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 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. The response of the people was enthusiastic. In , the cultivated land rose to 8,, 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 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, 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.
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. 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. 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 s. 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. After private trade with Southeast Asia was legalized again in , 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 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 , 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.
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.
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. 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.
The Yongle Emperor, as a warrior, was able to maintain the foreign policy of his father. Annam regained its independence in and in the north the Mongols quickly regained their strength. Starting around , 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 s, 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. 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. Hall, J. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company. Hao, Y. The Cambridge History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Keene, D. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Lockwood, W. Available at: www. Martin, C. New York: Abelard-Schuman Limited. Moulder, F. Storry, R. London: Penguin. Before you download your free e-book, please consider donating to support open access publishing. E-IR is an independent non-profit publisher run by an all volunteer team.
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It is published as part of our mission to showcase peer-leading papers written by students during their studies. Next were the artisans, who were not a very well-respected part of society at all.
Unless they were swordsmiths for high-ranking samurai, or their pottery happened to please a daimyo , artisans were deemed useless, as they did not produce their own food, and hence paid no rice tax. Considered even lower than the artisans were the merchants; in the eyes of the courts they produced nothing, therefore they were nothing. In reality, however, the merchants drove economic progress.
They were the entrepreneurs who provided expanding Edo with wood, tatami mats, produce, household items, textiles and trinkets.
They built simple-looking homes yet adorned them with lavish decorations and inner gardens. Merchants rose in wealth but not status, so they created their own society with their own customs, culture and hierarchy. Outside the social order were the geisha, the actors and the prostitutes. They were all deemed entertainers for the nobility and the samurai, and therefore were not ranked socially—they lived outside the hierarchy.
The prostitutes for example often lived imprisoned and cruel lives. The origins of these terrible prejudices stem from Shinto and Buddhist dictates against the killing of animals. Many eta were born into their status, although some were demoted there. They were required to live in certain quarters of town and abide by curfews and strict laws. Even today, up to three million full-blooded Japanese burakumins continue to be discriminated against in employment, marriage, housing and education.
Social organizations to protect the rights of burakumin have made progress, but systematic discrimination still exists.
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