Religion/Culture

Buddha

     The religion of the Yuan dynasty was Buddhism. One belief of Buddhism was reincarnation. Reincarnation is the belief that people are reborn until they reach Nirvana. They can only reach Nirvana if they have lived a happy and 'full' life. The belief of reincarnation and Nirvana forced the people of the Yuan dynasty to be happy and peaceful. The people knew that they had to have a splendid life and in order to do so, they needed to be happy!

Nirvana

      Another belief of Buddhism is Karma. Karma can be defined as, what goes around comes around. That basically means that what people do, will happen to them as well. So if someone is mean, something horrible will happen to them. Also, if someone is nice, good things will happen to them. That belief is what restricted people to do harm. Nobody wanted bad things to happen to them, so they all had to be kind people. Since they believed in Karma, they were always nice, because they didn't want bad things to happen to them.
     A religion like Legalism would be bad because there are too many laws and restrictions. In Buddhism, people are in charge of their lives and they live the way they want to. Buddhism couldn't operate with a lot of laws. Buddhists belief in peace, not laws! Buddhism strengthened the Yuan dynasty because the belief of reincarnation and Karma caused people do behave in a more positive, and gracious manner.