Biography
Family Background and Early Years
Liu Bingzhong, courtesy name Zhonghui, was originally named Liu Kan. After becoming a Buddhist he took the name Zicong, and after entering formal office he became known as Bingzhong. He was born in 1216, the fourth year of Zhenyou under Emperor Xuanzong of Jin. His ancestral home was Ruizhou, present-day Suizhong County in Liaoning, and his family had been a prominent official lineage under the Liao. His unnamed great-grandfather served under the Jin as deputy military commissioner of Xingzhou and settled there, so from his grandfather Liu Ze onward the family was regarded as being from Xingzhou. His father Liu Run entered service under Muqali after the latter captured Xingzhou for the Great Mongol State. The *History of Yuan*, vol. 157, “Biography of Liu Bingzhong,” states that the family originally came from Ruizhou and had served the Liao for generations, that his great-grandfather served the Jin and settled in Xingzhou, and that after Muqali took Xingzhou, Liu Run was appointed to military and then local administrative posts.
Liu Bingzhong was intelligent from childhood and, after beginning school at eight, was said to memorize several hundred characters of text each day. At thirteen he became a hostage in the commandery headquarters, and at seventeen served as a clerk in the Xingzhou military commissioner’s office so that he could remain near his parents. He was often unhappy in the post and once lamented that his family had served as officials for generations and asked why he should sink to being a mere clerical functionary. Believing that a great man born at the wrong time should withdraw until an opportunity arose, he abandoned office and lived in seclusion in the Wu'an Mountains. Some years later, Chan master Xuzhao of Tianning Temple accepted him as a disciple. Liu Bingzhong later traveled through Yunzhong and resided at Nantang Temple.
Entering Kublai Khan’s Service
In 1242, the first year of Töregene Khatun’s regency, the northern Linji Chan leader Haiyun traveled to Karakorum in response to a summons from the Mongol prince Kublai. While passing through Yunzhong, Haiyun heard of Liu Bingzhong’s broad learning and talent and invited him to accompany him. After meeting Kublai, Liu Bingzhong explained the essentials of Buddhism and was repeatedly consulted. He was widely read, with particular interest in the *Book of Changes* and Shao Yong’s *Book of Ordering the World*, and was said to be proficient in astronomy, geography, calendrical studies, and divination. Kublai valued him highly, and after Haiyun returned south Liu Bingzhong remained in Kublai’s household.
In 1249, the first year of Güyük, Liu Bingzhong returned home for his father’s funeral. Kublai gave him one hundred liang of gold for the burial and sent an envoy with him to Xingzhou. After completing mourning, Liu Bingzhong was recalled to Karakorum. In 1250 he submitted an extremely long memorial, broadly organized into fourteen proposals. These included advising Kublai to assist Möngke in governing the realm as the Duke of Zhou had assisted King Wu; sending descendants of founding meritorious officials to supervise and evaluate local officials and reward or punish them accordingly; fixing taxes according to actual households and encouraging displaced people to return; standardizing ranks and stipends and regulating official conduct; educating the people and preventing lower officials from imposing arbitrary sentences, with death penalties reported upward for decision; auditing government debts and remitting improper or usurious obligations; requiring grain taxes to be delivered to the nearest storehouse, standardizing transit and market taxation, restraining predatory commercial practices and luxury, regulating dress by rank, reducing taxes, and appointing agricultural encouragement officials; establishing schools and an examination system and educating descendants of founding elites; carefully selecting county officials, resettling refugees, aiding widows, orphans, the disabled, and the poor, and preventing court envoys from harassing local populations; establishing temples to Confucius and identifying learned local scholars to conduct rites; asking Möngke to promulgate a new calendar while beginning compilation of a *History of Jin*; supporting impoverished scholars with state funds and granting exemptions to those with property so they could serve the state; opening channels for remonstrance and distinguishing worthy men from petty men so that the virtuous held rank and the capable held office; placing essential salt works and mines under regular fiscal administration while preventing profiteers from harming the population; and prohibiting private prisons and whipping across the back. The source states that Liu Bingzhong urged restoration of discipline and law so the realm could be governed without needless disturbance and that Kublai approved and adopted his proposals.
Liu Bingzhong also argued that Xingzhou had originally contained more than ten thousand households but had fallen to only a few hundred after years of warfare. He suggested appointing capable administrators such as Zhang Geng of Zhending and Liu Su of Mingshui, predicting that the region could recover. Zhang Geng was accordingly made pacification commissioner of Xingzhou and Liu Su his deputy. Displaced households soon returned to production, and Xingzhou was later elevated to Shunde Prefecture.
Campaigns and City Building
In 1253 and 1254, and again in 1259, Liu Bingzhong accompanied Kublai in campaigns against the Dali Kingdom and the Southern Song. Kublai accepted Liu Bingzhong’s argument that Heaven and Earth cherish life and that the martial power of a true ruler does not depend on killing. Kublai ordered silk torn into flags bearing the words “Stop Killing” and instructed the armies not to engage in indiscriminate slaughter after entering Dali. The source states that, as a result, the Mongol army did not engage in indiscriminate killing when it took cities in that campaign. During the campaign against the Southern Song, it similarly credits the policy with preserving countless lives.
Even during Möngke’s reign, Kublai had begun to recognize the strategic importance of a capital in the Central Plains. He therefore ordered Liu Bingzhong to build Kaiping at Longgang, east of Fuzhou and north of the Luan River; after Kublai’s accession the city was elevated to Shangdu. The project marked an early stage in shifting the Mongol center of government toward Yanjing. During the Zhiyuan era, Yanjing was renamed Zhongdu and a two-capital system was developed, while the larger objective was eventually to move the principal capital into the Yan region. Responsibility for planning and building Dadu fell to Liu Bingzhong. In 1266, the third year of Zhiyuan, after examining the former Liao and Jin capitals, he designed a new city northeast of old Yanjing: Yuan Dadu, in present-day Beijing. Construction proceeded rapidly under Liu Bingzhong together with Zhang Rou, Duan Zhen, and others. In the first lunar month of 1274, the palace complex was completed. In addition to Dadu, Liu Bingzhong also participated in building the secondary capital Shangdu, in present-day Zhenglan Banner, Xilingol League, Inner Mongolia.
Assisting Government
In 1260, the first year of Zhongtong, Kublai proclaimed himself khan, later known as Emperor Shizu of Yuan. Following Liu Bingzhong’s advice, he adopted an era name, established the Secretariat and regional pacification offices, and recruited both former court officials and scholars living in seclusion. Although Liu Bingzhong remained at Kublai’s side, he continued to wear his old dress and was called “Secretary Cong.”
In 1264, the first year of Zhiyuan, Wang E, Chief Academician of the Hanlin Academy, submitted a memorial arguing that Liu Bingzhong had taken part in vital military and state affairs even before Kublai’s accession and had accumulated substantial merit. Now that the ruler had ascended the throne and the political order had been renewed, Wang E considered it inappropriate for Liu Bingzhong still to wear his old clothing and urged that he receive formal dress and high rank. Kublai accepted the memorial and the same day appointed Liu Bingzhong Grand Master for Splendid Happiness and Grand Guardian, with responsibility for participating in the affairs of the Secretariat. He also gave Liu Bingzhong the daughter of Hanlin scholar Dou Mo in marriage and granted him a residence in Fengxian Ward.
After receiving office, Liu Bingzhong treated the affairs of the realm as his responsibility. The source says that on matters great and small he spoke without concealment and enjoyed Kublai’s deep trust. Many of the men he recommended later became prominent ministers. He attended Kublai for more than thirty years and accompanied him on campaigns and on journeys between the two capitals. The *History of Yuan*, in the biographies of empresses, records that members of the keshig once obtained approval to use land near the capital for pasturing horses. Empress Chabi wanted the proposal stopped and deliberately reproached Liu Bingzhong, saying that because he was a clever Han man whose words the emperor listened to, he ought to remonstrate. The episode was used to illustrate how strongly Kublai trusted his advice.
In 1269, the sixth year of Zhiyuan, Liu Bingzhong helped establish court ceremonial, the official system, audience protocol, official dress, and salary regulations. These became established Yuan practices.
Later Years and Death
In 1268, the fifth year of Zhiyuan, Liu Bingzhong resigned from his important position in the Secretariat and returned to a more reclusive way of life. In the spring of 1274, the eleventh year of Zhiyuan, he accompanied Kublai back to Shangdu, or Kaiping, and planned to build a thatched retreat on nearby Nanping Mountain. On the night of the nineteenth day of the eighth lunar month of Zhiyuan 11, September 20, 1274, he died suddenly while sitting, without prior illness, in a manner described in Buddhist terms as a seated passing. He was fifty-nine. Kublai mourned deeply and told those around him that Bingzhong had served him for more than thirty years, had been careful and discreet, had not avoided hardship or danger, and had never concealed his views. Kublai sent Vice Minister of Rites Zhao Bingwen to escort the coffin back to Dadu. Liu Bingzhong was buried on the thirtieth day of the tenth lunar month, November 29, 1274, with the costs paid from the imperial treasury.
In the first lunar month of 1275, the twelfth year of Zhiyuan, Kublai posthumously appointed Liu Bingzhong Grand Tutor and Duke of Zhao and gave him the posthumous name Wenzhen. Under Emperor Chengzong of Yuan, he was further granted an elaborate meritorious title, appointed Grand Preceptor, awarded the Three Ducal Offices and the rank Supreme Pillar of State, and his posthumous name was changed to Wenzheng. Under Emperor Renzong, he was additionally enfeoffed as Prince of Changshan. The source states that he was the only Han Chinese under the Yuan to receive the rank of the Three Ducal Offices.