The Coming of Kubilai Khan

In the 13th century the Mongol Empire began advancing on China. Mongols destroyed the Jin state north of the remainder of Song territory in 1234. But Song forces held off Mongol assaults on the Yangzi River provinces. So the Mongols decided to capture Sichuan and then outflank the empire from the southwest. Without waiting for the full conquest of Sichuan, Kubilai Khan marched a huge army out of its camps in Gansu, south through the mountains of western Sichuan, and crossed the Dadu River. the traditional boundary between Dali and Song. He then swept into Yunnan at Yongning, near Lugu Lake, easily crushing the feeble resistance put up by local Mosuo and Pumi.

Before moving on, Kubliai formally annexed the territory and left behind some Mongol officers to run it for him. These men married Mosuo women and their descendants became the ruling clan in the district, the only patrilineal clan in an otherwise strongly matrilineal people, The Khan did not interfere with their customs or lifestyle, nor make exorbitant demands for taxes or manpower.

Moving south, the Mongol army reached the Yangzi, in Yunnan called the Jinshajiang (River of Golden Sand), east of present-day Lijiang, The local Naxi, rather than resist, helped Ktihilai’s forces cross the river on goatskin rafts. Then they guided the Mongols to the Lijiang Plain, where the army camped at what is now the Old Stone Bridge in the old town of Dayan. Kubilai invested the Mu chieftain of Lijiang's Naxi with the authority to run the county in his name. To express his gratitude for Naxi assistance and cooperation the Khan also established a Naxi classical music orchestra and left them scores of Tang and Song Dynasty court music. Boasting the oldest continuous classical music tradition in all of China, the Naxi orchestra has survived to this day, still playing the music the Khan left them.

Kubilai's next stop, in fact his main objective, was Dali, After one skirmish outside the wall's northern gate, the Dali king surrendered. As at Lijiang, the Khan left him with all practical power, but the Kingdom of Dali lost its independence. Kubilai marched east. formally annexed Yunnan and appointed General Saidianchi Zhansiding its Governor. The general was a Central Asian Muslim, under whose rule large numbers of Hui soldiers (Muslim Chinese) came to settle in the province. Hui today in Dali honour Yunnan's first governor in an annual commemorative rite the 16th day of the 4th lunar month.

Vulnerable now on all frontiers, the Song government steadily weakened and In 1279 it fell. The new Yuan Dynasty ruled a bigger than ever China, which incorporated Yunnan for the first time in its history. But life did not improve much in Yunnan now that it was part of the Celestial Empire, Tribes in the remote areas resisted authority and the Dai principalities in the south were largely unaffected by the conquest, But the following century, when Mongol authority began to crumble elsewhere in China, and the new Ming Dynasty reestablished Han political control of the Middle Kingdom in 1368, Yunnan still hosted a large Mongol presence.

Fearing the Mongols might regroup and use Yunnan as a base to attack China, Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang in 1381 decided to drive them out of Yunnan once and for all. Had there been no Mongols left in Yunnan then it's possible Hong Wu would have left it alone, like his Song predecessors. But there were, Ming troops confronted them at the Baishi River near Qujing, completely crushed them, then chased down fugitive Mongols all over central Yunnan, One group only managed to escape, live in disguise, change their way of life and wait until the political climate improved enough for them to admit they were Mongols. This community survives today in Tonghai County, at the foot of Peacock Hill in Hexi township.