On the Development of the Ideas on Nationalities of the Han Confucian Scholars in the Yuan Dynasty

The unification by the Yuan Dynasty provided good conditions for the cultural and economic exchanges between different nationalities and for the development of their ideas on nationalities. In the fields of Confucianism, historiography and politics, the ideas of the Han Confucian scholars began to shift from the nostalgia for the past and the distinction between the Han and the minorities to the acceptance of the Yuan rule, the historic significance of the multi-national existence and the equal treatment of different nationalities and their relations in history. The progressive ideas on nationalities in the Yuan Dynasty played a positive role in the summary of the ethnic histories, the unification of different nationalities and the advance of the state.