In this essay I intend to study comprehensively about the vicissitude of Qara Qorum in the 13th and 14th centuries that, as the capital town of the Mongol empire, rose on the Mongol plateau steppe and declined in the wake of the fall of the Yuan dynasty. Qara Qorum began as an operating base camp for the campaign of Chinggis Qan into the western and central Asia that started in 1218. But Qara Qorum as the capital town of the Empire inaugurated after that Ogedei qa`an built the castle of the Qara Qorum and the Man-an palace, and flourished on the money and property that had been looted from the subjugated peoples. The government of Mongke qa`an also resided in the Qara Qorum circuit and began to nominate officials for the administration of the town. But as soon as Qubilai qa`an ascended the throne, government moved to the sourthern Mongolia and northern China, and the empire dissolved into several ulus. As a result the political and military condition of the northern Mongolia became unstabled and Qara Qorum declined rapidly. Since Qubilai qa`an despatched the frontier garrison to Qara Qorum and set up the administrative structure in the last stage of his reign, however, the town revived and developed into the capital town of the northern Mongolia. Above all in 1307 Wu-tsung, Qaishan, founded the Ling-pei province, which organized the northern Mongolia into the ruling system of the Great Yuan ulus, and Qara Qorum became the political and military center of the Lingpei province. By means of the structure the emperors ruled Qara Qorum circuit and controlled the ulus of princes and emirs, who were scattered in the northern Mongolia. Under the rule of Qubilai qa`an, the conquest of the Southern Sung brought a great wealth to the court of the Qa`an. And in the early part of the 14th century the central government of the Yiian dynasty aided the alas of princes and subordinate people of the emirs who suffered from disasters such as zud. There was a massive outflow of the money, grain, and other resources including livestock from China into the Mongolian steppes. There is no doubt that the money and property were transprted to Qara Qoruxn in the first place and distributed to all parts of the northern Mongolia. Consequently Qara Qorum in which many storehouses were located became the core center which linked the nomadic economy of the nothern Mongolia to the economy of the settled people in the China. In the 14th century Qara Qorum became the military and administrative center of the Ling-pei province and also flourished as a base camp to aid the poor nomadic people. Besides, there were some facilities for the education and the religious life of the people who lived in the Qara Qorum circuit. The inhabitants of Qara Qorum must have comprised not only the families of the offials and clerks of the government apparatus and Mongolian, Central Asian soldiers, but also mainly Chinese merchants and artisans. In the outskirts of Qara Qorum there must have been also many Chinese farming soldiers for the military agricultural colonies.
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