The Kins were driven back into Manchuria; and the Chinese without asking leave of their allies reoccupied their old capital.  But the revival of the Sungs was no part of the Mongol programme.  The Sungs declining to evacuate K’ai-fung-fu and to cede to the Mongols the northern half of the empire, the latter resolved on a war of extermination.  After a bitter struggle of fifteen years, the infant emperor and his guardians again committed their fortunes to the sea.  The Mongols, more lucky than the other Tartars, were victorious on water as well as on land; and the last scion of the imperial house drowned himself to escape their fury (1280).

[Page 131] CHAPTER XXIV

THE YUEN OR MONGOL DYNASTY, 1280-1368
(10 Emperors)

Kublai Khan—­First Intercourse of China with Europe—­Marco Polo—­The Grand Canal

Parts of China had been frequently overrun by foreign conquerors; but the Mongols were the first to extend their sway over the whole country.  The subjugation of China was the work of Kublai, grandson of Genghis, who came to the throne in 1260, inheriting an empire more extensive than Alexander or Caesar had dreamed of.  In 1264 the new khan fixed his court at Peking and proceeded to reduce the provinces to subjection.  Exhausted and disunited as they were the task was not difficult, though it took fifteen years to complete.  Ambition alone would have been sufficient motive for the conquest, but his hostility was provoked by perfidy—­especially by the murder of envoys sent to announce his accession.  “Without good faith,” says Confucius, “no nation can exist.”

By the absorption of China the dominions of Kublai were made richer, if not greater in extent, than those of his grandfather, while the splendour of his court quite eclipsed that of Genghis Khan.

Unknown to the ancient Romans, China was revealed to their mediaeval successors by the Mongol [Page 132] conquest.  In 1261 two Venetian merchants, Nicolo and Matteo Polo, made their way to Bokhara, whence, joining an embassy from India, they proceeded to Kublai’s capital at Xanadu (or Shangtu) near the site of Peking.  They were the first white men the Grand Khan had ever seen, and he seems to have perceived at once that, if not of superior race, they were at least more advanced in civilisation than his own people; for, besides intrusting them with letters to the Pope, he gave them a commission to bring out a hundred Europeans to instruct the Mongols in the arts and sciences of the West.

In 1275 they returned to Peking without other Europeans, but accompanied by Marco Polo, the son of Nicolo.  They were received with more honour than on their first visit, and the young man was appointed to several positions of trust in the service of the monarch.  After a sojourn of seventeen years, the three Polos obtained permission to join the escort of a Mongol princess who was going to the court of Persia.  In Persia they heard of the death of their illustrious patron, and, instead of returning to China, turned their faces homeward, arriving at Venice in 1295.