Yelu Chucai Yaroslav pursued a very active foreign policy; he supported and promoted international trade Russian merchants successfully traded as far as the Byzantine Empire, France, Hungary, Norway, and Persia He built alliances with several central European and western powers through dynastic marriages, as his daughter Elizabeth was married to Harald III of Norway, daughter Anna to Henry I of France, and Anastasia to Andrew I of Hungary Yaroslav was married to a Swedish princess and his sister married a Byzantine prince This cemented the high prestige of the Kievan Rus state, and Yaroslav’s dynasty in Europe Yaroslav died in 1054, respected as a successful builder of the centralized Kievan Rus state In his will he divided his domain among his five sons, entrusting the Kievan throne to his eldest son, Izaslav However the state was ripped apart very soon after Yaroslav’s death by his ambitious, but not farsighted sons See also Vikings: Russia Further reading: Florinsky, M T Russia: A History and Interpretation New York: MacMillan, 1954; Freeze, Gregory, ed Russia: A History Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002; Hosking, G Russia and the Russians: A History London: Allen Lane, 2001; Hrushevsky, Mykhailo, et al History of Ukraine-Rus’, From Prehistory to the Eleventh Century Englewood, NJ: Ukrainian Academic Press, 1997; Kliuchevskii, V O A History of Russia New York: E.P Dutton, 1911– 1931; Kocherha, Ivan Yaroslav the Wise: A Drama in Verse Trans by Walter May Kiev: Dnipro, 1982; Riasanovsky, Nicholas V A History of Russia Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005 Rafis Abazov Yelu Chucai (1189–1243) Chinese statesman Yelu Chucai belonged to the Yelu clan of the Khitan Liao dynasty, which ruled northeastern China 916– 1125 After the fall of Liao his branch of the family remained in northern China and served the Jin (Chin) dynasty (1115–1234) that had destroyed Liao He was thoroughly Sinicized, a follower of Confucian philosophy, and also practiced Buddhism The Mongol army captured him in 1215 and three years later he was sent to Mongolia He so impressed Genghis Khan in an interview that Genghis appointed him scribe and court astrologer; he accompanied Genghis on campaigns to Central Asia between 1216 and 1219 435 When Ogotai Khan succeeded his father as grand khan in 1229, a debate ensued among his advisers on the general policy directions The extreme faction advocated the extermination of the agricultural population of northern China and use of the land for pasturage Yelu Chucai argued forcibly in favor of letting the people live and taxing them, which would generate more revenue and benefit the imperial treasury in the long run Ogotai decided to give Yelu Chucai’s proposal a one-year trial period Yelu Chucai devised a plan that assessed every adult a fixed tribute paid in silk yarn or silver, and every farming family a set grain tax This fixed and predictable tax that everyone had to pay was preferable to the random and ruthless looting up to that time, and for the Mongol government resulted in increased revenue As a result Ogotai appointed Yelu Chucai head of his secretariat that oversaw the administration for North China; he would use his position to push for more reforms One was to take a census for more accurate tax assessment Another was to apply the Jin code for administration of laws for the Chinese population because the Mongol code was unsuitable for a sedentary culture In 1238 he was able to hold examinations for the Chinese population across North China A quarter of the candidates still had the status of prisoners of war or slaves of the Mongols The exams were based on the Confucian Classics, and over 4,000 men passed However Ogotai employed few of those who passed and only in very lowly posts This was because the Mongol rulers had no intention of sharing power with their Chinese subjects Yelu Chucai also had limited success in his tax reforms because of Ogotai’s constant demand for more revenue and orders to increase taxes at will He turned to a system of tax farming relying on his Central Asian supporters to collect taxes and keeping a portion for themselves Central Asians were also favored as moneylenders, who loaned money to farmers to pay their taxes and charged over 100 percent per year in interest Ogotai also created numerous appanages (fiefs) for his relatives and supporters, who were able to mistreat the people under their control without government interference Yelu Chucai died in 1243 in Karakorum His great contribution was to persuade Ogotai not to exterminate the conquered northern Chinese population His reforms were largely put aside in favor of Mongol policy interests Further reading: Franke, Herbert, and Denis Sinor, eds Cambridge History of China, Vol 6: Alien Regimes and Border States 907–1368 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994; de Rachewiltz, Igor, Hok-lam Chan, Hsiao Ch’i-ch’ing, and Peter W Geier eds In the Service of the Khan: Eminent