Yesün Temür

泰定 · 致和

Reign facts

Reigned: 1323–1328 (5 years)
Lived: 1293–1328
Personal name: Yesün Temür 也孫鐵木兒
Era names: Taiding 泰定 1324–1328Zhihe 致和 1328

Yesün Temür (也孫鐵木兒, 1293–1328) ruled the Yuan dynasty from 1323 to 1328. He is often called the Taiding Emperor after his main era name, Taiding (泰定), used from 1324 to 1328; in his final year the era name was changed to Zhihe (致和).

A son of Kammala and a great-grandson of Kublai Khan, he spent most of his life as Prince of Jin, guarding the Mongol homeland. He came to the throne after the murder of the young Gegeen Khan (Shidebala), and his own death set off the War of the Two Capitals.

The Rise of Yesün Temür

In September 1323 Gegeen Khan was assassinated at Nanpo by a group led by the censor-in-chief Tegshi, with Esen Temür among the plotters. Tegshi was the adopted son of the late chancellor Temüder, whose associates the emperor had been purging. The conspirators offered the throne to Yesün Temür.

According to the official history of the Yuan, Yesün Temür seized the conspirators' envoy, Walus, and sent a warning to Shidebala that arrived too late. Many historians doubt this. Yesün Temür was the chief beneficiary of the plot and probably a party to it; his steward, Dawlat Shah, is said to have been in close contact with the conspirators.

With the imperial seal handed over by the conspirators, he was enthroned in Mongolia in October 1323. At first he rewarded them, making Esen Temür grand councillor of the right and giving Tegshi charge of the Bureau of Military Affairs.

Aware that he would be suspected of a part in the murder, he soon changed course. Before entering Dadu and Shangdu he had Esen Temür, Tegshi and others put to death, fearing that he would otherwise become their puppet. Five princes involved in the plot were exiled to Hainan, Yunnan and other distant places.

Chinese officials urged him to extend the purge to all of Temüder's and Tegshi's former allies and their families. He refused and issued an amnesty instead.

A Reign of Reconciliation

Having come to power through violence and intrigue, Yesün Temür worked to win the widest possible support. His government aimed to reconcile all the important political and religious groups of the empire, and from the start of his reign he showed respect for Confucian tradition, instituting regular lectures on the classics at court.

A large Yuan blue and white dish with a lobed rim, painted with two long-tailed birds among peonies, fronds and fences, inside a wreath of flowers and a lattice border. — Museum exampleA blue and white dish with long-tailed birds in a garden, dated by the museum to the early or mid-14th century, the decades of Yesün Temür's reign and after.Art Institute of Chicago, 1989.84. Public domain.

He also set out to redress the injustices of Temüder's years in power. The names of officials who had been executed were cleared, and members of the Secretariat who had been dismissed or exiled were restored to office.

These were the decades in which potters at Jingdezhen were developing blue and white painted in imported cobalt; the earliest firmly dated examples, the David Vases, carry an inscription of 1351. Porcelain of the period can be seen in our Yuan dynasty porcelain collection.

Death and the War of the Two Capitals

Yesün Temür died at Shangdu in August 1328. Power passed to his empress, Babukhan, and to Dawlat Shah.

At Shangdu, Dawlat Shah installed the emperor's young son, Ragibagh, on the throne. In Dadu, however, El Temür seized power in the name of Tugh Temür, a son of Külüg Khan.

The civil war that followed, known as the War of the Two Capitals, was the bloodiest succession struggle in the history of the Yuan. Shangdu fell to El Temür's forces, and the throne returned to the line of Külüg Khan (Khaishan) for the rest of the dynasty.