Yelu Chucai Khitan/Mongol Statesmen Poet

Yelu Chucai b. 1190 d.1244. Chucai was of the Yelu clan of the Khitan /Ghidan. This was a Mongol dynasty that ruled Manchuria and Mongolia 916–1125. When the Khitan or Liao dynasty fell to the Jurchen (The later Jin also a Mongol people) Chucai’s branch of the family stayed and served the Jurchen while part of the family fled west and created a new kingdom the Western Liao. 

Here is a poem that Chucai wrote that is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.  MMoA calls this poem "culturally Chinese". I think that if we were to apply MMoA logic to the Germans we would call them French since they ruled Northern France at least during WWII. It is hard to tell if that is arrogance, insensitivity, or are they simply Kowtowing to the Red Chinese goals of Pan-Asian hegemony. I must note under the Great Khan Ogodai Chucai was the chief administrator of the Mongol Empire. This at a time before the Yuan Dynasty.

"Half the population of Yun[zhong] and Xuan[de] have fled their homes;

Only the few thousand people under your care are secure.

You are among our dynasty's most able administrators.

Your good name is as lofty as Mount Tai.

On the sixteenth day of the tenth lunar month in the winter of the gengzi year, Liu Man of Yangmen requested that I write a poem on the eve of his departure. I wrote this for him in admiration of his administrative ability. Abusive officials and wily functionaries should feel ashamed! Yuquan [Yelü Chucai]"

Poem and image from:

http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/40105