Empire of the Great Ming Historical

Ming Dynasty ( 1368–1644 )

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:43:00 +0000

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of...

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Revolt and rebel rivalry

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:40:00 +0000

The Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) ruled before the establishment of the Ming Dynasty. Alongside institutionalized ethnic discrimination against Han Chinese that stirred resentment and...

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Reign of the Hongwu Emperor

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:37:00 +0000

Hongwu made an immediate effort to rebuild state infrastructure. He built a 48 km (30 mi) long wall around Nanjing, as well as new palaces and government halls. The History of Ming states that as...

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Ming conquest of Yunnan

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:36:00 +0000

In Qinghai, the Salar Muslims voluntarily came under Ming rule, their clan leaders capitulating around 1370. Uyghur troops under Uyghur general Hala Bashi suppressed the Miao Rebellions of the 1370s...

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Relations with Tibet

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:33:00 +0000

The Mingshi— the official history of the Ming Dynasty compiled later by the Qing Dynasty in 1739 —states that the Ming established itinerant commanderies overseeing Tibetan administration while also...

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Treasure fleet

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:31:00 +0000

Beginning in 1405, the Yongle Emperor entrusted his favored eunuch commander Zheng He (1371–1433) as the admiral for a gigantic new fleet of ships designated for international tributary...

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Tumu Crisis and Rebellion of Cao Qin

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:28:00 +0000

The Oirat Mongol leader Esen Tayisi launched an invasion into Ming China in July of 1449. The chief eunuch Wang Zhen encouraged Emperor Zhengtong (ruled in 1435–49) to personally lead a force to face...

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Reign of the Wanli Emperor

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:25:00 +0000

The financial drain of the Imjin War in Korea against the Japanese was one of the many problems—fiscal or other—facing Ming China during the reign of the Wanli Emperor (ruled in 1572–1620). In the...

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Role of eunuchs

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:23:00 +0000

It was said that Hongwu forbade eunuchs to learn how to read or engage in politics. Whether or not these restrictions were carried out with absolute success in his reign, eunuchs during Yongle's...

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Economic breakdown and disaster

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:21:00 +0000

During the last years of Wanli's reign and those of his two successors, an economic crisis developed that was centered around a sudden widespread lack of the empire's chief medium of exchange:...

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Rise of the Manchu

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:19:00 +0000

Shanhaiguan along the Great Wall, the gate where the Manchus were repeatedly repelled before being finally let through by Wu Sangui in 1644. A Jurchen tribal leader named Nurhaci (ruled in...

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Rebellion, invasion, collapse

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:15:00 +0000

A peasant soldier named Li Zicheng (1606–45) mutinied with his fellow soldiers in western Shaanxi in the early 1630s after the Ming government failed to ship much-needed supplies there. In 1634 he...

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Province, prefecture, subprefecture, county

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:13:00 +0000

The Ming emperors took over the provincial administration system of the Yuan Dynasty, and the thirteen Ming provinces are the precursors of the modern provinces. Throughout the Song Dynasty, the...

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Institutional trends

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 09:43:00 +0000

Departing from the main central administrative system generally known as the Three Departments and Six Ministries system, which was instituted by various dynasties since late Han (202 BCE – 220 CE),...

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Grand Secretariat and Six Ministries

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 09:41:00 +0000

Governmental institutions in China conformed to a similar pattern for some two thousand years, but each dynasty installed special offices and bureaus, reflecting its own particular interests. The...

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Bureaus and offices

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 09:39:00 +0000

The imperial household was staffed almost entirely by eunuchs and ladies with their own bureaus.Female servants were organized into the Bureau of Palace Attendance, Bureau of Ceremonies, Bureau of...

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Scholar-officials

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 09:37:00 +0000

After the reign of Hongwu—who from 1373 to 84 staffed his bureaus with officials gathered through recommendations only—the scholar-officials who populated the many ranks of bureaucracy were recruited...

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Lesser functionaries

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 18:10:00 +0000

Scholar-officials who entered civil service through examinations acted as executive officials to a much larger body of non-ranked personnel called lesser functionaries. They outnumbered officials...

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Unprecedented power

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 18:09:00 +0000

Eunuchs during the Ming Dynasty gained unprecedented power over state affairs. One of the most effective means of control was the secret service stationed in what was called the Eastern Depot at the...

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Literature and arts

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 18:06:00 +0000

As in earlier dynasties, the Ming Dynasty saw a flourishing in the arts, whether it was painting, poetry, music, literature, or dramatic theater. Carved designs in lacquerwares and designs glazed...

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Travel literature

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 18:04:00 +0000

There was a great amount of literary achievement in the Ming Dynasty. Xu Xiake (1587–641), a travel literature author, published his Travel Diaries in 404,000 written characters, with information on...

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Visual artists

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 18:01:00 +0000

There were many famous visual artists in the Ming period, including Ni Zan, Shen Zhou, Tang Yin, Wen Zhengming, Qiu Ying, Dong Qichang, and many others. They drew upon the techniques, styles, and...

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Ancestor worship

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:59:00 +0000

The dominant religious beliefs during the Ming dynasty were the traditional mixtures of ancestor worship, Daoism and Buddhism. The Chinese believed in a host of deities in what may be termed Chinese...

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Wang Yangming's Confucianism

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:56:00 +0000

During the Ming Dynasty, the doctrines of the Song Dynasty scholar-official Zhu Xi (1130–1200) and Neo-Confucianism were embraced by the court and the Chinese literati at large. However, total...

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Philosophical interpretation

history2u@groups.facebook.com (Reduan64) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:54:00 +0000

Conservative Confucian officials were wary of Wang's philosophical interpretation of the Confucian classics, the increasing number of his disciples while still in office, and his overall socially...

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