Читать книгу Asia Past and Present - Peter P. Wan - Страница 68

1368–1644	Ming Dynasty returns China to Han Chinese rule, builds the Forbidden City, and rebuilds the Great Wall
1328–1398	Zhu Yuanzhang, founder of the Ming Dynasty, notorious for being brutal and paranoid; restructures Ming government on Mongol model
1370–1373	Policy of “seclusion”; so‐called “Japanese pirate problem”
Early Ming	Commercial revolution follows cotton revolution to create commercialized, market‐oriented, and currency‐based economy. Much of China is now a money society
1380	Prime Minister Hu Weiyong (?–1380) is framed and executed; over 30,000 people are put to death for guilt by association; new waves of “literary inquisitions”
1405–1433	Admiral Zheng He (1371–1433) makes seven voyages in 28 years, reaching the eastern coast of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula
1472–1529	Wang Shouren’s philosophy of the “Doctrine of the Heart” emphasizes the autonomy of the individual, challenging Confucianism
1644	Fall of the Ming Dynasty: peasant rebel leader Li Zicheng (1606–1645) enters Beijing with his troops; Ming emperor hangs himself; the Manchu army routs the rebel forces, enters Beijing, and founds the Manchu Qing Dynasty
1644–1911	Manchu Qing Dynasty rules China
1661	National hero Zheng Chenggong (1624–1662) takes Taiwan from the Dutch and fights a doomed battle with Qing forces to save the Ming Dynasty
1681–1796	Qing Golden Age under three competent emperors: Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong
17th century	Corn, potato, sweet potato, and peanuts are introduced into China by Westerners, providing abundant nutrition and allowing for great population increase
1724	Emperor Yongzheng’s crackdown on the Catholic Church
1772–1781	Compilation of the Complete Collection of the Chinese Classics
1760–1842	Qing government creates the Guangzhou System to channel all foreign trade through the southern port of Guangzhou
18th century	Cao Xueqin (1715–1764) writes Dream of the Red Chamber, the pinnacle of Chinese fiction
1793	Macartney Mission to discuss Sino‐British trade
1795–1804	White Lotus Rebellion
1820–	Opium problem creates diplomatic and currency problems
1839–1842	Opium or First Anglo‐Chinese War

His paranoia and massive executions were notorious. Even those who had fought with him to put him on the throne could not escape his suspicion and persecution. In order to remove anyone who might challenge him or his descendants, he would frame high civil officials and military commanders and put them to death. The fate of his earlier Prime Minister Hu Weiyong (?–1380) is a vivid illustration of his paranoia and brutality. When he became suspicious that Hu was gathering too much power in his hands, he charged him with plotting treason, promptly executed him, and abolished the position of prime minister. He went on to order the execution of Hu’s relatives, students, and subordinates, as well as many ministers and generals. This case lasted 12 years, and it compromised over 30,000 people who were put to death. It is a typical example of China’s age‐old practice of “guilt by association.” There has been no official position of prime minister in China’s dynasties since. The degree of brutality that Zhu employed to strengthen his absolute power was unknown in earlier Han Chinese history, and was likely influenced by the century‐long Mongol rule.

People from high‐ranking officials down to the grassroots lived in constant fear of their lives. His ruthless measures, however, did result in a solid monarchy and a highly centralized and powerful government that would withstand the test of time. Throughout the Ming Dynasty, the regime was never seriously challenged by power centers beyond the throne, such as the families of the queen or empress dowager, cliques among the court officials or eunuchs, or insubordinate frontier generals.

Zhu Yuanzhang personifies a paranoid and brutal despot in the Chinese consciousness. But he was also unsurpassed in his unrelenting diligence, great talent, and bold vision in matters of government and warfare. He vigorously built schools and promoted education, and revived a robust imperial examination system. Candidates were tested not only on their knowledge of the Confucian classics, but also on their ability to apply those principles to resolve contemporary issues. Those who passed written examinations would further undergo tests of archery, horsemanship, math, and knowledge of the law.

His government again took up the arduous task of compiling registries of households and land ownership. This system was initiated in the Tang Dynasty and carried on in following dynasties to varying degrees. The registries contained detailed information on land and population, which served as the basis for determining taxes, labor service, and draft quotas. Households were organized into the “Baojia System,” a collective‐responsibility system wherein all households in a village were collectively responsible for collecting taxes, providing labor service, drafting soldiers, enforcing the law, and monitoring each individual’s behavior. An individual, a family, or a neighborhood that got on the wrong side of the law would bring penalties to the entire village.

Zhu Yuanzhang reinvigorated China’s agriculture, which had been crippled by a century of Mongol misrule and war. His government rewarded peasants with tax exemptions and farm animals for reclaiming abandoned farmland and dredging rivers. It relocated millions of people to settle in regions that had suffered radical population loss because of war, flood, and plague.

A commercial revolution was in full swing in Ming China, following the cotton revolution in the Yuan Dynasty. It began in the textile industry in the Lower Yangtze Valley, which was a rice‐growing region and known as China’s granary during the Tang and Song Dynasties. The cotton revolution offered incentives to peasants to switch from growing rice to more profitable labor like growing cotton, raising mulberry trees and silkworms, and manufacturing cotton and silk fabrics. Cotton and silk textile industries created fabulous prosperity that centered in Suzhou. Rice growing was sidelined and gradually shifted upriver, turning the middle reaches of the Yangtze River into China’s new granary. Such regional economic specialization and division of labor finally turned the Lower Yangtze Valley from a rice exporter to a rice importer.

But the producers of these cottage industries could realize economic benefits only by selling their goods and buying what they didn’t produce in the marketplace. To conduct those transactions, they needed currency. Hence, a commercialized, market‐oriented, and currency‐based economy gradually took shape to replace the earlier self‐sufficient and self‐contained agricultural economy. Silver was soon the main form of currency, and the government converted taxes, labor service, and the salaries of government officials into silver as well. Much of China was now a money society.

Zhu Yuanzhang passed his throne on to his grandson, but a son of his seized the throne, and is known as Emperor Yongle (1360–1424). One of his most memorable undertakings was the dispatch of Admiral Zheng He on seven overseas voyages along the maritime Silk Road over a 28‐year period. His fleet visited today’s Southeast Asian countries (Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand), the South Asian subcontinent (India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan), the Middle East (Iran and Saudi Arabia), and the eastern coast of Africa (Madagascar, Somalia, and Kenya). He offered expensive gifts to local rulers and extolled the wealth, power, and benevolence of China and the Chinese emperor. He also did a little trading and went after a band of Chinese pirates along the way. He made friends on these voyages, and brought back precious and exotic gifts from local rulers to the Chinese emperor. One eye‐popping gift was a giraffe from Africa!

On his first voyage, Zheng He had a magnificent nine‐mast flagship that measured 151 meters in length and 61 meters in width with a carrying capacity of 800 tons. He had a fleet of 240 oceangoing vessels carrying roughly 27,800 people. The ships were of diverse design and function: to carry passengers, to carry cargo, and to fight in combat. They were armed with the most advanced cannon in the world.

Statue of Zheng He.

Source: WGBH Educational Foundation.

It would be no exaggeration to call Zheng He’s voyages “China’s Age of Discovery.” Unfortunately, they were discontinued when Emperor Yongle died in 1424, and Zheng himself died in 1433. The next emperor not only terminated the voyages abruptly but also ordered the destruction of the voyage diaries, the data collected on the voyages, and even the docks where the ships were built. He also re‐imposed a harsh policy of “seclusion” that closed the Chinese coast to all foreign contact: Foreigners were banned from entering China, Chinese subjects were banned from leaving the country, and those who did leave were banned from reentering. Official trade with foreign countries was choked to a dribble. Private business contact with foreigners was absolutely forbidden. The “seclusion” policy held firm through the Ming and Qing Dynasties for six centuries. China’s outreach to the world withered on the vine. And except for occasional eruptions of violence, China slumbered in isolation within its borders.