Valentine’s Day celebrates love in all its many wonderful forms and cultural traditions. But the greatest love of record, according to DNA, might be Genghis Khan. DNA tracing reveals over 16 million people now living are related to the legendary Mogul emperor whose dynasty helped to renovate, repair, and advance China’s Grand Canal.

When Ghengis’ nephew, Kublai Khan, became emperor, he directed grain be moved northward to the new capital the dynasty had established: Dadu. Khan commanded that 816,000 tons of grain be delivered to the capital: 537,000 had to come from the fertile south. But how? The Grand Canal, China’s internal waterway.

However, there was a slight problem. When grain arrived at the Yangtze region by boat, it had to be transferred over land about 20 miles (32 kilometers) because the waterway did not stretch all the way to Dadu – yet. Local farmers were forced to loan their draft animals to the project: agriculture suffered, as did the beasts.

When Kublai Khan observed the problem, the new emperor ordered the Grand Canal add a seventh section to reach the capital. In the building project, the entire waterway was straightened and strengthened. Once the liquid highway was complete, communications improved, agriculture thrived, and the capital rose in importance. Some say the Grand Canal transformed a region into a nation. Today, Dadu continues to have a national role: it is now named Beijing.

Khan dynasty also had a national, and apparently a global role. Genghis Khan fathered five daughters and four sons with his primary wife Börte, and many more with 500 secondary spouses. Genghis Khan, master of conquest in more ways than one, may be said to have caused increases in areas of society, technology, and indeed civilization.

Oxford University’s Professor Chris Taylor-Smith analyzed DNA of males across 16 ethic populations. Many shared a notable Y chromosome. It appears that its unique characteristics can be traced to Genghis Khan. Today, if you are a male reading this post, you may be part of 0.5% of the world’s population descending from Genghis Khan who was born in 1162, died in 1227, and was – apparently – very busy in between.

Davidson, Frank P. and K. Lusk Brooke. “The Grand Canal of China.” Building the World, Volume 1, chapter 4, pages 35-46. Greenwood: 2006. ISBN: 0313333734.

Mayell, Hillary. “Genghis Khan, a prolific lover, DNA shows.” 14 February 2017. National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/mongolia-genghis-khan-dna#:~text=An%20international%20group%20ofgeneticists,16%20million%20descendants%20living%20today

Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G. Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 U