For five years, Metropolitan Museum of Art curator James Watt has worked with a team of scholars and administrators to arrange loans of works from China, Russia, Taiwan, Japan, and different parts of America for "The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty," which opens to the public today.

The exhibition, which presents more than 200 objects and works of art, including paintings, sculptures, textiles, and ceramics, covers a period of incredible dynamism and experimentation in Chinese culture, stretching from 1215, the year in which the famed Mongol leader and eventual Chinese emperor Khubilai Khan was born, until 1368, when the Yuan Dynasty fell.

Organized into four separate thematic sections, the show presents works that relate to the daily lives of Chinese people of the time, images associated with religious practices, revolutionary examples of painting and calligraphy, and a wide selection of pieces from the decorative arts.

The development of design in China was subject to a wide variety of influences. Roving Mongol elites, for instance, were responsible for first introducing portable vessels and textiles into everyday Chinese use, and Central Asian craftsmen who came to work in China brought intricate metal-working techniques, as seen in artifacts like a luscious gold stemmed cup.

One ceremonial bronze giu vessel is inscribed for ancestral worship with the name of the Grand Princess Sengge Ragi, who was famous for a gathering she hosted for Chinese scholar-officials in 1323 in the capital city of Dadu. Other ceramics are adorned with the images of popular actors — at the time, theater was one of the most popular forms of entertainment outside the imperial court.

Within the section of the exhibition devoted to religion, the peaceful coexistence and intermingling of numerous spiritual practices within the Yuan culture is prominently displayed. Taoist immortals are depicted on vases, pillows, and jade ornaments next to a hanging Nestorian painting of Jesus Christ, painted in the orthodox style and featuring the iconography of the Buddha Shakyamuni. Interestingly, Christ is identifiable only by a small golden cross he holds in his left hand.

Painting and calligraphy from the period reveal the development of remarkable innovations. At the time, the artist's use of his brush was viewed as a direct expression of his mind, so it is no surprise that brushstrokes are clearly visible in many works. Zhao Mengfu — a member of the previous dynasty, the Song, and who occupied a high position in the Mongol court — is usually credited with this development, and he figures prominently in the exhibition.

The final section of the show focuses on decorative arts, mainly ceramics, jades, lacquers, and textiles. A pile carpet with prunus branch, on loan from the Naginataboko Preservation Association in Japan, illustrates an upward-sweeping branch of plum blossom. The work mirrors a painting by Wang Mian (1287-1359) but is achieved through an unusual weaving technique thought to have arrived from Central Asia.

The collaborative efforts necessary to pull together this exhibition — in which about 80 percent of the the works are on loan from museums around the world — parallels the cultural exchange on view within it. Tolerance, mutual understanding, and trust can bring peace and prosperity, it argues. Khubilai Khan may have understood this more than 700 ago when he told Marco Polo, "I do honor and show respect to all mankind."