Zhou Dynasty

Definition

by Cristian Violatti
published on 28 April 2018
The Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BCE) was the longest-lasting of ancient China’s dynasties.
It followed the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BCE) and it finished when the army of the
state of Qin captured the city of Chengzhou in 256 BCE. The long history of
the Zhou Dynasty is normally divided in two different periods: Western Zhou (1046-
771 BCE) and Eastern Zhou (770-256 BCE), so-called following the move of the Zhou
capital eastwards where it was safer from invasion.

The most influential minds in the Chinese intellectual tradition flourished under the
Zhou, particularly towards the last period of the Zhou Dynasty, considered a time of
intellectual and artistic awakening. Many of the ideas developed by figures like
Laozi, Confucius, Mencius and Mozi, who all lived during the Eastern Zhou period,
would shape the character of Chinese civilization up to the present day.

THE ORIGINS OF THE ZHOU DYNASTY

The Zhou people were not invaders; they were Chinese-speaking people descendant
from the Longshan Neolithic culture. During the course of several centuries, the Zhou
moved away from barbarian pressures, migrating towards the westernmost agricultural
basin of North China, the lower Wei River valley, present-day Shaanxi province. Here
they began to develop Shang-style agriculture, and they also built a city in an area
named Plain of Zhou, which gave its name to the state and the dynasty. The Shang
ruling class considered the Zhou “semibarbarious country cousins”. For many years the
Zhou and the Shang coexisted alternating peace and war.

KING WEN (1152-1056 BCE) OF THE ZHOU IS

DESCRIBED AS A LIVING STANDARD OF
BENEVOLENCE & WISDOM.
The first important historical figure of the Zhou is King Wen (1152-1056 BCE), who is
described as a living standard of benevolence and wisdom. He became king of Zhou in
1099 BCE during the last days of the Shang Dynasty. King Wen is credited with
conceiving the ambitious plan of undermining the authority of the Shang by making
alliances with neighbouring chiefs that gave the Zhou the military power to
make conquest possible. Wen’s growing power disturbed the Shang court to the point
that they imprisoned him in the city of Youli. However, Wen’s supporters ransomed
him by giving the Shang a large number of gifts. The second son of King Wen was
King Wu, who built a new capital and named it Haojing. In 1046 BCE, Wu led an army
of 50,000 troops against a Shang army of 700,000 in a battle known as the Battle of
Muye. The Shang people were so unhappy under the rule of the Shang king that the
Shang soldiers offered little resistance and many of them joined King Wu's side. The
Shang king retreated to his palace and committed suicide: He locked himself up in the
building and set it on fire.

The Zhou justified the change of dynasty and their own authority by claiming that the
dispossessed Shang had forfeited the "Mandate of Heaven" by their misrule. It was
customary in ancient China to identify the supreme authority of rulers with a higher
power. All subsequent dynasty changes in China would be justified with arguments
along these same lines.
 King Wen of
Zhou

King Wu did not exterminate the Shang entirely: He left the Shang heir as nominal ruler
of the city of Youli, but he assigned some of his own brothers to keep Youli under tight
control. Wu returned to Haojing where he died still relatively young and his son, King
Cheng, became the new Zhou ruler while he was still a child.

The Zhou were not able to fully control the eastern plain that the Shang had controlled,
and King Wu did not elaborate a plan in order to accomplish such a goal. It was King
Wu's brother, known as the Duke of Zhou, who performed the necessary steps for
laying the basis upon which the Zhou Dynasty would consolidate its power throughout
North China.

THE DUKE OF ZHOU CONDUCTED A NUMBER OF

EXPEDITIONS EASTWARD TO BRING THE
ENTIRE YELLOW RIVER PLAIN UNDER ZHOU
CONTROL.
The Duke of Zhou was the chief and overseer of the newly conquered eastern plain and
he was appointed as regent over the young King Cheng, who was his own nephew. The
counterpart of the Duke of Zhou was his own brother, the Duke of Shao, chief overseer
of the Zhou homeland in Shaanxi. As soon as the Duke of Zhou assumed his role as
regent over King Cheng, his brothers in the city of Youli joined the Shang heir in a
rebellion to take over power and restore the old Shang order: It seems that there was a
widespread fear that the Duke of Zhou would usurp the throne form his young
nephew. The Duke of Zhou reacted quickly by organizing his military strength and
crushing the rebellion. He then conducted a number of expeditions eastward to bring
the entire Yellow River plain under Zhou control. During this process he destroyed
many small states and created new administrative units in their place. He also built a
new capital in modern Luoyang, in the central Yellow River plains (modern Henan
province) to serve as an auxiliary Zhou capital to administer the eastern territories.
After accomplishing all of this in a timeframe of seven years, the powers that the Duke
of Zhou had were extraordinary. This was not an obstacle for him to willingly give up
his powers after he persistently lectured his nephew on the duties of a responsible ruler:
King Cheng finally assumed his role and he ruled effectively until 1021 BCE.

WESTERN ZHOU (1046-771 BCE)

The Zhou Dynasty was never a wholly unified realm. The Zhou court extended its
power over the eastern plain by granting authority to members of the royal family and
in some cases to favoured adherents, who established walled forts supported by
garrison troops among the original habitants of the east. In some cases, local chiefs were
accepted as Zhou supporters. Hence, there came into existence a network of city-states
on the plain, from which military and political control spread over the surrounding
farming villages. Any local leader who challenged the Zhou order was quickly
punished by the army and the regional delegates were closely watched.

Map of Western
Zhou

There are many resemblances between the Zhou system and some of the forms of
feudalism in medieval Europe, which is why the Zhou age is sometimes referred to as a
feudal age. Even though the Zhou system was indeed feudal, it had many differences
from medieval Europe. The most important difference was that the rulling class was
mainly unified by kinship ties. Family relations were arranged by marriage where no
kinship links existed. In this way, the local lords were expected to accept the authority
of the king as the head of a large family. For three centuries after the Zhou conquered
the Shang, Zhou rulers maintained order in North China and expanded their territories.

As time went on, the kinship ties loosened and the local rulers became less identified
with the Zhou king and more with their allocated territories. This tendency was very
strong in larger peripheral states. By the 9th century BCE, regional leaders started to
ignore their duties to the Zhou court and also fought among themselves. The declining
order in the realm encouraged non-Chinese on all sides to penetrate the borders. King
Li (r. 877-841 BCE) led 14 armies against non-Chinese forces to the south and southeast
with no positive results.

Finally, King Xuan (r. 827-782 BCE) fought many defensive wars against non-Chinese in
the north during most of his reign. In 771 BCE, his son, King You, was killed during a
barbarian invasion in Haojing, the capital city, which was overrun and sacked by a
group of northeners. The royal heir and some of the court members who managed to
survive the disaster decided that Haojing was too vulnerable to assaults from the
frontier, so they abandoned the city and the eastern auxiliary capital at Luoyang
became the new royal capital. This was the major turning point in the Zhou Dynasty,
which marks the end of the Western Zhou period.

BATTLES BETWEEN REGIONAL LEADERS WERE

RELATIVELY SHORT &, FOR THE NOBLES,
RESTRAINED BY A CODE OF CHIVALRY.
During the Western Zhou period, goods circulated mostly through tribute and gift
rather than trade, cities were noble fortresses, artisans were a hereditary caste of serfs
attached to states or courts, and ministers and court members were chosen based on
birth rather than talent. Battles between regional leaders were relatively short and, for
the nobles, restrained by a code of chivalry.

EASTERN ZHOU (770-256 BCE)

After the barbarian invasion drove the Zhou rulers eastwards, the state of Qin became
responsible for guarding the western frontier and they gradually moved eastward and
eventually occupied the original Zhou domains. Thus the Qin became a close ally to the
Zhou and they also had marriage relations with the Zhou ruling class. The city states
slowly emerged as powerful independent fiefs and the real Zhou power disintegrated.
The states located on the peripheries grew into major territorial powers, and its rulers
normally had greater military and economic strength than the king, who was now
dependent on a small royal domain around Luoyang. By 700 BCE, the state of Qin in the
west, Jin in the north, Qi in the east and Chu in the south were the main centres of
power in China. The royal Zhou domain on the central Yellow River plain was
powerless in comparison to the peripheric realms.

The period from 772 to 476 BCE is known in Chinese history as the Spring and Autumn
Period, so called after the name of the preserved official chronicle of the small state of
Lu, in which the events throughout China between these dates are recorded. During
this period, the military conflict gradually escalated. War after war, the different states
started to annex each other and form the roughly 100 states that were in China in about
770 BCE - there were just 40 towards the end of the Spring and Autumn Period. This
was a time of violence and social conflict: battles, civil wars, assassinations of rulers,
and intrigues among aristocratic families. Battles slowly shifted from being relatively
short and restrained by a code of chivalry to large-scale slaughters.

As a result of this growing conflict, rulers could no longer afford to hire their ministers
on the basis of birth as talent become far more important. Trade expanded, money and
goods circulated mostly through commerce, and rich merchants sometimes won high
office. Thinkers competed for the ruler's patronage, moving from one court to the other
explaining their social, economic, military and political views in search for employment.
The main intellectual focus was practical political and social concerns while
metaphysical speculations remained secondary. Arts and philosophy flourished in
China like never before: Thinkers belonging to the diverse Hundred Schools of thought
developed many different ideological traditions. This is the time when some of the most
important Chinese schools of thought such
as Daoism, Confucianism and Legalism were born.
 Western Zhou
Ritual Vessel

This situation led to the Warring States Period (476-221 BCE), where seven states were
the chief contenders that fought for the control and unification of China. For many
centuries China lived immersed in a situation of war, a disorder in which none of the
competing states was strong enough to conquer all of the others, but many of them
were strong enough to break that order.

THE FALL OF THE ZHOU DYNASTY

The Zhou Dynasty came to an end during the Warring States period in 256 BCE, when
the army of the state of Qin captured the city of Chengzhou and the last Zhou ruler,
King Nan, was killed. The real power of Zhou was so small, that the end of the dynasty
was hardly noted. The Zhou state was thus absorbed by the state of Qin. The
supremacy of the states of Qin, Qi and Chu was so great that it seemed for a time that
China would be divided in three, one section for each state. However, chaos and war
prevailed and the battles continued until eventually the state of Qin conquered the
other states and unified China once more in 221 BCE, the beginning of the Qin
Dynasty (221-206 BCE).
Qin Dynasty
Definition

by Gabriel Peralta
published on 22 January 2014

The Qin dynasty was brief in duration (221-206 BCE) but very important in Chinese
history. It followed the Zhou dynasty (1046-256 BCE) and it ended when Liu Bang
became the king of Han in 206 BCE (the formal beginning of the Han dynasty). Despite
its brevity, the Qin dynasty left important marks on Chinese culture. In fact, the name
"China" is derived from the name Qin (“Ch’in” in former Romanization systems).
Following the Zhou Dynasty, China became involved in a seemingly endless conflict
between the various regions for supreme control of the country. This period of conflict
has come to be known as The Warring States period (426-221 BCE). A series of
victories by the state of Qin towards the end of the Warring States period resulted in
their complete conquest of China in 221 BCE when the Qin empireunified China for the
first time in its history.

ORIGINS OF THE QIN KINGDOM

During the Zhou dynasty China was never a unified kingdom: The Zhou
government bore a strong resemblance to some of the forms of feudalism in
medieval Europe, which is why the Zhou age is sometimes referred to as a feudal age.
China was composed of a network of city-states loyal to the Zhou king, from which
military and political control spread over the surrounding farming villages.

About 771 BCE, a barbarian invasion drove the Zhou rulers eastwards. During this
time, the state of Qin became responsible for guarding the western frontier and they
gradually moved eastward and eventually occupied the original Zhou domains. Thus
the Qin became a close ally of the Zhou and they also had marriage relations with the
Zhou ruling class. King Ping of Zhou (r. 770-720 BCE) transferred titles of the nobility
and huge estates to the chief of Qin. Many Chinese historians consider this event as
pivotal for the state of Qin. Qin was, at that time, very aware of the fact that they could
be a great power. The elevation to nobility of the Qin meant that the Qin could become
more ambitious and better fend off attacks from surrounding regions. As a
consequence, these centuries spent fighting non-Chinese tribes helped the Qin gain
invaluable experience in warfare and territorial expansion.

Of the many Chinese states, Qin had the advantage of a favourable location: Its territory
in modern Shaanxi province is well guarded from the east by mountains and gorges
and has easy access to the North China plain through the Yellow River passes. No
major battle ever took place in Qin’s heartland.

WHAT FINALLY GAVE THE QIN VICTORY OVER

THE OTHER STATES WAS THEIR
RUTHLESSNESS IN BATTLE.
During the Warring States period, all the states in China were trying to draw more
power and prestige to themselves. The states of Qin and Chu were the strongest which
was due, in part, to the locations of these two states being able to command vast
resources. They were also able to expand their borders without fear of immediate
conflict, unlike the other states, and so could obtain still further resources. This benefit,
and others such as the size of the Qin army and their expert use of the chariot,
contributed to their success in warfare. The Qin had all of the resources and advantages
but what finally gave them victory over the other states was their ruthlessness in battle.
The Qin statesman Shang Yang (356-338 BCE) advocated total war and a disregard for
the polite policies of battle which Chinese generals had always adhered to. His lessons
were implemented by Ying Zheng, King of Qin, who emerged victorious from the
Warring States period and proclaimed himself Shi Huangdi - `first emperor' - of China
in 221 BCE. About 230 BCE, when the final campaign to unify China began, it is
estimated that Qin controlled one-third of all the land under cultivation in China and
one-third of China’s total population.

ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE QIN DYNASTY

Early in the Qin Empire, the practice of Legalism reached its peak in Chinese
history. This idea of state policy was devised by Shang Yang who came to Qin as a
foreign advisor. Qin was lacking, early on, in skilled intellectuals and politicians and,
therefore, had to look beyond its borders for talented people. Shang Yang was one of
those foreign talented persons and he would have a lasting influence on the Qin
Empire. During his time as minister, Shang Yang radically renovated the policies of
government but, in fact, he simply revived a practice which was already present for
years: a form of government with a focus on greater efficiency and less adherence
to tradition in which strict adherence to the letter of the law was made paramount
(hence the name `Legalism'). Emperor Shi Huangdi approved of Shang Yang's policies
and implemented them across his realm.

The Great Wall of China

This form of government consisted of a collectivization program and the decimation of

aristocratic power. Farmers were freed from serfdom and Shi Huangdi reduced the
power of the aristocracy. The people throughout the empire were now supposed to bear
collective responsibility for each other. If a person did not behave according to the
rules then others were required to report him. If they did not do this, they were
quartered or beheaded. Fear and control were the key features of this political system.
In addition, one's personal importance to the empire was also a key element. If you, as a
person, meant nothing to the state, you actually meant nothing objectively; your life
was meaningless. Those who contributed the most to the state were highly rewarded
while those whose lives were considered of no consequence were sent to work as slaves
on Shi Huangdi's building projects such as the Great Wall of China, the Grand Canal,
and the roads which increased ease of trade and travel.

Another result of the Legalism of Shi Huangdi was that scholarship was strongly
suppressed and literacy denied to the majority of the populace. Shi Huangdi believed
that uneducated people were easier to control and so the people should remain stupid
so that they would never think to doubt who was in charge of the empire. This policy
resulted in the burning of books on a large scale and, in 212 BCE, on the advice of his
chief advisor Li Siu, Shi Huangdi had scholars executed on a large scale. Books were
banned throughout the empire, as was teaching, except for subjects touching upon the
re-written history of the Qin Dynasty, Legalism, or the personal glory of Shi Huangdi. It
was not until the later Han Dynasty that books were recovered from hiding and
repaired, and literacy was again available to the people of China.

Although Shi Huangdi and Shang Yang's Legalism (as well as Li Siu's policies) were
hated by many at the time (and have been generally frowned upon by scholars of the
period), later Qin kings and emperors of China were well aware of the strong impact
that Legalism had on the efficiency and strength of the state. Legalism helped to create a
superior army, a disciplined bureaucracy, an obedient populace, and the unquestioned
authority of a strong central government. This bureaucratic model became the standard
for the Chinese government and is still maintained in some form today.
Although Confucianism was preferred in later dynasties, Legalism continued to exert a
strong influence in China. It was often the case that the harsh Legalism was glossed
over with just a different name and, quite often, as `Confucianism'.

THE END OF THE QIN EMPIRE

In the year 210 BCE emperor Shi Huangdi died on a journey through the realm. The
people were told that these trips were designed for the inspection of the empire but
later evidence suggests that the emperor was looking for an elixir of immortality. In his
later years, Shi Huangdi became obsessed with death and the hope of eternal life. In
constant fear of assassination, it is said, he never slept in the same room of
his palace two nights consecutively and he ordered the construction of
his elaborate tomb (including his Terracotta Army of 8,000 warriors) early on in his
reign. The cause of his death is still unknown.

Li Siu (c. 280– 208 BCE), then prime minister of the recently deceased emperor, tried to
hide the fact that Shi Huangdi was deceased in any possible way. He brought the
emperor's body back to the capital along with carts of dead fish to mask the smell of the
corpse. Along with Zhao Gao (died 208/207 BCE) Li Siu contrived to place Hu Hai on
the throne. Hu Hai was the weak second son of Shi Huangti. Due to the weakness of
Hu Hai, the oppressed people of China grew bolder and soon began to revolt.

Through a series of uprisings and rebel alliances, Qin authority was overthrown in the
year 206 BCE in the capital of Xianyang. The imperial house was massacred and the Qin
dynasty was thus at an end. A complicated series of battles followed for the honour of
being the successor to the Qin Dynasty which resulted in the period known as the Chu-
Han Contention in which Xiang-Yu of the state of Chu fought Liu Bang of Han for
supremacy. Liu Bang emerged victorious following Xiang-Yu's defeat at the Battle of
Gaixia in 202 BCE. Liu Bang (247 BCE- 195 BCE) was applauded as a man of the people
and, after his victory, founded the Han dynasty.

LEGACY OF THE QIN DYNASTY

As mentioned previously, Legalism had a lasting effect on the entirety of Chinese
history. The Qin Dynasty created the standard of bureaucratic government and the
Legalistic policies first initiated by the Qin are still seen in China today. In addition, the
dynasty left a wonder of ancient artwork: the Terracotta Army in Xi'an. This tomb
reflects the character of the Chinese emperor and his unending desire to be immortal.
The terracotta army also exemplifies what Chinese society at that time was able to
produce once it had been formed as a state. The most famous legacy left by the Qin is
The Great Wall of China. Although the present structure does not date from the Qin
Dynasty, it was begun under Shi Huangdi, as was the Grand Canal, and the roads
which today link the cities of China and the countryside. The Qin did more than just
found a dynasty in China: they brought a continent together.

Han Dynasty
Definition

by Cristian Violatti
published on 27 May 2013
The Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) was one of the longest of China’s major dynasties.
In terms of power and prestige, the Han Dynasty in the East rivalled its almost
contemporary Roman Empire in the West. With only minor interruptions it lasted a
span of over four centuries and was considered a golden age in Chinese history
especially in arts, politics and technology. All subsequent Chinese dynasties looked
back to the Han period as an inspiring model of a united empire and self-perpetuating
government.

THE ORIGINS OF THE HAN DYNASTY

In 202 BCE, Emperor Gaozu, whose given name was Liu Bang, became the first Han
emperor after defeating the last rebellion against him. He had already been king of Han
since 206 BCE (the formal beginning of the Han dynasty). During the previous dynasty,
the Qin, Liu Bang had been a minor official. The Qin dynasty (221-206 BCE) was very
short and cruel; by the time it collapsed, Liu Bang had raised an army and claimed the
vacant throne. He was not the only one in the quest for power, and one of his most
important opponents was a general named Xiang Yu (also known as Xiang Ji). We are
told that Xiang Yu captured Liu Bang’s father and sent a final warning to Liu Bang,
assuring that his father would be boiled alive unless Liu Bang surrendered. Liu Bang’s
answer suggests that he did not get along very well with his father: “Send me a cup of
the soup”, he replied. In the end, Liu Bang’s father was not turned into soup, and Xiang
Yu decided to end his own life by committing suicide in 202 BCE. Some accounts say he
was defeated in battle, while others tells us he was never defeated in battle but was
gradually undermined by the popular support for Liu Bang; Liu Bang was the
first Chinese emperorwho was originally a commoner.

Liu Bang established the imperial capital in the city of Chang’an, located 3 km
northwest of modern Xi’an, which was chosen due to its strategic importance: it not
only had a central position (all major roads converged in Chang’an), but it would also
become the eastern end of the Silk Road. The city turned into the political, economic,
military, and cultural centre of China and by 2 CE its population was nearly 250,000. In
195 BCE, upon Liu Bang’s death, his empress Lü Zhi (also known as Lü Hou) tried to
confiscate the empire for her own family. Her methods show a firm determination: she
murdered several of Liu Bang's sons born to concubines, mutilated his favourite
mistress and had her thrown into a latrine. She also replaced with her own relatives
many of the loyal generals and members of Liu Bang’s family who ruled the fiefdoms.
The conflict lasted for 15 years, until finally the Liu Bang clan regained control of the
empire: Emperor Wen, a surviving Liu Bang son, was finally enthroned re-establishing
the broken lineage. The imperial wrath was ruthless: the Lius killed every single
member of Lü Zhi’s clan they managed to find.

ACHIEVEMENTS DURING THE HAN DYNASTY

During Han times, pulleys and wheelbarrows were used to move goods. To pulverize
ores and grains, they employed the water-powered trip-hammer and air was pumped
into furnaces thanks to the aid of bellows.

THE OPENING OF THE SILK ROAD WAS

PROBABLY THE MAJOR ECONOMIC
ACHIEVEMENT OF THE HAN DYNASTY.
It was a eunuch named Cai Lun who, around 105 CE, came up with an innovation that
would be invaluable for learning. A screen was dipped into a vat of watery oatmeal-like
pulp made of rice straw and inner tree bark. When the screen was raised, it had a layer
of dripping slush on top, which was later pressed and dried. The end result was a sheet
of paper. However, during Han times, paper was used largely to wrap fish rather than
for written documents. Just a few written paper sheets survived to our days from Han
times, mostly found in tombs. Tens of thousands of written documents have come
down to our day, most of them on wooden tablets and slips of bamboo. Examples
include mathematical problems, historical records, poetry, government records, a
massive dictionary, and the oldest surviving large-scale census of all history, which
reports 57,671,400 people in 2 CE. All these documents have been critical in our fairly
good historical knowledge of the Han dynasty.

The largest Chinese historiographic work, known as the “Records of the Grand
Historian”, was written during the Han Dynasty by Sima Qian, who is referred to as
the father of Chinese historiography. This work is a vast general history of China which
covers a period of over 2,000 years, from the mythical times of the Yellow Emperor (the
founder of the first Chinese dynasty, the Xia) to his own time during the reign of
Emperor Wu (also known as Wu Di) who reigned between 141 and 87 BCE.

The opening of the Silk Road was probably the major economic achievement of the Han
Dynasty. Emperor Wu took the initiative to set out on diplomatic missions to various
rulers in Central Asia. This led to the exploration of trade routes that linked Xi’an to
the Levantcoast on the Mediterranean and opened up new roads for merchants. This
increased the trade and economic prosperity of the empire and also led to a constant
cultural exchange between several cultures.

It was also during Wu Di's time that China incorporated the whole of modern China
proper, northern Vietnam, Inner Mongolia, southern Manchuria, and most of Korea.

Map of the
Eastern Hemisphere (1 CE)

THE SACK OF CHAN’GAN

Wang Man was a government official and a member of a powerful family who took
control of the empire by usurping the throne and proclaiming the the beginning of a
new dynasty called Xin, or “new”, in 9 CE. He took advantage of the fact that since the
time Emperor Wu died in 87 BCE, the Han Dynasty had been immersed in various
political and social conflicts. The gap between rich and poor was already a serious
problem. Sima Qian reports about this period that exploiters “were busy accumulating
wealth and forcing the poor into their hire”. The court was also affected by complicated
political turmoil: endless accusations, executions, treason, and battles were weakening
the government.

Wang Man wanted to re-establish the social order by changing the land owning
structure: he decreed that those large estates which had been favoured in the past (and
threatened imperial power), be dissolved and their lands distributed among peasants,
an initiative firmly opposed by the aristocracy. The 14 years of unsuccessful attempts to
amend the unfair landownership pattern, coupled with a terrible flooding of the Yellow
River, set the stage for Wang Man’s end: a full-scale peasant rebellion was triggered.
The angry mobs of hungry peasant insurgents had their own identity badge: red paint
smeared on their foreheads. The rebels thus were known as the “Red Eyebrows”. Wang
Man tried to restore order, but late in 23 CE the Red Eyebrows entered Chang’an,
sacked it, and cut off Wang Man’s head. Liu Xiu, a ninth-generation descendant of Liu
Bang, took back control of the empire thus re-establishing the Han lineage. Liu Xiu led
his loyal officials to the city of Luoyang, where the imperial capital was relocated after
the disaster of Chang’an.

The Han reign in Chang’an is usually referred to as Western Han or Former Han, while
the period in Luoyang is normally called Eastern Han or Later Han.
 A Chinese Servant Statue

THE LAST DAYS OF THE HAN DYNASTY

By the end of the 1st century CE, one Han emperor after another had died either young
or without a chosen heir. When an emperor died without sons, a close relative, such as
his cousin, was named emperor. In some cases the new ruler was a child or even an
infant, in which case the real power was in the hands of a guardian from the family of
the empress, since even infant rulers had to have an empress. This scenario led to all
types of cunning schemes in the court.
A number of different natural calamities such as tremors, floods, and grasshopper
plagues took place during these days and were seen as manifestations of the anger of
heaven; prognosticators concluded that the end of the dynasty was close. The situation
finally ran out of control. Eunuchs turned into an influential group in the bloody
political court conflicts, gaining power and enriching themselves and there was a big
protest of thousands of members of the Confucian academy against the corruption of
the government. In 184 CE a very large peasant uprising known as the Yellow Turban
Rebellion (sometimes referred to as the Yellow Scarves Rebellion) threatened the
imperial capital.

A warlord named Dong Zhou seized control of the imperial capital in 190 CE and
placed a child, Liu Xie, as the new ruler. Liu Xie was also a member of the Han family,
but real power was in the hands of Dong Zhou. Dong Zhou killed all the eunuchs and
burned Luoyang to the ground. Battle after battle weakened the imperial order until Liu
Xie finally abdicated in 220 CE, the last year of the Han period. Wars between warlords
and states continued and China would have to wait around 350 years to be unified
again.

THE LEGACY OF THE HAN DYNASTY

The Han Dynasty has influenced the East just like Greece or Rome has influenced the
West. The biggest Chinese historiographic work of antiquity was written during this
period. Chinese calligraphy developed into an art. Confucianism was made the official
state ideology during the time of Emperor Wu Di, who built an academy solely devoted
to the works of Confucius. The philosopher had long been dead, but his disciples
managed to preserve his teachings. Confucianism, favoured by the patronage of the
state, gained a strength similar to Buddhism during the time of
Emperor Ashoka or Christianity after Constantine. Thousands of Confucian academies
were built, spreading Confucian ethics across China and most of East Asia and would
dominate Chinese ethics during the centuries to come. Even today, the ethnic Chinese
refer to themselves as Han rem (Han people). Although history tells us, then, that the
Han Dynasty ended in 220 CE, from the examples cited above it is clear that the Han
still lives on today in many different forms.

Tang Dynasty
Definition

by Emily Mark
published on 28 February 2016

The Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) is regularly cited as the greatest imperial dynasty in
ancient Chinese history. It was a golden age of reform and cultural advancement, which
lay the groundwork for policies which are still observed in China today. The second
emperor, Taizong (598-649 CE, r. 626-649 CE) is held up as an exemplary ruler who
reformed the government, social structure, military, education, and religious practices.

Under Taizong's successor, Gaozong (r. 649-683 CE), the country experienced further
reforms when Gaozong's wife Wu Zetian (624-705 CE) took control of the
government. Wu Zetian is China's only female ruler, and even though she is still seen as
a very controversial figure today, her reforms laid the foundation for the later success of
the great emperor Xuanzong (r. 712-756 CE). Under the reign of Xuanzong, China
became the most prosperous country in the world.

Many of the most impressive inventions and advancements in Chinese history

(gunpowder, air conditioning, gas stoves, printing, advancements in medicine, science,
technology, architecture, and literature) come from the Tang Dynasty. The emperors
Taizong, Wu Zetian, and Xuanzong made the Tang Dynasty the great era that it was,
and although the dynasty remained in power, the golden age ended with Xuanzong's
decline which threw the country into chaos. The Tang were succeeded by the Sung
Dynasty (960-1234 CE) who brought order back to China.

THE RISE OF THE TANG DYNASTY

After the fall of the Han Dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE), the country went through a period
of changing rule in which the Wei, Jin, and Wu Hu dynasties governed in succession.
The Wu Hu was replaced by the Sui Dynasty (589-618 CE), which began well and made
many advances but, like so many dynasties in China's history, ended badly with a
tyrant on the throne who cared more about himself and his luxury than the good of the
people.

The Sui Dynasty was responsible for streamlining bureaucracy and a growing interest
in the arts. The legend of Mulan, the girl who takes her father's place in the army and
becomes a war hero, dates from this period. However, the more comfortable and
powerful the Sui became in their reign, the more power and luxury they wanted.
The last two kings, Wen and Yang, put all their efforts into military expansion in the
Korean peninsula and building huge monuments to honor their names. Yang inherited
a bankrupt government from his father but continued his policies and drove the
country further and further into debt. He was finally assassinated by his chancellor,
Yuwen Huaji, and a popular general of the army, Li-Yuan the Duke of Tang, rose in
rebellion and took control. Li-Yuan then became Emperor Gaozu (r. 618-626 CE) and
founded the Tang Dynasty.

GAOZU CREATED THE TANG LEGAL CODE IN

624 CE, WHICH WOULD BE USED BY FUTURE
DYNASTIES AND WAS EVEN COPIED BY OTHER
NATIONS LIKE JAPAN, KOREA, AND VIETNAM.

GAOZU & TAIZONG

Gaozu was an effective monarch who reformed the policies which had led to abuses
under the Sui Dynasty. It was Gaozu who implemented the bureaucratic practices
which are still used in China today. Although he ruled well, his son, Li-Shimin, saw
room for improvement. Li-Shimin had fought alongside his father to establish the Tang
Dynasty and felt he should play a larger role in making policy. Li-Shimin was rewarded
with the post of Duke of Qin (and became known as Qin Wang) but felt he deserved
more.

Gaozu maintained his rule, though, creating the Tang Legal Code in 624 CE, which
would be used by future dynasties and was even copied by other nations like Japan,
Korea, and Vietnam. He also reformed the aristocracy to prevent over-taxation of the
peasant farmers and re-distributed land parcels.

Around this time, he named his son Li-Jiancheng his heir, and this decree was more
than Li-Shimin could tolerate; he had expected to be named because of his efforts in
putting down the Sui rebellions. Li-Shimin staged a coup and murdered his brothers,
including Li-Jiancheng, and then forced Gaozu to abdicate to him. Once he was
emperor, he took the name Taizong, had his opponents executed (including his father,
finally), then used the concept of ancestor worship to his advantage and declared that
all those who had been killed were now his celestial advisors.

Tang Dynasty
Provinces c. 742 CE

Taizong had shown himself to be such an effective general under his father's
administration that no one challenged him once he took control. Their faith in him was
not misplaced, and he proved himself to be an even more effective emperor than his
father. Taizong is routinely cited for his many reforms and his policy of religious
tolerance which allowed diverse religions such as Christianity and Buddhism to
establish themselves in China alongside the indigenous practices
of Confucianism and Taoism. Whatever his father had accomplished, Taizong
improved upon and came to be regarded as co-founder of the Tang Dynasty and a
model of just and efficient rule.

WU ZETIAN
In around 638 CE Taizong chose a beautiful young 14-year-old girl named Wu Zhao as
one of his concubines. She was so lovely, she attracted the attention of his son. Wu
began an affair with Taizong's son Prince Li Zhi while still one of Taizong's concubines.
When Taizong died in 649 CE, Wu submitted to the established custom and had her
head shaved with the rest of Taizong's concubines. She was sent to a temple to live out
the rest of her life as a nun, but Li Zhi, who now became Emperor Gaozong, had her
brought back to court because he was in love with her.

Wu became Gaozong's first concubine, and his love for her upset his wife, Lady Wang,
and the former first concubine, Lady Xiao. To get rid of them and increase her power,
Wu is said to have murdered her own infant daughter and framed Lady Wang for the
crime. She quickly became the power behind the throne, and when Gaozong died in 683
CE, she declared herself Empress Wu Zetian ('Ruler of Heaven') and changed the name
of the dynasty to Zhou in order to show that a new era had begun.

Empress Wu Zetian

Wu Zetian was one of the greatest rulers of ancient China, who improved education,
taxation, agriculture and reformed the government and the excesses of the Chinese
aristocracy. She has been criticized by later historians as a tyrant who created a secret
police force and began a policy of paying informants to alert her to possible rebellions
in the country. In recent years, though, there has been a trend among historians to re-
evaluate these claims and Empress Wu's policies are now seen as stabilizing the
country.

Empress Wu Zetian reigned from 683-704 CE. Following the pattern of other rulers in
China, she became more interested in her own comfort and pleasure toward the end of
her reign and was forced to abdicate in favor of her son Zhongzong. She died in 705 CE.

EMPEROR XUANZONG
Emperor Zhongzong was poisoned by his wife, Lady Wei, so that her son could rule,
but Wei and her son were murdered by Wu's daughter, Princess Taiping, who put her
brother Ruizong, on the throne. Ruizong abdicated after seeing a comet, which he took
as a sign he was not fit to rule (an interpretation suggested by Taiping) and his son
Xuanzong (reigned 712-756 CE) became emperor. Taiping had hoped she would be
elevated by Xuanzong once he came to power and, when she saw that would not
happen, she hanged herself.

Under Xuanzong's reign, the Tang Dynasty began its golden age. Under Taizong and
Wu Zetian, Buddhism had been elevated as the most popular religion in the country,
but Xuanzong saw Buddhist teachings as lacking in spirituality and so promoted
Taoism and even decreed that "a copy of the Tao teaching be kept in every household"
(Wintle, 148). Buddhism had given rise to many different schools of thought but
Xuanzong felt Taoism was a unifying belief which would promote greater harmony.
According to scholar Justin Wintle, his religious and political reforms resulted in
domestic tranquility, which encouraged productivity and foreign trade.

Xuanzong abolished the death penalty, improved the economy through security on
the Silk Road, maritime trading, and financial reforms, constructed temples and
administrative complexes, built roads, and increased industry. He reorganized the
military so that farmers were no longer conscripted against their will and built a
professional army of veterans, who were more effective in guarding the borders and
reclaiming land from nomadic tribes.

CULTURAL ADVANCEMENTS
Xuanzong was a cultured man, a poet, who patronized the arts and encouraged creative
expression. Over 50,000 poems, plays, short stories, and other literary works were
produced during the Tang Dynasty, mainly under Xuanzong's reign, and an
encyclopedia was completed. Woodblock printing, which began on a large scale under
Taizong, was improved, and more books became available which led to greater literacy
and better jobs for the lower classes since they were now eligible to take civil service
exams for government jobs. Public libraries were built to collect all the books in print,
and calendars were able to be printed for wide distribution. Advances in medicine, such
as recognized symptoms of a disease and how to treat it, were available now outside the
medical profession through books which also suggested preventative habits and
promoted diet as contributing to a person's health.
 Chinese woodblock print

Technological advances led to the creation of clocks, and the first clock mechanism in
the world was invented by the engineer Yi Xing in 725 CE. Mechanical expertise also
resulted in the creation of automatons, motorized figures, who moved by themselves.
Even though motorized puppets had existed in China since the Qin Dynasty (221-206
BCE), the automatons of the Tang Dynasty were more complex and based on designs by
Hero of Alexandria (c. 10-70 CE) who was famous for his inventions in Egypt. One
example of Tang automatons was a motorized monk who collected donations, and
another was an automatic wine-pourer shaped like a mountain which used a hydraulic
pump.

The Tang Dynasty also invented gunpowder, waterproofing, fireproofing, gas stoves,
and air conditioning. They developed agricultural machines to speed up the processes
of planting, irrigating, and harvesting crops. The poor, who used to wear mainly animal
skins, could now afford the linen worn by the middle class; though the material the
poor could buy was coarser. The quality of life for the people of China improved
radically, and the increase in trade brought new ideas, inventions, and products in
greater numbers than ever before. The Tang Dynasty was at its height when Xuanzong
began his personal decline which led to the fall of the entire dynasty and plunged the
country into chaos.

THE AN LUSHAN REBELLION

Xuanzong's reign was so successful because he understood how a balanced rule
promoted fairness and justice, which improved the lives of everyone. One of Wu
Zetian's most important government reforms, which Xuanzong kept, was placing
people in high positions based on merit instead of family connections. Teachers were
hired because they knew their subject, not because they were another official's cousin,
agricultural administrators were promoted to their position for the same reason, and so
on with other appointments. This policy began to change when Xuanzong became tired
of public life c. 734 CE and began depending more on the advice of his consort Lady
Wu Hui-fei who suggested he elevate a close friend of her family, Li-Linfu, to a more
prominent position in order to take on some of the burden of rule. Li-Linfu was made
chancellor and this one decision on the part of Xuanzong would do more to destroy the
Tang Dynasty than any other. Li-Linfu was a corrupt and power hungry man who only
cared about advancing himself. While he played the part of the devoted servant of the
emperor he schemed to seize power himself and depose Xuanzong.

The emperor suspected nothing and placed great trust in Li-Linfu. In 737 CE Consort
Wu died and Xuanzong withdrew further into his own pleasures and left the business
of government to Li-Linfu. Xuanzong had over four thousand of the most
beautiful womenbrought to the palace for his pleasure and kept them imprisoned there
to entertain him. All of these women were nothing, however, once he saw the one who
would be his true love and who would help hasten the decline of the Tang Dynasty as
much as any plan Li-Linfu could have devised.

Tang
Dynasty Camel

In 741 CE Xuanzong fell in love with a woman named Yang Guifei who was married to
one of his sons. Yang left her husband and moved into the imperial palace with
Xuanzong. He neglected his duties as emperor even further for this love affair and
agreed to anything Lady Yang asked. She began with small requests, which he granted,
and these grew into larger demands until she got him to promote members of her
family to important positions even though these people could not do the jobs. All of the
important reforms and progress Xuanzong had made started to unravel as the members
of Yang's family abused their positions and neglected their duties. All this time, Li-
Linfu was making his own policies and promoting Yang family members whatever
comfortable positions they could pay him for.

The policy of using foreign nationals in the army (which had grown out of Xuanzong's
military reforms) led to the promotion of some of these men to very high positions of
command and Li-Linfu took advantage of this to place his own hand-picked men in
command. While some of these men were skilled commanders, many of them were not
and owed their positions to Li-Linfu. When he died in 753 CE he had already doomed
the dynasty he had pretended to serve. The unqualified commanders in the army and
the incompetent bureaucrats in government only thought of their own power and
luxury and the people suffered for it.

A half-Sogdian/half-Turk general named An Lushan saw the Yang family's abuses as a

sign that Xuanzong was no longer fit to rule. An Lushan commanded the best troops in
the Chinese army and felt he had a duty to take action and lead these men to restore a
proper government; so he mounted a rebellion against the ruling house in 755 CE,
leading his army of over 180,000 against the capital. He overthrew Xuanzong and
declared himself emperor. He was challenged by the Tang forces and his rebellion
crushed, but he had started something which could not be stopped. Between 755-763
CE, the country was torn apart by wars in which close to 36 million people died.

Xuanzong fled the capital in 755 CE with Lady Yang and her family. The men of the
military escort, who accompanied them, blamed Yang for the troubles and murdered
her family en route. Xuanzong realized he had allowed himself to be seduced away
from his duties and allowed Lady Yang to be strangled. The story of the love affair of
Xuanzong and Lady Yang was later romanticized by the Tang poet Bai-Juji in 806 CE in
his famous work, Song of the Everlasting Sorrow (a poem which remains popular in the
present day). After Lady Yang's death, Xuanzong abdicated in favor of his son Li Heng,
who became Emperor Suzong (reigned 756-762 CE). Suzong battled the rebel forces but
could not defeat them completely.

He and his father became more and more depressed and frustrated as Suzong's
strategies failed. Xuanzong died from illness in 762 CE, and Suzong died from the same
sickness less than two weeks later. He was succeeded by his son Li Yu who became
Emperor Daizong (reigned 762-779 CE). Daizong crushed the An Lushan rebellion in
763 CE, but the country was in ruins and the traditional respect given the emperor and
royal house was compromised. Independent warlords now ruled different parts of
China and Daizong could not command the kind of authority Xuanzong had at the
beginning of his reign.

THE LATER TANG DYNASTY

In 780 CE, Daizong was succeeded by his son, Dezong (780-805 CE), who could do
nothing to control the growing power of regional warlords. He placed palace eunuchs
in command of his army, hoping they would have more success, but all they wound up
doing was undermining the authority of the emperor by asserting their own military
power. Dezong was succeeded by his sickly son Shunzong in 805 CE, who quickly
abdicated in favor of his own son Xianzong (806-820 CE).

Emperor Xianzong is among the very few good emperors of the later Tang Dynasty. He
eliminated the eunuch control of his military and took personal control of the army. He
then led his forces against the warlords and subdued them, stabilizing the country. He
then reinstated the merit system of imperial appointments which Wu Zetian had
initiated and had been such an important aspect of Xuanzong's successful reign. China
began to slowly regain some measure of the prosperity it had known under Xuanzong's
early rule as Xianzong restored respect for the authority of the throne. In 813 CE, revolts
began to break out, probably instigated by former warlords or their relatives, and
Xianzong again led his army personally into battle but was defeated. He regrouped and
won a victory over the insurgent Li Shidao in 817 CE, restoring order to the country.
Shortly after this, the Confucian scholar Han Yu declared that these revolts and the
decline of the dynasty were due to Buddhism, which undermined traditional Chinese
values by diverting attention away from important traditions. Han Yu's criticism
became widely known and created a backlash against Buddhists and Buddhist
practices.

Xianzong did nothing about the persecutions of the Buddhists because, by 819 CE, he
had become obsessed with his own mortality and was taking large quantities of elixirs
which promised extended life and even immortality. These potions made him irritable
and erratic, and he was assassinated by one of his palace eunuchs in 820 CE. Xianzong
was succeeded by his son Muzong (821-824 CE) who spent his time playing polo and
drinking until he was killed in an accident during a polo match. He was succeeded by
his son Jinzong (824-826 CE), who did nothing but waste his days drinking with his
concubines until he was assassinated by his eunuchs and replaced by his brother
Wenzong (826-840 CE). Wenzong took his responsibilities seriously but was indecisive
and easily swayed by different counselor's advice. He is considered a good emperor for
his efforts at stabilizing the country and continuing the policies of Xianzong.
 Tang Dynasty
Horse

When he died in 840 CE, he was succeeded by his s16-year-old brother Wuzong (840-
846 CE) who took Han Yu's criticism of Buddhism seriously and began a government
persecution of all religions other than Taoism. He cited Han Yu's claim that Buddhist
monasteries and temples were only fronts for rebel leaders and had them closed.
Between 842-845 CE Buddhist nuns and priests were murdered or forced from their
homes at the monasteries. Buddhist images were destroyed and many melted down to
create new statues honoring the emperor. Along with Buddhism, every other non-
Chinese religion suffered as well. Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and
Nestorian Christianity (which had been welcomed by the second emperor Taizong) all
equally suffered persecutions through destruction of their property and legal
proscriptions. Wuzong died in 846 CE after poisoning himself with an elixir of
immortality and was succeeded by Li Chen, the 13th son of Xianzong, who took the
name Xuanzong in an effort to associate himself with the golden age of the Tang
Dynasty, reigning from 846-859 CE.
Xuanzong II ended the religious persecutions of the previous years but only allowed
Buddhist temples and monasteries to reopen. Churches, synagogues, and temples of
Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism remained closed and these faiths proscribed.
Xuanzong II modeled his reign after the great Taizong so closely that, after his death, he
was referred to as "Little Taizong". He revived the policies of the early Tang Dynasty
and initiated reforms in government and the military. Chinese cultural heritage became
a central focus of his reign as he tried to bring back the glory of the early years of the
Tang. In 859 CE, however, Xuanzong II killed himself accidentally after drinking an
elixir and was succeeded by his son Yizong (859-873 CE) who was nothing like his
father and would hasten the decline of the dynasty.

DECLINE & FALL OF TANG

As one can see, the Tang Dynasty continued to hold on to power after 763 CE but it
never again met its own former standard of excellence except in individual emperors
such as Xianzong and Xuanzong II. Even though Taizong, Wu Zetian, and the first
Xuanzong had created policies which any ruler could maintain, their reigns were
successful because of their individual personalities and how they implemented the
policies and reforms they created. Justin Wintle writes, "In retrospect, the Tang placed
too great a faith in their own talents as imperial rulers (139)." In the case of all three of
these emperors, their individual talents could not be transferred to a successor. After
the first Xuanzong's death, the dynasty steadily declined and fell apart. Xuanzong, like
many rulers before and after him, lost sight of his responsibilities to the people and
indulged his own pleasures at their expense. The An Lushan Rebellion exemplified how
completely he had lost touch with his subjects and that revolt was only possible because
the government had lost the respect and control of its subjects. Historian Harold M.
Tanner comments on this:

The Tang dynasty is famous for its territorial expansion, its great cities and palaces, its
flourishing foreign trade, its art, literature, and religious life, and for the luxurious lives of
its aristocrats. This power and glory was possible only because the imperial government
controlled grain production, labor, and armies. When the Tang state lost control of these
things its power declined and it was less able to deal with internal and external crises
(172).

The final blow came with the Huang-Chao Rebellion (874-884 CE), led by a former
government worker named Huang-Chao. Huang-Chao was a salt smuggler who
repeatedly took the government's examinations to become a bureaucrat and failed.
Frustrated by his inability to advance, as well as with the state of the country under the
emperor Yizong, he joined the rebel forces of Wang Xianzhi. Yizong was a very poor
ruler who placed his own pleasures over his duties to the people and spent more time
drinking with his concubines than attending to affairs of state. There was wide-spread
famine in China due to drought and the government was doing nothing to help feed its
people; though Yizong and the imperial court continued to enjoy the best food and
drink. When Yizong died in 873 BCE, his son Xizong (873-888 CE) took the throne and
continued his policies of gratifying himself at the people's expense. Huang-Chao had,
by this time, risen in the ranks of the rebel forces and led his troops into battle against
the Tang forces. This rebellion cost over 100,000 lives and destroyed the capital city of
Changan.

The emperors of the Tang Dynasty who followed the Huang-Zhao rebellion were
ineffective, and the dynasty ended in 907 CE. Zhaozong (888-904 CE) was well-meaning
and did his best but could not reverse the dynasty's decline, which had been steadily
progressing since the An Lushan Rebellion. In 904 CE the powerful warlord Zhu
Quanzhong (also known as Zhu Wen, 907-912 CE) had Zhaozong assassinated and
placed the eleven-year-old son of Zhaozong, Ai, on the imperial throne as a puppet
ruler. Ai was the last of the Tang emperors and held the throne from 904-907 CE when
Zhu had him assassinated at the age of 15. The Period of the Five Dynasties and Ten
Kingdoms followed (907-960 CE) where the families and associates of the warlords who
had claimed territories after the An Lushan Rebellion strengthened their control. China
remained divided among these kingdoms until the rise of the Sung Dynasty (960-1234
CE) which united the country under central rule again.
Sui Dynasty
Definition

by Mark Cartwright
published on 22 September 2017
The Sui Dynasty (581-618 CE) was a brief one with only two reigning emperors but it
managed to unify China following the split of the Northern and Southern Dynasties
period. As had happened previously in Chinese history, a short-lived dynasty made
important structural changes which paved the way for a more long-lasting successor,
where culture and the arts flourished, in this case, the Tang Dynasty. Reforms in
government, the civil service administration, laws and land distribution helped restore
and centralise imperial authority. At the same time, the regime became infamous for its
immorality, huge public spending projects, and military follies, which combined to
bring rebellion and, ultimately, its overthrow.

THE UNIFICATION OF CHINA

In the late 6th century CE China was still beset with warring states who incessantly vied
with each other for greater wealth and power. The three centuries of disunity would
finally come to an end in 581 CE when one commander, known then as Yang Jian (aka
Yang Chien), seized government from his military base in Guanzhong and unified the
north. Not just a talented general, Jian was well-connected, and when his daughter
married the heir of the Northern Zhou dynasty, he was given an imperial connection.
The heir had died in 580 CE which allowed Jian to declare himself regent. To ensure no
revival or rebellion would knock him off his newly acquired throne, Jian had 59
members of the royal Zhou family murdered and then set his sights on the south in 588
CE.

THE SUI WERE NOTHING IF NOT AMBITIOUS &

THEY WERE NOT MERELY INTERESTED IN
PROTECTING THEIR BORDERS BUT ALSO
DRAMATICALLY EXPANDING THEM.
Giving his new state the name of Sui, after his father’s fiefdom, Jian amassed an army of
over half a million and a huge fleet which included five-decked ships capable of
carrying 800 men. Sailing down the Yangtze River, he swept all before him and
captured Nanjing within three months. By 589 CE the south had fallen. China was a
single state once again, with its capital at Chang’an, and Jian, who would become
known as Emperor Wendi, established a short-lived but important dynasty in the
development and history of China.

SUI ACHIEVEMENTS
The Sui Dynasty consisted, then, of only two emperors: Wendi (aka Wen or Wen-ti),
who reigned 581-601 CE, and his son Yangdi (aka Yang Guang or Yang-ti) who reigned
from 604 to 618 CE. Aided by such figures as the great military commander Yang Su,
the emperors consolidated their control over a unified China and expanded their
territory. They also improved and centralised the administration system, established a
single, unified, and less complex law code, and introduced land reforms. The old Nine
Rank System of officials was abolished and, instead, local prefects were selected on
merit which was demonstrated in their performance in civil service examinations held
in the capital. Officials were then sent to provinces different from their birth to reduce
local corruption and abuse of personal connections. For the same reason, their term of
office was limited to three or four years. All religions were tolerated and supported
with imperial handouts so that another potential source of division was minimised. Just
as the Qin Dynasty had prepared China for the more durable and successful Han
Dynasty, the Sui were paving the way for another golden age of Chinese history in the
form of the Tang Dynasty.
 Sui Dynasty
Map

An example of the important Sui land reforms was the extension of the Equal Field
System (Jun tian) which had been first introduced in the late 5th century CE by Emperor
Xiaowen of the Wei. Emperor Wendi applied the system to all of China in 582 CE.
Designed to ensure small farmers did not get swallowed up by large estate owners, the
government allocated a plot of land which could be worked during the farmer’s
working lifetime (up to 59 years of age). When he retired or died the majority reverted
back to the state, and a small part could be inherited by his offspring. In another
measure to help poorer farmers, extra granaries were built and filled (with tax in kind)
which were reserved for destitute farmers in times of natural disaster or poor harvests.

In practice, unfortunately, much of the state’s good intention towards lowly farmers
was lost thanks to corrupt local officials who were bribed by larger landowners to
falsify records and claims. Still, the concept was established that all such land, in effect,
belonged to the emperor, and the Equal Field System was more successfully applied to
new territory acquired by conquest which the Chinese aristocracy had no prior claim
to.
 ONE OF THE COSTLIEST SUI PROJECTS WAS
THE CONSTRUCTION OF A MASSIVE CANAL TO
JOIN THE YANGTZE & YELLOW RIVERS.
Rather less useful to the ordinary populace was the Sui’s big spending on their own
palaces and other public building projects in the major cities of Chang’an, Luoyang,
and Yangzhou. It did not help matters that Wen maintained three capital cities:
Luoyang, Daxing, and Jiangdu, or that he kept a harem of thousands within the
pornographic-covered walls of his Maze Pavilion pleasure palace.

One of the costliest projects was the construction of a massive canal to join the Yangtze
and Yellow Rivers, the so-called Grand Canal. Built by conscripted labour, it was
certainly grand at 40 metres (130 ft) wide and with a road running along its length. The
project would eventually see three canals built, and although there was much hardship
amongst the labourers tasked with building them, they did help to further connect
northern and southern China. The canals proved a vital method for transporting troops
and the grain tax from the south to north, where there was much less grain. Critics
would later say the immoral Yangdi only wanted the canals so that he could travel
around China at ease on his barges pulled by hundreds of beautiful young women, but
the Tang emperors, for one, would be eternally grateful for the project. The road
network was also improved and extended by Yangdi, another step forward in creating a
unified China.

MILITARY CAMPAIGNS
Sui China was not without its threats from neighbouring states, and the Great Wall was
a notable point of defence against the Eastern Turks (Tujue) and so was extended and
reinforced. The Sui were nothing if not ambitious, though, and they were not merely
interested in protecting their borders but also dramatically expanding them. Things
went well in the south with Sui armies conquering territory from the Annam and the
Champa in southern Vietnam. There, in the early years of the 7th century CE, they
successfully dealt with armies fielding war elephants by putting their crossbows to
good use, terrifying the elephants which then stampeded back on their own lines. The
elephants may not have accounted for many Chinese lives, but malaria certainly did, as
most of the army was from the northern provinces of China and it was their first and
fatal encounter with tropical diseases.

A Sui expedition met with even greater disaster in 598 CE when it attacked the
kingdom of Goguryeo (Koguryo) in Korea and northern Manchuria. Goguryeo,
perhaps sensing China’s ambitions, had already made sorties into Sui territory but now
it faced a massive invasion force. As it happened, the Chinese ran out of supplies, hit
heavy rains, and had to return home. A second invasion was launched in 611 CE, this
time by sea but was destroyed in a storm. Going for third time lucky, the Sui attacked
again in 612 CE, this time with Yangdi leading the army in person. The great Korean
general Ulchi Mundok was up to the task, though, and masterminded a resounding
victory at the Battle of Salsu River. According to legend, of the 300,000-strong Sui army,
only 2,700 ever returned to China. Two more attacks were rebuffed in 613 and 614 CE.
Finally, Goguryeo had had enough and built a 480 km (300 miles) long defensive wall in
628 CE so as to deter any further Chinese ambitions. The lack of victories in Korea could
be blamed on no one else but the commander who had led them, the emperor himself.
Yangdi’s prestige and reputation were dealt a fatal blow.

OVERTHROW
The defeat to Goguryeo and the hardships endured by the Chinese peasantry led to
widespread rebellion in 613 CE, which was only fuelled by more military losses, this
time to the Eastern Turks. The rebellions rumbled on until 617 CE. When Yangdi was
assassinated by the son of one of his own generals, the Sui dynasty fell and the
government was taken over by one Li Yuan, later to be known as Gaozu and founder of
the Tang Dynasty. Emperor Yangdi, meanwhile, became the subject of critical Chinese
historians who probably exaggerated his immoral rule as one of absolute tyranny and
corruption. The last emperor had to be bad in order to justify the loss of his Mandate of
Heaven.
Yangdi's father fared rather better in the historical record, largely thanks to his early
support for Confucian and Taoist scholars, and his patronage of Buddhist temples
which led to him becoming known as the “Cultured Emperor”. The difference in the
two Sui emperors' lasting reputation is rather indicative of the period itself which is
praised for its contribution towards unifying and modernising China but at the same
time pilloried for its excessive waste and neglect of the welfare of the Chinese
people.

Song Dynasty
Definition

by Mark Cartwright
published on 26 September 2017
The Song (aka Sung) dynasty ruled China from 960 to 1279 CE with the reign split into
two periods: the Northern Song (960-1125 CE) and Southern Song (1125-1279 CE). The
Northern Song ruled a largely united China from their capital at Kaifeng, but when the
northern part of the state was invaded by the Jin state in the first quarter of the 12th
century CE, the Song moved their capital south to Hangzhou. Despite the relative
modernisation of China and its great economic wealth during the period, the Song court
was so plagued with political factions and conservatism that the state could not
withstand the challenge of the Mongol invasion and collapsed in 1279 CE.

FOUNDATION
The chaos and political void caused by the collapse of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE)
led to the break-up of China into five dynasties and ten kingdoms, but one warlord
would, as had happened so often before, rise to the challenge and collect at least some
of the various states back into a resemblance of a unified China. The Song dynasty was,
thus, founded by the Later Zhou general Zhao Kuangyin (927-976 CE) who was
endorsed as emperor by the army in 960 CE. His reign title would be Taizu (‘Grand
Progenitor’). Making sure no rival general ever became too powerful and gained the
necessary support to take his throne, the emperor introduced a system of rotation for
army leaders and swept away all opposition. Further, he ensured that the civil service
henceforth enjoyed a higher status than the army by acting as their supervisory body.

THE SONG EMPERORS AIMED AT MAINTAINING

PEACEFUL BORDERS IN ORDER TO
CONSOLIDATE THEIR RULE OF CENTRAL CHINA
& MANAGE THEIR 100 MILLION SUBJECTS.
Taizu was succeeded by his younger brother, Emperor Taizong (‘Grand Ancestor’),
who reigned from 976 to 997 CE. The stability provided by the long reigns of the first
two emperors (at least compared to the chaotic previous centuries) gave the Song
dynasty the start it needed to become one of the most successful in China’s history.

CONSOLIDATION & GOVERNMENT

Taizu may have conquered much of central China but neither he nor his successors
could manage to conquer the Khitan Liao dynasty in the north, who still controlled the
vital defensive area of the Great Wall of China. Indeed, so superior were the Khitan
horsemen that they invaded Song China at will and Song emperors were compelled to
pay their neighbours annual tribute in the form of silver and silk. They also recognised
the Khitan ruler as an emperor in his own right. A similar situation arose with the
Tangut Xia state to the north-west. Following a defeat in 1044 CE tribute was paid to
them, too, so that the Song emperors could maintain a peaceful border and concentrate
on consolidating their rule of central China and managing their 100 million subjects.
The tribute payments were huge but less than the costs of a war or maintaining a
constant military presence in the region. In addition, as trade thrived between these
states, much of the value of the tribute, in any case, came back to China as payment for
Chinese exports.

Northern Song
Dynasty Map

Although the Song were able to govern over a united China after a significant period of
division, their reign was beset by the problems of a new political and intellectual
climate which questioned imperial authority and sought to explain where it had gone
wrong in the final years of the Tang dynasty. A symptom of this new thinking was the
revival of the ideals of Confucianism, Neo-Confucianism as it came to be called, which
emphasised the improvement of the self within a more rational metaphysical
framework. This new approach to Confucianism, with its metaphysical add-on, now
allowed for a reversal of the prominence the Tang had given to Buddhism, seen by
many intellectuals as a non-Chinese religion.

The clashes of political and religious ideals at court frequently led to damaging factions
and exiles but the real problem, of course, was never really addressed. That was the
vast inequality in wealth which had plagued China for centuries. One attempt at reform
was the New Policies of the chancellor Wang Anshi (1021-1086 CE) who wanted to ease
the burden of the poorer elements of society. He forwarded such reforms as substituting
disruptive labour service for a tax in kind, offering low-interest loans and making new
land surveys which sought to more fairly assign tax obligations. The reforms were met
with almost total opposition, though, by the local administrators whose interest was
the status quo and their well-established network of friends and kickbacks. The practical
reality was that while more people than ever had the opportunity to join the scholar-
bureaucrat class which ran the Chinese state at national and local level, and even if the
lower aristocracy significantly widened its base, the vast majority of the population
during the Song dynasty remained, as ever, overworked and overtaxed farmers.

ECONOMY
If Song politics was somewhat troublesome for the emperors, at least the economy was
booming. Kaifeng, already a capital in earlier dynasties, was one of the great
metropolises of the world under the Song. With a population of around one million,
the city was benefiting from industrialisation and was well-supplied by nearby mines
producing coal and iron. A major trade centre, Kaifeng was especially famous for its
printing, paper, textile, and porcelain industries. Such goods were exported along
the Silk Road and across the Indian Ocean, along with tea, silk, rice, and copper.
Imports included horses, camels, sheep, cotton cloth, ivory, gems, and spices.
 Women
Checking Silk, Song China.

Farming, in general, became much more efficient, and farmers aimed at producing
more than they required for their own needs. Cities became more densely populated,
markets thrived, and rural farmers began to grow crops they knew would demand high
prices such as sugar, oranges, cotton, silk, and tea. To transport all these goods by
canals and sea to where they were in demand thousands of ships were built, and so
another industry became a success story. Companies became larger and more
sophisticated with different levels of management and ownership. Guilds, wholesalers,
partnerships, and stock companies all developed as the Chinese economy began to
slowly take on the appearance of something more akin to today’s industrial model.

ARTS & SCIENCE

China under the Song developed into a more modernised and industrialised nation
thanks to innovations in machinery, agriculture, and manufacturing processes.
Significant inventions or improvements on existing ideas included paddle-wheel ships,
gunpowder, paper money, the fixed compass, the sternpost rudder, lock gates in canals,
and the moveable-type printing press. Iron armour was mass-produced, and swords
were made from high-quality steel made possible by water-powered bellows creating
super-heated furnaces.

Literature boomed during the Song dynasty. Lie Jie wrote a famous treatise
on architecture, his Yingzao fashi (1103 CE) and encyclopedias were written. Famous
works of history were written such as Sima Guang’s Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror
for Aid to Government) which, published in 1084 CE, covered Chinese history from 403
BCE to 959 CE. The period saw a great many works of poetry published. One of the
most famous poets is Su Dongpo (1037-1101 CE) who wrote, as many of his
contemporaries did, about love, loneliness, and sorrow. Women in the Song period may
well have fared less well than their predecessors, and such practices as foot-binding, in
particular, became more common, but one female poet of renown was Li Qingzhao who
famously described her family’s exile in 1127 CE and her sorrow at her husband’s
early death.
 Travelling among Streams & Mountains by
Fan Kuan

The visual arts in general flourished, fuelled by a rising demand from an ever-
increasing wealthy middle class. Fine porcelain and theatre were all popular with the
new urban elite. Landscape paintings aimed for greater realism, with one of the most
famous being Travelling among Streams and Mountains, a 2x1 metre silk hanging by Fan
Kuan (c. 990-1030 CE). Flower and wildlife painting, especially of birds, also became
very popular with Song dynasty artists. Such was the development of an appreciation
for art that many of the most celebrated artists had their works ingeniously copied, and
these fakes, sometimes complete with the embossed seal of the famous artist, continue
to fool antiquarians to this day.

THE DEFEAT TO THE JIN STATE NECESSITATED

THE SONG COURT INTO RELOCATING SOUTH
TO THE YANGTZE VALLEY.

TERRITORIAL THREATS
By the early 12th century CE China’s position as master of East Asia was coming under
increasing threat from attacks in the north by the Liao and Xia states again. Even more
dangerous were the Jurchen, tribes people in the north-eastern part of China. The
ancestors of the Manchurians, they spoke the Tungusic language and had declared their
own state, the Jin in 1115 CE. The Song took advantage of their territorial ambitions,
and the two states joined forces to defeat the Liao. Unfortunately, despite achieving
their goal, the Song were rather shown up for their own military weakness. Thus, in
1125 CE the Jin state attacked parts of northern China which even the great general
Tong Guan (1054-1126 CE) could not stop. The emperor Huizong (r. 1100-1126 CE) was
captured along with thousands of others and besides the loss of a huge swathe of
territory, the Song were compelled to pay the Jurchen a massive ransom to avoid any
more loss of life.

The defeat necessitated the Song court into relocating to the Yangtze Valley, and they
eventually established a new capital in 1138 CE at Hangzhou (aka Linan) in Zhejiang
province. This was the beginning of the Southern Song dynasty. The shrinking of the
Song lands did nothing to dampen the booming economy as, fortunately, the great
trading ports of the new capital, Quanzhou and Fuzhou were all in the south and
continued to thrive as multinational cities where significant numbers of Muslim
and Hindu immigrants took up permanent residence. The south was also much more
fertile and continued to yield surpluses each harvest.
 Map of
Southern Song & Jin States

In 1127 CE the Song army made one of Huizong’s surviving sons emperor, who then
took the title Gaozong (r. 1127-1162 CE). After some half-hearted attempts, any plans to
take back the lost lands from the Jin state were officially abandoned and a peace treaty
signed in 1141 CE. Fortunately for the Song emperor, he still controlled the richest part
of his former state and some 60% of the population. Hangzhou flourished. Famous for
its scenic canals and gardens, it was a thriving commercial centre producing silk and
ships and boasted a population of over one million. The military defeats also made the
Song rulers and intellectuals rethink their strategy and make a better effort to help all
levels of society. In the capital, the poor were given free handouts and medical aid, for
example.
MONGOL INVASION
Just when the Song had become accustomed to their new state following the
tremendous upheaval caused by the Jurchen, an even greater menace appeared, and
once again, it was from the north. The nomadic Mongol tribes had been assembled
under the leadership of Genghis Khan (r. 1206-1227 CE), and they repeatedly attacked
and plundered the Xia and Jin states in the first three decades of the 13th century CE.
The Song thought they were next and so made ready their armies, largely funded by
confiscated wealth from the landed aristocracy - a policy which did nothing for internal
unity. There was to be a reprieve, though, for the Mongols were busy enough
expanding their empire into western Asia.

It was not until 1268 CE that the Mongol leader Kublai Khan (r. 1260-1294 CE) set his
sights on the lands south of the Yangtze River. First, the strategically important city of
Xiangyang was besieged, and it fell in 1273 CE thanks to the Mongol’s persistence and
superior catapults. The invaders crossed the Yangtze in 1275 CE and proved
unstoppable. With many Song generals defecting or surrendering their armies, a court
beset by infighting between the child emperor’s advisors, and the ruthless slaughter of
the entire city of Changzhou, the end of the Song dynasty was definitely nigh. The
empress dowager and her young son Emperor Gongzong (r. 1274-5 CE) surrendered
and were taken prisoner to the northern city of Beijing. Some groups of loyalists fought
on for three more years, installing two more young emperors in the process (Duanzong
and Dibing) but the Mongols swept all before them and then moved on down to
Vietnam. The Song state, rich enough but paying dearly for its lack of political unity,
military investment, and weapons innovation, became part of the vast Mongol empire
which now covered one fifth of the globe.

Yuan Dynasty
Previous (Yu Gwansun)

Next (Yuan Shikai)

Yuandada map

The Yuan dynasty (Pinyin: Yuáncháo; Mongolian: Dai Ön Yeke Mongghul Ulus), lasting
officially from 1279 to 1368, followed the Song dynasty and preceded the Ming dynasty in the
historiography of China.
The dynasty was established by ethnic Mongols, and it had nominal control over the
entire Mongol Empire(stretching from Eastern Europe to the fertile crescent to Russia); however,
the Mongol rulers in Asia were only interested in China. Later successors did not even attempt to
stake claim over the khakhan title and saw themselves as emperor of China, as the Yuan dynasty
grew from being an imperial Mongol administration under Kublai Khan to becoming a basically
Chinese institution under his successors.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Mongol Empire
o 1.1 Founding an Empire
o 1.2 Northern Conquest
 2 The Yuán dynasty
o 2.1 Kublai khan and Ariq boke
o 2.2 The rule of Kublai Khan
o 2.3 Early Rule
o 2.4 Impact
 3 Downfall of the Yuan
o 3.1 Civil unrest
o 3.2 Northern Yuan
 4 References
 5 External links
 6 Credits
The Yuan period was one of high cultural achievement, including developmets in the Chinese
novel and plays with increased use of the written vernacular. Given the unified rule of central
Asia, trade between East and West also flourished. Visiting from Europe, Marco Polo was
impressed by the Grand Canal, the highways and public granaries. He described the rule of
Kublai Khan as benevolent, relieving the populace of taxes in times of hardship,
building hospitals and orphanages. distributing food among the abjectly poor. He also promoted
science and religion. Unfortunately, the exchange with the world beyond China that took place
during the Yuan dynasty's seven hundred years did not continue and when the Great Powers
started to intervene in China, the country's later rulers were inexperienced at dealing with
Europeans, at China's cost.

Mongol Empire
Founding an Empire

Jade dragon from the Yuan period

A Yuan dynasty woodblock edition of a zaju play entitled Zhuye Zhou

The Mongols attacked and conquered neighboring empires in series of stages, starting in the
north west with the Xia Kingdom, moving into the Jin dynasty and the Liao. This would unify all
of China for the first time.
The Mongols lived in separate tribes. Their economy was based on herding cattle and hunting
and were also know to be expert horsemen. There were frequent conflicts with their neighbors,
the Tartans. Temüjin, later to be more prominently known as Genghis Khan, was officially the
first in the line of Yuan dynasty emperors. He was the son of Yesügei, the tribal chief of the
Kiyad—a tribe in fragmented Mongolia under nominal control of the Jin dynasty (1115–1234) at
the time.
His father was killed in his early life by the rival tribe of the Tartans, leaving him the heir. This
led to bitterness on the part of Senggum, Wang's former heir, who planned to assassinate
Temüjin. Temüjin learned of Senggum's intentions however, and a large civil war broke out
among the Mongols. Eventually Temüjin defeated Senggum and succeeded to the title of Wang
Khan. Temüjin created a written code of laws for the Mongols called Yassa, and he demanded it
be followed strictly. He carried out reforms in religion, law and politics after uniting the people
and set about organizing military resources.
Temüjin followed with attacks on other neighboring tribes, which further increased his power. In
1206, Temüjin successfully united the formerly fragmented tribes of what is now Mongolia. At
a Khurultai (a council of Mongol chiefs), he was named the Genghis Khan ("Universal Ruler").
The birth of Mongolia marked the start of what would become the largest continuous empire in
history, ruling large parts of Asia, the Middle East and parts of Europe, stretching from what we
know as Korea to western Russia in the north and Burma to Iraq in the south. While his empire
extended in all directions, Genghis Khan’s main interest was always with China, specifically
Western Xia, the Jin dynasty and southern Song dynasty.

Northern Conquest
At the time of the Khuriltai, Genghis was involved in a dispute with Western Xia—which would
eventually became the first of his wars of conquest. Despite problems in taking well-defended
Western Xia cities, he substantially reduced the Western Xia dominion by 1209, when peace
with Western Xia was made. He was acknowledged by their emperor as overlord. This marks the
first in a line of successes in defeating all the kingdoms and dynasties in China which wasn't
complete until Kublai Khan's rule.
A major goal of Genghis was the conquest of the Jin dynasty, allowing the Mongols to avenge
earlier defeats, gain the riches of northern China and mostly to establish the Mongols as a major
power among the Chinese world order. He declared war in 1211, and at first the pattern of
operations against the Jin dynasty was the same as it had been against Western Xia. The
Mongols were victorious in the field, but they were frustrated in their efforts to take major cities.
In his typically logical and determined fashion, Genghis and his highly developed staff studied
the problems of the assault of fortifications. With the help of Chinese engineers, they gradually
developed the techniques to take down fortifications. Islamic engineers joined later and
especially contributed counterweight trebuchets, "Muslim phao," which had a maximum range of
300 meters compared to 150 meters of the ancient Chinese predecessor. It played a significant
role in taking the Chinese strongholds and was as well used against infantry units on battlefield.
This eventually would make troops under the Mongols some of the most accomplished and most
successful besiegers in the history of warfare.
As a result of a number of overwhelming victories in the field and a few successes in the capture
of fortifications deep within China, Genghis had conquered and had consolidated Jin territory as
far south as the Great Wall by 1213. He then advanced with three armies into the heart of Jin
territory, between the Great Wall and the Huang He. With the help of Chenyu Liu, one of the top
officer that betrayed Jin, Gengkis Khan defeated the Jin forces, devastated northern China,
captured numerous cities, and in 1215 besieged, captured, and sacked the Jin capital of Yanjing
(later known as Beijing). The Jin emperor, Xuan Zong, however, did not surrender, but removed
his capital to Kaifeng. There his successors finally were defeated, but not until 1234.
The vassal emperor of Western Xia had refused to take part in the war against the peoples of the
Khwarizm, and Genghis had vowed punishment. While he was in Central Asia, Western Xia and
Jin had formed an alliance against the Mongols. After rest and a reorganization of his armies,
Genghis prepared for war against his biggest foes. By this time, advancing years had led Genghis
to prepare for the future and to assure an orderly succession among his descendants. He selected
his third son Ogedei as his successor and established the method of selection of subsequent
khans, specifying that they should come from his direct descendants. Meanwhile, he
studied intelligence reports from Western Xia and Jin and readied a force of 180,000 troops for a
new campaign.

The Yuán dynasty

Kublai khan and Ariq boke

Kublai Khan, Genghis Khan's grandson and founder of the Yuan dynasty
In 1259 the Great Khan Möngke died while Kublai khan, his brother, was campaigning
against Song dynasty and Ariq Boke, his other brother commanded the Mongol homelands. After
Möngke's demise, Ariq Boke decided to attempt to make himself Khan. Hearing of this, Kublai
aborted his Chinese expedition and had himself elected as Khan in April 1260. Still, Ariq Boke
had his supporters and was elected as a rival khan to Kublai at Karakorum. The brothers then
engaged in a series of battles, ending with Ariq Boke's capture in 1264. Kublai held him prisoner
until he died two years later.
The khans of the Golden Horde and of the Chagatai Khanate did not recognize Kublai Khan as
the great khan. Hulego, another brother of Kublai Khan, ruled his il-Khanate and paid homage to
the great khan but actually established a seperate khanate. The four major successor khanates
never again came under one rule.

The rule of Kublai Khan

After winning the war against Ariq Boke, Kublai Khan, began his reign over the khanate with
great aspirations and self-confidence—in 1264 he decided to completely rebuild the city of
Khanbaliq (Dàdu, present-day Beijing) as his new capital. He began his drive against
the Southern Song, establishing, in 1271—eight years prior to Southern conquest—the first non-
Han dynasty to rule all of the Middle Kingdom: the Yuan dynasty.
In 1272, Khanbaliq officially became the capital of the Yuan dynasty. In 1279 Guangzhou was
conquered by the Yuan army, which marks the end of the Southern Song and the onset of China
under the Yuan. During Kublai Khan's reign he was put under pressure by many of his advisers
to further expand the territory of the Yuan through the traditional Sinocentric tributary system.
However, they were rebuffed and expeditions to Japan, Myanmar, Vietnam and Java all would
later fail.
Due to the reasoning that Mongols have gathered a general negative attitude with the new
Mongol capital in China, Kublai's early rule may be noted for its bandit-like nature. In expecting
to lose the country, the Mongols attempted to remove as much money and resources as was
possible. The Mongol conquest never affected China's trade with other countries. In fact the
Yuan dynasty strongly supported the Silk Roadtrade network, allowing the transfer of Chinese
technologies to the west. Though many reforms were made during Kublai's life, and despite his
notable warming to the populace, the Yuan was a relatively short-lived dynasty.
Kublai began to serve as a true emperor, reforming much of China and its institutions—a process
that would take decades to complete. He insulated Mongol rule by centralizing the government
of China—making himself (unlike his predecessors) an absolutist monarch. He reformed many
other governmental and economic institutions, especially concerning taxation.
Although the Mongols sought to govern China through traditional institutions, using Han
Chinese bureaucrats, they were not up to the task initially. The Hans were discriminated against
politically. Almost all important central posts were monopolized by Mongols, who also preferred
employing non-Hans from other parts of the Mongol domain in those positions for which no
Mongol could be found. Hans were more often employed in non-Chinese regions of the empire.
In essence, the society was divided into four classes in order of privilege: Mongols, "Color-eyed"
(Central Asians, mostly Uyghurs and Tibetans), Han (Han Chinese in northern China, Manchus
and Jurchens), and Southerners (Han Chinese within Southern Song and other ethnic groups).
During his lifetime, Kublai developed the new capital of the Yuan, Khanbaliq, building the
elaborate Forbidden City. He also improved the agriculture of China, extending the Grand Canal,
highways and public granaries. Marco Polo described his rule as benevolent, relieving the
populace of taxes in times of hardship, building hospitals and orphanages and distributing food
among the abjectly poor. He also promoted science and religion.
Like other emperors of non-Han dynasties, Kublai considered himself a legitimate Chinese
emperor. While he had nominal rule over the rest of the Mongol Empire, his interest was clearly
in the Middle Kingdom. After Kublai’s death in 1294 C.E., the Mongol Empire broke up into a
number of independent khanates.

Early Rule
Succession was a problem which marked the Yuan dynasty, later causing much strife and
internal struggle. This may be observed as early as the end of Kublai's reign. His original choice
was his son, Zhenjin—but he died prior to Kublai in 1285. Thus, Zhenjin's son ruled as Emperor
Chengzong of Yuan China for approximately ten years following Kublai's death (1294–1307).
Chengzong decided to maintain and continue many of the projects and much of the work begun
by his grandfather. However, the corruption in the Yuan dynasty began during the reign of
Chengzong.
Emperor Wuzong of Yuan China ascended to the emperorship of China following the death of
Chengzong. Unlike his predecessor, he did not continue Kublai's work, but largely rejected it.
During his short reign (1307–1311), China fell into financial difficulties, partly by bad decisions
made by Wuzong. By the time he died, China was in severe debt and the populace were
discontent with the Yuan dynasty.
The fourth Yuan emperor, Emperor Renzong of Yuan China, was seen as the last competent
emperor. He stood out among the Mongol rulers of China as an adopter of mainstream culture of
China, to the discontent of some Mongol elite. He had been mentored by Li Meng,
a Confucian academic. He made many reforms, including the liquidation of the Department of
State Affairs (resulting in the execution of five of the highest-ranking officials). Starting in 1313
examinations were introduced for prospective officials, testing their knowledge on significant
historical works. He also codified much of the law.

Impact
A rich cultural diversity developed during the Yuan dynasty. The major cultural achievements
developed were drama, the novel and the increased use of the written vernacular. Given the
unified rule of central Asia, trades between East and West flourished. The Mongols' extensive
West Asian and European contacts produced a fair amount of cultural exchange. Western
musical instruments were introduced to enrich the Chinese performing arts.
From this period dates the conversion to Islam, by Muslims of Central Asia, of growing numbers
of Chinese in the northwest and southwest. Nestorianism and Roman Catholicism also enjoyed a
period of toleration. Tibetan Buddhism flourished, although native Taoism endured Mongol
persecutions. Confucian governmental practices and examinations based on the Chinese Classics,
which had fallen into disuse in north China during the period of disunity, were reinstated by the
Mongols in the hope of maintaining order over Han society.
Advances were realized in the fields of travel literature, cartography, and geography, and
scientific education. Certain Chinese innovations and products, such as purified saltpetre,
printing techniques, porcelain, playing cards and medical literature, were exported to Europe and
Western Asia, while the production of thin glass and cloisonne became popular in China.
The first recorded travels by Europeans to China date back from this time. The most famous
traveler of the period was the Venetian Marco Polo, whose account of his trip to "Cambaluc," the
Great Khan's capital (now Beijing), and of life there astounded the people of Europe. The
account of his travels, Il milione (or, The Million, known in English as the Travels of Marco
Polo), appeared about the year 1299. The works of John of Plano Carpini and William of
Rubruck also provided early descriptions of the Mongol people to the West.
The Mongols undertook extensive public works. Road and water communications were
reorganized and improved. To provide against possible famines, granaries were ordered built
throughout the empire. The city of Beijing was rebuilt with new palace grounds that included
artificial lakes, hills, mountains, and parks. During the Yuan period, Beijing became the terminus
of the Grand Canal, which was completely renovated. These commercially oriented
improvements encouraged the overland as well as the maritime commerce throughout Asia and
facilitated direct Chinese contacts with Europe. Chinese travelers to the West were able to
provide assistance in such areas as hydraulic engineering. Contacts with the West also brought
the introduction to China of a major food crop, sorghum, along with other foreign food products
and methods of preparation.

Downfall of the Yuan

Civil unrest
The last of the Yuan dynasty were marked by successions of struggle, famine and bitterness by
the populace. The dynasty was, significantly, one of the shortest-lived dynasties in the history of
China, covering the period of just a century (1271–1368). In time, Kublai's successors became
sinicized and they then lost all influence on other Mongol lands across Asia, while the Mongols
beyond the Middle Kingdom saw them as too Chinese. Gradually, they lost influence in China as
well. The reigns of the later Yuan emperors were short and were marked by intrigues and
rivalries. Uninterested in administration, they were separated from both the army and the
populace. China was torn by dissension and unrest; bandits ranged the country without
interference from the weakening Yuan armies.
Emperor Yingzong ruled for just two years (1321–1323); his rule ended in a coup at the hands of
five princes. They placed Taidingdi on the throne, and after an unsuccessful attempt to calm the
princes he also succumbed to regicide. The last of the nine successors of Khubilai was expelled
from Dadu in 1368 by Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Míng dynasty (1368–1644).

Northern Yuan
The Mongols retreated to Mongolia, where the Yuan dynasty remained. It is now called
the Northern Yuán by modern historians. According to Chinese political orthodoxy, there could
be only one legitimate empire, and so the Ming and the Yuan each denied the legitimacy of the
other. However, historians tend to regard the Míng dynasty as the legitimate dynasty.
A Chinese army invaded Mongolia in 1380 and in 1388 a decisive victory was won. About
70,000 Mongols were taken prisoners, and Karakorum (the Mongol capital) was annihilated.
Eight years after the invasion, the Mongol throne was taken over by Yesüder, a descendant of
Arigh Bugha. After getting the Mongols through the turbulent period, he restored the throne to
descendants of Kublai Khan. While conflicts existed with China, the Mongols basically fell
under the tributary system of the Ming Dynasty.
The Mongols were greatly attacked by the Manchu in the seventeenth century. In 1634 Ligdan
Khan, the last great khan of the Mongols, died on his way to Tibet. His son, Ejei Khan,
surrendered to the Manchu and gave the great seal of the Yuan emperor to its ruler, Hong Taiji.
As a result, Hong Taiji established the Qing dynasty as the successor of the Yuan dynasty in
1636 (however, some sources such as Encyclopaedia Britannica give the year as 1637).

Preceded by: Yuan Dynasty Succeeded by:

Song dynasty 1279–1368 Ming dynasty

Ming Dynasty
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The Hongwu Emperor (r. 1368 - 1398}

The Ming Dynasty was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644. It was the last
ethnic Han-led dynasty in China, supplanting the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty before falling to the
Manchu-led Qing Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty ruled over the Empire of the Great Ming (Dà
Míng Guó), as China was then known. Although the Ming capital, Beijing, fell in 1644, remnants
of the Ming throne and power (now collectively called the Southern Ming) survived until 1662.
The Civil Service and a strong centralized government developed during this period. Commerce,
trade and also naval exploration flourished with ships possibly reaching the Americas in 1421,
before Christopher Columbus set sail. Towards the end of the Ming rule, the first European
colony, Macao, was founded (1557).
Ming rule saw the construction of a vast navy, including four-masted ships of 1,500 tons
displacement, and a standing army of 1,000,000 troops. Over 100,000 tons of iron per year were
produced in North China (roughly 1 kg per inhabitant), and many books were printed using
movable type. There were strong feelings amongst the Han ethnic group against the rule by non-
Han ethnic groups during the subsequent Qing Dynasty, and the restoration of the Ming dynasty
was used as a rallying cry up until the modern era. Towards the end of the dynasty, the Emperors
increasingly retired from public life and power devolved to influential officials, and also to
their eunuchs.

Contents
[hide]
 1 Origins of the Ming Dynasty
 2 Government
 3 Exploration to Isolation
 4 Ming Military Conquests
 5 Agricultural Revolution
 6 Commerce Revolution
 7 The Ming Code
 8 Scrapping The Prime Minister
Post
 9 Decline of the Ming
 10 Building the Great Wall
 11 The Network of Secret Agents
 12 Fall of the Ming Dynasty
 13 Notes
 14 References
 15 External Links
 16 Credits

Strife among the ministers, which the eunuchs used to their advantage, and corruption in the
court all contributed to the demise of this long dynasty. Their successors would have to deal with
the increased influence of the European powers in China, and the subsequent loss of complete
autonomy. The earlier overseas explorations yielded to isolationism, as the idea that all outside
of China was barbarian took hold, (known as Sinocentrism). However, a China that ceased to
deal with outsiders was badly placed to deal with them, which led to her becoming a theatre for
European imperial ambition. While China was never conquered by any other power (except by
Japan during World War II) from the sixteenth century on, the European powers gained many
concessions and established several colonies which undermined the Emperor's own power.

Origins of the Ming Dynasty

The Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty ruled before the establishment of the Ming Dynasty. Some
historians believe the Mongols' discrimination against Han Chinese during the Yuan dynasty is
the primary cause for the end of that dynasty. The discrimination led to a peasant revolt that
pushed the Yuan dynasty back to the Mongolian steppes. However, historians such as Joseph
Walker dispute this theory. Other causes include paper currency over-circulation, which caused
inflation to go up tenfold during the reign of Yuan Emperor Shundi, along with the flooding of
the Yellow River as a result of the abandonment of irrigation projects. In Late Yuan times,
agriculture was in shambles. When hundreds of thousands of civilians were called upon to work
on the Yellow River, war broke out. A number of Han Chinese groups revolted, and eventually
the group led by Zhu Yuanzhang, assisted by an ancient and secret intellectual fraternity called
the Summer Palace people, established dominance. The rebellion succeeded and the Ming
Dynasty was established in Nanjing in 1368. Zhu Yuanzhang took Hongwu as his reign title. The
Ming dynasty emperors were members of the Zhu family.
Hongwu kept a powerful army organized on a military system known as the Wei-so system,
which was similar to the Fu-ping system of the Tang Dynasty. According to Ming Shih Gao, the
political intention of the founder of the Ming Dynasty in establishing the Wei-so system was to
maintain a strong army while avoiding bonds between commanding officers and soldiers.
Hongwu supported the creation of self-supporting agricultural communities. Neo-feudal land-
tenure developments of Late Song times were expropriated with the establishment of the Ming
Dynasty. Great land estates were confiscated by the government, fragmented and rented out;
private slavery was forbidden. Consequently, after the death of the Yongle Emperor, independent
peasant landholders predominated in Chinese agriculture.
It is notable that Hongwu did not trust Confucians. However, during the next few emperors, the
Confucian scholar gentry, marginalized under the Yuan for nearly a century, once again assumed
their predominant role in running the empire.

Government
This map shows Ming Dynasty China in 1580. The distribution of guard commanders reflects the dynasty's

concern with the north border, the Wokou threat on the eastern seaboard, and also the continuing instability in

the southwest.
The basic pattern of governmental institutions in China has been the same for two thousand
years, but every dynasty installed special offices and bureaus for certain purposes. The Ming
administration was also structured in this pattern: the Grand Secretariat neige; before:
zhongshusheng) was assisting the emperor, besides are the Six Ministries (Liubu) for Personnel
(libu), Revenue (hubu), Rites (libu), War (bingbu), Justice (xingbu), and Public Works (gongbu),
under the Department of State Affairs (shangshu sheng). The Censorate (duchayuan; before:
yushitai) surveiling the work of imperial officials was also an old institution with a new name.
The nominal -and often not employed- heads of government, like since the Han Dynasty, were
the Three Dukes (sangong: the Grand Mentor taifu, the Grand Preceptor taishi and the Grand
Guardian taibao) and the Three Minor Solitaries (sangu). The first emperor of Ming in his
persecution mania abolished the Secretariat, the Censorate and the Chief Military Commission
(dudufu) and personally took over the responsibility and administration of the respective ressorts,
the Six Ministries, the Five Military Commissions (wu junfu), and the censorate ressorts: a whole
administration level was cut out and only partially rebuilt by the following emperors. The Grand
Secretariat was reinstalled, but without employing Ground Counsellors ("chancellors"). The
ministries, headed by a minister (shangshu) and run by directors (langzhong) stayed under direct
control of the emperor until the end of Ming, the Censorate was reinstalled and first staffed with
investigating censors (jiancha yushi), later with censors-in-chief (du yushi).
Of special interest during the Ming Dynasty is the vast imperial household that was staffed with
thousands of eunuchs, headed by the Directorate of Palace Attendants (neishijian), and divided
into different directorates (jian) and Services (ju) that had to administer the staff, the rites, food,
documents, stables, seals, gardens, state-owned manufacturies and so on.[1] Famous for its
intrigues and acting as the eunuch's secret service was the so-called Western Depot (xichang).
Princes and descendants of the first Ming emperor were given nominal military commands and
large land estates, but without title (compare the Han and Jin Dynasties, when princes were
installed as kings). The Ming emperors took over the provincial administration system of the
Mongols, and the 13 Ming provinces (sheng) are the origin of the modern provinces. On the
provincial level, the central government structure was copied, and there existed three provincial
commissions: one civil, one military, and one for surveillance. Below province level were the
prefectures (fu) under a prefect (zhifu) and subprefectures (zhou) under a subprefect (zhizhou),
the lowest unit was the district (xian) under a magistrate (zhixian). Like during the former
dynasties, a traveling inspector or Grand Coordinator (xunfu) from the Censorate controlled the
work of the provincial administrations. New during the Ming Dynasty was the traveling military
inspector (zongdu). Official recruitment was exerted by an examination system that theoretically
allowed everyone to link the ranks of imperial officials if he had enough time, money and
strength to learn and to write an "eight-legged essay" (baguwen). Passing the provincial
examinations, scholars were titled Cultivated Talents (xiuca), passing the metropolitan
examination, they obtained the title jinshi "Graduate."

Exploration to Isolation
This is the only surviving example in the world of a major piece of lacquer furniture from the "Orchard Factory"

(the Imperial Lacquer Workshop) set up in Beijing during the early Ming Dynasty. Decorated

in dragons and phoenixes it was made to stand in an imperial palace. Made sometime during the Xuande reign

period (1426-1435) of the Ming Dynasty. Currently on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
The Chinese gained influence over Turkestan. The maritime Asian nations sent envoys with
tributes for the Chinese emperor. Internally, the Grand Canal was expanded to its farthest limits
and proved to be a stimulus to domestic trade.
The most extraordinary venture, however, during this stage was the dispatch of Zheng He's seven
naval expeditions, which traversed the Indian Ocean and the Southeast Asian archipelago. An
ambitious eunuch of Hui descent, a quintessential outsider in the establishment of Confucian
scholar elites, Zheng He led seven expeditions from 1405 to 1433 with six of them under the
auspices of Yongle. He traversed perhaps as far as the Cape of Good Hope and, according to the
controversial 1421 theory, to the Americas [2] Zheng's appointment in 1403 to lead a sea-faring
task force was a triumph the commercial lobbies seeking to stimulate conventional trade,
not mercantilism.
The interests of the commercial lobbies and those of the religious lobbies were also linked. Both
were offensive to the neo-Confucian sensibilities of the scholarly elite: Religious lobbies
encouraged commercialism and exploration, which benefited commercial interests, in order to
divert state funds from the anti-clerical efforts of the Confucian scholar gentry. The first
expedition in 1405 consisted of 317 ships and 28,000 men—then the largest naval expedition in
history. Zheng He's multi-decked ships carried up to 500 troops but also cargoes of export goods,
mainly silks and porcelains, and brought back foreign luxuries such as spices and tropical woods.
This tripod planter from the Ming Dynasty is an example of Longquan celadon. It is housed in

the Smithsonian in Washington, DC

The economic motive for these huge ventures may have been important, and many of the ships
had large private cabins for merchants. But the chief aim was probably political; to enroll further
states as tributaries and mark the dominance of the Chinese Empire. The political character of
Zheng He's voyages indicates the primacy of the political elites. Despite their formidable and
unprecedented strength, Zheng He's voyages, unlike European voyages of exploration later in the
fifteenth century, were not intended to extend Chinese sovereignty overseas. Indicative of the
competition among elites, these excursions had also become politically controversial. Zheng He's
voyages had been supported by his fellow-eunuchs at court and strongly opposed by the
Confucian scholar officials. Their antagonism was, in fact, so great that they tried to suppress
any mention of the naval expeditions in the official imperial record. A compromise interpretation
realizes that the Mongol raids tilted the balance in the favor of the Confucian elites.
By the end of the fifteenth century, imperial subjects were forbidden from either building
oceangoing ships or leaving the country. Some historians speculate that this measure was taken
in response to piracy. But during the mid-1500s, trade started up again when silver replaced
paper money as currency. The value of silver skyrocketed relative to the rest of the world, and
both trade and inflation increased as China began to import silver.
Historians of the 1960s, such as John Fairbank III and Joseph Levinson have argued that this
renovation turned into stagnation, and that science and philosophy were caught in a tight net of
traditions smothering any attempt at something new. Historians who held to this view argue that
in the fifteenth century, by imperial decree the great navy was decommissioned; construction of
seagoing ships was forbidden; the iron industry gradually declined.

Ming Military Conquests

The beginning of the Ming Dynasty was marked by Ming Dynasty military conquests as they
sought to cement their hold on power.
Early in his reign the first Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang provided instructions as injunctions to
later generations. These instructions included the advice that those countries to the north were
dangerous and posed a threat to the Ming polity and those to the south did not. Furthermore, he
stated that those to the south, not constituting a threat, were not to be subject to attack. Yet, either
because of or despite this, it was the polities to the south which were to suffer the greatest effects
of Ming expansion over the following century. This prolonged entanglement in the south with no
long-lasting tangible benefits ultimately weakened the Ming Dynasty.

Agricultural Revolution
Historians consider the Hongwu emperor to be a cruel but able ruler. From the start of his rule,
he took great care to distribute land to small farmers. It seems to have been his policy to favor
the poor, whom he tried to help to support themselves and their families. For instance, in 1370 an
order was given that some land in Hunan and Anhui should be distributed to young farmers who
had reached manhood. To preclude the confiscation or purchase of this land by unscrupulous
landlords, it was announced that the title to the land was not transferable. At approximately the
middle of Hongwu's reign, an edict was published declaring that those who cultivated wasteland
could keep it as their property and would never be taxed. The response of the people was
enthusiastic. In 1393, the cultivated land rose to 8,804,623 ching and 68 mou, a record which no
other dynasty has reached.
One of the most important aspects of the development of farming was water conservancy. The
Hong Wu emperor paid special attention to the irrigation of farms all over the empire, and in
1394 a number of students from Kuo-tzu-chien were sent to all of the provinces to help develop
irrigation systems. It is recorded that 40,987 ponds and dikes were dug.
Having himself come from a peasant family, Hong Wu emperor knew very well how much
farmers suffered under the gentry and the wealthy. Many of the latter, using influence with
magistrates, not only encroached on the land of farmers, but also by bribed sub-officials to
transfer the burden of taxation to the small farmers they had wronged. To prevent such abuses
the Hongwu Emperor instituted two very important systems: "Yellow Records" and "Fish Scale
Records," which served to guarantee both the government's income from land taxes and the
people's enjoyment of their property.
Hongwu kept a powerful army organized on a military system known as the wei-so system. The
wei-so system in the early Ming period was a great success because of the tun-tien system. At
one time the soldiers numbered over a million and Hong Wu emperor, well aware of the
difficulties of supplying such a number of men, adopted this method of military settlements. In
time of peace each soldier was given forty to fifty mou of land. Those who could afford it
supplied their own equipment; otherwise it was supplied by the government. Thus the empire
was assured strong forces without burdening the people for its support. The Ming Shih states that
70 percent of the soldiers stationed along the borders took up farming, while the rest were
employed as guards. In the interior of the country, only 20 percent were needed to guard the
cities and the remaining occupied themselves with farming. So, one million soldiers of the Ming
army were able to produces five million piculs of grain, which not only supported great numbers
of troops but also paid the salaries of the officers.

Commerce Revolution
Hong Wu's prejudice against the merchant class did not diminish the numbers of traders. On the
contrary, commerce was on much greater scale than in previous centuries and continued to
increase, as the growing industries needed the cooperation of the merchants. Poor soil in some
provinces and over-population were key forces that led many to enter the trade markets. A book
called "Tu pien hsin shu" gives a detailed description about the activities of merchants at that
time. In the end, the Hong Wu policy of banning trade only acted to hinder the government from
taxing private traders. Hong Wu did continue to conduct limited trade with merchants for
necessities such as salts. For example, the government entered into contracts with the merchants
for the transport of grain to the borders. In payments, the government issued salt tickets to the
merchants, who could then sell them to the people. These deals were highly profitable for the
merchants.
Private trade continued in secret because the coast was impossible to patrol and police
adequately, and because local officials and scholar-gentry families in the coastal provinces
actually colluded with merchants to build ships and trade. The smuggling was mainly with Japan
and Southeast Asia, and it picked up after silver lodes were discovered in Japan in the early
1500s. Since silver was the main form of money in China, lots of people were willing to take the
risk of sailing to Japan or Southeast Asia to sell products for Japanese silver, or to invite
Japanese traders to come to the Chinese coast and trade in secret ports. The Ming court's attempt
to stop this 'piracy' was the source of the wokou wars of the 1550s and 1560s. After private trade
with Southeast Asia was legalized again in 1567, there was no more black market. Trade with
Japan was still banned, but merchants could simply get Japanese silver in Southeast Asia. Also,
Spanish Peruvian silver was entering the market in huge quantities, and there was no restriction
on trading for it in Manila. The widespread introduction of silver into China helped monetize the
economy (replacing barter with currency), further facilitating trade.

The Ming Code

The legal code drawn up in the time of Hong Wu emperor was considered one of the great
achievements of the era. The Ming shih mentions that early as 1364, the monarch had started to
draft a code of laws known as Ta-Ming Lu. Hong Wu emperor took great care over the whole
project and in his instruction to the ministers told them that the code of laws should be
comprehensive and intelligible, so as not to leave any loophole for sub-officials to misinterpret
the law by playing on the words. The code of Ming Dynasty was a great improvement on that of
Tang Dynasty as regards to treatment of slaves. Under the Tang code slaves were treated almost
like domestic animals. If they were killed by a free citizen, the law imposed no sanction on the
killer. Under the Ming Dynasty, however, this was not so. The law assumed the protection of
slaves as well as free citizens, an ideal that harkens back to the reign of Han
Dynasty emperor Guangwu in the first century C.E. The Ming code also laid great emphasis on
family relations. Ta-Ming Lu was based on Confucian ideas and remained one of the factors
dominating the law of China until the end of the nineteenth century.

Scrapping The Prime Minister Post

Many argue that Hongwu emperor, wishing to concentrate absolute authority in his own hands,
abolished the office of prime minister and so removed the only insurance against incompetent
emperors. However the statement is misleading as a new post was created called "Senior Grand
secretary" which replaced the abolished prime minister post. Ray Huang, Professor from State
University College at New Paltz, New York, has argued that Grand-secretaries, outwardly
powerless, could exercise considerable positive influence from behind the throne. Because of
their prestige and the public trust which they enjoyed, they could act as intermediaries between
emperor and the ministerial officials and thus provide stabilizing force in the court.

Decline of the Ming

The Yongle Emperor, as a warrior, was able to maintain the foreign policy of his father.
However, Yongle's successors attached little importance to foreign affairs and this lead to
deterioration of the army. Annam regained its independence in 1427 and in the north the
Mongols quickly regained their strength. Starting around 1445, the Oirat Horde became a
military threat under their new leader Esen Taiji. The Zhengtong Emperor personally led a
punitive campaign against the Horde but the mission turned into a disaster as the Chinese army
was annihilated and the Emperor was captured. Later, under Jia-Jing Emperor, the capital itself
nearly fell into the hands of the Mongols, if not for the heroic efforts of the patriot Yu Qian. At
the same time the Wokou Japanese pirates were raging along the coast - a front so extensive that
it was scarcely within the power of the government to guard it. It was not until local militiary
were formed under Qi Jiguang that the Japanese raids ended. Next, the Japanese under the
leadership of Hideyoshi set out to conquer Korea and China through two campaigns known
collectively as the Imjin War. While the Chinese defeated the Japanese, the empire suffered
financially. By the 1610s, the Ming Dynasty had lost de facto control over northeast China. A
tribe descended from Jin dynasty rapidly extended its power as far south as Shanhai Pass, i.e.
directly opposite the Great Wall, and would have taken over China quickly if not for the brilliant
Ming commander, Yuan Chonghuan. Indeed, the Ming did produce capable commanders such as
Yuan Chonghuan, Qi Jiguang, and others; who were able to turn this unfavorable sitation into a
satisfactory one. The corruption within the court—largely the fault of the eunuchs—also
contributed to the decline of the Ming Dynasty.
The decline of Ming Empire become more obvious in the second half of the Ming period. Most
of the Ming Emperors lived in retirement and power often fell into the hands of influential
officials, and also sometimes into the hands of eunuchs. Furthering the decline was strife among
the ministers, which the eunuchs used to their advantage. Corruption in the court persisted to the
end of the dynasty.
Historians debate the relatively slower "progression" of European-style mercantilism and
industrialization in China since the Ming. This question is particularly poignant, considering the
parallels between the commercialization of the Ming economy, the so-called age of "incipient
capitalism" in China, and the rise of commercial capitalism in the West. Historians have thus
been trying to understand why China did not "progress" in the manner of Europe during the last
century of the Ming Dynasty. In the early twenty-first century, however, some of the premises of
the debate have come under attack. Economic historians such as Kenneth Pomeranz have argue
that China was technologically and economically equal to Europe until the 1750s and that the
divergence was due to global conditions such as access to natural resources from the new world.
Much of the debate nonetheless centers on contrast in political and economic systems between
East and West. Given the causal premise that economic transformations induce social changes,
which in turn have political consequences, one can understand why the rise of mercantilism, an
economic system in which wealth was considered finite and nations were set to compete for this
wealth with the assistance of imperial governments, was a driving force behind the rise of
modern Europe in the 1600s-1700s. Capitalism after all can be traced to several distinct stages in
Western history. Commercial capitalism was the first stage, and was associated with historical
trends evident in Ming China, such as geographical discoveries, colonization, scientific
innovation, and the increase in overseas trade. But in Europe, governments often protected and
encouraged the burgeoning capitalist class, predominantly consisting of merchants, through
governmental controls, subsidies, and monopolies, such as British East India Company. The
absolutist states of the era often saw the growing potential to excise bourgeois profits to support
their expanding, centralizing nation-states.
This question is even more of an anomaly considering that during the last century of the Ming
Dynasty a genuine money economy emerged along with relatively large-scale mercantile and
industrial enterprises under private as well as state ownership, such as the great textile centers of
the southeast. In some respects, this question is at the center of debates pertaining to the relative
decline of China in comparison with the modern West at least until the Communist revolution.
Chinese Marxist historians, especially during the 1970s identified the Ming age one of "incipient
capitalism," a description that seems quite reasonable, but one that does not quite explain the
official downgrading of trade and increased state regulation of commerce during the Ming era.
Marxian historians thus postulate that European-style mercantilism and industrialization might
have evolved had it not been for the Manchu conquest and expanding European imperialism,
especially after the Opium Wars.
Post-modernist scholarship on China, however argues that this view is simplistic and, at worst,
wrong. The ban on ocean-going ships, it is pointed out, was intended to curb piracy and was
lifted in the Mid-Ming at the strong urging of the bureaucracy who pointed out the harmful
effects it was having on coastal economies. These historians, who include Kenneth Pomeranz,
and Joanna Waley-Cohen deny that China "turned inward" at all and point out that this view of
the Ming Dynasty is inconsistent with the growing volume of trade and commerce that was
occurring between China and southeast Asia. When the Portuguese reached India, they found a
booming trade network which they then followed to China. In the sixteenth century Europeans
started to appear on the eastern shores and the Portuguese founded Macao, the first European
settlement in China. As mentioned, since the era of Hongwu the emperor's role this became even
more autocratic, although Hongwu necessarily continued to use what he called the Grand
Secretaries to assist with the immense paperwork of the bureaucracy, which included memorials
(petitions and recommendations to the throne), imperial edicts in reply, reports of various kinds,
and tax records.
Hongwu, unlike his successors, noted the destructive role of court eunuchs under the Song
Dynasty, drastically reducing their numbers, forbidding them to handle documents, insisting that
they remained illiterate, and liquidating those who commented on state affairs. Despite
Hongwu's strong aversion to the eunuchs, encapsulated by a tablet in his palace stipulating:
"Eunuchs must have nothing to do with the administration," his successors revived their informal
role in the governing process. Like its predecessor the Eastern Han Dynasty, the eunuchs would
be remembered as the major factor that brings the dynasty to its knees.
Yongle was also very active and very competent as an administrator, but an array of bad
precedents was established. First, although Hongwu maintained some Mongol practices, such as
corporal punishment, to the consternation of the scholar elite and their insistence on rule by
virtue, Yongle exceeded these bounds, executing the families of his political opponents, and
murdering thousands arbitrarily. Third, Yongle's cabinet, or Grand Secretariat, would become a
sort of rigidifying instrument of consolidation that became an instrument of decline. Earlier,
however, more competent emperors supervised or approved all the decisions of the latter council.
Hongwu himself was generally regarded as a strong emperor who ushered in an energy of
imperial power and effectiveness that lasted far beyond his reign, but the centralization of
authority would prove detrimental under less competent rulers.

Building the Great Wall

Did you know?
The Great Wall of China was built primarily during the Ming Dynasty (1368 to
1644)
After the Ming army defeat at Battle of Tumu and later raids by the Mongols under a new leader,
Altan Khan, the Ming adopted a new strategy for dealing with the northern horsemen: a giant
impregnable wall, inspired by walls built during the Warring States Period by the states Yan,
Zhao, and Qin and linked by Qin.
Almost 100 years earlier (1368) the Ming had started building a new, technically advanced
fortification which today is called the Great Wall of China. Created at great expense the wall
followed the new borders of the Ming Empire. Acknowledging the control which the Mongols
established in the Ordos, south of the Huang He, the wall follows what is now the northern
border of Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces. Work on the wall largely superseded military
expeditions against the Mongols for the last 80 years of the Ming dynasty and continued up until
1644, when the dynasty collapsed.

The Network of Secret Agents

In the Ming Dynasty, networks of secret agents flourished throughout the military. Due to the
humble background of Zhu Yuanzhang before he became emperor, he harbored a special hatred
against corrupt officials and had great awareness of revolts. He created the Jinyi Wei, to offer
himself further protection and act as secret police throughout the empire. Although there are a
few successes in their history, they were more known for their brutality in handling crime than as
an actually successful police force. In fact, many of the people they caught were actually
innocent. The Jinyi Wei had spread a terror throughout their empire, but their powers were
decimated as the eunuchs' influence at the court increased. The eunuchs created three groups of
secret agents in their favor; the East Factory, the West Factory and the Inner Factory. All were
no less brutal than the Jinyi Wei and probably worse, since they were more of a tool for the
eunuchs to eradicate their political opponents than anything else.

Fall of the Ming Dynasty

The fall of the Ming Dynasty was a protracted affair, its roots beginning as early as 1600 with
the emergence of the Manchu under Nurhaci. Under the brilliant commander, Yuan Chonghuan,
the Ming were able to repeatedly fight off the Manchus, notably in 1626 at Ning-yuan and in
1628. Succeeding generals, however, proved unable to eliminate the Manchu threat. Earlier,
however, in Yuan's command he had securely fortified the Shanhai pass, thus blocking the
Manchus from crossing the pass to attack Liaodong Peninsula.
Unable to attack the heart of Ming directly, the Manchu instead bided their time, developing
their own artillery and gathering allies. They were able to enlist Ming government officials and
generals as their strategic advisors. A large part of the Ming Army home mutinied to the Manchu
banner. In 1633 they completed a conquest of Inner Mongolia, resulting in a large scale
recruitment of Mongol troops under the Manchu banner and the securing of an additional route
into the Ming heartland.
By 1636 the Manchu ruler Huang Taiji was confident enough to proclaim the Imperial Qing
Dynasty at Shenyang, which had fallen to the Manchu in 1621, taking the Imperial title Chongde.
The end of 1637 saw the defeat and conquest of Ming's traditional ally Korea by a 100,000
strong Manchu army, and the Korean renunciation of the Ming Dynasty.
On May 26, 1644, Beijing fell to a rebel army led by Li Zicheng. Seizing their chance, the
Manchus crossed the Great Wall after Ming border general Wu Sangui opened the gates at
Shanhai Pass, and quickly overthrew Li's short-lived Shun Dynasty. Despite the loss of Beijing
(whose weakness as an Imperial capital had been foreseen by Zhu Yuanzhang) and the death of
the Emperor, Ming power was by no means destroyed. Nanjing, Fujian, Guangdong, Shanxi and
Yunnan could all have been, and were in fact, strongholds of Ming resistance. However, the loss
of central authority saw multiple pretenders for the Ming throne, unable to work together. Each
bastion of resistance was individually defeated by the Qing until 1662, when the last real hopes
of a Ming revival died with the Yongli emperor, Zhu Youlang. Despite the Ming defeat, smaller
loyalist movements continued till the proclamation of the Republic of China.

Preceded by: Ming Dynasty Succeeded by:

Yuan Dynasty 1368–1644 Qing Dynasty