Imatges de pàgina
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A SPLENDID COURT.

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were ever admitted into his inner confidence; but in his acts he evinced a politic tolerance towards all creeds, and none could say that he favoured one more than another.

But if Kublai was tolerant or indifferent in matters of religious belief, he was very firm in requiring from all prayers and adoration for himself as the Emperor of the realm. Priests were appointed and particularly enjoined to offer up prayers on his behalf before the people, who were required to attend these services and to join in the responses. About the same time Kublai also adopted the Chinese practice of erecting a temple to his ancestors, whom he named for several generations before Genghis. Coins with his image stamped upon them were circulated freely, and images of himself were sent to the principal towns to be paid reverence to by the people. These decrees were all passed before the year A.D. 1270, and no means were spared for rendering his rule popular with his new subjects. At first it will be perceived that he identified himself with no cause or party in particular; but, as time went on, and as he appreciated the situation more accurately, he discarded this impartiality, and identified himself with many of the prejudices and views of the mass of the Chinese people.

Naturally fond of pomp, and knowing how much the masses are impressed by the glitter of a gorgeous court, Kublai caused a state ceremonial to be drawn up of a magnificent character. His courtiers were required to dress after a uniform fashion, and to appear in fixed apparel on all state occasions. His banquets were of the most sumptuous description. Strangers from foreign states were admitted to the presence, and dined at a table set apart for travellers, while the great king himself feasted in the full gaze of his people. His courtiers, generals, and ministers, attended by a host of servitors, and protected from enemies by twenty thousand guards, the pick of the Mongol army; the countless wealth seized in the capitals of numerous kingdoms; the brilliance of intellect among his chief adherents and supporters; the martial character of the race that lent itself almost as well to the pageantry of a court as to the stern reality of battle; and, finally, the majesty of the great king himself—all

combined to make Kublai's court and capital the most splendid at that time in the world. The gossipy, but shrewd and observant, Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, whose account of the countries of Asia illustrated an unknown continent, describes, in his own quaint way, the mode of life and the ceremonies in vogue at Kublai's capital. The curious in such matters will find that after six centuries the interest has not departed from his pages, which give us corroborative proof of the evidence we have from other sources.

When Kublai returned from his first campaign against Arikbuka he proclaimed his intention of proceeding no more to the wars. Henceforth he would, he said, conduct his military operations, not in person, but by his lieutenants. He was led to this decision partly by his increasing years,* and partly by the extent of his Empire, which necessitated vigilance at all points. For even before the overthrow of the Sungs he was meditating fresh conquests, and either actuated by some conviction of political necessities of which we must necessarily be ignorant, or goaded into action by the irrepressible energy of his race, he had resolved on prosecuting an enterprise for which no necessity existed and the benefit of which was more than doubtful. That enterprise was the invasion of Japan.

The old connection between China and the islands of Japan has been several times referred to, and it has been stated that the ruling dynasty in that country was supposed to trace back its descent to Taipe, a Chinese exile in the twelfth century before our era. At various periods the relations between the two states had been drawn more closely together than the intercourse usual between neighbours; and although the Emperor of China had always been allowed a

*

Kublai was born in the eighth month of the year A.D. 1216, and was the fourth son of Tuli, himself the fourth son of Genghis by his favourite wife. He was proclaimed Khakhan on his brother Mangu's death in A.D. 1260. Marco Polo describes his appearance as follows:-" He is of a good stature, neither tall nor short, but of a middle height. He has a becoming amount of flesh, and is very shapely in all his limbs. His complexion is white and red, the eyes black and fine, the nose well formed and well set on." His conquest of Yunnan in A.D. 1253–54 was the most remarkable of his military achievements.

THE JAPANESE.

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superior position, and had sometimes asserted his shadowy claims to exact feudal rights, the Japanese Government had none the less maintained and preserved its independence with good-tempered firmness. There had been one conflict between the states in the case of Corea, but the result had been to inspire them with a mutual respect. The islanders of "the rising sun," safe in their insular position, had remained undisturbed by the great Mongol outpouring which had revolutionized the face of Asia. If they were aware of the startling changes on the mainland, nothing more than the echo reached their shores. Kublai was apparently piqued at their indifferent attitude towards his power, and resolved at an early stage in his career to bring them within the sphere of his influence.

In A.D. 1266, Kublai had sent two envoys with a letter from himself to the King of Japan, complaining that no friendly message had been received since his accession to power, and that it would be well to repair this omission as soon as possible in order to avoid the horrors of war. But neither the envoys nor the letter reached their destination. The Mongol messengers travelled by way of Corea, which held more intercourse with Japan than the other countries of Northern China, and which was allied on terms of friendship with Kublai; but when requested to assist these envoys in reaching their destination, all the Coreans did was to point to the danger and difficulty of the voyage, and to expatiate on the inaccessibility of Japan. Unaccustomed to the sea, these Mongols were easily dissuaded from their undertaking, and returned to Kublai's court without having delivered their letter or accomplished any portion of their mission. After this abortive attempt, the continued silence or indifference of the Japanese was treated as proof of their hostility. Two years later, in A.D. 1268, Kublai sent orders to the Corean ruler to collect his naval and military forces and to hold them disposable for his service. The war with the Sungs was still far from being settled, and it was uncertain whether Kublai would employ this auxiliary force against Japan or against the Chinese; but the Corean king promised to place at the service of the Mongols a fleet of one thousand vessels and ten

thousand men.

Kublai sent one of his officers to inspect, and apparently also to instruct, the forces of this new ally and dependent.

In the following years Kublai's attention was frequently directed to the consideration of the subject of how he might best accomplish the chastisement of the Japanese, and as soon as the result of the Chinese war had become well assured, he adopted more active measures for the attainment of his object. In A.D. 1274 he sent a small fleet of three hundred vessels and fifteen thousand men against Japan, but the result was unfortunate. The Japanese attacked it off the island of Tsiusima, and inflicted a great defeat upon the Mongols. Apparently the larger portion of this fleet consisted of the contingent provided by the King of Corea; and Kublai does not seem to have thought that his military honour was in any degree involved in this disaster, for in the years immediately following he showed greater inclination than at any previous time to come to terms with the Japanese. The Japanese, inflated by their naval victory, and confident in their insular position, refused to yield, in either form or substance, to the pretensions of Kublai, and, at last, either anxious to show the firmness of their resolve or desirous of bringing the tedious discussions to an end, they caused some of the Mongol envoys to be murdered in A.D. 1280. This violation of the laws common to all humanity, left Kublai no choice save to vindicate his majesty. He was the less disinclined to make the attempt because the conquest of Southern China had been completed, and a large body of disbanded Chinese troops, who had deserted from the Sungs, were available for military operations. At the time it must have seemed that the Japanese had chosen a bad moment for bringing their differences with a formidable enemy to a head.

During the year A.D. 1280-81, great preparations were made in all the harbours of Kiangsu, Chekiang, and Fuhkien for the expedition which was to punish and subdue the bold islanders who had openly defied the great conquerors of the continent. The fleets and the armies released by the destruction of the last vestiges of Sung power were concentrated in the eastern seaports, and a large number of the survivors

INVASION OF JAPAN.

363 of the Chinese armies were re-enlisted for the purposes of this war. The total force to be employed considerably exceeded one hundred thousand men, of whom it is not probable that more than one-third were Mongols. The large number of native troops employed is shown by, among other circumstances, the harbours from which they set out, which were Kincsay and Zayton (Chinchow), the nearest and most convenient for the despatch of the troops stationed in the south. A preferable plan, because minimizing the sea-voyage for the inexpert Mongol sailors, would have been to have concentrated the army of invasion in Corea, and to have thence directed it against Japan. But this would have involved much preliminary marching to and fro, and the courage of the Chinese recruits would probably have evaporated long before a start could have been made. Moreover, the war was far from popular with the Mongols themselves, and the principal object of the Pekin Council was to get the business done as quickly as possible, and before the army had relaxed the energy which counts for so much in the prosecution of a war. Although, therefore, it entailed a long sea-voyage, it was from the harbours of Zayton and Kincsay that this great armada set sail.

As is often the case in an army composed of mixed nationalities, two generals were appointed to the command, one a Chinese and the other a Mongol; but the arrangement did not in this or in any other instance conduce to harmony. Numerous points arose for settlement, but they proved only provocative of dissension. One general fell ill and had to resign his command, and another disappeared during a storm

When the wind-shattered fleet reached the islets off the south-western coast of Japan, it was reduced in numbers and the men were disheartened in courage. The Japanese fleet was hovering round it in readiness to attack whenever a favourable opportunity offered, and on the chief island of Kiusiu the Japanese forces mustered in great numbers. A fresh storm destroyed many more of Kublai's war-junks, and drove others out to sea to be never again heard of; and when the army, in despair, endeavoured to construct fresh vessels for their return journey the Japanese assailed them with all

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