08.

03 Travel Journal
What led to the rise of the Ming dynasty?

- The creation of new armies, everything starts when the Chinese people start to learn
about the Mongols, and one of the things they learn was how to create an army, for
example Zhu Yuan Zhang a peasant leader create a rebel army, they defeated the
Mongols and chased them back to the area beyond the Great Wall. Yuan Zhang then
created the Ming dynasty in 1368. "Ming" means brilliant.

What things did Hongwu accomplish in China?

- The union, he unites the Chinese people by many reforms and teachings of
Confucius, he brought back the civil service system, government and private schools,
irrigation networks and removed trees to increase land for farming, and the
government's record keeping.

What is Yongle known for?

- He is known for being the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty, basically with him at
the throne the dynasty reached its greatest height under his rule.

What happened to Chinese exploration after Zheng He’s death?

- Basically, everything stopped, both shipbuilding and transportation, China turned

its back on exploration, nobody knows why.

How did the Ming dynasty respond to Europe?

- Really, the trade between them was based more on exchanging items of paying with
metals, also the Chinese people were so limited to the entrance of Europeans.

How did farming change in Ming China? What forms of art and writing were popular?

- Ming artists created beautiful landscape paintings. Blue and white images were
painted on porcelain. Ming vases were highly valued in the West. Poetry written by
Confucian scholars was popular. Novels were also written

- Better fertilization also improved farming. Farmers also cut steps called terraces
into steep hillsides. This gave them more land to plant on. New crops from the
Americas also reached China in the 1500s. Two of the most popular were corn and
sweet potatoes.

How would you describe the Ming rule?

- I will describe it as a good rule, a good dynasty and a good manage of power,
because they try to organize the ideas as they were at first, also there were no
problems with corrupt people as happen on the Mongol dynasty.