Portrait: AI-generated imagined likeness
Politician · Writer · Poet
A Khitan official from Jin who served the Mongol Empire. He organized the administration and finances of the conquered territories and supported the governance of the nomadic empire. He is an important figure in understanding the multi-ethnic bureaucracy of the Mongolian era.
View in catalogZhongdu
Birth
Mongol Empire
Work
administrative consolidation of the Mongol Empire
c. 1218–c. 1244
Political event · Participant
Map: Natural Earth (PD)
He was born in a Khitan family near Jin's Zhongdu and was educated in Chinese literature. When the political order in northern China collapsed due to the Mongol invasion, he chose to serve the conqueror.
He served Genghis Khan and Ogotai and supported the policy of maintaining conquered territories through taxation and administration rather than destroying them completely. He is important as a bureaucrat who was responsible for the practical affairs of a wide-area empire.
Yaris Chuzai is known for his saying, ``Even if you can conquer the world on horseback, you cannot rule the world on horseback.'' It symbolizes that conquest and domination require different abilities.
When we study Yel Chuzai, we learn that the Mongol Empire was supported not only by military power but also by the intellectuals and administrative skills of the conquered regions. This will help us think about the multicultural nature of the Eurasian Empire. It is also possible that it will have an impact on the institutions and memories of later generations.
