2: Mongol Yuan Rule as a Driver of Multilingual Consciousness

Yuan language policy was marked by striking contradictions. While many bodies of knowledge circulated without translation, translation practices across multiple languages—both in literary and administrative contexts—were also widespread. At the same time, the Yuan court promoted the invention of new scripts such as Phagspa and Uyghur-script Mongolian. This paper explores how these seemingly divergent approaches interacted, aiming to offer a more integrated understanding of Yuan language policy. By situating Yuan practices within a broader Jin–Yuan–Ming continuum, the paper highlights how Chinggis Khan’s adoption of the alphabetical Old Uyghur script for Mongolian marked a significant departure from earlier regimes, whose scripts (e.g., Kitan, Jurchen, Tangut) had more limited social reach. It further examines the relative prominence of non-Chinese and non-Mongolian languages and scripts—such as Persian and Turkic—under Yuan rule. The paper concludes that this multilingual environment helped shape the Ming dynasty’s sustained engagement with a wide array of foreign languages and scripts in its diplomatic institutions, most notably the Siyi guan (Bureau of Translators).