The New Student's Reference Work/Kublai-Khan

Kublai-Khan (ko͞o′blī-kän), the grand khan of the Mongols and the founder of the Mongol dynasty in China, was born in Tartary in the early part of the 13th century and died at Peking in 1294. He was an able and energetic prince, and, after overthrowing the Sung dynasty of southern China, compelled Korea, Cochin-China, Burma, Java and some Malabar states in India to acknowledge his supremacy. He encouraged men of letters, made Buddhism the religion of the state, and manifested great interest in the welfare of his people. He established himself at Kaanbaligh or City of the Khan, modern Peking, and there founded the new dynasty of Yuen, the first foreign race of kings that ever ruled over China. Kublai's dominions extended from the Arctic Ocean to the Strait of Malacca and from Korea to Asia Minor and the confines of Turkey, a territory the extent of which had never before and has never since been governed by any monarch in Asia. The splendor and magnificence of his court inspired the graphic pages of Marco Polo, who spent considerable time in Peking during his reign, and at a later date the imagination of Coleridge. See Yule's Marco Polo; Howorth's History of the Mongols; and Curtin's.