Empire Like the Wind - An Alternative History of the Yuan Dynasty

Author: Mei Yi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-10-01
Features: The past is like the wind. The glorious Yuan Empire was neither a meteor nor a fleeting flower, nor a regret. That vast behemoth spanning three continents, though brief, was incredibly brilliant. Within its over 12 million square kilometers, the Great Yuan Empire witnessed countless stories and dazzling, flesh-and-blood lives over a hundred years: the empire's frenzied expansion abroad, power struggles within the court, the arduous survival of Northern Han people in the cracks, and the unique independence and immortal creations of intellectuals in literature and art. We are not unfamiliar with the history of the Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties; but how much do we know about the Yuan Dynasty? The tangled threads, the obscure and difficult text, the unmemorable names, combined with the chaos of translation, make reading it like being lost in a fog, creating a significant barrier to understanding Yuan history. Fortunately, there is Mei Yi, a guardian of history. He combs through and organizes numerous materials, uncovers the past, restores history, and writes a clear and vivid history of the Yuan Dynasty, filling a gap in current historical reading.
The past is like the wind. The glorious Yuan Empire was neither a meteor nor a fleeting flower, nor a regret. That vast behemoth spanning three continents, though brief, was incredibly brilliant. Within its over 12 million square kilometers, the Great Yuan Empire witnessed countless stories and dazzling, flesh-and-blood lives: the empire's frenzied expansion abroad, power struggles within the court, the arduous survival of Northern Han people in the cracks, and the unique independence and immortal creations of intellectuals in literature and art. If we temporarily "forget" the cruelty and destructiveness of the Yuan Dynasty's eastward and westward conquests, the vigorous, unstoppable creativity, expansion, competitiveness, and drive of that era still remain awe-inspiring for later generations.