Ming China

The Mongols also devastated China. Ironically, the Black Death brought by the Mongols contributed to their demise as rulers of China. Despite tremendous development, productivity could not keep up with population growth. Already weakened by food shortages, Chinese fell to the Black Death in horrifying numbers. In Hebei province as much as 90 percent of the population succumbed. The Mongol leaders of China’s Yuan dynasty could not cope. Religious movements, sounding the end of the world, sprang up to challenge the government. Zhu Yuanzhang, a peasant of very humble origin, rose to take charge of the Red Turbans before moving to challenge Mongol rule in China.

Centralization under the Ming

Zhu took the southern city of Nanjing as his new capital, founded the Ming ("brilliant") Dynasty, declared himself its first emperor (the Hongwu emperor), and moved to drive the Mongols from northern China. After defeating rival rebel leaders, Zhu moved to reconstruct the remnants of China’s shattered society. He began by rebuilding Nanjing and fortifying its massive walls. (The third emperor, Yongle, moved the capital to Beijing and built the enormous Forbidden City as a majestic symbol of the emperor’s power.) The Hongwu emperor initially sent his sons to defend the northern border against renewed Mongol attacks. When they failed to heed his commands, he reduced their power and built a huge bureaucracy selected from exam-degree holders. He eliminated the position of prime minister, chief post in the bureaucracy, so he could govern it himself. He took prime interest in direct administration, determining salaries, appointing officials, forming the examination system—all to augment his own power. Thus, the Ming established the world’s most rational but also most centralized system: one that sought the classification of people into hierarchies even down to the village level.

Religion under the Ming

The Hongwu Emperor also took control of Chinese religion as a means of legitimizing his rule. Cults and ritual were classified and made to revolve around the emperor’s central role as the performer of sacrifices and mediator between the human realm and supernatural realm. In spite of the powerful role of government in religious life, local Buddhist and Daoist cults maintained remarkable independence and refused to be subordinated to the state hierarchy. Many local administrators dared not interfere with local religious organizations lest local ire be provoked.

Ming Rulership

The Ming’s extensive bureaucracy allowed the dynasty to establish a stable society, remarkable for its sheer size. To gain allegiance and taxes from small communities far from the emperor’s throne, the emperor employed a system of local leaders, selected from among the local residents. These local leaders often had blood ties to the various families in their small communities and provided local peoples some autonomy from government officials like the magistrate. Nevertheless, sometimes autonomy went too far. When he felt his authority was threatened, the Hongwu Emperor killed some 100,000 people, including military men, scholars, and even members of his own bureaucracy. With so much power in the hands of the emperor, Ming China suffered from insufficient government. Given China’s immense population, one man could not do it all. The system did, however, allow the Ming to remain powerful for a very long time.

Trade under the Ming

As the Ming stabilized conditions in China, trade began to rebound, including long-distance trade. Chinese goods such as silks and porcelains were sought the world over, prompting merchants to converge on Chinese ports. As trade in Southeast Asia expanded and accelerated Indian Ocean trade, China’s southern ports became major trading hubs. Fearful that expanding trade would empower a rising merchant class and bring foreign contact that might undermine his rule, the Hongwu Emperor banned private trade. After his death, however, trade exploded as merchants and officials alike defied the ban to engage in the lucrative practice.

The Ming court itself engaged in official maritime ventures. To head these enormous missions to the seas, the Yongle Emperor sent a trusted eunuch named Zheng He. The voyages did not seek conquest or economic gain, but aimed to signal China’s greatness to the known world and establish tributary relations with "lesser peoples" to the south. Communities willing to accept Chinese dominance were given permission to trade with China. Those that did not faced attack from Chinese armies. Rulers establishing tributary ties were expected to pay tribute to the Chinese emperor, but generally received gifts worth much more than their own tribute in return.

In 1433, the voyages suddenly ceased. Reviving Mongol threats led to official criticism for the expensive voyages to the southern seas. Thus official journeys ended, leaving the seas to intrepid private Chinese traders willing to defy the imperial ban. Stimulated by trade, maritime networks expanded. Southeast Asian ships grew to enormous size, as much as 1,000 tons. Muslims extended their reach while Japanese pirates began plundering the sea lanes. Europeans even began to arrive, but in small ships and small numbers relative to the vast numbers of ships and tons of goods being moved by Asian traders.

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