though given the limitations of the Yuan government’s control of local
society, this was probably only partially effective. Moreover, Chinese crafts-
men would have been quite capable of producing large numbers of weap-
ons. At the same time, Chinese troops were drafted into Mongol armies at
various times and used the same sorts of martial arts they had used during
the Song Dynasty, including shooting withfirearms. As was always the case,
it was not so much martial arts and weapons that concerned a government
as the subordination of those skills and tools to government authority.
North China remained a highly militarized society, even among the
Chinese. Many local or regional Chinese strongmen accommodated them-
selves to Mongol rule and received, in turn,fiefs under the Yuan Dynasty.
These men, perhaps the most notable of whom was Li Quan, controlled
vast swathes of territory and commanded tens of thousands of armed men.
They were allowed to pass their territories on to their descendants in return
for contributing military manpower to the Yuan emperor’s campaigns and
accepting his rule. Many northern Chinese had been under steppe rule
for almost two centuries by the time the Song house was completely wiped
out in 1279 ,first with the Jurchen Jin and then the Mongol Yuan. Those in
the area around modern Beijing had been under Kitan Liao rule since the
middle of the tenth century before that. Yet those Chinese retained their
sense of ethnic identity for the most part, and indeed were not pressured by
their steppe overlords to adopt steppe culture.
Southern China had not been nearly as militarized and did not fall under
steppe rule until the Yuan defeat of the Song in the late thirteenth century.
Horse archery was not a well-practiced or widespread martial art in the
south, even among the elites. There was all manner of local violence in the
south, however, as endemic banditry induced local leaders to create self-
defense forces. These units fought in the mountainous or riverine terrain of
the south, mostly on foot or in boats. Southern Chinese were also the last
group to come under Yuan authority, and therefore were the most suspect
in the eyes of the government. They were officially classed last, in descend-
ing order, for status in the Yuan.
The place of Chinese people under the Yuan was thus split: northerners
were held in higher regard than southerners. Some northerners gained great
power and operated in many respects like their Mongol overlords. Yet
they understood themselves to be Chinese, not Mongol, and the government
classed them as such. Southern Chinese also regarded themselves as Chinese,
but they made few concessions, or at least as few as they could manage, to
the Yuan government. Mongol garrisons were scattered across China to
ensure order and prevent any uprisings. The Song had tried with very limited
Mongol Martial Arts 141