzo, Cbugoku seifuku

ochono kenkyu

(Kyoto, 1971), vol. 2, pp. 444-63;

Cha-ch'i Ssu-ch'in (Jagchid Sechin), "Shuo Yuan shih chung te cha-lu-hu-ch'ih ping chien lun Yuan

ch'u te Shang shu sheng," in vol. 1 of his Meng-iu shih lun ts'ung (Taipei, 1980), pp. 241-363.

THE REIGN OF AYURBARWADA KHAGHAN 52I

enforced only for a short time, for it is known that both the prince of Chin,

Yesiin Temiir (Yen-sun Tieh-mu-erh; the future emperor T'ai-ting, r. 1323-

8),

and the prince of Chou (Khoshila; Ho-shih-la), Khaishan's son and the

future emperor Ming-tsung (r. 1329), were allowed in 1316 to have several

jarghuchi appointed under them.

133

The khagan's attempt to undercut the princes" administrative power pro-

voked still more powerful opposition and also ended in failure. Urged by

Temiider (T'ieh-mu-tieh-erh, d. 1322), the grand councillor of the right, in

1315 the khaghan ordered that the right of the princes to appoint

darughachi

(ta-lu-hua-chih), "overseers,"

134

in their appanages would be taken over by the

Secretariat, and the enfeoffed princes would be allowed to appoint only

deputy darughachi.

^ One year later, even the right of the princes to appoint

their own deputy

darughachi

was abrogated. Because the

darughachi

had been

the chief official of the administration of a territorial division under an

appanage and the post was usually filled by a personal retainer of the prince

concerned, these moves provoked strong criticisms from certain imperial

princes and from the Censorate, which charged that the administrations had

departed drastically from both Chinggis khan's agreement with his brothers

and the system set up by Khubilai. In the face of these accusations, the court

was forced to withdraw its reform and in 1317 again allowed the appanage

holders to appoint their own darughachi.

Ii6

Little effort was made in Ayurbarwada's reign to curtail the various impe-

rial grants that had been so lavishly granted to the princes by Khaishan. In

the month of Khaishan's death, Ayurbarwada disbursed 39,650 taels of gold;

1,849,050

taels of silver, 223,279 ting of paper notes; and 472,488 lengths

of silk to the princes who had come to attend his enthronement.'

Both the

annual grants and those for special purposes continued to be as generous as in

Khaishan's reign.'

The khaghan could not make any great reduction. Such

imperial grants were a part of the Mongolian system, and he needed to ensure

'33 Y$i 25, pp. 572—3; YTC, 9, p. 7a See also the discussion by Elizabeth Endicott-West in her

Mongolian

rule in China: Local administration in the Yiian dynasty (Cambridge, Mass., 1989), pp. 96—7.

134 Darughachi is a Mongolian term that literally means the "one who presses," in the sense of affixing a

seal, hence the chief official of an office. Under the Yiian system, the

darughachi

were placed above

titular officials of many central and local government offices. Their function was mainly supervisory

rather than executive. With few exceptions, only Mongols and the

se-mu

were qualified to serve as

darughachi. See Francis W. Cleaves, "Darugha and

gerege,"

Harvard

Journal

of Asiatic Studies, 16

(1953),

pp. 237—59; Cha-ch'i Ssu-ch'in, "Shuo Yiian shih chung te ta lu hua ch'ih," pp. 465—631.

Elizabeth Endicott-West's Mongolian rule in China is the most systematic study of the darughachi.

135 YS, 25, p. 569.

136 YTC, 9, pp. 9a-ioa; YS, 25, pp. 573-4; 26, p. 579. See also Elizabeth Endicott-West's comment

in "Imperial governance in Yiian times," Harvard Journal of Asiatic

Studies,

46 (1986), p. 545, and

her Mongolian rule in China, pp. 97-101.

137 YS, 24, p. 538.

138 Shih Wei-min, "Yuan sui tz'u k'ao shih," p. 148; see also HYS, 78, pp. 7b-9a.

522 MID-YOAN POLITICS

the continued support of the princes, initially for his own enthronement and

later for the appointment of his son Shidebala as the heir apparent, in

violation of the agreement earlier made with his late brother. Moreover, such

grants were necessary because the princes had been impoverished and ur-

gently needed financial subsidy from the court in the form of

grants.

Accord-

ing to the statistics of 1319, the total number of "five-household silk house-

holds"

{wu-hu-ssu

hu) on which the members of nobility depended for their

income had sunk to approximately one-fourth of their original quota set in

1236 when the system had been first established by Ogodei khagan (r. 1229—

41).

139

The khaghan could not decrease their income further without seri-

ously undermining the nobility system, which was an important cornerstone

of the dynasty's political structure.

Economic

and fiscal policies

Ayurbarwada's failure to curtail the imperial grants was just one of the

reasons fot his inability to restore the government's fiscal health. The main

reason was that the khaghan did not have any effective economic-fiscal

policy, nor was he persistent enough in carrying out his other policies. His

basic economic concept was typically Confucian: The way to alleviate the

sufferings of the people was to be sparing in punishments and to lighten taxes

so that they could lead their lives in their own

way.

Consequently, in

addition to abolishing Khaishan's exploitative

policies,

Ayurbarwada's admin-

istration attempted to reduce government expenditures by stopping the pub-

lic building projects begun

Khaishan, cutting the numbers of supernumer-

aries,

and imposing a tighter but still moderate rein on the imperial grants.

If they had been carried out systematically, these policies could have cut

governmental spending. But they were not: The efforts to abolish supernu-

merary offices and to curtail imperial grants were not continued."*

The

khaghan had no other plan to increase state revenue other than by encourag-

ing agriculture early in his reign.'

More drastic measures were taken in 1314 and 1315 when Temiider

assumed his second term as grand councillor. It is not certain how many of

these new measures, which were reminiscent of those of Khaishan's time,

can be attributed to the khaghan

himself.

As we shall see shortly, because

Temiider was Empress Dowager Targi's protege, the khaghan could exert

little control over him, and Temiider's biography in the Yuan shih attri-

139 Iwamura,

Mongoru

sbakai'•

keizaishi noktnkyu, pp. 458—61.

140 YS, 26, p. 577.

141 Li, Yuan sbih

hs'm

cbiang, vol. 3, pp. 377-8.

142 YS, 24, pp. 538, 552, 556, 558.