Toghon Temur (Emperor Shun of Yuan)

Also known as Yuan Emperor Shun · Yuan Huizong · Tuo Huantiemuer · Ukhaantu Khan

Toghon Temur, eldest son of Emperor Mingzong of Yuan, was born in 1320 and as a boy was exiled under Emperor Wenzong to an island off Goryeo and then to Jingjiang in Guangxi. He was enthroned at Shangdu in the sixth month of 1333 and reigned under the era names Yuantong, Zhiyuan and Zhizheng. In 1340 he dismissed the overbearing chancellor Bayan and turned to Toghto, whose ministry revived the civil examinations and compiled the official histories of Liao, Jin and Song. In 1351 Jia Lu conscripted labourers to rechannel the Yellow River, and that same year Liu Futong and others rose under red turbans, starting a rebellion that spread across the Huai and Yangzi lands. When Ming troops approached in 1368 he fled Dadu for Shangdu, withdrew to Yingchang the following year and died there in 1370. The Ming named him Shundi, the emperor who followed Heaven's will, while the Northern Yuan court gave him the temple name Huizong.