Ming Dynasty

Standing male figures, glazed ceramic, China, Ming dynasty,

1500s; in the Indianapolis Museum of
Photograph by Jenny ODonnell. Indianapolis Museum of Art,
gift of Keith Uhl Clary and Kwang Fei Young, 1992.119 and
1992.120

The Hongwu emperor, hanging scroll, ink and colour on silk,

14th century; in the National Palace
Courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan,
Republic of China

Portion of the Great Wall of China built during the Ming

dynasty.

Phoenix crown
Asian

of the empress dowager Xiaojing, 17th century, Ming dynasty, China.

Art & Archaeology, Inc./Corbis

The Hall of Eminent Favour at the Ming

tombs complex, near Beijing.
Ron Gatepain (A Britannica Publishing
Partner)

A Tall Pine and Daoist Immortal, ink and colour on silk hanging
scroll
National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China

Vase, cloisonn enamel, Ming dynasty, c. 1500; in the British

Museum, London. Height
Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum

Vase,
1644;
P.

cloisonn enamel on copper alloy, from China, Ming dynasty, 1368

in the
Photograph by Katie Chao. Brooklyn Museum, New York, gift of Samuel
Avery, 09.553

CHINESE HISTORY

Wade-Giles romanization Ming, Chinese dynasty that lasted from 1368 to

1644 and provided an interval of native Chinese rule between eras
of Mongol and Manchu dominance, respectively. During the Ming
period, China exerted immense cultural and political influence on East Asia
and the Turks to the west, as well as on Vietnam andMyanmar to the south.

HISTORY
The Ming dynasty, which succeeded the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty (12061368),
was founded by Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu, who was of humble origins, later
assumed the reign title of Hongwu. The Ming became one of the most stable
but also one of the most autocratic of all Chinese dynasties.

The basic governmental structure established by the Ming was continued by

the subsequent Qing (Manchu) dynasty and lasted until the imperial institution
was abolished in 1911/12. The civil service system was perfected during the
Ming and then became stratified; almost all the top Ming officials entered
the bureaucracy by passing a government examination. The Censorate
(Yushitai), an office designed to investigate official misconduct and corruption,
was made a separate organ of the government. Affairs in each province were
handled by three agencies, each reporting to separate bureaus in the central
government. The position of prime minister was abolished. Instead, the
emperor took over personal control of the government, ruling with the
assistance of the especially appointed Neige, or Grand Secretariat.
Basically, the Ming incorporated the Song dynastys policy of relying on the
literati in managing state affairs. However, from the Yongleemperor onward,
the emperors relied increasingly on trusted eunuchs to contain the literati. Also

introduced at that time was a system of punishment by flogging with a stick in

court, which was designed to humiliate civil officialswhile also making use of
them to realize the emperors aim of maintaining practical control of the state
in his own hands. By decree of the emperor, a vast spying service was
organized under three special agencies.

Struggles with peoples of various nationalities continued throughout the Ming

period. Clashes with Mongols were nearly incessant. During the first decades
of the dynasty, the Mongols were driven north to Outer Mongolia (presentdayMongolia), but the Ming could not claim a decisive victory. From then
onward the Ming were generally able to maintain their northern border, though
by the later stages of the dynasty it in effect only reached the line of the Great
Wall. On the northeast, the Juchen (Chinese: Nzhen, or Ruzhen), who rose
in the northeast around the end of the 16th century, pressed the Ming army to
withdraw successively southward, and eventually the Ming made the east end
of the Great Wall their last line of defense. The Ming devoted considerable
resources toward maintaining and strengthening the wall, especially
nearBeijing, the dynastys capital.

In early Ming times, Chinas domain extended considerably in the south as a

result of its successful invasion of northern Vietnam. But the brief occupation
of Vietnam was met with determined local guerrilla resistance, and the Ming
government quickly decided to restore the boundary to its original line. It never
again attempted to push southward. During the 15th century the government
had organized large tribute-collecting flotillas commanded byZheng He to
extend Chinas influence. Also during the Ming, Japan became more
aggressive. In the 15th century Japanese raiders teamed up with Chinese
pirates to make coastal raids in Chinese waters, which were of a relatively
small scale but were still highly disruptive to Chinese coastal cities. The Ming
government eventually tried to stop Japans attempt to control Korea, which
became a long and costly campaign.

In early Ming times, Chinas domain extended considerably in the south as a

result of its successful invasion of northern Vietnam. But the brief occupation
of Vietnam was met with determined local guerrilla resistance, and the Ming

government quickly decided to restore the boundary to its original line. It never
again attempted to push southward. During the 15th century the government
had organized large tribute-collecting flotillas commanded byZheng He to
extend Chinas influence. Also during the Ming, Japan became more
aggressive. In the 15th century Japanese raiders teamed up with Chinese
pirates to make coastal raids in Chinese waters, which were of a relatively
small scale but were still highly disruptive to Chinese coastal cities. The Ming
government eventually tried to stop Japans attempt to control Korea, which
became a long and costly campaign.

CULTURAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Despite the many foreign contacts made during the Ming period, cultural
developments were characterized by a generally conservative and inwardlooking attitude. Ming architecture is largely undistinguished with
the Forbidden City, a palace complex built in Beijing in the 15th century by the
Yongle emperor (and subsequently enlarged and rebuilt), its main
representative. The best Ming sculpture is found not in large statues but in
small ornamental carvings of jade, ivory, wood, and porcelain. Although a high
level of workmanship is manifest in Ming decorative arts such as cloisonn,
enamelware, bronze, lacquerwork, and furniture, the major achievements in
art were in painting and pottery.

Despite the many foreign contacts made during the Ming period, cultural
developments were characterized by a generally conservative and inwardlooking attitude. Ming architecture is largely undistinguished with
the Forbidden City, a palace complex built in Beijing in the 15th century by the
Yongle emperor (and subsequently enlarged and rebuilt), its main
representative. The best Ming sculpture is found not in large statues but in
small ornamental carvings of jade, ivory, wood, and porcelain. Although a high
level of workmanship is manifest in Ming decorative arts such as cloisonn,
enamelware, bronze, lacquerwork, and furniture, the major achievements in
art were in painting and pottery.
Despite the many foreign contacts made during the Ming period, cultural
developments were characterized by a generally conservative and inward-

looking attitude. Ming architecture is largely undistinguished with

the Forbidden City, a palace complex built in Beijing in the 15th century by the
Yongle emperor (and subsequently enlarged and rebuilt), its main
representative. The best Ming sculpture is found not in large statues but in
small ornamental carvings of jade, ivory, wood, and porcelain. Although a high
level of workmanship is manifest in Ming decorative arts such as cloisonn,
enamelware, bronze, lacquerwork, and furniture, the major achievements in
art were in painting and pottery.

The Ming regime restored the former literary examinations for public office,
which pleased the literary world, dominated by Southerners. In their own
writing the Ming sought a return to classical prose and poetry styles and, as a
result, produced writings that were imitative and generally of little
consequence. Writers of vernacular literature, however, made real
contributions, especially in novels and drama. Chinese traditional drama
originating in the Song dynasty had been banned by the Mongols but survived
underground in the South, and in the Ming era it was restored. This
waschuanqi, a form of musical theatre with numerous scenes and
contemporary plots. What emerged was kunqu style, less bombastic in song
and accompaniment than other popular theatre. Under the Ming it enjoyed
great popularity, indeed outlasting the dynasty by a century or more. It was
adapted into a full-length opera form, which, although still performed today,
was gradually replaced in popularity by jingxi (Peking opera) during the Qing
dynasty.

Yuan dynasty
The Yuan (Mongol) empire (c. 1300), showing the extent
reached under Kublai Khan.

Detail of

a statue of Genghis Khan, near Ulaanbaatar (Ulan Bator),

Mongolia.
iStockphoto/Thinkstock

Scholar in a Pavilion Under

colour on album leaf

Trees, ink and slight

Courtesy of the Mrs. A. Dean

Cleveland

Perry Collection,

Octagonal Ping vase, blue-and-white porcelain, from

Baoding, Yuan (Mongol) dynasty, China.
Giraudon/Art Resource, New York

CHINESE HISTORY

Wade-Giles romanization Yan, also called Mongol

dynasty, dynastyestablished by Mongol nomads that ruled portions and
eventually all of China from the early 13th century to 1368. Mongol suzerainty
eventually also stretched throughout most of Asiaand eastern Europe, though
the Yuan emperors were rarely able to exercise much control over their more
distant possessions.

HISTORY
The emergence of the Mongol dynasty dates to 1206, when Genghis
Khan was able to unify under his leadership all Mongols in the vast steppe
lands north of China. Genghis began encroaching on the Jin dynasty in
northern China in 1211 and finally took the Jin capital of Yanjing (or Daxing;
present-day Beijing) in 1215. For the next six decades the Mongols continued
to extend their control over the north and then turned their attention to
southern China, which they completed conquering with the defeat of the Nan
(Southern) Song dynasty in 1279. The final consolidation came under
Genghiss grandson Kublai Khan (reigned 126094).

The Mongol dynasty, which had been renamed the Yuan in 1271, proceeded
to set up a Chinese-style administration that featured a
centralized bureaucracy, political subdivisions, and a rationalized taxation
system. Yuan was the first dynasty to make Beijing (called Dadu by the Yuan)
its capital, moving it there from Karakorum (now inMongolia) in 1267. The
Yuan rebuilt the Grand Canal and put the roads and postal stations in good
order, and their rule coincided with new cultural achievements including the
development of the novel as a literary form. The vast size of

theempire resulted in more-extensive foreign trade and foreign intercourse

than at any other time before the modern period.
Unlike other rulers of China, the Mongols were never totally Sinicized, which
proved to be an important factor in their downfall. They continued to maintain
their separateness from the native population and utilized foreigners, such as
the European traveler Marco Polo, to staff the government bureaucracy.
Revolts in the mid-14th century led to the final overthrow of the Yuan in 1368,
making it the shortest-lived major dynasty of China. The administrative
centrality of the Yuan was continued by the succeeding Ming (13681644)
and Qing (16441911/12) dynasties, giving those later Chinese governments
a more authoritarian structure than that of previous Chinese dynasties.

CULTURAL ACHIEVEMENTS
In the previous ages of the Tang (618907) and Song (9601279) dynasties,
art had been encouraged by the state. During the Yuan, however, artists
especially those native Chinese who steadfastly refused to serve their
conquerorshad to seek inspiration within themselves and their traditions.
Those painters sought in their art a return to what they viewed as more ideal
times, especially the Tang and Bei (Northern) Song periods. Artists such
as Zhao Mengfu and the Four Masters of the Yuan dynasty (Huang
Gongwang, Ni Zan, Wang Meng, and Wu Zhen) thus firmly fixed the ideal of
literati painting (wenrenhua), which valued erudition and personal expression
above elegant surface or mere representation. There was also an emphasis
on stark and simple forms (e.g., bamboo or rocks) and on calligraphy, often
with long complementary inscriptions on the paintings themselves. Against
that radical new direction of the native Chinese in pictorial art, there was
aconservative revival of Buddhist art (painting and sculpture), which was
sponsored by the Mongols as part of their effort to establish authority over the
Chinese.

In addition to a renewed emphasis on traditional craft arts (silver, lacquer, and

other materials), there were important developments in ceramics. Various
earlier traditions were continued, but there was also interest in producing new
shapes, decoration, and glazes. Of special merit was the first appearance
of blue-and-white wareconsisting of white porcelain with blue underglaze

which was to become so popular in later periods and among Western

collectors.
Under Yuan rule the regional music drama that had gone two separate ways
during the Song dynasty was intermixed as yuanqu, or Yuan drama. Popular
song styles became freer than before, and several forms of dancing and
acrobatics were added to popular entertainment. Poetry
emphasized sanqu (nondramatic songs), and vernacular fiction grew in
popularity. Dramatistsincluding at least a dozen prominent Sinicized
Mongolswrote romantic plays of four or five acts in vernacular, with several
songs in each act. The new literary genre attracted many men of letters, as
well as large audiences.

References:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ming-dynasty-Chinese-history