The migration and exchanges of ethnic groups during the Song and Yuan Dynasties effectively promoted the integration of Chinese and Western cultures.

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In the year of the Mongolian Western Expedition, Genghis Khan launched the first Western Expedition of the Mongol Khanate. He used the advanced military technology of the Han and Western Liao, and assembled siege weapons such as ballistae, rockets and flying muskets to carry out the campaign. The war led to the destruction of Khwarezm (east of the Caspian Sea and south of the Syr Darya River), the campaign against Kipchak (west of the Caspian Sea, north of the Black Sea) and Oros (west of the Volga River, around Moscow and Kiev), and the conquest of Kangli (north of the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea). After the death of Genghis Khan, Jochi's second son Kipchak Khan Batu and the famous Mongol and Yuan Empire general Subutai conducted the second Western Expedition from 1235 to 1244. Kipchak pacified Russia, defeated Poland, and conquered Hungary. . During the reign of Xianzong Mengge, he sent Tuolei's sixth son Hulagu to conduct the third Western Expedition from 1253 to 1260. The Mongols occupied the Caspian Sea and Mesopotamia, completed the invasion of barbarians, destroyed Baghdad, and captured military objectives in Syria.

Stills of Genghis Khan

After the three Mongolian expeditions to the west, European peoples had large-scale migrations. The Mongols migrated a large number of conquered people to the East, including captured craftsmen, The deported people also included upper-class elements who brought their family members to surrender, as well as people of various ethnic groups who voluntarily defected to the Mongolian army and engaged in business. After Wokuotai succeeded to the throne in 1229, he selected Harakhorin (near present-day Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) as the capital, and Holin became a bustling international city. After Kublai Khan established his capital in Dadu (Beijing), he built the greatest city in the world at that time, gathering people from all over the world. Mongolia's western expedition and the smooth flow of east-west traffic, as well as the unprecedented active international relations, caused people from Kipchak, Oros, Asov, Kangli, Persia, Syria, Japan and European Christian countries to live in China; while *** and Mongolia People also immigrated to India and the rest of the world in droves; the migration and exchanges of these ethnic groups effectively promoted the integration of Chinese and Western cultures.

Stills of Kublai Khan

The Chinese culture of the Kipchak Khanate The main residents of the Kipchak steppe in southern Russia are called Polovtsians by the Russians , Europeans call it Cuman. They are the descendants of Kumoxi who migrated westward from northeastern Hebei and Inner Mongolia in the early 12th century. Kumoxi and Khitan have the same origin as Donghu, and are a branch of the Yuwen tribe of Xianbei. They played an important role in spreading northern Chinese culture. After the Mongols ruled Russia and the Bolovtsi Steppe, Khitan and Mongolian culture spread deeply into every corner of the region. Russian life has been infected by Mongolian culture, such as the adoption of oriental clothing. The pronunciations of boots, gowns, belts, round hats, etc. in Russian all come from Mongolian and Khitan. Also introduced into Russia were daily utensils and weapons, which were commonly used by local residents. Around the 13th century, the Mongolians spread the tea-drinking habit to western Asia, and possibly to Russia a little later. Tea in Turkic, Mongolian, Persian, Russian and Indian languages ??are all literal translations from Chinese.

The Mongols

The Yuan Dynasty began to use the abacus, which was the simplest and most effective calculation tool in the ancient world. By the 14th century abacus had spread to Russia and Poland. The first mention of Chinese printing in European literature was in Paul Jovi's "Secular History" published in 1550. It was the first time that Chinese printing was introduced to Europe through Russia. Silk and porcelain were sold overseas during the Song and Yuan Dynasties. By the 13th and 14th centuries, all maritime traffic between South India and China was controlled by Chinese sailing ships. Among China's export goods, in the early Song Dynasty, gold, silver, minced coins, lead, tin, variegated silk, and porcelain were the main products, with silk and porcelain being the most important. Silk is shipped from Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Mingzhou to Japan, North Korea, Southeast Asia, India, and other countries. Most silk exports in the Yuan Dynasty were shipped through Quanzhou. Porcelain was also exported from the three major coastal ports of Guangzhou, Quanzhou and Ming Dynasty. The export of porcelain was most prosperous from the Southern Song Dynasty to the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and lasted for four centuries from the 12th to the 15th century.

Abacus

Since the 14th century, with the large-scale export of Chinese porcelain, *** painted pottery and Persian glazed pottery were gradually replaced by Chinese porcelain, and the Maritime Silk Road in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The navigation industry in the Song and Yuan Dynasties was very developed. In the sixth year of Xuanhe's reign in the Song Dynasty (1124), Xu Jing wrote the "Illustrated Book of Xuanhe's Envoy to Goryeo" after he was envoyed to Goryeo, recording this grand sailing activity. The Yuan Dynasty inherited and developed the maritime tradition of the Southern Song Dynasty. Emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty appointed Pu Shougeng, a famous navigator of the Southern Song Dynasty. He is a native of Quanzhou. He has been in charge of shipping for more than 30 years. He owns a large fleet and controls foreign trade. Emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty also reused "sea heroes" Zhu Qing and Zhang Yi who were pirates. Zhu and Zhang created new offshore routes and deep-sea shipping routes in the early Yuan Dynasty. There is a poem by Zhang Yu from the Yuan Dynasty: "In the early days of the Republic of China, shipping came from Zhu Zhang, and millions of ships crossed the ocean" ("Zhang Guangbi Poetry Collection"), which reflects the grand momentum of the Yuan Dynasty's maritime career. The main characteristics of maritime trade during the Song and Yuan Dynasties.

Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty

Changes in the nature of maritime trade. Overseas trade before the Tang Dynasty was "tribute trade" with the purpose of expanding foreign political influence, and only Guangzhou shipping envoys were set up. Overseas trade during the Song and Yuan Dynasties changed from "tributary trade" to "ship trade" which focused on expanding fiscal revenue.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, in addition to Guangzhou, there were municipal shipping departments in Hangzhou, Mingzhou (now Ningbo, Zhejiang), Quanzhou, Mizhou (now Jiao County, Shandong), Xiuzhou (now Jiaxing, Zhejiang) and other places to specialize in managing foreign trade affairs. . In the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, the annual shipping revenue reached 630,000 yuan, which became an important financial revenue in the Northern Song Dynasty. The scale of overseas trade in the Yuan Dynasty expanded further. The Yuan Dynasty established seven shipping companies on the southeast coast, including Quanzhou, Shanghai, Kanpu (southwest of Haiyan, Zhejiang today), Wenzhou, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Qingyuan (now Ningbo, Zhejiang). At that time, there were no less than 250 types of imported and exported goods, and more than 140 countries and regions traded with China.

Maritime trade

High level of navigation technology and shipbuilding technology. "Da Yuan Shipping Records" compiled by Qing Dynasty scholar Hu Jing from "Yongle Dadian" records the Yuan people's huge maritime grain transport fleet composed of more than 1,800 sea boats. The navigators of the Yuan Dynasty had mastered a high degree of navigation technology. They were good at using ocean currents and monsoon winds, and used "marks to indicate shallowness" to navigate to ensure safe navigation. The famous African Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta wrote about Guri in his "Travel Notes": "The entire trade of that country is in the hands of Chinese ships." "Each ship has a thousand people, that is, six sailors. "One hundred people, four hundred sergeants", "Each ship has four decks and many public and private cabins with dressing rooms and various equipment for passengers." There are "fifty sails" and "masts rising and falling on rotating shafts" on the sea ships. The use of wind direction is enough to prove the advanced shipbuilding level and the spectacular scale of navigation in the Yuan Dynasty.