A Cross-Cultural Study On The Making Of The Staff Team With Emperor Kubla

Conjoined as a dynasty in Chinese history, the Yuan Dynasty served a very significant part in the historical development of the Chinese nationality, the founder of which was Kublai Khan, the fifth Khan of the Mongolian Empire, the grandson of Genghis Khan.It should be pointed out, that Kublai Khan, unlike his ancestors who only resorted to pure looting, thought highly of the Chinese native culture, and succeeded in founding a country with a convergence of multi-nationalities, by assimilating and absorbing "the Canon held by Tang and Song Dynasty""the system adopted by Jin Dynasty" and "the established codes of the dynasty then". As to this changed policy, many elements gave rise, among which, and which initiated this enlightenment and aided Kublai in action mostly, was his "Group of Special Aides and Staff", who came into being at the time of his "pre-coronation", the core figures being a legion of erudite Confucian scholars and elites of hereditary peerages from the Chinese nationality.Evidently, in terms of different social natures and cultural levels, the gap between the Mongolian nationality and the Chinese nationality was enormously huge, with the former a pure "nationality on horse" engaging in husbandry, and the latter a highly developed agricultural civilization of a long history. Against this huge cultural divergence, Kublai Khan founded his special Group of Staff, under the joined efforts of the people from two different cultures.The present dissertation adopts a trans-cultural perspective, aiming to explore the medium and means by which the two different cultures were combined and mingled, as well as the functions of their respective native values and mentalities held by the different ethnic groups in contributing to this later convergence.The paper unfolds what contributes to the formation of Kublai Khan’s Group of Staff from three aspects:religions, ethics and values.The religions played a very import role as a medium in this formation, which found their manifestation in three places: firstly, Buddhists and Taoists preached the Confucian Ethics on Benevolence in the name of and amidst their preaching doctrines of Buddhism and Taosim. Secondly, some Buddhist elite officials distinguished themselves as a result of Kublai’s confirmation of Buddhism by helping Kublai "enormously" in his efforts to seize power and found a dynasty.One major means of the foundation of his staff group was through "ethic-relationship":that was, his staff members were brought together by way of "consanguinity", to form the core in his group. Such a typical representative was Liu Bingzhong, with Liu Bingzhong-centred "corrugated ring based on ethic relationship", all of whom were Kublai’s core figures and policy makers.As it goes, such core figures as Liu Bingzhong around Kublai would recommend other people they are familiar with and related to ethically, who, in turn, recommend their own acquaintances, thus forming another and another "expanding corrugate ring-within-ring". The fundamental reason why this could happen, was a result of "the appropriate times which produced heroes". Such "cultural heroes" just rose with the call of the times at the tumultuous turn of age and cultural conflict; the ideas of the world and the social values on the both ethic groups gradually converged and quite corresponded with those required of that age, and it was just this convergence and correspondence between the two ethic groups that brought such a staff group into being.Concretely speaking, this correspondence between the Mongolian and the Confucian, was manifest in three aspects:first, the idea of "heaven and man" on the part of the Confucian scholars and the idea of a liberal and open ruler on the part of Kublai Khan, second, the mingled ideas of sovereignty and subject with the characteristics of the Chinese Confucianism on the part of Kublai and the ideas of reciprocal relations of sovereignty and subject on the Chinese Confucian part, third, the way to recruit talents on the part of Kublai and "eagerness to be employed" mentality on the part of the Confucian scholars ready to serve. All of this contributed to the formation of such a powerful staff group, who were willing to gather around Kublai in the far north across far and near, goaded by their similar attitudes towards the world and the life. Based on my above study of Kublai’s staff group from the inter-cultural perspective, it is hoped that this dissertation could enrich the range of content with a new vision; next, hopefully, it can add something substantial to the study of Chinese culture; and last, it can provide a "typical case" in terms of cultural communication and studies.