The Ming in Chinese History

Ming Autocracy in Chinese Political History

 * After Song, Mongol Dynasty in China
 * Used China as treasury for funding Conquest
 * Eventually, a man arose from Chinese peasantry to overthrow the Mongol rule
 * His name was ...

Zhu Yuanzhang & Ming Founding (1368 - 1644)

 * Great leader (becomes Ming Taizu afterwards)
 * Confucian historians called him a great tyrant


 * Born in 1328 as a commoner between the two great rivers
 * Popular dissatisfaction with Mongol rulers reaching a fever pitch


 * 1340's were time of great economic hardship and confusion
 * His family all die from lack of food (major famine)


 * Joined a Buddhist monastery as a means of survival


 * Became connected with Secret Societies and Rebel Armies


 * Joined a rebel army -> "Red Turbans"
 * Became the leader of the Rebel group
 * Gathered around him a number of important military men, and scholars
 * Scholars were a sign of his intent to create a government
 * He basically developed a Confucian brain trust


 * He captures Nanjing in 1357
 * Using Nanjing as a base, him attacks and destroys all of the other rebel armies


 * In 1368, he captures the Mongol capital at Beijing


 * Only person other than Liu Bang to become emperor from a commoner status


 * Approach to leadership -> blends Legalist and Confucianist styles of governance
 * With a pity and inspiration from an identification with the suffering of the Common People

Emperor Ming Taizu (r. 1368 - 1398)

 * Once he became leader, he became very Confucian -> Paternalistic
 * Employed Legalist measures in order to guide the people towards living well -> Harsh laws

Economic Measures

 * Works to repair the agricultural infrastructure in China
 * Transport networks re-established
 * Dykes, Dams, Resovoirs, Canals were built
 * Large tracts of land restored to cultivatable land -> triples size of agrable land
 * Re-established Forests in China and by encouraging the planting of trees
 * Emphasized the agrarian economy of China over Commerce and trade

Tax Laws

 * Re-established tax systems with new registration

Fish Scale Registers

 * Completed in 1387 -> Meant to establish an equitable taxation scheme
 * Also meant to ensure that the wealthy would pay taxes at proper rate

Efforts at Local Control

 * Ming Taizu believed that it was his responsibility to make his local population an honorable people
 * Tried to make sure people stayed in places they were born

Yellow Registers

 * Alloted lifestyles to local families


 * Three Groups of Households in a local area
 * Born into a lifestyle, fixed for perpetuity
 * 1) Soldier
 * 2) Craftsman
 * 3) Peasant

Lijia

 * One Li contained 110 Households
 * Li Captains (chosen from jia heads)
 * Each Jia head represented 1 of 10 leading households)
 * Jia were small units of 10 households


 * Taxes were collected in this way
 * Each level of taxation hierarchy was responsible for collecting correct tax amount from the household sets


 * Extra-government (not officially governmental)
 * Meant to keep government at a distance from every day experience of life in China

Placards of People's Instructions

 * Way of enforcing and instructing the ideals of the Emperor and his beliefs about how society should function
 * Elders were given responsibility for maintaining the honorable behavior of local society
 * Certain ideals were held above others and posted on these placards

Pavilions

 * Pavilions placed around the Country
 * Held local individuals to public record
 * Good and bad actions were recorded at these pavilions in detail to show good and bad examples of behavior
 * Listing of names connected honor and shame with certain people

Wine Cermonies

 * Annual meetings in which the most honorable people were seated inside of a place of honor
 * People who were bad placed outside
 * Ritualized moral order into social order

Great Warnings

 * Semi-religious text that was written by Emperor to show moral ideals
 * Suggested that men should be honorable and content in their livies
 * Believed that being content in their station in life would make people happy
 * Cosmos were used to re-inforce Ming's rule

Fears of Bureaucracy

 * Ming Taizu felt a particular resentment towards the scholar class
 * Believed that scholars and bureaucrats were the people holding his ideas for China back
 * Hu Weiyong -> Used as a Prime Minister (liason between bureaucrats and kings)
 * Ming Taizu then launched 14 year investigation on Hu's family and contacts
 * Killed 2500 of these peoples


 * Thereafter eliminated the position of Prime Minister


 * Personal Secretary roles -> created new bias in bureaucracy towards the government


 * Secret Police -> Created of Eunuchs to watch over bureaucrats with authority to arrest and kill bureaucrats
 * Chinese bureaucrats looked down on the castrated Eunuchs

New Rituals

 * Imperial throne raised
 * Established elaborate system of rituals for approaching the throne
 * Ketou -> "Kowtow" : Certain systems of kneeling before the Emperor

Impact of Ming Taizu's Reign

 * By the end of his career -> Ming Taizu was paranoid and crazy
 * Harsh measures put in place for benefit of his people