Külüg Khan

Khayishan (海山), who took the Mongol title Külüg Khan, ruled the Yuan Dynasty from 1307 to 1311. He is also known by his Chinese temple name, Wuzong, and his era name was Zhida (至大, 1308–1311). He is counted as the seventh Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, although by his time the other Mongol khanates no longer accepted the Yuan emperor's authority in practice.

He was a great-grandson of Kublai Khan, the eldest son of Darmabala and his wife Dagi of the Khongirad clan, and the elder full brother of Ayurbarwada, who succeeded him. A seasoned frontier commander, he won the throne with the backing of his army. His short reign was marked by lavish spending and a currency reform that fed inflation.

Frontier Commander

Khayishan was born in 1281. In 1299, still a young man, he was sent to Mongolia to take command of the Yuan armies facing Kaidu, the Ögedeid prince who had long challenged Kublai and his heirs from Central Asia, and his ally Duwa, khan of the Chagatai Khanate.

In 1301 Khayishan fought a hard battle against Kaidu's forces. Kaidu died shortly afterwards, reportedly of wounds received in the fighting. In recognition of his service Khayishan was made Prince of Huaining in 1304.

After Kaidu's death his son Chapar and Duwa fell out, and the Yuan took advantage of the division. Khayishan's campaigns in 1306 pushed deep into the western steppe and brought the surrender of several princes who had followed Kaidu, among them Melig Temür, a son of Ariq Böke.

These victories gave Khayishan great prestige among the Mongol princes and the army. His uncle, Temür Khan, had no surviving son, and Khayishan became a leading candidate for the throne.

The Succession Crisis of 1307

When Temür Khan died early in 1307, his widow, Empress Bulughan of the Baya'ud, took control of the court. She had earlier sent Dagi and her younger son Ayurbarwada away from the capital, and she now planned to place Ananda, Prince of Anxi, on the throne. Ananda was a grandson of Kublai and a popular commander in the north-west, and he was a Muslim. He had the support of senior officials at court, but not the troops to hold the capital.

Supporters of Darmabala's sons, led by the chancellor Harghasun, acted first. Ayurbarwada was recalled to Dadu, the capital, and in a palace coup Bulughan and Ananda were arrested.

Khayishan, meanwhile, marched from Mongolia with some 30,000 troops. Ayurbarwada and their mother had to accept that the elder brother, with the army behind him, would take the throne. The brothers agreed that Ayurbarwada would be named heir, and that the succession would then return to Khayishan's line.

Khayishan was enthroned at the summer capital, Shangdu, in June 1307, and duly made Ayurbarwada crown prince. Bulughan and Ananda were put to death.

The Reign of Emperor Wuzong

Early in his reign the emperor ordered the distribution of a Mongolian translation of the Classic of Filial Piety (Xiaojing), the Confucian text on the duties of children to parents and subjects to rulers.

He rewarded the princes and officials who had supported him with enormous gifts, and handed out titles and offices freely. He also began building a new capital, Zhongdu, north of the Great Wall, on the route between Dadu and Shangdu.

Buddhism at Court

Like his predecessors, Külüg Khan was a generous patron of Tibetan Buddhism. He supported the translation of Buddhist scriptures into Mongolian by the monk Chos kyi 'od zer, and his court is recorded as ordering harsh punishments, including mutilation, for anyone who assaulted or insulted Buddhist monks. Grants to monasteries and the cost of Buddhist ceremonies added to the pressure on the treasury.

Debt and Inflation

By 1309 the emperor's generosity had emptied the treasury. He revived the Department of State Affairs to take charge of finance and issued a new paper currency, the Zhida notes, at a rate of one new note to five of the older Zhiyuan notes. The reform amounted to a sharp devaluation, and prices rose. Copper coins, the Zhida tongbao, were also cast.

Porcelain in the Early Fourteenth Century

For collectors, the reign falls in the decades when Jingdezhen was becoming the leading porcelain centre of China. A Porcelain Bureau had been set up there under Kublai in 1278. The kilns were producing bluish-white qingbai wares and the thick, matt white wares known as shufu, and within a generation they would perfect blue and white painted in imported cobalt. Our Yuan dynasty porcelain collection shows pieces from the dynasty.

Death and Succession

Külüg Khan died in January 1311, before his thirtieth birthday, after less than four years on the throne. Ayurbarwada succeeded him as Ayurbarwada Buyantu Khan.

The new regime, dominated by the emperor's mother Dagi and her Khongirad allies, quickly purged Khayishan's ministers, abolished his Department of State Affairs, withdrew the Zhida notes and abandoned the building of Zhongdu.

Ayurbarwada later broke the agreement of 1307 and named his own son, Shidebala, as heir. Khayishan's sons were sent away from court. Both eventually reigned, however: Kusala and Tugh Temür took the throne in 1328–1329 after a civil war that restored Khayishan's line.