The Yuan dynasty: Mongol rule and the enrichment of TCM

In 1279, Kublai Khan, grandson of the legendary Genghis Khan, completed the conquest of China by defeating the Southern Song dynasty. For the first time in history, the entire Chinese empire came under foreign rule — that of the Mongols, who named their dynasty the Yuan. The Yuan period (1279-1368) is one of the most controversial in Chinese history: a time of subjugation and cultural tension on the one hand, but also of unprecedented international exchange on the other. For Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Yuan period was a time of theoretical deepening and intercultural enrichment.

Kublai Khan: from conqueror to patron

Kublai Khan was a remarkable ruler. Whereas his ancestors had primarily been conquerors, Kublai Khan showed a genuine interest in Chinese culture and governance. He established his capital in Dadu — present-day Beijing — and organized his empire largely according to Chinese bureaucratic traditions. He was tolerant toward different religions and philosophies, and his court was a cosmopolitan center where scholars, merchants, diplomats, and physicians from all parts of the world came together.

The famous Venetian traveler Marco Polo spent years at the court of Kublai Khan and described in his travel account the wealth and refinement of the Yuan dynasty to an astonished European audience. In his eyes, China was the richest and most civilized country in the world — an image that the Yuan dynasty, despite its Mongol origins, had managed to uphold.

The Four Great Physicians and theoretical deepening

It was precisely in the Yuan period that the "Four Great Physicians of the Jin-Yuan period" reached their peak. Liu Wansu emphasized the role of fire and heat in pathology and developed cooling treatment strategies. Zhang Congzheng advocated aggressive purging therapies to drive pathogenic factors out of the body. Li Dongyuan — whose work the Bi Wei Lun (Treatise on the Spleen and Stomach) stands at the center of — emphasized the importance of the Spleen as the center of health. Zhu Danxi developed the theory of Yin deficiency as a central cause of disease, with nourishing, Yin-tonifying treatments as the response.

These four schools of thought enriched TCM with new theoretical perspectives and treatment strategies that complemented the one-sidedness of earlier approaches. The intellectual freedom offered by the Yuan court — despite, or perhaps because of, foreign rule — made this theoretical pluralism possible.

Decline and fall

After the strong early emperors, the Yuan dynasty gradually slipped into decline. Power struggles, court intrigues, and a series of catastrophic disasters — including the Black Death, which reached China from Central Asia via the Mongol trade routes — undermined the authority of the Yuan emperors. Peasant uprisings broke out, and the young rebel Zhu Yuanzhang gradually expanded his sphere of influence. In 1368 he conquered the capital Dadu and expelled the last Yuan emperor. As the first emperor of the Ming dynasty, he ascended the throne under the name Hongwu Emperor — and began a new chapter in Chinese history.