bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

David Wilson

Kublai Khan

by John Man

Bantam, $290

Simon Schama   set the bar sky-high. In A History of Britain,  the Columbia University professor told his tale with a passion and panache that won him global acclaim. Schama is a hard act to follow.  Rival historians are liable to look a touch plodding.

John Man is no journeyman, though. As he did in his biography of Genghis Khan, in his latest effort Man physically explores the land ruled  by Genghis' successor, Kublai Khan, delivering a fusion of history and travelogue in dramatic fashion.

A highlight is his visit to the shrine of the war god Mahakala,  which lurks inside the White Pagoda: a temple commissioned by Kublai, set to the west of the Forbidden City. Man describes Mahakala's portrait as consisting of 'a black face, three staring eyes, a ferocious snarl, fangs, a head-dress of skulls set in yellow hair'.

Kublai worshipped this terrifying figure. This form of piety underlined that he was much more than the enigmatic Xanadu playboy portrayed in Kubla Khan, the classic poem by the English romantic writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Born in 1215, Kublai was the  brilliant fourth son of Tolui, the youngest of Genghis' four sons by his favourite wife. From 1252 to 1259, Kublai helped his brother Mongke  conquer southern China, penetrating as far as Tibet and Tonkin. In 1260, after Mongke's death, Kublai arrived at his residence of Shang-tu (Coleridge's Xanadu), in southeastern Mongolia to become the khan, or king. In 1264, he founded his capital on the site now occupied by Beijing, then gradually strengthened  his grip on the nation. Perhaps his greatest triumph came in 1279, when he established the Yuan dynasty as the heir to the house of Song (the last Song emperor was drowned at  sea).

He should have stopped there. Instead, intent on enforcing  tribute claims, he invaded a  series  of bordering states.

Admittedly, he succeeded in conquering Korea and was partially successful with Burma, now Myanmar. But his  campaign against Vietnam proved a failure. 'There's a lesson in this on which the spirit of Kublai and the Americans would agree: never, ever tangle with the North Vietnamese,' Man writes.

Tangling with Java and Japan (twice) also proved disastrous  for Kublai. The Japan expeditions  almost destroyed his fleet. 'Every setback made him more determined to repair the tattered mantle of invincibility, and every effort tore it more,' Man writes.

But Kublai still succeeded in laying the foundations for modern China and doubling the empire he inherited from Genghis. His kingdom sprawled from the Pacific to the Urals, from Siberia to Afghanistan - 60 per cent  of all Asia, or one-fifth of the world's inhabited land.

And Kublai innovated, among other things introducing paper currency, albeit with inflationary consequences. At the same time, he fostered the advancement of literature and the arts, tolerating most faiths, but adhering to Buddhism, which he made the state religion. Famed across Asia and in Europe, his court attracted an array of adventurers, including the Venetian voyager Marco Polo.

Kublai had style, although - unlike Genghis, who died suddenly and mysteriously - he went downhill before his death in 1294. 'As he became less active, as his powers waned, he put on weight, ballooning year by year into extreme obesity,' Man writes. 'He must have known it would kill him, but he didn't care.'

Nonetheless, Kublai was a class act with progressive credentials, such as using community service. ''Prisoners are not a mere flock of sheep,' Kublai said. 'How can they be suddenly executed? It is proper that they be instead enslaved and assigned to  pan gold with a sieve.''

'There speaks a man who knew how to get the best from his assets,'  Man writes.

Those who can cope with his personal diversions into pagodas, will find his populist take on how a grassland barbarian helped propel China 'from Xanadu towards superpower' intriguing.



Kublai Khan