LEGEND MONGOL KUBILAI KHAN EMPEROR OF THE YUAN DYNASTY: LEGEND MONGOL KUBILAI KHAN EMPEROR OF THE YUAN DYNASTY. ILLUSTRATED BY: TOM DASHNYAM OTGONTUGS (LEGEND MONGOL ILLUSTRATED BOOK) Hardcover – January 30, 2026

Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, founded the Yuan Dynasty in 1271 and became the first non-Han emperor to rule all of China, conquering the Southern Song in 1279. Kublai Khan (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder and first emperor of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China. He proclaimed the dynastic name "Great Yuan" in 1271 and ruled Yuan China until he died in 1294.Kublai was the second son of Tolui by his chief wife, Sorghaghtani Beki, and a grandson of Genghis Khan. He was almost 12 when Genghis Khan died in 1227. He had succeeded his older brother Möngke as Khagan in 1260, but had to defeat his younger brother Ariq Böke in the Toluid Civil War lasting until 1264. This episode marked the beginning of the division of the Mongol Empire. Kublai's real power was limited to the Yuan Empire, even though, as Khagan, he still influenced the Ilkhanate and, to a significantly lesser degree, the Golden Horde.In 1271, Kublai established the Yuan dynasty and formally claimed orthodox succession from prior Chinese dynasties. The Yuan dynasty came to rule over most of present-day China, Mongolia, Korea, southern Siberia, and other adjacent areas. He also amassed influence in the Middle East and Europe as Khagan. By 1279, the Yuan conquest of the Song dynasty was completed, and Kublai became the first non-Han emperor to rule all of China proper. As emperor, he ordered invasions of Japan, Vietnam, Burma, and Java.Early yearsKublai Khan was the fourth son of Tolui and his second son with Sorghaghtani Beki. As his grandfather Genghis Khan advised, Sorghaghtani chose a Buddhist Tangut woman as her son's nurse, whom Kublai later honored highly. On his way home after the Mongol conquest of Khwarezmia, Genghis Khan performed a ceremony on his grandsons Möngke and Kublai after their first hunt in 1224 near the Ili River. Kublai was nine years old and, with his eldest brother,r killed a rabbit and an antelope. After his grandfather smeared fat from the killed animals onto Kublai's middle finger per a Mongol tradition, he said, "The words of this boy Kublai are full of wisdom, heed them well – heed them all of you." The elderly Genghis Khan would die three years after this event in 1227, when Kublai was 12. Kublai's father, Tolui, would serve as regent for two years until Genghis' successor, Kublai's third uncle Ogedei, was enthroned as Khagan in 1229.After the Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty in 1236, Ogedei gave Hebei (attached with 80,000 households) to the family of Tolui, who died in 1232. Kublai received an estate of his own, which included 10,000 households. Because he was inexperienced, Kublai allowed local officials free rein. Corruption amongst his officials and aggressive taxation caused large numbers of ethnic Han peasants to flee, to a decline in tax revenues. Kublai quickly came to his appanage in Hebei and ordered reforms. Sorghaghtani Beki sent new officials to help him, and tax laws were revised. Thanks to those efforts, many of the people who fled returned.The most prominent, and arguably most influential, component of Kublai Khan's early life was his study and a strong attraction to contemporary Han culture. Kublai invited Haiyun, the leading Buddhist monk in northern China, to his ordo in Mongolia. When he met Haiyun in Karakorum in 1242, Kublai asked him about Buddhist philosophy. Haiyun named Kublai's son, who was born in 1243, Zhenjin.Haiyun also introduced Kublai to the formerly Taoist and at the time Buddhist monk, Liu Bingzhong. Liu was a painter, calligrapher, poet, and mathematician, and he became Kublai's advisor when Haiyun returned to his temple in modern Beijing. Kublai soon added the Shanxi scholar Zhao Bi to his entourage. Kublai employed people of other nationalities as well, for he was keen to balance local and imperial interests, Mongol and Turkic. Read more