Yelü Chucai

Head sculpture by Yelü Chucai in Wuyi Mountain Tea Theme Park

Yelü Chucai ( Chinese  耶律楚材 , Pinyin Yēlǜ Chǔcái , W.-G. Yeh-lü Ch'u-ts'ai ; Mongolian : Urtu Saqal; † June 1243 ), a member of the ruling house of the Kitan , was a high official of the Mongolian state at the time of Genghis Khan and Ugedai Khan .

Live and act

He achieved the revival of social life in northern China and organized the Mongolian state through the following measures: rescue Kaifeng from destruction and prevention of a planned mass murder in northern China (1234), introduction of the tax in the Mongol Empire and a ban on raising arbitrary taxes, insisted on compliance the right path in disputes, further collection of libraries for the education of the nobility, Astrologe , physicians.

“You can raise taxes on land ownership and trade, but you can also make a profit with wine, salt, iron and the products of the mountains and swamps. In this way, you can win 500,000 ounces of silver, 80,000 bales of silk and 400,000 sacks of grain in a single year. How can one say that the Chinese are of no use to you! "

However, Yelü Chucai could not prevent the taxes in northern China from being doubled by a new administrator in 1239. He was attacked several times by the traditional at the Mongolian court, so that the examination of state officials that he had just introduced (long tradition in China) was abolished.

literature

• Igor de Rachewiltz, Hok-lam Chan, Hsiao Ch'i-ch'ing, Peter W. Geier a. a .: In the Service of the Khan: Personalities of the Early Mongol-Yüan Period. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1993, ISBN 3-447-03339-8