Leiden University Student Repository

Hang, Maaike Xhu Wan (2018)

A Tale of Three Cities Three Case Studies ~ Shangdu, Dadu and Jining during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368)

Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)

This thesis investigates how the cities Yuan Shangdu, Dadu and Jining compare when looking at their locations, layouts, trading positions, and distribution of material objects that were retrieved at archaeological excavations. The three case studies on the three cities portray their significance during the Yuan dynasty, on cultural, economic and political level. The thesis compares two capital cities of the Yuan dynasty and one hinterland city. The case studies structurally compare the layouts, which are all three very different from each other. Material objects that were excavated at the archaeological sites of Shangdu and Jining, imply that Shangdu was not so much a trading city but rather served the Yuan court, whereas Jining was a trading city in the hinterlands of the Yuan where many ceramics and other material objects were excavated. Dadu on the other hand, played an important role on both imperial political as trading levels.

Mongol Empire

Yuan dynasty

cities

archaeology

Chinese

Mongols

Author

Hang, Maaike Xhu Wan

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Asian Studies

Supervisors

Weerdt, Hilde de

ECTS Credits

25

Language

en