Chinese History · Chronicle VII of X
明 · Ming
The Forbidden City, Zheng He's treasure fleets, and the Great Wall in stone.
The Hongwu EmperorPolitical
Zhu Yuanzhang, born a penniless peasant, drives out the Mongols and founds the Ming as the Hongwu Emperor.
Orphaned by plague and once a wandering monk, Zhu Yuanzhang rose through the rebel ranks to expel the Yuan and reunify China. As the Hongwu Emperor he rebuilt the country on a Confucian and agrarian ideal, restored the examinations, and ruled with a suspicious severity, purging tens of thousands he feared might threaten his throne.
The Yongle EmperorMilitary
The admiral Zheng He leads vast fleets across the Indian Ocean, reaching Arabia and the coast of Africa.
Between 1405 and 1433 the Muslim eunuch admiral Zheng He commanded seven expeditions of hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of men — some vessels far larger than any European ship of the age. They projected Ming prestige as far as Mecca and Malindi, but after his death the voyages were halted and China turned inward.
The Yongle EmperorCultural
The Yongle Emperor moves the capital to Beijing and builds the Forbidden City as the seat of imperial power.
Having seized the throne from his nephew, the Yongle Emperor moved the capital north to Beijing to guard the frontier and confront the Mongols. There he raised the Forbidden City, a vast walled palace of golden roofs and marble courts that would house the emperors of China for five centuries, and rebuilt the Grand Canal to feed the new capital.
The Middle MingMilitary
Facing renewed Mongol raids, the Ming rebuild the Great Wall in the mighty brick-and-stone form seen today.
The Ming abandoned the offensive and turned to defence, raising the greatest fortification in history along the northern frontier. Its watchtowers, ramparts and gates, built of brick and dressed stone, are the Great Wall the modern world knows — a monument as much to the Ming's fears as to its power.
The Late MingCultural
Jesuit missionaries reach China, exchanging Western science and clocks for a place at the Ming court.
The Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci mastered Chinese, dressed as a scholar, and won respect at court with European mathematics, astronomy and mechanical clocks. His mission opened a remarkable dialogue between Chinese and Western learning, even as silver from the New World poured into the Ming economy through global trade.
The Fall of the MingPolitical
A rebel army takes Beijing and the last Ming emperor hangs himself; the Manchus sweep in to found the Qing.
Crippled by famine, plague, fiscal crisis and corruption, the Ming fell as the rebel Li Zicheng seized Beijing in 1644 and the Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself on a hill behind the palace. A Ming general opened the passes to the Manchus, who defeated the rebels, took the capital, and established the Qing — the last imperial dynasty of China.
