In this essay I am going to write a summary of the Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty, which happened between 1368 CE – 1806 CE. This essay is based on the fourth chapter of the book, “History of China” by J.A.G. Roberts, Third Edition, 2011.
The Ming Dynasty (1368 CE – 1644 CE)
The Ming Dynasty was founded by Zhu Yuanzhang (also known as Hongwu). Zhu Yuanzhang was a part of a cult known as the Red Turbans. Being the orphan he was, the Red Turbans took him in and raised him in their ways. When the leader of the Red Turbans drowned in 1367, Zhu Yuanzhang started the Ming Dynasty and took the name Hongwu.
Hongwu’s first mission as emperor was to take over the rest of China, starting with Dadu (the old Yuan capital, which is in modern day Beijing). Once captured, Dadu was renamed Beiping, which meant “the north is pacified”. One of the biggest threats to the Ming Dynasty at the time was Koko Temur (he was an independent military leader). In 1372, Hongwu sent a large military force to attack Koko Temur. The army was able to follow Temur into Mongolia and did heavy damage to him, but he recovered fast. It was only in 1375, when Koko Temur died, that the Mongolian threat declined. In 1377 CE, Hongwu persuaded the Korean state, Koryo, to abandon its loyalty to the Yuan and to recognize the Ming as the new, powerful dynasty. Tibet also refused to abandon their loyalty to the Yuan, and Hongwu had to “persuade” the Tibet with force in 1379.
Even though Hongwu claimed that we was reinstalling the practices of the Song and Tang dynasties, his ruling was based off of the Mongol way of ruling.
Before the end of Hongwu’s reign in 1380, he started to stress the importance of education, examinations, and tried to reform the tax system.
In 1380, Hu Weiyong, a chancellor close to Hongwu, committed treason and was put to death. Enraged, Hongwu abolished the office of chancellor, the Secretariat Chancellery, and the authority of military commission. Hongwu also did a massive purge which killed 30,000 of his followers.
Hongwu was succeeded by his grandson, Emperor Jianwen (reigned 1399 – 1402). Jianwen only ruled for three years, and did not have time to do much. He was killed in a palace fire in 1402, and his uncle, Emperor Yongle (reigned 1403 – 1424), took the throne.
When Emperor Yongle gained the throne he restored parts of the government that were in use under Hongwu. Yongle replaced the Secretariat-Chancellery, which Hongwu abolished. Yongle also moved the capital from Nanjing (a city in the Jiangsu province), to Beijing, so he could have closer control over northern military forces. The building of the new capital started in 1406 and was completed in 1417. From that point onwards Yongle lived there.
During Yongle’s reign, a Mongol ruler known as Tamerlane was at power. Tamerlane had acquired an extensive Central Asian empire and was heading for China in, but died in 1404 before he could reach China. Later on, Mongol tribes known as the Tatar and Oirat became a threat. From 1410 – 1424, Yongle led five expeditions to try and suppress them. Even though the records from his time state that these expeditions were successful, they were expensive and did not fully suppress the Mongol threat.
Before his death, Yongle would send out soldiers on voyages from, this program started in 1405 and end in 1421. It is said that the purpose of these voyages was to find the Jianwen emperor who was rumored to have escaped the palace fire disguised as a monk, this theory is not supported by evidence and is most likely false. The ships built for these voyages were possibly the biggest wooden ships ever made. After Yongle’s death one last fleet was sent out before the whole project ended. The voyages were no longer needed and were very expensive. Because the Ming stopped this project China’s head on the knowledge of the ocean were overtaken by the Portuguese.
The reign of Emperor Yongle was the first and last period of expansion for the Ming Dynasty. Later emperors focused more on defensive tactics, rather than expansion. In the 1440s the Oirat tribe was united by their leader, Esen. The Oirat were conquering Chinese territories and were heading for the Ming. In 1448, the Ming decided to lead an attack on the Oirat. This force was head by the Chief Eunuch, Wang Zhen. The Ming force was ambushed by the Oirat at Tumu (a town 70 miles north west of Beijing), which led to the capture of Emperor Zhengtong (the emperor at the time), and the death of Wang Zhen.
The court did not let the Oirat have power over them by keeping their emperor hostage and gave the throne to Zhengtong’s half-brother, Jingtai. Once Zhengtong was released by the Oirat he became Jingtai’s enemy and created a coup. In 1457 Zhengtong dethroned his brother, taking back the throne for himself. After regaining the throne Zhengtong realized that he did not have the power to control the steppes where the Mongols came from and started construction The Great Wall of China in 1474.
During the reign of Emperor Jiajing (reigned from 1522 – 1566), a new threat emerged, a Mongol group led by Altan Khan (a political leader of the Tumed Mongols), were raiding Chinese territory to gain supplies to fight the Oirat. In 1550, Altan Khan lay siege to Beijing and pillaged the suburbs around Beijing. The raids continued until 1571 when the Chinese made a peace treaty with Altan. Despite the treaty, China’s weakness was exposed and its northern borders were always threatened by the Mongols until the end of the 1700s.
In the 1550s, raiding parties were being set up by the coast of Zhenjiang (an eastern province in China). In 1554, Songjiang (a district in Shanghai), the central of the cotton industry, was attacked. Qi Jiguang, a Chinese commander, made a volunteer force and attacked the raiders mercilessly. It was only in 1567, when the ban on Chinese involvement in foreign trading was withdrawn, was there finally peace.
Historians have said that there were many things that contributed to the end of the Ming Dynasty, one of them being the successional cycle. The Jiajing Emperor (reigned from 1522 – 1566), was obsessed with Daoism and finding “elixirs of immortality.” This eventually led to his death by poisoning. The Wanli Emperor (reigned from 1573 – 1620), was more promising. He improved the efficiency of the government and the financial administration. Wanli was followed by Tianqi (1621 – 1627), who was seen as an incompetent ruler. The throne then went to eunuch dictator Wei Zhongxian and the Chongzhen emperor (reigned from 1628 – 1645).
Another thing that may have contributed to the end of the Ming was the severe weather conditions and the failing economy. During the late Ming period, specifically 1626 – 1640, China experienced unusually severe weather. The temperatures were low, and there were droughts and floods. The population declined or idled. The Chinese economy was also being held by imported silver which payed for Chinese exports. But the Europeans had a trade depression in the 1620s, and trade with Philippines and Japan were interrupted in the 1640s. The silver imports reduced greatly, the silk industry was injured, and the prices of grain rose.
But one of the main reasons for the end of the Ming was the rebellions. Historian, James W. Tong, has said that the reason rebellions started was because the government lessened their hold on the people, this made people feel like they could do whatever they wanted.
The rebellions almost completely ended in the late 1630s, when the Manchu raids diverted the government’s attention. The two leaders of the rebellions, Li Zicheng in the Henan province, and Zhang Xianzhong, in the Sichuan province, started to show interest in politics. In 1644, Li Zicheng declared the start of a new dynasty and attacked Beijing. On April 24 1644, Li Zicheng marched on Beijing. That night the Ming emperor hanged himself.
The Qing Dynasty (1636 CE – 1912 CE)
The Qing dynasty was started by the Manchus, descendants of the Jurchen tribe (who founded the Jin dynasty. I wrote an essay about them). The Manchus lived up in the Changbai mountains, east of the Jilin province. They were known as Changbai Jurchens before adopting the name Manchu in 1635.
The transformation of the Changbai Jurchen to the Manchu state was all because of Nurhaci, a Jurchen chieftain. Nurhaci united all of the Jurchen tribes and formed relationships with the Chinese. The Wanli emperor gave Nurhaci a title in 1589, and led a tribute mission to Beijing. In the 1590s, Nurhaci traded ginseng and horses, which earned him a high profit. He also started to organize the Manchu population, which formed the “destructive cavalry forces of the Manchus.”[i]
By 1603, Nurhaci rise to power scared the Chinese, who then made borders between Chinese land and Jurchen land. Nurhaci then started to change his style of bureaucracy, which transformed the Jurchen tribes into the Manchus.
In 1616, Nurhaci seized Fushun (a city in China), and awarded the Chinese commander of the town a high military rank and wed him to his granddaughter. By 1621, Nurhaci controlled all of Liaodong (a Chinese province) and was trying to convince Chinese officials to join his side.
The Manchu advancement paused for eight years. During that time many Chinese official families joined the Manchus, but some were treated poorly and tried to poison the Manchus food and drinks. In 1625, the Chinese revolted against the Manchus and Nurhaci decided to not rely on the Chinese anymore. Meanwhile, the Chinese were improving their firearms near The Great Wall. But so were the Manchus.
When Nurhaci died in 1626, the Chinese attempted to talk peace with the new Manchu leader, Hung Taiji. In 1629, Hung Taiji led a raid through The Great Wall, capturing four Chinese cities and reaching the walls of Beijing. This was the raid that ended the Ming dynasty and sparked the biggest internal rebellion. By 1631 the Manchus were engineering and manufacturing big, European-type cannons, which were to be used against the Ming.
Taiji defeated the Chaha Mongols and claimed the succession to Genghis Khan and the Yuan dynasty in 1635. Three years later he sent forced to the Korea Yi dynasty and forced them to pay tribute to the Manchu.
Taiji knew that if he wanted to suppress the Chinese, force would not be the way. So he started to adopt certain Chinese ways of ruling. But by the mid-1630s, Taiji became tired of the excessive Chinese influence and started to enforce Manchu traditions and values again.
When Hung Taiji died in 1643, his throne went to his five year old son, with his uncles, Dorgon and Jirgalang, as his regents. The first decision the regents had to make was if they should follow Hung Taiji’s policy, which followed tradition of raiding China while staying in their homelands. But Dorgon wanted power and decided to ignore the policy and went to occupy China.
Li Zicheng’s forces were still occupying Beijing when Dorgon invaded China. But the Manchus were quick to get rid of Li and his forces. The Ming tried to negotiate a peace with the Manchus, but they refused and attacked the Yangzi provinces, this action sparked a battle between the Ming and the Manchus.
The Ming were going to surrender, until they heard news that the Manchu wanted all men to wear their hair the Manchu way (shaved at the front and long braid in the back), the Chinese unified and rebelled. This small rebellion did not make the Manchus disappear and in 1645, the Ming capital fell to the Manchus. The last Ming emperor tried to flee to Burma (modern day Myanmar), but was captured and killed.
After defeating the Ming the Manchu had to find a way to lead without creating too much tension between the Chinese people and the Manchus. The Manchus made funeral arrangements for the last Ming emperor and let Chinese officials continue in their ranks alongside Manchu appointees. The Manchus also lessened the taxes. But the Manchus still favored their people. Chinese people would live in lower class areas, while the Manchu people and other Chinese who accepted the Manchus long before the invasion would live in upper class areas.
By now Taiji’s son, now the Shunzi emperor, was old enough to participate in government affairs, but soon died in 1661. Shunzi admitted to favoring the Chinese in his rulings and let Buddhist monks influence him. His will stated that his seven year old son, who will reign as the Kangxi emperor, was to be his successor and that there would be four regents to exercise the power of emperor until his son came of age. These four regents were known as the Oboi, and held power until 1669. They tried to reverse Shunzi’s biased ruling and reassert Manchu power.
When Kangxi came of age to rule he charged Oboi and many of his supporters with treason.
Emperor Kangxi reigned for 61 years (1661 – 1722). During the last 40 years of his reign the Qing dynasty was accepted as a legitimate Chinese dynasty. This was because of Kangxi “committing himself whole-heartedly to the business of being a Chinese emperor.”[ii] Kangxi would visit his people and hear their complaints and problems and did his best to fix them.
During the 1650s, the Russians were expanding and coming very close to Manchu territory. At the time, the Qing dynasty could not drive out the Russians, but in 1685 Kangxi decided that it was time to drive out the Russians. Kangxi ordered an attack on Albazin (a Russian town near the Amur River). Knowing that the Russians could ally with the Zunghar (a western branch of Mongols), Kangxi immediately set up a treaty with Russia in 1689. It was known as the Treaty of Nerchinsk.
One of the innovations during Kangxi’s reign was the ‘palace memorial’ system. It was an easy and secure way to communicate with others in different provinces. Another innovation was the presence of Jesuits (a group of Christians). They were required to accept ancestral worship, as that was Chinese culture, so they could stay in China. At first the Jesuits accepted this, but other Christian groups judged them for doing so. Kangxi told the Jesuits they could accept the Chinese way or leave the country and never come back. After the death of Kangxi, there were negotiations on this topic until 1742, when the “Ex Quo Singulari”, prohibited Jesuits to follow the Chinese way.
Towards the end of Kangxi’s reign, there were many problems with who was going to succeed him. In 1676, he named his second son, Yinreng, his successor. When Yinreng was older he started to do “immoral actions”, which led to 15 years of uncertainty of who would success Kangxi. It was only on his deathbed when Kangxi declared that his fourth son, who would rule as the Yongzheng emperor, should succeed him. There were rumors that Yongzheng poisoned his father and stole the throne from Kangxi’s fourteenth son.
The Yongzheng emperor reigned from 1723 – 1735. Even though he did not reign for very long he was known for his attempts to introduce new reforms, one of them being the succession system. Instead of following the Chinese tradition to appoint the eldest son of an empress, Yongzheng would choose his successor and put the successor’s name into a sealed box. No one was allowed to know which son had been chosen until the death of the emperor, not even the candidate himself.
Yongzheng also reformed the palace memorial system, which enabled him to acquire confidential matters directly. Yongzheng also introduced the “court letter”, a set of instructions that were highly confidential and were to be delivered to an official directly.
Emperor Kangxi had left Yongzheng with an almost empty treasury because of his relaxed attitude towards economic matters. Yongzheng immediately started to change this. He made an extra tax for land owners and a ‘meltage fee’ for when silver that was taken as tax was melted down into ingots (coins).
Yongzheng also involved himself in trying to enforce neo-Confucianism among his scholars. Like his father, he tried to do this in “the form of the school of Principle”[iii], which included total submission of women, authority of males in a household, and the unshakable loyalty of subjects to their emperor.
Yongzheng was succeeded by his fourth son, the Qianlong Emperor, in 1735. During the early part of his reign Qianlong changed the Grand Council and who could be a part of it. Imperial princes lost their seats to Manchu officials. The Grand Council became so effective that eventually, “the need for the emperor to direct its deliberations declined.”[iv]
By the eighteenth century the Qing controlled a large, multiethnic empire. Qianlong contributed to this empire by expanding into Tibet and Xinjiang, both autonomous regions. The Qing also had a presence in Lhasa, but their impact was being challenged by Zunghar (an inner Asian Khanate) influence, this led to a civil war in 1750. Qianlong’s solution was to set a Chinese Dalai Lama. Lhasa could rule themselves, but was still a Chinese territory.
The Qianlong emperor was weary of the independence of the Zunghar. But when their leader, Galdan Tseren, died in 1745, Qianlong and Amursana (a prince of the Zunghar) allied with each other and brought the Zunghar region under Chinese control in 1755. In 1757 Amursana started a huge revolt against the Ming, Qianlong ordered his troops to go in and “show no mercy at all to these rebels.” This resulted in a mass killing, which ended the Zunghar “as a state and as a people.”[v]
During Qianlong’s reign the economy was thriving, its basis being agriculture. Rice, wheat, millet, cotton, silk, and tea were all of major significance and were growing bountifully. But the population of the empire exceeded the estimated 150 million, there was not enough land to feed all of the people, and between 1750 and 1775 the food available started to decline. Qianlong also became a patron of the arts, which made literature flourish. Qianlong himself wrote poetry and funded scholarly enterprises, which produced a collection of 3500 works of poetry, which is seen to be one of the best in Chinese literature.
Towards the end of the Qing dynasty the White Lotus religion started to surface. This religion worshipped the Eternal Mother, their supreme deity. This small, insignificant religion sparked a rebellion in 1774 in Shandong (a Chinese province), and a bigger rebellion in 1794, which was one of the first big rebellions to threaten the dynasty.
Conclusion
In this essay I have talked about the Ming and early Qing dynasties. The Ming and Qing dynasties are the last two dynasties in Chinese History before the modernization in 1900s. My next essay will be about the later half of the Qing dynasty. Thanks for reading!
[i] A History of China, J. A. G. Roberts Page 135
[ii] A History of China, J. A. G. Roberts Page 144
[iii] A History of China, J. A. G. Roberts Page 149
[iv] A History of China, J. A.G. Roberts Page 151
[v] A History of China, J. A. G. Roberts Page 152
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