The capital of the Yuan Dynasty /

Before the arrival of the Mongols, present-day Beijing was the site of the Jin capital under the Jurchens. After it was sacked by Genghis Khan in 1215, the city was virtually laid waste. Later, the Mongols built a separate city north of the Jin capital site, which substantially overlapped the Ming-Qing city of Beijing. In 1267, Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai Khan designated it as his main capital, Dadu, and went on to found the Chinese-style Yuan dynasty there in 1271. The city lost its capital status in 1368 when Mongol rule in China was overthrown. Originally written in Chinese and translated into English, this book is authored by a well-known Song-Yuan scholar in the PRC and is a worthwhile effort to systematically examine various aspects of Dadu, including its prehistory, construction, layout, and political, economic, and cultural life, and ends with a chapter devoted to a brief history of the city in the last days of the Yuan dynasty. It cites a rich body of modern, especially traditional, Chinese sources. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. --Victor Cunrui Xiong, Western Michigan University