What does Kublai Khan think of his grandfather, Genghis Khan?

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Chinggis Khan (the Mongolian pronunciation of Genghis), despite his rather negative portrayal in most western literature from the 13th century to present, has quite a different reputation among the Mongols and many inner Asian peoples, dating right back to his final years. By the time of his death in August 1227, Chinggis Khan had brought the Mongol tribes from near total disunity, to near total domination of much of Asia. To quote Timothy May:

"Chinggis Khan may have died a man, but he entered the spirit world as a powerful demi-god... he not only unified Mongolia, but also rendered all potential enemies impotent. He avenged the massacre at Otrar, the death of Yesugei, the insult to Ambaghai - he was an avatar of vengeance, a god of war, and a creator hero who brought writing and stability to the Mongols. His sulde, a part of his soul or genius, took residence in the tuq or standard of the Mongols and offered protection to the ruler and to the Mongols in general. As a result, his words were sacred and became bileg, or 'wisdom', and proper behaviour for Mongols (yosun); the words, deeds and wisdom of Chinggis Khan became analogous to the sunna of the Prophet Muhammad in Islam. Since Chinggis Khan had decreed his son Ogodei his heir, this could not be disputed." (May, the Mongol Empire, 2018, pg. 70-71).

It is hard to overstate Chinggis Khan's image among the Mongols following his death. He was not just an ideal ruler, he was the ideal ruler, the bar by which nearly every would-be Khan, warlord and conqueror between the Caspian Sea and China would be compared to for the next six centuries. So strong was his legacy that it kept cousins living across the span of the Eurasian landmass working towards a common goal for decades. A unique combination of personal charisma, political, organizational and military skill, an utterly indomitable character and excellent timing lead him to unify and forge the tribes under his command into Asia's fiercest weapon.

Chinggis' shadow hung over all of his successors, who had to try to live up to him Chinggis was being mythologized before he was even dead: how could any man compare to that? Kublai had met Chinggis when he was a boy -there exists an anecdote of Chinggis rubbing animal fat on to the fingers of Kublai and his older brother Mongke after their first hunt- but was quite young when Chinggis died (Kublai was born in 1215, Chinggis died in 1227). Chinggis had many, many grandchildren, and Kublai would have been but one among them. Kublai never knew Chinggis as anything other than a immense, heroic figure, an impossible standard to live up to. That wasn't so much as issue for Kublai for the first half of his life, as there was little chance of him ever becoming Great Khan, and under the guidance of his mother Sorqaqtani Beki, took an interest in Chinese culture and took little for military roles. But when the position of Qa'an was taken by his brother Mongke in 1251 (the Toluid Revolution), Kublai was thrust into leading campaigns against the Kingdom of Dali in modern Yunnan, and then against the Song Dynasty of southern China, before ultimately becoming Qa'an after Mongke's death in 1259.

For control of this position, Kublai fought his brother Ariq Boke in a four year civil war, the first in the Empire's history. Even by then Kublai was associated with Chinese culture by more conservative Mongols, with Ariq the standard bearer of 'traditional values.' This would be an issue which haunted Kublai over the rest of his long life, and that of his successors in the Yuan Dynasty. While Kublai ultimately defeated Ariq Boke and was proclaimed Great Khan in 1264, his election was never fully recognized by the other newly emerging Khanates. Kublai is the most famous Qa'an after Chinggis, but his reign oversaw the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire into independent Khanates and difficulties portraying himself as an Emperor of China to his Chinese subjects, and as a Great Khan to his Mongol followers and the military, never fully succeeding as either. He completed the conquest of China begun by Chinggis in 1211, (1209 if we want to count the Tangut campaigns!) but his continued foreign ventures -Japan, Vietnam, Burma, Indonesia- were all failures, and he saw rebellion in Mongolia and Central Asia, his cousins Qaidu and Nayan (and others) forming barriers to Kublai's influence outside of China, even threatening the original Mongol capital of Karakorum at times.

As Kublai's life drew to a close, he was predeceased by his closest confident, his beloved wife Chabi, his chosen heir Jingim, most of his friends and skilled advisers from earlier in his life. His final years were marked by isolation and removing himself from political affairs, depressed, suffering from gout, obesity and alcoholism. Military defeats, political corruption, economic trouble and the irreversible fragmentation of the empire haunted him. The specter of Chinggis Khan's success, I feel, must have weighed him down above all. Compared to the accolades the Mongols laid upon Chinggis, I believe Kublai must have come to see himself as a failure in comparison to his illustrious grandfather. Of course, Kublai made no such public statement: it would be today like an American politician saying they though George Washington wasn't all that great. In general, little of Kublai's personal thoughts come down to us. Chinggis Khan's final years saw the utter defeat of Khwarezm and the Tangut, laying the groundwork for further expansion: while Kublai saw the Mongols pushed back and the empire fall apart.

For this reason, Kublai almost certainly held Chinggis Khan in the highest regard. Certainly, he put many a posthumous title and ceremony upon his honoured grandfather and his loyal compatriots. He ordered portraits and historical works to celebrate him, and publicly showed nothing but devotion and respect. Yet, he could very well have come to hate the comparisons to him. Chinggis was an ideal Kublai could never live up to, and try as he might, the same glory only eluded him. Had he died in 1280, we might have spoken on his successes and his what his potential could have been had he lived longer: dying in 1294 as he did, we can only imagine how Kublai suffered a sense of the empire slipping from out of his grasp, and how it was his own fault.

Sources:

Timothy May, the Mongol Empire (2018)

Morris Rossabi, Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times (1988). Still the most concise, readable and detailed single biography on Kublai, though it is obviously missing newer historiography.