What finally caused the ming dynasty to collapse

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2: Intellectual Change from the 15th to 17th Century

China through the Qing
The Ming Dynasty
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The Ming Dynasty – then known as the Great Ming Empire – ruled China for 276 years (1368–1644) following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last imperial dynasty in China ruled by ethnic Han Chinese. The dynasty emerged when Zhu Yuanzhang, a military commander of peasant origins, joined in the revolts against the Mongols and became the first Ming emperor, with the name of Hongwu, in 1368. He strove to drive out all Mongol influences and drove the remaining nomads beyond the Great Wall. Under the new title Emperor Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang established a strong, centralized government from the capital of Nanjing. The Ming returned China to Confucian ideals, at least in part to separate the new dynasty from what they viewed as the barbaric practices of the Mongols. In fact, many early Ming policies were enacted directly in opposition to Mongol practices, such as paying taxes with silver instead of paper money and cutting off all trade connections with the Mongols on the steppes. However, the Ming still used many of the governmental structures that the Yuan Empire had established and maintained a powerful military presence throughout its territory. In fact, Hongwu attempted to create a society of self-sufficient rural communities which were ordered in a rigid, immobile system that would guarantee and support a permanent class of soldiers for his dynasty. Under his rule, the empire's standing army exceeded one million troops and the navy's dockyards in Nanjing were the largest in the world.

Similarities with the Yuan Empire became more pronounced under the Emperor Yongle (1402-1424) who took power through a coup d’etat while still an imperial prince. He moved the Ming capital to Beijing, expanded construction of the Forbidden City, restored the Grand Canal, and placed primacy on Confucian civil service examinations in official appointments. As a result, Ming bureaucracy remained the best organized in the world and its military was formidable. The return to the Confucian Civil Service Examination System, which would become expanded even further under the Qing Dynasty, ensured the presence of a numerous educated elite. Yongle also reestablished trading routes with the Middle East, which had been cut off by Emperor Hongwu, but he did so through a maritime route in order to bypass Mongol-controlled territories. He placed the imperial eunuch Zheng He, a Muslim from western China, in command of several state-sponsored trading expeditions, which ran from 1405 to 1433, which not only retraced previous trade routes that the Chinese had explored generations earlier but also created many Chinese settlements throughout the region that aided these maritime missions.

EXPLORATION AND TRADE

Related imageThe first fleet set out in 1405 to India with 62 ships and 28,000 men – it was huge. Later voyages went to the Middle East and the coast of Africa. At its peak, Chinese maritime strength included 2700 coastal ships and 400 armed naval ships with at least 400 long-distance trading ships. They also had nine great treasure ships which were the most sophisticated in the world at the time. The ships were well-supplied and even had gardens on board and, though they tended to follow the coast, the ships had an advanced compass and accurate maps to let them explore off the coast as needed. When on expeditions, the fleet under Zheng He's command presented an imposing force due to its size. Many foreign rulers willingly gave tribute to the emperor when they saw the size of the Chinese fleet. These missions succeeded in creating around fifty new tributary states that regularly sent their tribute to the emperor of China. New trade opportunities were also created. These trading excursions brought back many goods and exotic items, including rare animals from Africa, like zebras, giraffes, and ostriches, to be placed in the imperial zoo. Yongle’s investment paid off, providing both financial rewards and an increase in his status throughout Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

Even with the success of these missions, some in China were not pleased, including Confucian scholars. They came to view Zheng He as a rival to their influence over the emperor and Confucius did not think highly of merchants or trade. As a result, the Confucian scholars used their influence with Yongle's successor to help end these trading expeditions. The imperial trading missions were officially ended in 1433 by imperial decree, partially as a result of the Confucian scholars but also due to the high cost of the missions. The new emperor was involved in expensive military campaigns against the Mongols and had plans to build a luxurious new capital in Beijing, so he could not fund the voyages into the Indian Ocean. These missions were viewed as the personal project of Yongle and his death in 1424 ended much of the enthusiasm for maritime exploration. China gave up its dominant position in world trade and the country was confined to its own kingdom. Not only were overseas trading expeditions outlawed, but the long-distance ships were destroyed. Had this not been the case and Chinese exploration had continued and expanded, the course of human history could have taken a very different direction. Other civilizations throughout the world, including the Europeans, likely could not have withstood the powerful Chinese navy. In many ways, this decision laid open the path for the eventual European dominance of the world.

DECLINE

The end of the Ming Dynasty can be traced back to the mid-fifteenth century. There began to appear military threats within China against the Ming emperors. Rivals slowly gained power and Ming authority went into a gradual decline, a decline which became very apparent by 1600. By this point, the emperors were no longer involved in government, instead living in seclusion within their palaces. A number of factors combined to exhaust the Ming economy, weaken its government, and cause technological stagnation beginning in the late sixteenth and early 17th century. First, the flow of New World silver into China in the 1500s and early 1600s caused inflation in prices and taxes that hit the rural population particularly hard. In addition to these global causes of Ming decline, there were also internal factors particular to China.

Some of the problems of the late Ming may be attributed to a drop in annual temperatures between 1645 and 1700, which may have contributed to the agricultural distress, migration, disease, and uprisings of this period. Furthermore, climate change may also have driven the Mongols and Manchurians to protect their productive lands from Ming control and to take more land along the Ming borders. Technological stagnation and eventual decline may also be a contributing factor. A metal shortage, created in part by the government’s use of coins for money rather than paper money, limited the metal available to build machines and other important implements, and much of Chinese metallurgical knowledge faded. In fact, Japan was making dramatic advances in this area and soon became the most dominant metal producing nation in Asia, especially for the Japanese steel swords.

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The reinstatement of the Confucian Civil Service Examination System under Yongle could also be a factor. During the Yuan period, the Chinese were not allowed to hold important government positions and therefore, many of them turned to industry and commerce. With the reimplementation of the exam system and the opening of government positions to the Chinese, many of these men left the industrial and commercial sectors to take government positions, pulling the leaders out of these areas. Shipbuilding also declined after the death of Yongle and other industries did not prosper or advance during the Ming period, including printing and agriculture. Finally, the population had increased dramatically. During the Yuan, the population had gone down significantly, but it had quickly risen during the Ming period and the Chinese economy had not adjusted effectively to this population growth. With the increase in population, agriculture became aimed at providing the necessities of life, which was not as profitable as commercial farming. This meant that there was not a lot of capital to reinvest in agricultural improvements.

In general, China was concerned about losing its advanced technology to foreign powers. A strong distrust and even fear of foreigners, known as xenophobia, developed in China during the Ming period. Foreigners had been allies of the Mongols, so the xenophobia can be explained somewhat as a reaction against the previous dynasty. At the same time, the Chinese had possessed the best technology in the world for centuries, suggesting that they did not need to import the ideas or technologies of foreigners. China was the Middle Kingdom after all. But during the Ming Dynasty, Chinese dominance began to fade as China relied on old advances and assumed it would maintain its dominant status. China was soon surpassed by both Korea and Japan, signaling the position China would eventually hold below the Europeans.

The Ming also suffered from increased threats on their borders. To the north and west, there was the threat posed by a newly reunified Mongol confederation, while the Ming incurred heavy financial losses when it helped the Koreans to defeat a Japanese invasion. Rebellions rocked the southwest, and Japanese pirates plagued the southeast coast. Additionally, Japan caused problems for China, raiding ships on the ocean and attacking the country. All these came together to signal the end of the Ming dynasty.

The Qing Dynasty
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In 1644, rebel forces led by Li Zicheng overthrew the Ming and succeeded in conquering Beijing. Leaders from Manchuria in the northeast, known as Manchus, agreed to assist the imperial family and moved into Beijing, but they soon refused to leave, instead claiming power over China for themselves. As a result, the Manchu Qing Empire (pronounced Ching) was born. While a Manchu imperial family ruled the Qing Empire, they were only a small proportion of the population, and thus depended on diverse people for assistance in ruling the empire. Therefore, the Chinese made up the overwhelming majority of the people and the officials of the Qing Empire and the Manchus became an elite group within Chinese society.

The Qing ruled the country until 1912. However, even after gaining power, it took forty years of warfare for the Qing to secure their position and fully establish their empire. In doing so, they conquered Mongolia and Central Asia and brought Taiwan under Chinese control for the first time. Early Qing rulers sought to reverse the setbacks that had led to the collapse of the Ming, and worked to restore the economic and demographic foundations of China. As a result, they were successful in lowering taxes, decreasing rents and interest rates, rebuilding areas that had been devastated by warfare, and repairing roads and waterways. Foreign trade was also revived under the Qing, including both land and sea routes. The result was that the second half of the seventeenth century and most of the eighteenth century was a period of advancement in culture, economics, and military achievements for China.

Emperor KangxiIt was under the Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722) that this period of advancement began and the Qing solidified control over their empire. He came to the throne when he was only nine and had to fight against his own regents to finally take power in 1669. Kangxi faced a large scale rebellion during his reign from three former Ming generals, who attempted to take control of southern China, but the emperor crushed their revolt and brought all of southern China directly under his power. There were also military threats from outside. Kangxi proved his military valor leading campaigns against the Tibetans, the Mongols, and the Russians. He also used keen diplomatic skill to avert crises at times. The result was that China, by the end of the seventeenth century, was the most powerful it had been in over 300 years. Stimuli to commerce came from imported silver from mines in western Japan, and from the Spanish colonies after the 1570s. Chinese silks and porcelains were purchased throughout European markets. Private "Shensi banks" opened branches throughout China to facilitate the transfer of funds from one area to another and extend credit, eventually opening offices in Singapore, Japan and Russia. The Qing incorporated ideas and technology from Mongolian, Tibetan, Korean, and Chinese sources. Furthermore, they adapted European knowledge and technology—mapmaking, astronomy, and anatomical and pharmaceutical knowledge—taught by the Jesuits who frequented the Emperor's court.

Related imageAs with Japan, the Jesuits came to China as missionaries with the Portuguese and Spanish traders who gained limited access to Chinese trade. The Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) used his mastery of Chinese language and culture to gain access to the imperial court, and the Qing revised their religious teachings in order to allow Chinese converts to practice Confucian ancestor worship. The emperor enjoyed discussing science and philosophy with the Jesuit missionaries who received access to his court and both sides shared knowledge with each other. Astrology was held in high regard in China and the skill of the Jesuits in astronomy and their advanced astronomical instruments was one of the keys that allowed them to stay in China. Unfortunately for the Jesuits, they did not achieve the mass conversion of the Chinese that they were anticipating.

In general, the Qing dynasty tried to maintain the traditional Chinese political system and followed a very conservative course in regard to Chinese society. China had long been characterized by a social hierarchy and respect for rank, two features that date back to Confucius. This included respecting the old over the young, men over women, and scholar-bureaucrats over commoners. The gentry class, or urban upper-middle class living in market towns, was the matrix from which officials arose after their successful completion of the Chinese Civil Service Exam. Socially and educationally they were closer to the magistrates than to the commoners, usually owned land, were able to avoid manual labor, and had sufficient funds to educate their children. They performed quasi-official functions like maintaining schools and Confucian temples, roads, bridges, and infrastructure. They were generally conservative upholders of Confucian values and sustainers of the dynasty. Family structure changed little under the Qing dynasties, and the family ideal was still Confucian: women were expected to obey the male heads of households, a control that was upheld by the state. The extended family was the foundation of their society and Qing authorities were displeased if any other organization upset it or tried to rival it. The lives of women were limited to the household where they found themselves under the control of men, a control that was upheld by the state. The practice of selecting brides of a slightly lower social class also helped to maintain the authority of men, as a woman from a lower social group was less likely to cause problems or disobey her husband. Women were, however, instrumental in home economies, spinning, weaving and making other products for commercial markets.

Commercial and urban expansion occurred rapidly during the period. The crops that were grown became much more diversified and aimed at the market, and new ways to finance agricultural and artisan production emerged. Once inflation had been calmed, both the state and merchants profited enormously from silver brought into China. Europeans flocked to the coast of China to trade for silk, tea, and porcelain, which had become known as "china." At the same time, Chinese merchants again began to expand overseas, freed from the restrictions imposed by Ming on overseas travel.

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Europeans were eager to trade with China, but enthusiasm for international trade developed slowly in China, particularly in the imperial court. Over the course of the sixteenth century, the Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch gained limited access to Chinese trade. By the seventeenth century, the Dutch East India Company had become the major European trader in the Indian Ocean. Although trade was booming, by 1800, European nations had become upset with Qing foreign policy, mainly because the government would not engage in any of the modern forms of bureaucracy, including establishing formal trade agreements. Instead, they restricted European traders to the Canton System, which designated a single market point for each foreign sector: the city of Canton. The Qing were eager to expand trade, but they wanted to control it in order to be able to tax it more efficiently and to control piracy and smuggling. Furthermore, Qing administrators were leery of European influence. In order to do so, the Qing designated a single market point for each foreign sector: the market point for those coming from the South China Sea (including the various European traders) was the city of Canton. This system worked fairly well until the late 1700s. The policy arose in 1757 as a response to a perceived political and commercial threat from abroad on the part of successive Chinese emperors. From the late seventeenth century onwards, Chinese merchants managed all trade in the port and became officially sanctioned as a monopoly known as the Cohong. Thereafter Chinese merchants dealing with foreign trade acted through the Cohong under the supervision of the Guangdong Customs Supervisor and local governors.

At the same time, the Qing Empire was growing too large, both in geographic and demographic terms. The territory controlled by the Qing was so expansive that it became difficult to defend and govern. Population had increased so significantly that a deteriorating agricultural system was unable to meet the nutritional needs of the people, leading to famines among the Chinese. The resources at the disposal of the Qing emperors did not allow them to move the country forward toward industrialization because too much had to be invested to just maintain the country.

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