Yelü Chucai's Policies of Mongol Rule

Timeline

1. 1229Mongolian Plateau · Mongolian PlateauAfter Ögedei ascended at the kurultai in 1229, he summoned Yelü Chucai to participate in central deliberations. Yelü Chucai had offered counsel on campaign since the time of Genghis Khan, advocating institutionalized governance in place of pure military plunder, and gradually gained trust in the khan's court, becoming the chief adviser on Chinese affairs.
2. 1229–1230North China · North ChinaYelü Chucai strongly urged Ögedei to cease large-scale massacres of cities and population transfers, advocating household-based taxation to fill the treasury rather than one-off plunder. He proposed principles such as 'do not conscript from the poor, do not extort from the rich,' opposing the killing of surrenderers for short-term wealth, which allowed the agricultural economy of North China to recover and provided a grain and provisions foundation for the subsequent war of conquest against Jin.
3. 1229–1230Mongol Empire · Mongol EmpireYelü Chucai proposed involving Chinese scholars in local governance, selecting Confucian scholars, Uyghurs, Khitans, and other talents from various peoples as officials, and planned to establish a Central Secretariat in the Central Plains to oversee Chinese civil administration and finance. This marked the first systematic introduction of a Central Plains-style bureaucratic apparatus by the Mongol regime; though it sometimes conflicted with the traditional Mongol notion of 'conquering the world but not sitting in rule over it,' it laid the foundation for the institutions of the early Yuan.