Ming China

RESTORING ORDER

In the chaotic fourteenth century, as plague and famine ravaged China and the Mongol Yuan dynasty collapsed, only a strong military movement capable of overpowering other groups could restore order. That intervention began at the hands of a poor young man who had trained in the Red Turban movement: Zhu Yuanzhang, a successful warlord who had led a rebellion against the waning power of the Mongols and any others who would assert control in their wake.

It soon became clear that Zhu had a much grander design for China than the ambitions of most warlords. When he took Nanjing in 1356, he renamed it Yingtian (“in response to heaven”). Buoyed by subsequent successful military campaigns, Zhu (r. 1368–1398) took the imperial title of Hongwu (“expansive and martial”) Emperor and proclaimed the founding of the Ming (“brilliant”) dynasty in 1368. Soon thereafter, his troops met little resistance when they seized the Yuan capital of Khan-balik (soon renamed Beijing), causing the Mongol emperor to flee to his homeland in the steppe. It would, however, take the Hongwu Emperor almost another twenty years to reunify the entire country.

CENTRALIZATION UNDER THE MING

The Hongwu Emperor and successive Ming emperors had to rebuild a devastated society from the ground up. Although in the past China had experienced natural catastrophes, wars, and social dislocation, the plague’s legacy was devastation on an unprecedented scale. It left the new rulers with the formidable challenge of rebuilding the great cities, restoring respect for ruling elites, and reconstructing the bureaucracy.

Imperial Grandeur and Kinship The rebuilding began with the Hongwu Emperor, whose capital at Nanjing reflected imperial grandeur. When the dynasty’s third emperor, the Yongle (“perpetual happiness”) Emperor, relocated the capital to Beijing, he flaunted an even more grandiose style, employing around 100,000 artisans and 1 million laborers to build this new capital. The city had three separate walled enclosures. Inside the outer city walls sprawled the imperial city; within its walls lay the palace compound, the Forbidden City. Traffic within the walled sections navigated through broad boulevards leading to the different gates, above which imposing towers soared. The palace compound, where the imperial family resided, had more than 9,000 rooms. Anyone standing in the front courts, which measured more than 400 yards on a side and boasted marble terraces and carved railings, would gasp at the awe-inspiring projection of power. That was precisely the effect the Ming emperors wanted (just as the Ottoman sultans did in building Topkapi Palace).

Marriage and kinship buttressed the power of the Ming imperial household, much as dynastic strategies did in Europe. The Ming dynasty’s founder married the adopted daughter of a leading Red Turban rebel (her father, according to legend, was a convicted murderer), thereby consolidating his power and eliminating a threat. Empress Ma, as she was known, became the Hongwu Emperor’s principal wife and was praised for her compassion. Emerging as the kinder face of the regime, she tempered the harsh and sometimes cruel disposition of her spouse. He had numerous other consorts as well, including Korean and Mongol women, who bore him twenty-six sons and sixteen daughters. (His household was similar to, although on a smaller scale than, the Ottoman sultan’s harem at Topkapi Palace.)

Building a Bureaucracy Faced with the challenge of reestablishing order out of turmoil, the Hongwu Emperor initially sought to rule through his kinsmen—by giving imperial princes generous stipends, command of large garrisons, and significant autonomy in running their domains. However, when the princes’ power began to threaten the court, the Hongwu Emperor slashed their stipends, reduced their privileges, and took control of their garrisons. No longer dependent on these men, he established an imperial bureaucracy beholden only to him and to his successors. Its officials won appointments through their outstanding performance on a reinstated civil service examination.

CURRENT TRENDS IN WORLD HISTORY

Ming Fashion

Ming rulers liked to represent themselves as custodians of “civilized” Han traditions, in contrast to the “barbarian” ways of the previous Mongol Yuan dynasty. However, from governmental practices to clothing fashions, there were visible signs everywhere that the Ming, despite their rhetoric, followed in the footsteps of the Yuan and became more and more linked to an ever-growing, interconnected world. As trade with neighboring and faraway lands continued unabated and merchants and travelers kept moving, it proved to be impossible for the Ming to keep outside influences at arm’s length. At the same time, the rhetoric of a return to Han traditions did generate moves to invoke antiquity in the realm of fashion. Status-conscious elites with newfound wealth eagerly purchased clothes in what they believed to be the ancient Han style, hoping to set themselves apart from the common people. Their flirtation with antiquity, however, often ended up being more of a reinvention to satisfy the surging demands of the market than a genuine return to earlier conventions.

Founder Zhu Yuanzhang set the tone of the Ming by trying to rid the country of the close-fitting tunics worn by the Mongols. He advocated instead the wearing of the reputedly Tang-style garment of earlier times. While this measure did meet with some success, the vibrant clothing industry was hardly free of its fascination with the “exotic,” such as horsehair skirts from Korea for men. These skirts were a rare commodity when they first arrived, probably via trade missions. But by the late fifteenth century, local weavers had become so skilled in making them, and consumers so eager to obtain them, that craftworkers were caught stealing the tails of horses to satisfy the soaring demand for the raw materials. Indeed, undoubtedly to the chagrin of the first Ming emperor and his descendants, much of the Yuan style and even terminology in both male and female clothing persisted during the Ming era.

The retro movement in fashion, as mentioned, had more to do with the demands of a changing Ming society than with the official advocacy for restorationism. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the myriad styles of hats for men—a convenient yet highly visible way to make a statement of social standing. Invoking the names of earlier dynasties, styles included the Han cap, the Jin cap, the Tang cap, and so on. The most interesting, however, was the Chunyang hat, which allegedly drew upon both Han and Tang styles in its design but had actually become a symbol of the so-called new and strange fashion that so often attracted commentary in Ming writings. In fact, it was favored by the young, who had nothing but disdain for ancient styles!

Nor was the rage for fashion reserved for only men, or even for just the privileged. One Ming writer lamented, perhaps with a hint of exaggeration, “Nowadays the very servant girls dress in silk gauze, and the singsong girls look down on brocaded silks and embroidered gowns.” Respectable women, we are told, looked to the clothing and style of the courtesans of the prosperous southern region of the country for ideas and inspiration for fashion. Indeed, much of our visual knowledge of Ming women’s clothing comes from paintings that likely depicted highly trained courtesans or the female “entertainers” that were ubiquitous in Ming urban centers. These paintings reveal the different and consistently evolving styles of clothing for Ming women, including the “paddy-field gowns”—which might have owed their origins to Buddhist robes—that were the focus of much criticism from those who frowned on the growing penchant for the exotic, the strange, the outrageous, and the irreverent in the realm of fashion. If nothing else, this debate about clothing certainly tells us that despite the often conservative stance and policies of the Ming regime, the everyday life of many Ming subjects was a constant exercise in negotiating the multiple impacts of both the old and the new, as well as the familiar and the foreign, in different arenas of their rapidly changing society.

Questions for Analysis

• What are some examples of Ming “retro” fashion? Why did the Ming elite cultivate an “ancient” Han style?
• How do we know about changes in women’s fashion in the Ming era? Are there any dangers in using these sources to understand the dress of all Ming women?
• Flipping back through the illustrations in this chapter, what do you see of the clothing from other regions? What questions does the analysis of Ming clothing presented here raise for you as you reexamine the images of Ottomans and western Europeans?

Explore Further

• Clunas, Craig, and Jessica Harrison-Hall (eds.), Ming: 50 Years That Changed China (2014).
• Finnane, Antonia, Changing Clothes in China: Fashion, History, Nation (2008).

In addition, the Hongwu Emperor took other steps to install a centralized system of rule. He assigned bureaucrats to oversee the manufacture of porcelain, cotton, and silk products as well as tax collection. He reestablished the Confucian school system as a means of selecting a cadre of loyal officials (not unlike the Ottoman janissaries and administrators). He also set up local networks of villages to rebuild irrigation systems and to supervise reforestation projects to prevent flooding—with the astonishing result that the amount of land reclaimed nearly tripled within eight years. For water supply and flood control, over 40,000 reservoirs underwent repairs or new construction. Historians estimate that the Hongwu Emperor’s reign oversaw the planting around Nanjing of about 1 billion trees, which were later used in building a maritime expedition fleet in the early fifteenth century.

The imperial palace not only projected the image of a power center; it was the center of power. Every official received his appointment by the emperor through the Ministry of Personnel. The Hongwu Emperor also eliminated the post of prime minister (he executed the man who held the post) and ruled directly. Ming bureaucrats had to kneel before the emperor. The drawback of this centralized control, of course, was that the Ming emperor had to keep tabs on this immense system. The Hongwu Emperor constantly moved his bureaucrats around, sometimes fortifying the administration, sometimes undermining it lest it become too autonomous. Over time, the Hongwu Emperor nurtured a bureaucracy far more extensive than that of the Ottomans. The Ming thus established the most highly centralized system of government of all the monarchies of this period.

RELIGION UNDER THE MING

Just as the Ottoman sultans projected themselves as Muslim rulers, calling themselves the shadow of God, and European monarchs claimed to rule by divine right, the Ming emperors enhanced their legitimacy by drawing on ancient Chinese religious traditions. Citing the mandate of heaven, the emperor revised and strengthened the elaborate rites and ceremonies that had supported dynastic power for centuries. Official rituals, such as those related to the gods of soil and grain, reinforced political and social classes, portraying the rulers as the moral and spiritual benefactors of their subjects. In lavish ceremonies, the emperor engaged in sacrificial rites, cultivating his image as mediator between the human and the spiritual worlds. The message was clear: the gods were on the side of the Ming household.

MING RULERSHIP

Conquest and defense helped establish the Ming empire, and bureaucracy kept it functioning. The empire’s scale required complex administration. (See Map 11.4.) To many outsiders (especially Europeans, whose region was in a state of constant war), Ming stability and centralization appeared to be political wizardry.

Ming rulers worried in particular about maintaining the support of ordinary people in the countryside. The emperor wished to be seen as the special guardian of his subjects. He wanted their allegiance as well as their taxes and labor. But during hard times, poor farmers were reluctant to provide resources—taxes or services—to distant officials. A popular Chinese proverb was “The mountain is high and the emperor is far away.” For these reasons, and because he distrusted state bureaucrats, the Hongwu Emperor preferred to entrust the management of rural communities to local leaders, whom he appointed as village chiefs, village elders, or tax captains. Within these communities, the dynasty created a social hierarchy based on age, sex, and kinship. While women’s labor remained critical for the village economy, the government reinforced a gender hierarchy by promoting women’s chastity and constructing commemorative arches for widows who honored their husbands by refraining from remarrying.

Like the European and Islamic states, the Ming Empire faced periodic unrest and rebellion. Rebels often proclaimed their own brand of religious beliefs and local elites resented central control. Outright terror helped stymie these threats to central authority. In a massive wave of carnage, the Hongwu Emperor slaughtered anyone who posed a threat to his authority, from the highest of ministers to the lowliest of scribes. From 1376 to 1393, four of his purges condemned close to 100,000 subjects to execution.

Yet, despite the emperor’s immense power, the Ming Empire remained undergoverned. Indeed, as the population multiplied, there were too few loyal officials to handle local affairs. By the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, for example, some 10,000 to 15,000 officials shouldered the responsibility of managing a population exceeding 200 million people. Nonetheless, the Hongwu Emperor bequeathed to his descendants a set of tools for ruling that drew on subjects’ direct loyalty to the emperor and on the intricate workings of an extensive bureaucracy. His legacy enabled his successors to balance local sources of power with the needs of dynastic rulership.

Map 11.4 Ming China, 1500–1600

The Ming state was one of the largest empires at this time—and the most populous. Using the scale, determine the length of its coastline and its internal borders.

• What were the two Ming capitals and the three main seaport trading cities? How far are they from one another?
• According to the map, where did the Ming rulers expect the greatest threat to their security?
• How many provinces are outlined on the map? How far is Beijing from some of the more distant provinces? What sorts of challenges did that create for the centralized style of Ming rule, and how does the chapter suggest those challenges were resolved?

TRADE AND EXPLORATION UNDER THE MING

Gradually, the political stability brought by the Ming dynasty allowed trade to revive. Now the new dynasty’s merchants reestablished China’s preeminence in long-distance commercial exchange. Chinese silk and cotton textiles, as well as fine porcelains, ranked among the world’s most coveted luxuries. When a Chinese merchant ship sailed into a port, trading partners and onlookers crowded the docks to watch the unloading of precious cargoes. Although Ming rulers’ support for overseas ventures wavered and eventually declined, this period saw important developments in Chinese trade and exploration.

Overseas Trade: Success and Suspicion During the Ming period, Chinese traders based in the three main ports—Hangzhou, Quanzhou, and Guangzhou (Canton)—were as energetic as their Muslim counterparts in the Indian Ocean. These and other ports were home to prosperous merchants and the point of convergence for vast sea-lanes. Leaving the mainland ports, Chinese vessels carried precious wares to offshore islands, the Pescadores, and Taiwan. From there, they sailed on to the ports of Southeast Asia. As entrepôts for global goods, East Asian ports flourished. Former fishing villages developed into major urban centers.

The Ming dynasty viewed overseas expansion with suspicion, however. The Hongwu Emperor feared that too much contact with the outside world would cause instability and undermine his rule. In fact, he banned private maritime commerce in 1371. But enforcement was lax, and by the late fifteenth century maritime trade had once again surged. Because much of the thriving business took place in defiance of official edicts, constant friction occurred between government officials and maritime traders. Although the Ming government ultimately agreed to issue licenses for overseas trade in the mid-sixteenth century, its policies continued to vacillate. To Ming officials, unlike their counterparts in Portugal and Spain, the sea represented problems of order and control rather than opportunities.

The Expeditions of Zheng He One spectacular exception to the early Ming attitude toward maritime trade was a series of officially sponsored expeditions in the early fifteenth century. It was the ambitious third Ming emperor, the Yongle Emperor, who took this initiative. One of his loyal followers was a Muslim whom the Ming army had captured as a boy. The youth was castrated and sent to serve at the court (as a eunuch, he could not continue his family line and so theoretically owed allegiance solely to the emperor). Given the name Zheng He (1371–1433), he grew up to be an important military leader. The emperor entrusted him with venturing out to trade, collect tribute, and display China’s power to the world.

From 1405 to 1433, Zheng He commanded the world’s greatest armada and led seven naval expeditions. His larger ships stretched 400 feet in length (Columbus’s Santa Maria was 85 feet), carried hundreds of sailors on four tiers of decks, and maneuvered with sophisticated rudders, nine masts, and watertight compartments. The first expedition set sail with 28,000 men aboard a flotilla of sixty-two large ships and over 200 lesser ones. Zheng He and his entourage aimed to establish tributary relations with far-flung territories—from Southeast Asia to the Indian Ocean ports, to the Persian Gulf, and to the east coast of Africa. (See Map 11.5.) These expeditions sought not territorial expansion but rather control of trade and tribute. When the Yongle Emperor died in 1424, the expeditions lost their most enthusiastic patron. Moreover, by the mid-fifteenth century, there was a revival of military threats from the north. Recalling how the maritime-oriented Song dynasty had been overrun by invaders from the north (see Chapter 10), Ming officials withdrew imperial support for seagoing ventures and instead devoted their energies to overland ventures and defense.

Map 11.5 Voyages of Zheng He, 1405–1433

Zheng He’s voyages are some of the most famous in world history. Many have speculated about how history might have been different if the Chinese emperors had allowed the voyages to continue.

• What routes did Zheng He’s armada follow?
• Referring to other maps in this chapter and earlier chapters, with what peoples did Zheng He’s armada come into contact?
• Using the scale on the map, estimate how far Zheng He’s armada sailed. How does this distance compare with the distances covered by other world travelers you’ve encountered in this text?

Even though maritime commerce continued without official patronage, the Ming decision to forgo overseas ventures was momentous. Although China remained the wealthiest, most densely settled region of the world, with fully developed state structures and thriving markets, the empire’s wariness of overseas projects deprived merchants and would-be explorers of vital support in an age when others were beginning to look outward and overseas.