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Ming China 1368- 1644
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Geography
A Ming legend tells of farmers digging along
the Huang-he River finding a statue with
only one eye and the inscription:
"Do not despise this one-eyed
statue: it will be the herald of
rebellion all throughout the
empire."
Ming China 1368- 1644
End of Yuan
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Famine, floods, rebellions all
made the inscription ring true:
the Mongols had lost the
Mandate of Heaven
Revolution had begun
Really ... Yuan was in decline
long before the rebellions in the
1350s
Cities were seized, leaders
claiming to be kings – from lower
merchant class
Hongwu
Ideological Change
• Strong nationalist
passions
• Established the capital in
Nanjing in the South to
reject the Mongol capital
in the North
• Used Confucianism to
justify making war to
intimidate remaining
Mongols, central Asians,
and southeast Asians
Rejection of the Mongols
• Monk, soldier, and a
bandit
• Emperor directly ruled rather than use chief
ministers as Mongols had
• Inspired by the deaths
of his parents from the
famine and disease
(blamed Mongols)
• Closed the empire to trade with Central
Asia and Middle East
• Oversaw a centralized,
militarily strong
empire
• Stopped use of paper money (silver), which
was uneconomical
• Strict limits on imports and closed most of
the border to foreigners
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Confucian Centralized Authority
Yongle
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Capital moved to Beijing in
1421.
Time of greatest wealth in
Chinese history
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last native Han Emperors in
Chinese history
first to deal with large #s of
European merchants
arriving
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Population of about 100
million
The Forbidden City
Updated Confucian code of
laws written
Code regulated all aspects of
social affairs, for the harmony
of political, economic,
military, familial, ritual,
international, and legal
relations in the empire
Civil service exam re-instated
Careful records kept (census,
hereditary social hierarchy)
and used to control peasants
and strengthen
Mingkingdom
China 1368- 1644
Chinese Naval Power
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Ming China 1368- 1644
Expeditions sailed to
East Asia, Southeast
Asia, southern India,
Ceylon, the Persian
Gulf, the
Middle East and
Africa.
China the world's
greatest commercial
naval power in the
world at the time, far
superior to any
Ming China 1368- 1644
European power.
Admiral Zheng He (1371-1435)
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Ming China 1368- 1644
From 1405 to 1433, Emperor
Chengzu sent a Muslim eunuch
named Zheng He to cross the
Indian Ocean.
In 1435 court scholars convinced
the emperor that the voyages
were wasteful, encouraged
foreign ideas, and would ruin
China
The Emperor ended Naval
exploration and tribute and
destroyed the records of the
Ming China 1368- 1644
voyages
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Tribute System
Ming China 1368- 1644
Ming China 1368- 1644
Economy
Zheng He’s Armada
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Seven voyages for diplomacy and trade.
The armada included treasure boats (or
Bao-Chuan), which are the largest wooden
ships ever built.
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Covered 10,000 miles with a fleet of more
than 300 ships and crews totaling 30,000
men.
Sailed from China, crossed the South China
Sea, Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea and
went as far as East Africa.
Ming China 1368- 1644
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China continued its shift from agricultural
and rural to commercial and urban
Porcelain production and painting (China
dishes) became VERY important
Commercial port cities including Beijing,
Nanjing, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Guangzhou,
Xian and Chengdu grew to trade with Japan
and Europe
Farming still important; especially rice and
tea
Markets andMingmerchants
more important
China 1368- 1644
than before
Ming China
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Ming China 1368- 1644
Europe traded silver
from S. America to
China for porcelain
Resold all over
Europe
Linked China to
Europe via sea trade
Also sold to Middle
East along Silk Rd
Ming China 1368- 1644
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Agricultural Developments
crop rotation introduced in China
Ming Industrial Development
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• Fields could be kept continuously in cultivation
• While still maintaining their fertility
Stocking the rice paddies with fish, which fertilized
the rice and provided peasants w/ protein .
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Food production and new farming tools
improved nutrition for peasants and city dwellers
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Peasants grew cash crops, such as cotton for
clothing, indigo for clothing dyes, and cane.
Dramatic population growth(60 to 100 million),
largely due to the increased food supply on
China 1368- 1644
account of theMingagricultural
revolution (Champa)
textiles, paper, silk, and porcelain traded
with Japan, Europe (especially Spain), India,
SE Asia and Indonesian islands for
firearms, and American goods such as
sugar, potatoes, and tobacco.
In exchange for raw goods such as silver—
probably half the silver mined in the
Americas from the mid-1500's to 1800
ended up in China
Ming China 1368- 1644
• The Dutch imported
tea from China and
other parts of Asia and
started the English and
European love of tea
Tea Time
• Dutch East India Tea
Company and later the
British East India Tea
Company become
powerful and wealthy
from this trade
Ming China 1368- 1644
• Trading tea to China
was more profitable
than trading silver to
China as the Spanish
had done
Reforestation of China
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Religion/Philosophy
Hong-wu – reforestation beginning in the 1390's.
Nanjing was reforested with 50 million trees in
1391; these trees became the lumber that built
the naval fleet put together by Yung-lo in the
early1400s.
One billion trees were planted in this decade in a
reforestation project that greatly replenished both
the timber and the food supply.
Ming China 1368- 1644
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Neo-Confucianism
Matteo Ricci the first
Christian missionary
started nearly 300
Catholic churches
Christian influence
condemned in late Ming
and early Qing
Ming China 1368- 1644
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Social Life
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Confucianism dominates
Interaction with Japan
and Europe increases
Patriarchical
Cities provide
opportunity for parties
with music and drama
Ming Great Wall
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Great Walls had been built in earlier times,
Most of what is seen today was either built
or repaired by the Ming.
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Brick and granite work was enlarged
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Watchtowers were redesigned
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Cannons were placed along the wall
Ming China 1368- 1644
Ming China 1368- 1644
Intellectual Life
• Literacy increased and books became cheaper
because of the printing press and a stable govt
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Yongle Dadian - biggest and earliest encyclopedia
in the world.
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Many inventions to China from Europe (telescope)
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Gunpowder Weapons improved
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Toothbrush invented (pigs hair for bristles)
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Great furnaces for porcelain
Revolving cannon with 10 shots
Ming China 1368- 1644
Ming China 1368- 1644
How to Handle Corrupt
Government Officials
• adopted the Sui and Yuan practice of
publicly beating incompetent or corrupt
bureaucratic officials.
• Mainly beaten on the buttocks by more than
a hundred soldiers with clubs, almost
nobody who was punished survived
Ming Art
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Beautiful harmonious landscape art
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China and sculpture important
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Drama and poetry important
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Ming great wall through the
mountains is spectacular art
• Not a bad idea for today?
Ming China 1368- 1644
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Fall of Ming
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corruption of the court officials and the
domination of the eunuchs.
natural disasters like famine from “little ice
age” and worst earthquake of all time in
Shaanxi(800,000 dead)
the rebellions that racked the country in the 17th
century and
Aggressive military expansion of the Manchus.
By 1643 the government was bankrupt from fighting
and the peasants were broke because of the constant
taxes imposed to pay the armies to fight
Ming China 1368- 1644
The Ming ends
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Northern Chinese Manchu slowly grew in power
until they threatened the Ming Dynasty
Ming military grew weak so Ming often used
Manchu to stop the “barbarians” from taking
China
One leader, Manchu rebel Li Zicheng, eventually
decided to take China rather than protecting it.
He entered Beijing in 1644
as he did so the last Ming emperor,Chongzhen,
hanged himself on a tree overlookiing the
forbidden palace
Ming China 1368- 1644
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