1. Politics and economy

‘Ming’ means bright, clear, and enlightened – the qualities with which the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398) wanted his dynasty to be associated. He had defeated the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) with the intention of re-establishing law and order under a Chinese government based on a value system derived from Chinese traditions. Comparing his government and jurisdiction regulations with those introduced under the Mongol rule reveals that he kept quite a few practices that appeared useful to him but in general his rule held a bias against things foreign. The Ming truly came to be remembered for its excellence which was driven by an unmatched commercial revolution and by technological achievements in agriculture, printing, medicine, the arts, and craftsmanship. At the time Zhu Yuanzhang could not have anticipated that he had founded the last Chinese dynasty ever to rule from the dragon throne.

The Ming dynasty has been roughly divided into three periods: an era of power consolidation and expansion (1368 – ca. 1450), an era of political and economic changes and defense against internal and external upheaval (ca. 1450 – ca. 1520), and concluded by a series of political and economic crises (ca. 1520 – 1644) that led to the downfall of Ming rule.

Founding and expansion of the empire

The first phase comprises the reigns of the two strongest emperors of the Ming: the founder Zhu Yuangzhang, Emperor Hongwu (r. 1368-1398), and the rule of his son, Zhu Di, Emperor Yongle (r. 1403-1424). Zhu Yuanzhang first abolished the social segregation institutionalized by the Mongols. The Mongols, to the dismay of the Chinese population, had divided society into four classes. The Mongols occupied the highest class level. Foreign administrators and their families who came from neighboring countries constituted the next tier. This group was entrusted with leading administrative jobs in the Chinese bureaucracy. The third level included the Northern Chinese. The Southern Chinese resided at the lowest level and were particularly distrusted by the Mongols. The Mongol’s distrust of the Southern Chinese stemmed from the fierce wars they had waged against southern armies loyal to the imperial family of the Song dynasty.

About seventy years after the Mongols had founded dynastic rule in China, rebellions against their rule began on a scale that threatened their dominance. Many of the rebellious movements were religiously inspired and were signs of discontent not only with the exploitation of the Han Chinese by the Mongol administration but also with the arrogant Tibetan clergy who dominated Chinese Buddhist institutions at the time.

Another cause for peasant rebellions was the repeated severe flooding of the Yellow River, the ‘sorrow of China’. The flooding resulted in unimaginable damage to harvests and land, and large losses of life and possessions. In addition to loosing their property and livelihood peasants were forcibly recruited to carry out the subsequent massive repair works. The harsh conditions of the corvée labor provided the fertile ground in which rebel movements flourished. One of the revolts was headed by Zhu Yuanzhang became the founder of the Ming dynasty.

Social structures

Zhu came from a poor peasant family and as a young orphan had joined a Buddhist monastery for several years to avoid starvation. When he first came to power, his concern was to consolidate agriculture as a reliable foundation for the state. Zhu did this by restoring irrigation, instituting reforestation of large areas for timber and food supply, promoting internal migration to depopulated and deserted parts of the country, and redistributing land according to newly established population registers. Taxes were kept low and a system of well-distributed and stocked granaries was maintained for famine relief.

Families were grouped in self-supporting units that were mutually responsible for sharing tax burdens and corvée labor. The equity and the reliability of the census lists did not last throughout the dynasty. Soon a rural elite of landholders dominated tenant farmers and wandering peasants. The landowners often took over administrative functions from the set number of officials who were responsible for the administration of a rapidly increasing population. The population of China more than doubled between the beginning of the Ming and its end (1368: ca. 60 – 80 million, 1644: ca. 150 – 200 million). Due to enhanced agronomic technologies, the growing need for food could be met most of the time.

The state created military colonies with a structure similar to the organization of peasant families. Three out of ten men in these units served as soldiers. Seven out of ten of the colonists provided the necessary supplies for the soldiers, the soldiers’ families, and their own kin. These colonies were established at the borders, in the northern and southwestern provinces, in the capitals, and along the Grand Canal where they controlled the grain transports. The military colonies slowly deteriorated as colonists deserted when wealthy landowners bought the land that had originally been allocated to the army families.

Artisans were the third group whose profession was hereditary. Their elite resided in workshops that produced high quality objects for imperial use. In addition to these craftsmen who worked for the palace on a permanent basis, there were artisans who were called to the official workshops regularly for a certain period of several months every year or every few years. Their conscription in the imperial workshops disrupted their work life in their home business. However, this situation improved considerably in 1562. At this time the compulsory services as well as all taxes in kind were officially converted into payments in silver.

Silver

Silver was originally mined in the southwestern provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan, and even more silver was imported from Japan. Silver became the standard medium of payment in China in the fifteenth century. At this time, Spain and Portugal began to develop the silver mines in Mexico, Bolivia, and Peru. Both European countries financed the imports of tea, porcelain, and silk from China to their homelands with silver. Silver remained the most important currency in China until the twentieth century. After 1405, tribute gifts from the provinces to the emperor were no longer sent as payments in kind but as silver. Salt taxes were paid in silver in 1475, and most compulsory labor was replaced by a payment in silver after 1485.

Administration

The central administration underwent remarkable changes during the Ming. Power was concentrated in the hands of the emperor. Zhu Yuanzhang neither supported the eunuchs, nor did he trust the officials deeply.

The eunuchs traditionally served the imperial household and thus were intimately familiar with all aspects of life inside the palace which was concealed from the outside world. They gained trust and prominence under later emperors and at the end of the Ming became so powerful that they dominated the officials.
The officials were a class of highly educated intellectuals who gained their positions after years of rigorous study and passing through an extremely competitive and selective examination system. Although he came from a poor family, the emperor was an avid learner who worked hard to acquire the knowledge necessary to rule China. He demonstrated great ability in avoiding situations in which the officials might make decisions without conferring with him. Because of his own background of poverty he greatly stressed education for his male subjects.
Following his directions, the administration was changed to gain a maximum level of control by eliminating the position of the Chancellor or Prime Minister. The Chancellor formerly had been the counterweight to the emperor in government decisions and had even had the right to criticize the emperor. In addition, the Grand Secretariat was abolished and the emperor now directly supervised the ministries of Finances, Rites, War, Justice, Public Administration, and Public Works. The emperor also created a new general law code with strict regulations. Eventually the position of Grand Secretary was reinstated because some emperors of the late Ming were not as eager as the founder of the dynasty to oversee all aspects of central government. Instead, they delegated power to the Palace Secretaries who were selected from the ranks of eunuchs. Eunuchs in this position were notorious for their ruthless abuse of power.

Trade

The second Ming emperor ruled briefly until his uncle, Zhu Di, replaced him in a military coup. Different from his father and his nephew, Zhu Di, better known as the Yongle Emperor, emphasized trade. This was contrary to the disdain for commerce in the Confucian tradition that was shared by the majority of the officials. The largest maritime expeditions ever started from China were initiated under Yongle’s rule. China had engaged in maritime trade since the eleventh century and Chinese carpenters were masters in the construction of large seagoing vessels used in their overseas trade. However, the seven expeditions organized and headed between 1405 and 1433 by the Muslim Admiral Zheng He (1371-1433), a eunuch of Central Asian origin, were spectacular enterprises. Each voyage lasted two years as the fleets depended on favorable Monsoon winds to leave and return to China. And each of the expeditions transported up to 27,000 men to Southeast Asia, India, and as far as Mozambique to demonstrate China’s intimidating power, establish diplomatic ties, and enhance trade exchange. More than 1,600 ships were built, the largest of which were called ‘Treasure Ships’. They were about 400 feet long and 160 feet wide, about five times larger than Columbus’ Santa Maria. Their construction used up the timber grown during the reforestation project initiated by the founding emperor of the Ming. The ships carried goods for trade and supplies, but some were also equipped with canons to serve as war ships.

The role of the eunuchs

The sudden official ban on international maritime trade after 1433 as well as the ban on trade across the northwestern border must be linked to the complex competition between eunuchs and officials at the palace. The eunuchs had supervised the sea expeditions and the distribution of those profits. They had filled their coffers instead of compensating the state for expenses of equipping the expeditions. The officials reprimanded the emperor that the expeditions fostered greed for luxuries and superfluous commodities instead of supporting state finances. While the founding emperor had tried to limit the influence of the eunuchs by keeping them illiterate and threatening to punish them with the death penalty if they interfered in government affairs, the Yongle Emperor made extensive use of the eunuchs. In addition to their tasks as servants to the emperor and the imperial family, he had entrusted them with the supervision of the palace guards, the control of the workshops producing luxury goods for the imperial household, as well as the control of tribute gifts sent by the provinces and foreign envoys to the capital. Their number increased to 70,000 by the late Ming, 10,000 of whom worked in the capital. They gained military power, accumulated great personal wealth, and even influenced the appointments and promotions or demotions of officials. Under later Ming rulers, eunuchs were even dispatched to supervise mining and tax collection in the provinces, much to the dismay of local officials.

Defense against Mongol attacks

In 1421, the Yongle Emperor moved the capital from Nanjing, situated in the heart of the intellectual and commercial center in the south, to Beijing to gain better control of the northern border. Between 1411 and 1415, the Grand Canal was restored to secure a steady flow of supplies for the capital. To this day, this canal links the rice-producing south with the political center in the north. During this time, the imperial palace was built in Beijing. The new palace used the palace in Nanjing as a model. The space layout and buildings of the former Yuan palace were redesigned on an enlarged scale.

Repeated Mongol attacks at the northern border forced the Chinese to withdraw further south and to fortify the border. They reinforced the Great Wall and even created a second, and in some areas even a third defense line. At the same time, the coastline was subject to constant attacks by pirates, many of them from Japan. As a result, diplomatic embassies from Japan to China were strictly regulated. After 1432, only three ships with a total of 300 persons were allowed to come to the China coast on trade missions during a period of ten years. The era of expansion was over.

New crops for China

Despite the ban on trade and attempts to resettle the population living in coastal settlements further inland, trade continued on a more or less strictly controlled unofficial level. Given its profits, the government could not stop trade anymore. The traditional structures of the agrarian economy as it had been re-established by the founding Ming emperor declined as large capital investments flowed into commerce and artisan production instead of land. The agricultural sector was further transformed by new crops that made their way to China and changed the use of land and the diet: sweet potatoes, peanuts, tobacco, and later maize became important cash crops imported from the Americas.

Urbanization

A new middle class emerged due to the social mobility propelled by trade. Wealthy merchants often became patrons of the arts. Many of them were successful in exporting porcelain and silk, others made a fortune as suppliers of the army with salt, rice, and cloth for uniforms. Artisans started their own enterprises in book printing with illustrations in three or four colors, in weaving complicated silk brocades and fine cotton clothing, and in the production of exquisite porcelain. Local industries developed specializing in the production of the finest painting brushes, ink sticks, lacquerware, furniture and other commodities favored by the urban citizens. Standards reached a quality unseen before. The Colorful Lanterns painting is a vivid documentation of these objects desired by a well-to-do urban class.

The decline of the Ming

Major crises occurred when late sixteenth century rebellions erupted in several parts of the empire. In 1592 the Mongols revolted in Ningxia as did ethnic minorities in Guizhou. One year later, the Ming sent military aid to Korea which had been invaded by the Japanese shogun Hideyoshi Toyomi. The support for Korea led to a sharp financial deficit in the Chinese imperial household. The government then raised taxes on agricultural products, mining, and commerce. This led to massive opposition from the population since the court was still spending lavishly on the consumption of luxuries.

In the beginning of the seventeenth century, a ‘small ice-age’ caused famine since vegetation periods were shortened and harvests diminished. The granary system had deteriorated and the state proved incapable of providing relief measures. Tax increases and epidemics further weakened the population and the number of bandits and rebels increased. In addition, Japan had expelled the Portuguese who had supplied China with silver. Shortly after that, the second major source of silver dried up when 20,000 Chinese were killed in Manila in the wake of fights with Spanish traders. Several rebellions threatened to overthrow the financially and morally bankrupt Ming dynasty. The most succcessful group of rebels was headed by Li Zicheng who in April 1644 had brought Beijing under his control and proclaimed the new dynasty of Da Shun. Facing the defeat of the Ming army headed by General Wu Sangui, who had been in charge of the defense of the capital against Li, the last Ming emperor was left in despair. He committed suicide by strangling himself. Yet Li Zicheng’s triumph was of short duration. Only one month after the emperor’s suicide, Li was driven out of Beijing by General Wu Sangui who had turned to the Manchu general Dorgon for support. Given such easy access to the Chinese throne, the Manchu entered Beijing and founded the Qing dynasty (1644-1911).

2. Intellectual and cultural trends

During the Ming, the government institutionalized Neo-Confucian philosophy as the state ideology which had developed during the Song dynasty (980-1279) prior to the Mongol occupation. At the same time, an interest in the introspective withdrawal practiced in Chan (=Zen) Buddhism grew increasingly stronger and new philosophical ideals challenged the state orthodoxy. One of these trends claimed that action and knowledge were inseparable. Students of this school strove to gain insights into the innate principle that orders nature and culture, society and the universe, and then put that knowledge into practice. Intellectual independence in philosophical thinking was increasingly accepted and often promoted in private academies. These academies increased in numbers. They were located in mountainous areas, remote from state control in the urban centers and became popular places for study. Academies were not only places of study with their own libraries but centers where literati gathered for learned philosophical discussions, safe venues in which scholars could express political dissent among likeminded friends. Technological advances in printing which made possible the fast publication of books on a wide range of topics also fostered the diffusion of ideas and independent thinking. Books on studies of the Classics were published on a scale unseen before. There was a steady demand for books from the candidates who needed to prepare for the examinations which could open the door to an official post, the most desired career for a man with aspirations. Literary publications increased on an even larger scale. Literacy rose fast and when books became more readily available reading was no longer exclusively associated with study, an official career or administrative tasks, but became a source of entertainment. Soon novels and short stories written in colloquial language and adorned with illustrations were in high demand. To this day the humorous fantasy novel Journey to the West (published ca. 1570) and the portrait of a merchant from Shandong titled Golden Lotus (published 1619) are famous even among readers in the West.

Ming publications further reflect an intensified interest in practical knowledge and a wide array of applications far beyond the classical disciplines of philosophy and philology. Publications on technological topics such as hydraulics, irrigation and pest control, geography and geology, as well as medical and pharmaceutical texts devoted to acupuncture and moxibustion, hygiene, gynaecology, and dietetics circulated among the learned.

Theater had become a popular pastime under Mongol rule. A growing number of authors produced plays, that enjoyed large public and private audiences in the Ming. Since the scripts were readily available in printed form, many theater troupes could specialize in a genre of plays customers could choose from when hiring the troupe.

Women and literature

In general, the values of women were largely dominated by a cult of chastity upheld by traditional Confucian morality. But when education became more widely available for women, a small but influential percentage of elite women began to walk on new paths. Elite women read, wrote, edited, and published literature. They exchanged letters discussing literary criticism, created associations devoted to mutual assistance, painted and engaged in their own poetic circles. And since they also traveled, their networks could extend well outside the immediate family and the limits of its inner chambers. Some women worked as educators. The skilled and unskilled work women contributed in family enterprises to meet the demands of the tax collectors especially in the urban centers south of the Yangzi River cannot yet be adequately quantified. Courtesans were linked in their own networks which often shared the public world of the male gentry.

Encounters with the West

The sixteenth century was also the time when European trade in an aggressive pursuit of the riches of Asia brought Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch ships to China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. The impact of the import of silver into the Chinese economy has been mentioned above. But contact with Europeans also brought new intellectual challenges when the Jesuit missionaries attempted to convert the literati to their religious beliefs. Their success in proselytizing remained limited. More appealing to the literati than a new religion that hardly respected the ancestral cult and -even more suspicious and bewildering- paid homage to a convicted criminal who had been sentenced to death by the Roman authorities-, was the Jesuits’ profound knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, and cartography. Since the Jesuits studied Chinese with great dedication and even mastered the Classics that formed the base of knowledge shared by all Chinese literati, they could be consulted as translators and interpreters. The analogy of moral ideals expressed in the Chinese Classics and the Christian doctrine convinced only a few close acquaintances of the Jesuits to become Christian converts. Among them were three outstanding Chinese scholars who supported the Jesuits by composing and translating scientific as well as theological texts. The most famous of these men is Xu Guangqi (1562-1633), christened Paul Xu. He was commissioned by the Wanli Emperor (r. 1573-1619) to participate in establishing a new calendar in collaboration with the Jesuits. He translated manuals on trigonometry, geography, astronomy, and hydraulics as well as Euclid’s Elements in collaboration with the Jesuit fathers Matteo Ricci and Niccolo Longobardo. He also wrote the most important work on agriculture of the time. Even today his family estate and library can be visited in Shanghai.

The Arts

The Ming gentry celebrated a refined lifestyle and exclusive etiquette that remained unmatched in Chinese history. The complex requirements for this cultural refinement were described in manuals of style that furthered commercial markets for the production of works of art and craftsmanship and even for forgeries of masterpieces.

Gentry art collectors focused on acquiring books, rubbings, paintings, bronzes, and lacquerware in their private collections. They also loved to cultivate gardens in which they planted rare trees and flowers, placed strangely shaped rocks that could be manually ‘improved’ to resemble landscapes associated with the tales of the abode of Daoist immortals, and kept exotic animals
The commercial availability of art and the necessity for some painters to support themselves through their art when times got tough diluted the strict division drawn by art critics between the professional artisan and the gentleman painter. Artwork by professionals had been looked down upon as decorative while the works by amateur-scholars were praised as genuine expressions of true creativity, the intuitive expression by philosophical minds. Perhaps the most famous painter who painted commissioned works for a living was Qiu Ying (ca. 1494 – ca. 1552). His main patron was a wealthy merchant. This merchant was not the only one who appreciated Qiu Ying’s style, Qiu’s paintings were highly praised and often copied! They may have inspired his daughter and his son-in-law who also worked as professional painters to dare support themselves and their family with their paintings.

The most valued of the decorative arts were complex brocade weavings, textile embroidery, porcelain –especially fine white porcelain painted with delicate motives in cobalt blue-, as well as carved lacquer with rich floral or pictorial designs. Because they were highly desired export commodities in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, many today form the precious possessions of museums dedicated to the collecting of Chinese art.