Why did the Yuan Dynasty resist "Confucianism"? How was the Confucian system restored?

The Yuan Dynasty was founded by the Mongols. It can be said to be the first unified dynasty established by ethnic minorities in Chinese history. Genghis Khan laid the foundation for the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty in all aspects. Genghis Khan did not value Confucian culture, but valued intellectuals with other religious and cultural backgrounds. Many Confucian intellectuals could only serve as low-level staff within the government agencies of the Yuan Dynasty. The ruling class of the Yuan Dynasty were all nomadic people. Their cultural foundation and knowledge background were determined by their origin. It was okay for them to conquer the world, but it was more difficult for them to govern the country. They fail to realize the importance of Confucian culture to the Chinese nation, especially its majority Han nationality.

Kublai Khan inherited the practices of Genghis Khan in the early days of his rule. In the early days of his rule, Kublai Khan paid special attention to the ideological dominance of religion and culture in China. Kublai Khan personally met with more than 100 Christian elders. He regarded Christianity, Taoism, and Islam as more important ideological weapons than Confucian culture. In order to better strengthen ideological control, he established the Xuanzhengyuan, the core institution for managing religious culture across the country. Kublai Khan particularly valued the role of Buddhist thought in controlling the thoughts of the people across the country. He directly appointed Buddhist masters such as Pasiba and others as imperial teachers.

The Mongolian rulers of the Yuan Dynasty resisted Confucian culture because they wanted to use other religious cultures, especially Buddhist culture, to replace the ruling role of Confucian culture over the Han people, further assimilate the entire Han people, and make the Han people completely bow their heads and obey the Mongols. rule. However, this policy of the Mongols was extremely failed. They did not realize that Confucian culture had influenced the Han people's ideology for thousands of years. This cultural root was deep-rooted and difficult to change in a short time. The traditional Confucian ideological concepts of benevolence, justice, propriety, wisdom, and trust have penetrated into every word and deed of every Han Chinese. In order to resist the spread of Confucian culture, the Mongols actually stopped the imperial examinations that had been passed down for four to five hundred years. The senior officials of the Yuan Dynasty were all Mongolians and Semu people. Confucian intellectuals never rose to prominence, and the Han people became the oppressed people at the bottom of society.

These retrograde cultural policies of the Mongols aroused fierce resistance from the Han people, and ethnic and social contradictions intensified unprecedentedly. Kublai Khan had to resume the imperial examination in the 42nd year after the founding of the Yuan Dynasty, promoted and elected a large number of Confucian intellectuals to serve as senior officials of the Yuan Dynasty, and had to promote Confucianism as the ruling ideology of the dynasty. Kublai Khan was the first emperor in the history of the Yuan Dynasty to realize that Confucian traditional culture played an important role in strengthening centralization and monarchy. He was also the first Mongolian emperor to be sinicized.