14 ming dynasty

Zhu Yuanzhang claimed the Mandate of Heaven in 1368 and established the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty ruled their empire for almost 300 years, prospered from freer private trade and industry and with trade with Europeans, and then it fell due to internal rebellions and the attack of the Manchus.

The Beginning of the Ming Dynasty

During the final 40 years of the Yuan Dynasty era (1279–1368), there were famines, drought, flooding on the Yellow River, a bubonic plague pandemic, and other natural disasters. Perhaps tens of millions of people died, and these disasters were seen as signs that the Yuan Dynasty had lost the Mandate of Heaven.

This ancient political doctrine encouraged people to rebel. Starting in the 1350s, there were almost 20 years of rebellions. The Yuan troops tried to quell the rebellions, but they grew in size, and rebel armies started holding cities and large tracts of territory.

These armies became large and powerful. A powerful army south of the Yangtze River was led by Zhu Yuanzhang.

Zhu Yuanzhang (1328–1398)

Mausoleum of Zhu Yuanzhang in Nanjing

Zhu Yuanzhang grew up as a poor peasant. He was born in 1328. Perhaps typical of a poor peasant at the end of the Yuan era, he saw a lot of death, starvation, and fighting.

It is said that he was the youngest of seven or eight brothers. Due to poverty, several of his older brothers were given away. In 1344, when he was 16, the Yellow River flooded and flooded his home. Then his family died of disease.

He took shelter in a Buddhist monastery that also ran out of money, and he was forced to leave and beg for food. But he returned to the monastery when he was 24, and he learned to read and write there. But the Mongol army destroyed the monastery as part of their campaign against rebellion.

Zhu Yuanzhang joined a rebel group. Then they joined a large Red Turban army that had Zoroastrian and Buddhistbeliefs, and he became their leader before he was 30.

Zoroastrianism was a Western religion that had spread through Central Asia before Islam spread. Zoroastrians believe in a supreme deity.

What he believed personally at that time or when he was older isn't clear. He was thought to be a defender of Confucianism. But he also built mosques and wrote eulogies about Muhammad.

He relied on the support of Muslims. Zoroastrians tend to syncretize religions, so maybe he had a mixture of religious beliefs.

Zhu Yuanzhang's Successful Wars

In 1358, Zhu's army conquered the important city of Nanjing. Nanjing was an important city that was strategically located, and his occupation allowed him to control part of the Yangtze River and the region south of it. He made Nanjing his capital.

Over the next 10 years, he defeated powerful rival armies. He attacked the Yuan Empire capital of Dadu (Beijing) and gained control of Beijing in 1368.

Zhu Yuanzhang adopted "Hongwu" as his title. His name means "Vast Magnificent Military." The Yuan dynasty court fled northwards.

Nanjing Tours: Nanjing was Zhu's capital. Most of the historical sites related to him are in Nanjing.

Zhu Yuanzhang and the Mandate of Heaven

Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself Emperor of the Ming Dynasty in 1368. By naming himself to be the Emperor, according to the traditional thinking, a powerful ruler was announcing that he had the "Mandate of Heaven" to rule — essentially that Heaven picked him to be the ruler.

The Mandate of Heaven is an ancient political idea. It was thought that heaven's displeasure with a dynasty was marked by large-scale natural disasters.

It is interesting that the empires of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing all started and ended the same way. Each dynasty was established by powerful and long-lived rulers.

But at the end of the dynasties, unusually severe periods of natural calamities along with wars and internal rebellions weakened the ruling courts. The rebels claimed that the dynasty had lost the mandate of heaven, and they were thus encouraged to attack the dynasty, and they brought down they dynasty.

The Policies of the Hongwu Emperor (1368–1398)

During his 30 year reign, Zhu Yuanzhang instituted major policy initiatives. Some of his policies became permanent Ming policies, and he reversed some of his own policies when he was old.

Hongwu's Policies Towards Eunuchs

He wanted to make sure that eunuchs had no ruling power, because he thought they were dangerous. Eunuchs had involved themselves in internal politics in earlier dynasties, and they were a lot of trouble. So he forbade them from having power in the court, and insisted that they be illiterate.

However, later in the Ming era, eunuchs regained power and became like a parallel administration along with the Confucian officials.

The Hongwu Emperor staffed his bureaucracy with officials who passed the Neo-Confucian Imperial Examinations.

These officials were dependent on the court for their position, and so they might prove to be more loyal. They were generallyvery intelligent and well educated.

Pro the Peasants

The Confucian viewpoint was that merchants were parasitic in the empire. The Hongwu Emperor wanted agriculture to be the source of the empire's wealth instead of industry and trade as in the Song Empire.

Hongwu grew up as a peasant, and maybe he championed their plight since he knew first hand that they were often reduced to slavery and starvation by the rich and the officials.

He wanted peasants to live in self-supporting agricultural communities. So he forced many to migrate to settle other places.

He instituted public work projects, and he tried to distribute land to peasants. During the middle part of his reign, Hongwu made an edict that those who brought fallow land under cultivation could keep it as their property without being taxed. This policy helped the peasants.

By the end of his reign, cultivated land increased substantially. The peasants prospered because they sold their produce to the growing cities. During his reign, the population increased quickly.

Anti the Merchant Class

He tried to weaken the merchant class and to force them to pay high taxes, and he even relocated a large number of them.

However, decades after his reign the opposite happened. The merchant class prospered along with industry and trade. Chinese manufactured goods such as porcelain and silk were sold for high prices around the world.

Hongwu's Monetary Policy

Like the Yuan Dynasty clan, the Hongwu Emperor also issued paper currency. Paper currency became the main currency in the Yuan Empire after his death.