Lesson 14: The Reign of the Ming Dynasty

The Establishment of the Ming Dynasty

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, politics was very corrupt and officials at all levels tried their best to scavenge the people's money, leading to social unrest and the people's lack of livelihood. 1351 saw the outbreak of peasant revolts in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, which soon spread to the Jianghuai region and saw the emergence of several anti-Yuan teams. Among them, the team led by Zhu Yuanzhang gradually became stronger, first wiping out groups of people from all over the southeast and then marching northward. In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang became the emperor and established the Ming Dynasty with the capital at Yingtianfu, he was the Ming Emperor. The Ming army then captured the Yuan capital, ending the Yuan dynasty's rule over the country.

Zhu Yuanzhang strengthened the imperial power

Zhu Yuanzhang believed that the fall of the Yuan Dynasty was due to the decentralization of power and the excessive power of the courtiers. In order to consolidate his rule, he took a series of measures in politics while actively restoring and developing the social economy, and reformed the official system from local to central level in order to strengthen the imperial power.

At the local level, Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the Central Secretariat Province and set up the "three divisions", dividing the power of the former Central Secretariat Province into three, which were not subordinate to each other, thus making the power of the provinces decentralized. Zhu Yuanzhang also successively appointed his sons as kings, stationed in various places to monitor the local area and consolidate the royal family.

In the central government, Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the long-standing prime ministerial system and the Central Secretariat in order to further centralize power, and elevated the authority of the six ministries of mandarins, households, rituals, military, penalties, and works, and made them directly responsible to the emperor.

In order to decentralize the military power, Zhu Yuanzhang divided the original Grand Viceroy into five military viceroys, namely, the center, left, right, front and back, and put the power of army mobilization and appointment of military officials under the Ministry of War, so that the emperor directly grasped the military power.

In order to monitor the government and the people, Zhu Yuanzhang set up the Jin Yi Wei, which was directly commanded by the emperor, in charge of the guards, arrests, penal and prison matters, to protect the emperor and suppress the government and the people. Later, Ming Chengzu set up a similar institution, the East Factory. These two institutions were collectively called "factory guards" and became the eyes and ears of the emperor.

The local and central departments were not unified and controlled each other, each directly responsible to the emperor, thus making the imperial power highly centralized and the monarchy greatly strengthened. After achieving the monopoly of power, Zhu Yuanzhang, as the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, established the "ancestral system", specifying that his descendants could not change his practices.

Changes in the imperial examinations

The Ming Dynasty advocated respect for Confucianism. The Ming Dynasty strictly stipulated that the questions of the examination must come from the "Four Books" and "Five Classics"; the candidates' interpretation of the questions must be based on Zhu Xi's "Four Books" as the standard, and they were not allowed to play freely. Otherwise, the candidate will be considered a deviant, even if the essay is good, it is impossible to be admitted.

The Ming Dynasty imperial examinations on the examination answer sheet format, paragraph division, have strict regulations, requiring the answer sheet consists of eight parts, of which the last four parts for the main body, each part to have two pairs of text, so called the "eight-legged text". The content of the eight-legged essay is empty, dull, and out of touch with reality, imprisoning the mind. In order to be admitted to the examination, people had to read the "Four Books" and "Five Classics" to death and become obedient to the Emperor's will.

Economic development

During the Ming Dynasty, agriculture, handicrafts and commerce continued to develop based on the previous generation. During the Ming Dynasty, corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, peanuts, and sunflowers, which originated in South America, were introduced.

The cotton textile industry was pushed from the south to the north in the Ming Dynasty, and a number of cotton textile bases emerged in both the north and the south. Suzhou was the center of the silk weaving industry in the Ming Dynasty. Jingdezhen is the national porcelain production center, the production of blue and white porcelain, a variety of shapes, beautiful patterns, sold at home and abroad.

The commodity economy of the Ming Dynasty was also quite active. Beijing and Nanjing were national trade cities, there were also dozens of larger commercial cities. Many rich people carried heavy money and actively engaged in trade activities, and there were famous merchant gangs, such as the Jin merchants in Shanxi and the Hui merchants in Anhui.（837words）