Jayaatu Khan Tugh Temür

Tugh Temür (圖帖睦爾, 1304–1332), who reigned as Jayaatu Khan and is known by the Chinese temple name Wenzong, was an emperor of the Yuan dynasty. He also held the title of Great Khan of the Mongols, although by his time the western khanates acknowledged it only in name.

He reigned twice: from 1328 to 1329, when he stepped aside in favour of his elder brother Kusala, and again from 1329, after Kusala's sudden death, until 1332. His era names were Tianli (1328–1330) and Zhishun (1330–1332).

Tugh Temür was well read in Chinese history and literature and was an accomplished calligrapher, poet and painter. Real power in his reign lay with the general El Temür, but his patronage of art and scholarship left a lasting mark.

Early Life

Tugh Temür was the second son of Khayishan, who reigned as Külüg Khan from 1307 to 1311. His mother was a Tangut, and his half-brother Kusala was the elder son.

When Khayishan died in 1311, the throne passed to his younger brother, Ayurbarwada. The two young princes were then pushed out of the centre of power by their grandmother Dagi, her favourite minister Temüder and their allies in the Khongirad clan, because neither prince's mother came from the Khongirad, the clan that traditionally supplied Mongol empresses.

After Ayurbarwada's son Shidebala came to the throne in 1320, Tugh Temür was exiled to Hainan. Shidebala was assassinated in 1323, and under his successor, Yesün Temür, Tugh Temür's position improved. He was given the title Prince of Huai and was moved first to Jiankang (Nanjing) and then to Jiangling.

The Reign

Two Brothers and Two Capitals

Yesün Temür died at Shangdu in 1328. In Dadu (Beijing), the Kipchak general El Temür seized power in the name of Khayishan's line and, because Kusala was far away in Central Asia, placed Tugh Temür on the throne. The court at Shangdu enthroned Yesün Temür's young son Ragibagh, and a civil war followed, known as the War of the Two Capitals. El Temür's forces won within a few months.

Tugh Temür then offered the throne to Kusala, who was proclaimed khan in Mongolia early in 1329, with Tugh Temür as his heir. When the brothers met that summer, Kusala died suddenly, very probably poisoned by El Temür's party, and Tugh Temür returned to the throne.

Rewards and Recognition

Tugh Temür's government rewarded its supporters generously. Princely titles were granted on a large scale, imperial grants were restored in 1329, and property confiscated from the defeated Shangdu faction was given to the princes and officials who had backed the restoration of Khayishan's line.

To secure recognition as overlord of the Mongol world, he sent princes with lavish gifts to the Golden Horde, the Ilkhanate and the Chagatai Khanate. He also sent gifts to Eljigidey, the Chagatai khan, who had been a strong supporter of Kusala. The responses were favourable, and relations with the western khanates were closer during his reign than they had been for some time.

El Temür and Bayan

Government in these years was dominated by El Temür and by Bayan of the Merkid clan, the two men most responsible for the restoration. They received honours and power greater than any Yuan official before them, built strong bases in both the army and the bureaucracy, and largely overshadowed the emperor. Tugh Temür honoured his father's former ministers with titles and gave the leaders of the restoration most of the important posts.

Patronage of Art and Learning

Tugh Temür's most lasting contribution was cultural. In 1329 he founded the Kuizhangge, the Pavilion of the Star of Literature, an academy attached to the palace where scholars and connoisseurs, among them the writer Yu Ji and the painter and critic Ke Jiusi, studied and catalogued the imperial collection of calligraphy and painting. He also commissioned the Jingshi Dadian, a great compendium of the institutions and statutes of the Yuan state, completed in 1331.

Unrest

The civil war, campaigns against rebellions among the peoples of the southwest and a series of natural disasters placed heavy strains on the state's resources. A rising in Yunnan proved particularly slow and costly to suppress, although the general Aratnashiri eventually defeated the Lolo (Yi) chiefs and other mountain peoples. Discontent grew at court, and a plot to overthrow the emperor by a descendant of Ananda, the prince who had contested the throne in 1307, was discovered and punished.

Death and Succession

El Temür's hold on the court and the bureaucracy remained firm until the end of the reign. Tugh Temür died in 1332, aged twenty-eight. On his deathbed he is said to have expressed remorse over the death of Kusala and asked that the throne pass to Kusala's line rather than to his own son.

His widow, Budashiri, first placed Kusala's younger son on the throne as Rinchinbal Khan, but the boy died within two months. Kusala's elder son then succeeded as Toghon Temür, the last Yuan emperor to rule China.

Porcelain of the Period

Yuan porcelain was not marked with reign titles, so no piece can be tied to Tugh Temür's reign by its mark. His years fall within the second quarter of the fourteenth century, however, the period in which Jingdezhen's underglaze blue and white reached maturity, and much of the finest Yuan blue and white is attributed to these decades. Examples can be seen among our Yuan dynasty porcelain.