This is a timeline of the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). The Yuan dynasty was founded by the Mongol warlord Kublai Khan in 1271 and conquered the Song dynasty in 1279. The Yuan dynasty lasted nearly a hundred years before a series of rebellions known as the Red Turban Rebellion resulted in its collapse in 1368 and the rise of the Ming dynasty.
Reusable fire lance barrels made of durable paper are employed by Jin troops during the Mongol siege of Kaifeng.[4]
1237
Large bombs requiring several hundred men to hurl using trebuchets are employed by Mongols in the siege of Anfeng (modern Shouxian, Anhui Province).[6]
Möngke Khan launches an investigation into Kublai Khan's activities and subjects officials in Henan and Shanxi to interrogation, executes Kublai's chief pacification officer in Shanxi, and imposes large levies on Shanxi[18]
Kublai Khan's forces cross the Yangtze and lays siege to Ezhou, however he receives news of Möngke Khan's death and Ariq Böke's mobilization, forcing hm to withdraw and deal with his brother[25]
The rebellion in Tibet is suppressed and Drogön Chögyal Phagpa is reinstated along with a Mongol pacification commissioner[15]
Kublai Khan creates the "General Administration for the Supervision of Ortogh" (Muslim merchant association) to lend money at low interest to the ortogh[30]
Kublai Khan declares himself emperor of the Yuan dynasty and for the first time, annual sacrifices at the altars of Soil and Grain are done in the Chinese style[41][47]
Battle of Bun'ei: The Japanese are losing at Hakata Bay until a large storm strikes. The Koreans recommend the Mongols to take shelter in their ships and head out to open sea until the storm subsides, which they do, and die. Several hundred ships are shattered and the expedition loses 13,000 lives. The remaining forces sail home.[55]
"Eruptors," cannons firing co-viative projectiles, are employed in the Yuan dynasty.[68]
A major accidental explosion occurs in China when a Yuan gunpowder storehouse at Weiyang, Yangzhou catches fire and explodes, killing 100 guards and hurling building materials over 5 km away.[69]
Kublai Khan dispatches Sodu to lead a naval invasion of Champa due to their king Indravarman V's refusal to accompany a tribute mission to the Yuan court[62]
Chen Guilong rebels against Mongol rule and rebellion breaks out in Fujian; both are defeated[73]
Mongol invasions of Sakhalin: Mongols under the command of Tata'erdai (塔塔兒帶) and Yangwuludai (楊兀魯帶) numbering up to 10,000 men invade Sakhalin and eventually reach the southern tip of the island[80]
Battle of Bạch Đằng (1288): Vietnamese forces under Prince Trần Hưng Đạo ambush and destroy Omar's fleet.[85] Despite that, Vietnamese king Trần Nhân Tông accepts the supremacy of the Yuan dynasty by become tributary in order to avoid further conflicts.
The Heilongjiang hand cannon is dated to this year based on contextual evidence and its proximity to the rebellion by Mongol prince Nayan, although it contains no inscription.[86][87]
Mongol invasion of Java: Yuan forces invade Java and experience initial success but are betrayed and ambushed by Raden Wijaya, forcing them to flee before the monsoon winds end[78]
A new examination system based on Neo-Confucianism is promulgated; racial and elite quota system is implemented to limit successful examination candidates to 100 per metropolitan exam, and as a result ranked officials recruited through the examinations only amount to 4% of the Yuan bureaucracy[105]
A frustrated Chinese clerk by the name of Fan Meng carries out a mass murder of officials and seizes Bianliang, the capital of Henan, but is soon defeated. This event triggers a general purge of Chinese from sensitive bureaucratic positions.[126]
Yang Weizhen remarks upon the population imbalance between northern China and southern China, noting that the population of one northern county is equal to a single southern Chinese lineage[132]
1349
Wang Dayuan provides the first account of a visit to Taiwan and also notes substantial settlements of Chinese traders and fishermen on the Penghu Islands[133]
1350s
Year
Date
Event
1350
Cast iron technology becomes reliable enough to make one-piece iron cannons in China.[134]
Toqto'a mobilizes 20,000 troops and 150,000 commoners under the direction of Jia Lu to stabilize the Yellow River and dredge the Grand Canal where it had become filled with silt[138]
Andrade, Tonio (2016), The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History, Princeton University Press, ISBN978-0-691-13597-7.
Atwood, Christopher P. (2004), Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire, Facts On File
Chase, Kenneth (2003), Firearms: A Global History to 1700, Cambridge University Press, ISBN0-521-82274-2.
Knapp, Ronald G. (1980), China's Island Frontier: Studies in the Historical Geography of Taiwan, The University of Hawaii
Jackson, Peter (2005), The Mongols and the West, Pearson Education Limited
Nakamura, Kazuyuki (2010). "Kita kara no mōko shūrai wo meguru shōmondai" 「北からの蒙古襲来」をめぐる諸問題 [Several questions around "the Mongol attack from the north"]. In Kikuchi, Toshihiko (ed.). Hokutō Ajia no rekishi to bunka 北東アジアの歴史と文化 [A history and cultures of Northeast Asia] (in Japanese). Hokkaido University Press. ISBN9784832967342.
Needham, Joseph (1986a), Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth, Taipei: Caves Books
—— (1986g), Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Engineering, Part 1, Physics, Taipei: Caves Books
—— (1986b), Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Engineering, Part 2, Mechanical Engineering, Taipei: Caves Books
—— (1986c), Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 3, Civil Engineering and Nautics, Taipei: Caves Books
—— (1986d), Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 1, Paper and Printing, Taipei: Caves Books
—— (1986e), Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 4, Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Apparatus, Theories and Gifts, Taipei: Caves Books
—— (1986h), Science and Civilization in China: Volume 6, Biology and Biological Technology, Part 1, Botany, Cambridge University Press
—— (1986f), Science & Civilisation in China, vol. V:7: The Gunpowder Epic, Cambridge University Press, ISBN0-521-30358-3
Partington, J. R. (1960), A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder, Cambridge, UK: W. Heffer & Sons.
Rubinstein, Murray A. (1999), Taiwan: A New History, East Gate Books
Trekhsviatskyi, Anatolii (2007). "At the far edge of the Chinese Oikoumene: Mutual relations of the indigenous population of Sakhalin with the Yuan and Ming dynasties". Journal of Asian History. 41 (2): 131–155. ISSN0021-910X. JSTOR41933457.
Lo, Jung-pang (2012). Elleman, Bruce A. (ed.). China as a Sea Power, 1127-1368: A Preliminary Survey of the Maritime Expansion and Naval Exploits of the Chinese People During the Southern Song and Yuan Periods. Singapore: NUS Press. ISBN9789971695057.
Twitchett, Denis (1994), The Cambridge History of China, Volume 6, Alien Regime and Border States, 907-1368, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN0521243319
Twitchett, Denis (1998), The Cambridge History of China Volume 7 The Ming Dynasty, 1368—1644, Part I, Cambridge University Press
Twitchett, Denis (1998b), The Cambridge History of China Volume 8 The Ming Dynasty, 1368—1644, Part 2, Cambridge University Press
Twitchett, Denis (2009), The Cambridge History of China Volume 5 The Sung dynasty and its Predecessors, 907-1279, Cambridge University Press