China vs. Japan in an age of
transition
Ming China
• Ming dynasty (1368-1644)
• Return of Confucian
examination system
• Initially suspicious of
scholar-gentry, but
accepted necessity
• Government posts, imperial
academies, regional
colleges restored
Hongwu – first Ming Emperor
The Ming & court corruption
• Hongwu limited influence of scholar-gentry
• Centralized power – no Chief Minister
• Humiliating and harsh punishments for abuses
of power or failure
• Imperial wives from humble families
• Number of eunuchs limited
• Censorship
• Later rules let changes lapse
Peasants under the Ming
• Some policies to improve
life of peasants
– Infrastructure
– New, untaxed lands
– Lowered forced labor
demands
– Handicraft industries
– Supplementing household
incomes
Peasants & Women – the reality
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Exploitative landlords
Forced to become tenants or landless laborers
Subordination of women
Draconian laws forced obedience
Upper class women’s status = making male
children
• Upper class women allowed education but
barred from official jobs
Retreat from expansion
• Missions of Zheng He withdrawn
• Policy of isolation after 1390
– Navy allowed to decline
– Overseas commerce limited
Europeans in China
• Franciscans and
Dominicans tried to
convert masses
• Jesuits aimed at elites
– Shared scientific and
technical knowledge
– Not very successful
Ming Decline
• Late 1500’s – in decline
– Inferior leadership & corruption
– Failure of public works  flooding of Yellow River
– Starvation & rebellion
– Exploitation by landlords increased malaise
– 1644 – fall of dynasty to Chinese rebels
– Invasion by northern nomads – Manchu –
establish Qing dynasty (rule by foreigners)
• 16th century Nobunaga uses firearms
to depose Ashikaga Shogunate but
killed
Japan
• Hideyoshi continued & became
master of Japan 1590, invaded Korea Reunified
twice (failed)
• Tokogawa Ieyasu appointed Shogun
1603, established last Shogunate –
Tokogawa
• Long period of civil wars ended, unity
restored
• Emperor still just a figurehead
Hideyoshi
Fending off the west: Japan
• 1580’s – official measure to
limit western influence
• Christian missionaries ordered
out
• Japanese Christians persecuted
• 1614 – Christianity officially
banned
• Merchants limited to few cities
• Japanese ships not allowed
overseas
• Western books banned
Battle of
Nagasino
Japan’s Isolation
• 18th century – School of National Learning
– Rejected neo-Confucianism
– Indigenous culture: Shinto