The founder of China's last native-ruled dynasty, the Ming (1368-1644), was Chu Yuan-chang (ruled 1368-98), who led a rebel group that seized control of Khanbalik in 1368. He created a network of secret police and soon consolidated his power throughout the country. Leadership passed to Chu's grandson, but in 1399 Yung-lo (ruled 1403-24), Chu's son, led a revolt against his nephew.
Yung-lo became one of the most fascinating emperors of Chinese history. He sent a series of naval expeditions, under the command of Admiral Cheng Ho (jung-HOH), to westward lands, including India, Ceylon, Yemen, and even Africa. Though the Ming ruled a wide array of tribute-paying states from Japan to Tibet, and from Central Asia to the Philippines, the purpose of these expeditions was not conquest or even trade, but simply to display the superiority of Ming China. These ships brought with them such luxuries as silks and porcelains, and returned bearing exotic animals, spices, and varieties of tropical wood. Centuries later, when archaeologists unearthed the ruins of Zimbabwe in Africa, they found broken pieces of Ming porcelain.
The naval expeditions were costly, and this helped bring them to
Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, with the Forbidden City in the background. The Forbidden City, a palace five miles in circumference, was built to demonstrate the wealth and power of the Ming dynasty. Photograph by Susan D. Rock. Reproduced by permission of Susan D. Rock.
An end; also expensive was the establishment of a vast palace complex. In 1421, Yung-lo moved the capital from Nanjing (nahn-ZHEENG) in the interior to Beijing, where he built a palace five miles in circumference. Containing some two thousand rooms where more than ten thousand servants attended the imperial family, it was not so much a palace as a city: hence its name, "Forbidden City," meaning that only the emperor and the people directly around him were allowed to enter. Built to illustrate the boundless extent of Ming
Power, the Forbidden City became— aside from the Great Wall—the best-known symbol of China in the eyes of the world.
These ventures, along with the restoration of the Grand Canal (which had fallen into disrepair under the Mongols), placed heavy burdens on the treasury and weakened the power of the Ming. So too did attacks by Chinese, Korean, and Japanese pirates on their merchant vessels, not to mention the appearance of European traders who were often pirates themselves. The Ming dynasty would continue for several centuries, but long before it fell to Manchurian invaders in 1644, it appeared to have lost the "Mandate of Heaven."
Schafer, Edward H. Ancient China. New York: Time-Life Books, 1967.
Spencer, Cornelia. The Yangtze: China's River Highway. Illustrations by Kurt Wiese. London: Muller, 1966.
World History
