Khubilai became the most powerful figure in the Mongolian domains, profoundly influenced by his mother Sorghaghtani Beki. He was the only Mongolian noble who had recruited so many Chinese Confucians. By 1279, Khubilai and the Mongols had crushed the remnants of the Sung dynasty. Khubilai was also successful in pacifying Korea. In the Chaghadhai khanate in Central Asia, Khubilai confronted a foe who wished to wrest control from him. Khubilai eventually acknowledged that he could not control Central Asia and was compelled to accept Khaidu as the de facto ruler of the area. The Chinese theater, in particular, blossomed during Khubilai's era and the reign of his immediate successors. Khubilai's emphasis on the colloquial was a boon to novelists, who often portrayed characters of a lower-class origin. The achievements of Khubilai's reign were remarkable. Despite his flaws and the difficulties he faced in the last decade of his reign, Khubilai left his successors a stable and generally prosperous state.

The founding of the Liao dynasty at the beginning of the tenth century opened a second period of extensive foreign dominance in China. The name of the Khitan, the founders of the Liao dynasty, became a synonym for China. In 906 or 907 when the last Yao-lien khaghan, Hen-te-chin or Ch'in-te, was deposed because of his ineffectual leadership, the leaders of the eight tribes elected in his place the commander in chief of the confederation's forces, A-pao-chi, the chieftain of the I-la tribe. The basic annals of the Liao shih tell us that A-pao-chi "ascended the imperial throne" and founded a dynasty of his own in 907. For the Liao, their state was an invaluable buffer zone and a strategic stronghold from which any attempt by the Sung to strike into the occupied prefectures of northern Ho-pei could easily be outflanked. The reign of Sheng-tsung was the crucial period in the development of the Liao.