The Northern Yuan Dynasty (Mongolian: ᠬᠦᠮᠠᠷᠳᠦ ᠥᠨ ᠥᠯᠥᠰ, Chinese: 北元; pinyin: Beǐ Yuán) refers to the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty that had retreated north to Mongolia after the expulsion from China in 1368, until the emergence of the Qing Dynasty in the 17th century. The Northern Yuan Dynasty began with the end of Mongol rule in China and this period was marked by factional struggles and the often only nominal role of the Great Khan. The period before 1388, when Toghus Temur was murdered near the Tuul River, is sometimes referred to as the Northern Yuan. It is also referred to as Post-Imperial Mongolia or Mongolian khanate in some modern sources. In Mongolian chronicles this period is also known as The Forty and the Four, meaning forty tumen eastern Mongols and four tumen western Mongols.
Dayan Khan and Mandukhai Khatun reunited the entire Mongol nation in the 15th century. However, the former's distribution of his empire among his sons and relatives as fiefs caused the decentralization of the imperial rule. Despite this decentralization there was a remarkable concord within the Dayan Khanid aristocracy and intra-Chinggisid civil war remained unknown until the reign of Ligden Khan (1604–34).
The last sixty years of this period are marked by intensive penetration of Tibetan Buddhism into Mongolian society.
Famous quotes containing the word northern:
“That we can come here today and in the presence of thousands and tens of thousands of the survivors of the gallant army of Northern Virginia and their descendants, establish such an enduring monument by their hospitable welcome and acclaim, is conclusive proof of the uniting of the sections, and a universal confession that all that was done was well done, that the battle had to be fought, that the sections had to be tried, but that in the end, the result has inured to the common benefit of all.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)