A Mongol Minister with a Han Heart: The Legendary Story of the Yuan Imperial Tutor

The northern desert, lashed by wind and snow. Blades and axes at his throat.

At death’s door, the Han Confucian Yao Shu wagered on the stars and won a moment of mercy from Kublai, the dragon of the grasslands.

From then on, he would not be a slave of a fallen kingdom. He vowed to become a ferryman for Chinese civilization.

From the thunderous intrigues of Kublai’s princely court to farming settlements south of the desert, he used double-entry bookkeeping to expose corruption and waterworks plans to bring clear springs;

from the struggle for power to the construction of Dadu, he helped Kublai secure the Central Plains and personally shaped an imperial capital destined to last a thousand years.

This is no simple wish-fulfillment tale of political intrigue, but an epic about a hard-nosed man of action.

See how Yao Shu, amid the fierce collision between Mongol cavalry and Han civilization, wielded Confucianism as a sword and civilization as a shield,

rebuilding order amid the ruins of barbarism and keeping the flame of Han civilization alive.

The Great Yuan’s Imperial Tutor sought no power or position. He only wanted the people of this land to live with dignity.