the ming dynasty
DESCRIPTION
This teacher resource guide provides an overview of the Ming Dynasty, which lasted from 1368 to 1644. The guide introduces readers to famous Ming rulers such as the Hongwu Emperor and the Yongle Emperor, and covers important historical topics including the reconstruction of the Great Wall, Zheng He’s voyages, and the emergence of Neo-Confucianism.TRANSCRIPT
The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
Teacher Resource Guide
East Asia National Resource Center
By Kelly Hammond
The Ming Dynasty Prior to the Ming Dynasty, the Yuan
Dynasty ruled China. Kublai Khan, the
grandson of Genghis Khan, established the
Yuan Dynasty in 1271. Yet, most Chinese
considered the Mongols to be uncivilized
and unfit to govern China. In less than one
hundred years, a man named Zhu
Yuanzhang led a revolt that put an end to
Mongol rule.
One major reason behind the fall of the
Yuan Dynasty was political instability.
Many of the political institutions needed
to run such a large empire were in
complete disarray and Chinese people
soon interpreted this as meaning that the
Yuan had lost the Mandate of Heaven—if
they ever had it in the first place. As
people grew more disillusioned with the
political and economic chaos at the end of
the Yuan Dynasty, subjects like Zhu
Yuanzhang were able to rally peasants to
support their rebellions against the Yuan
emperor. By the 1360s, it became clear
that the Yuan Dynasty was in trouble and
in 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang and his
supporters established a new dynasty: the
Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang assumed
the reign name of Hongwu, though he is
more commonly known as Ming Taizu, or
the great ancestor of the Ming Dynasty.
The Hongwu Emperor
Zhu Yuanzhang was born into a poor
peasant family in Anhui province, which is
located in the middle of China. Zhu was
Portrait of the Hongwu Emperor, the first ruler
of the Ming Dynasty. Source: China.org.cn
the youngest of eight children and most of
his family—save one brother—died from a
plague when he was sixteen.. He was left
completely destitute and soon joined a
monastery as a monk. The monastery was
short on funds, however, and Zhu was
forced to wander the countryside begging
for food and money. Zhu was struck by the
complete poverty he saw in the
countryside and became greatly
disillusioned. When he returned to the
monastery, Zhu thus asked one of the
monks to teach him how to read and write.
He continued to live and learn at the
monastery until his life changed forever:
the Yuan army destroyed the monastery
where he was staying amid their
suppression of a local rebellion. In 1352,
Zhu joined a militia to fight against the
Yuan army. Due to his literacy and “street
smarts,” he rose quickly through the
ranks. His militia eventually joined forces
with a Buddhist millenarian sect called the
Red Turbans and he continued to rise in
the ranks and became an important leader
within the Red Turbans. By 1356, Zhu’s
militia had conquered Nanjing, which
later became the capital of the Ming
Dynasty. Under his command, Nanjing
became a safe and well-administered city.
This attracted wealth and talent from all
over the empire. Zhu gradually
consolidated his power, expanding his
influence to other territories around
Nanjing and finally proclaiming himself
emperor of the Ming Dynasty in 1368. By
the end of 1368, the Ming forces had
driven the Mongols out of their capital
(present day Beijing) and solidified their
hold over the Chinese empire. The
Hongwu Emperor instituted many
changes to the bureaucracy and the civil
service in China. Additionally, he banned
all things related to the Mongols, such as
names and clothing.
Map of the Ming Dynasty.
Source: The Art of Asia
On a side note, it is worth recognizing that
capitals of both Yuan and Ming Dynasties
have the sound “jing” in them. This is
because Nanjing actually means “the
southern capital,” while Beijing means
“the northern capital.” Both of these cities
played an important part in Chinese
dynastic history, especially throughout the
Ming Dynasty as the Grand Canal, which
went from Nanjing (in Suzhou) to Beijing,
was refurbished. It is also interesting to
note that when “foreign” or non-Han
rulers established dynasties in China, such
as the Mongol Yuan (1271-1368) and the
Manchu Qing (1644-1911), the capital was
usually moved to the north, which is closer
their homeland in the Inner Asian steppes.
On the other hand, when there was a Han
Chinese Dynasty, such as the Song and the
Ming, emperors preferred to have their
capital in Nanjing, which has traditionally
been the epicenter of Han literati and
culture.
Great Projects under the Ming
During the Ming Dynasty, the government
revamped and initiated some enormous
infrastructure campaigns that were meant
to stimulate the economy, create stability,
and ensure safety from foreign intrusion.
Three of these projects have become iconic
treasures of China today, demonstrating
the organization and sophistication of the
dynasty, as well as its economic prowess.
The most famous of these projects is
perhaps the Great Wall of China. The
Great Wall has been around since the Han
Dynasty (206 B.C. to 220 A.D.) to protect
the Han Chinese from invasions launched
by “northern barbarians,” but most of it
was eroded because it was built of mud.
The Great Wall as we know it today from
any travel photo of China was built of
stone bricks during the Ming Dynasty. It
was designed to protect the mainland
from potential Mongol invasions from the
steppes of Inner Asia. Some scholars
argue that the Great Wall was also meant
to keep the Han Chinese within China
proper. This way, the Great Wall served to
control borders and regulate trade.
The Great Wall. Source: Lonely Planet
The second major project of the Ming
Dynasty was the Grand Canal. The Grand
Canal runs from Beijing to Hangzhou and
is the longest canal in the world, with a
total length of approximately 1,100 miles
(≈1,800 kilometers). During the late Tang
and the Yuan Dynasties, the canal fell into
disrepair and was continued to be
neglected. However, the Ming rulers
acknowledged the canal’s importance to
the economy and its societal function of
moving grain from southern China to
northern China, and decided to completely
re-dredge it. Apart from moving grain, the
canal was used to transport mail—it was
like the Federal Express of the fifteenth
century—and there were mail stations
placed at intervals along the canal so that
people could drop off and pick up
packages from these stations.
The Grand Canal in China. Source: China Daily
It is believed that nearly 200,000 laborers
worked for four years to rebuild the canal.
Most of the workers were recruited by a
tax system in China called lijia, which was
similar to the corvée system in Europe.
This meant that male farmers were
conscripted to do military service for one
or two year periods as if paying tax to the
state.
Map of the Grand Canal.
Source: The New York Times
Finally, the Ming Dynasty undertook the
project of building the Forbidden City in
Beijing. In 1406, the Yongle Emperor
moved the capital back to Beijing and
started building himself an enormous
palace complex that had almost 1,000
buildings and covered approximately 200
acres of land. The palace took nearly
fourteen years to build and required about
1 million skilled and unskilled laborers
who used many precious materials from
all over the empire—and the world—to
build and decorate the palace. Today, the
palace is a museum and a UNESCO world
heritage site open to visitors. It is also one
of the most famous tourist attractions in
China.
Forbidden City in Beijing
Map of the Forbidden City in Beijing.
Source: Beijing Forbidden City
Zheng He and the Yongle Emperor
In addition to the three projects
mentioned above, the Ming Dynasty built
and maintained the Imperial fleet led by
Zheng He, a eunuch in the Ming court.
Under the Ming Dynasty’s rule, the
Chinese increased their participation in
the Indian Ocean trade and came into
more frequent contact with the peoples of
Mediterranean Europe, especially in the
Italian city-states. This intensified China’s
involvement in naval trade with Europe,
which resulted in increased
commercialization on both continents and
had a large impact on the world economy.
It was not until the Ming Dynasty that sea
routes began to usurp land routes—such
as the Silk Route—in the volume and value
of the merchandise that they shipped.
Between 1405 and 1430, the Muslim
eunuch Zheng He led seven voyages to the
Indian Ocean and the southern tip of
Africa. Zheng He, who was born in the
southern Chinese province of Yunnan,
became the Yongle Emperor’s one of
favorite eunuchs. Zhang He was born into
a Muslim family of hajjis, or men who had
made the pilgrimage to Mecca. The fact
that a number of men in his family were
hajjis attests to the status and wealth of
his family within the community. His
Muslim identity was also important later
in his life; since he was familiar with
Arabic—the lingua franca of the Indian
Ocean—and knew the customs associated
with Islam, he was able to easily interact
with Persian and Arab emissaries. When
the Ming Dynasty was first established,
Yunnan was not part of the empire, but
the Ming army occupied and conquered
Yunnan in 1381. Zheng He was a young
boy at the time and was taken hostage,
castrated, and sent to serve the household
of Zhu Di, the future Yongle Emperor. The
two boys were then about the same and
essentially grew up together in the court,
developing deep trust towards each other.-
Portrait of the Yongle Emperor.
Yongle was an interesting character. He
usurped the throne from his nephew, the
Jianwen Emperor, who was believed to
have escaped to the south through
Vietnam. Through the succession turmoil,
Zheng He remained loyal to Yongle,
fighting many battles for him. Although
the Yongle Emperor had been presented
with a charred body that was claimed to be
the Jianwen Emperor, he never got over
the insecurity that Jianwen might still be
alive, plotting a revenge against his
usurping uncle somewhere in Southeast
Asia. This paranoia and insecurity
motivated the Yongle Emperor to
commission the building of the fleet that
was to be led by Zheng He: the Yongle
Emperor wanted to make sure that
Jianwen was not out there threatening his
position.
Map of Zheng He’s voyages. Source: miraed.net
Zheng He also led the seven envoys to
elicit tribute from the places he visited.
His fleet of more than three hundred ships,
of which over sixty were over 400 feet long
and 180 feet wide (for reference, that is
bigger than a football field), would be
intimidating presence even today. The
fleet carried nearly 28,000 men who were
mostly soldiers. Apart from trying to find
the Jianwen Emperor and elicit tributes
from the wealthy kingdoms of Southeast
Asia, the Yongle Emperor sought to create
legitimacy for himself at home (since he
had come to the throne by questionable
means), to placate Islamic states in the
Gulf that were growing in power and
influence, and to suppress pirates who
were ravaging the seas of Southeast Asia.
Finally, the mission was about generating
trade and creating new commercial
networks. Ming China was a thriving
economic center of Eurasia with a strong
desire for foreign goods.
Image comparing Zheng He’s treasure fleet ships
to the Spanish Galleons. Source: Syarif Hidayat
The missions were extremely valuable in
creating networks but also very expensive.
After the death of the Yongle Emperor,
they lost their raison d’être. There was
also a return to more pressing security
issues, such as the Mongolian and Manchu
raids from the north that were plaguing
the Ming Dynasty. In 1449, the Zhengtong
Emperor was captured by the Mongols in
a battle and held prisoner for nine years.
His capture left the Ming in chaos and the
ensuing succession crisis almost brought
down the dynasty.
The legacy of Zheng He’s fleet is important.
He visited Brunei, Thailand, South East
Asia, Malaya, Arabia, the eastern coast of
Africa, and the Horn of Africa as an envoy
of the Chinese empire. He presented gifts
from the middle kingdom, but expected
tribute in return as well. He famously
returned with a giraffe from Africa, which
caused quite a stir in the imperial palace
because it bore a striking resemblance to a
mythological Chinese creature called the
qilin. Although the routes he traveled were
not entirely new to China, the scale of the
voyages certainly was, leading some
people to assume that China was
embarking on naval expansionist
campaigns. Yet, regardless of how
menacing his ships might have looked,
Zheng He tried to attain his goals through
diplomacy, except in the case of the
pirates whom he suppressed brutally.
Giraffe brought back from Africa with Zheng
He’s journeys and travels as a gift for the
emperor. Source: Shen Du (1414)
If you want to learn more about Zheng He,
Edward L. Dreyer’s book China and the
Oceans in the Early Ming Dynasty: 1405-
1433 (New York: Pearson, 2008) provides
a great introduction.
Neo-Confucianism and Wang Yangming As the name suggests, Neo-Confucianism
is a philosophy influenced by
Confucianism (see the module on
Confucianism for more information). It
often incorporates metaphysical elements
into the moral and ethical teachings.
Essentially, Neo-Confucian thinkers
attempted to rectify some of the mystical
and more popular elements of Daoism and
Buddhism with Confucian thinking,
especially in terms of developing a
guideline for rational and ethical
philosophical thinking. Neo-Confucian
thought draws from both Daoist and
Buddhism philosophical traditions and
tries to incorporate concepts such as the
Daoist yin-yang into the more complex
and less understood Confucian
philosophical system. Since Confucianism
states that it is up to humans to create
harmony between themselves and the
universe, the concrete use of metaphysical
concepts that were already familiar to
people—like the yin-yang—made the
philosophy more approachable and
adaptable to their needs.
Neo-Confucianism originated in the Tang
Dynasty when Buddhism was very
prevalent and popular among the elite
class. It experienced a Renaissance in the
Ming Dynasty as scholars and elites tried
to come to terms with some of the
fundamental shifts that were taking place
in Ming society, owing in part to the
increased commercialization and
economic growth during this time. One of
the most prominent Neo-Confucian
thinkers in the Ming was a man named
Wang Yangming (1472-1529). Wang was
centrally concerned with the idea of li (理)
or rationality (sometimes translated as
law).
Ming scholars at the imperial court in the
Forbidden City. Source: The Metropolitan
Museum of Art
Wang argued that if there was li in all
things, then it meant that one’s
heart/mind was rational. He further
claimed that there was no better place to
seek li than within oneself. In other words,
by cultivating the individual as a way of
creating a harmonious society, each
individual would be responsible for
maintaining a rational and harmonious
society. Wang advocated quiet meditation,
which was a Buddhist tradition, as a way
of cultivating people’s inner li.
As an adherent to Mencian tradition,
Wang focused on philosophy that unified
knowledge and action, meaning that he
always looked for ways to make the
philosophy directly applicable to people’s
lives. Wang preferred practical lessons
over abstract theories. Furthermore, Wang
wrote prolifically on the idea that humans
inherently know the difference between
good and evil. This was the principle of
“innate knowing.” Back in the Ming period,
the notion that humans naturally know
certain concepts was a revolutionary idea.
Portrait of a Ming official.
This was the case because the theory of
innate knowing rejected the common
Confucian idea that if one had gained
knowledge one had the duty to put that
knowledge into action. For example, if one
happened to be a scholar who learned
about engineering of dams, it would be his
duty to become an official and help the
government with waterworks. Wang
rejected this long-held idea by stating that
one could gain knowledge only through
action. For Wang, there was no way to use
knowledge after gaining it because
knowledge and action were unified. In
some ways, this made the acquisition of li
more universal as the idea of what
constitutes “knowledge” had changed.
Rather than simply being something you
learned in a book, knowledge could be the
learning of a skill through practice.
Civil Service Examination.
After the highest level of the examination,
candidates celebrate in Beijing.
The Single Whip Tax The Single Whip tax was a fiscal law
adopted during the early sixteenth century.
Due to the increasing commercialization
and the growing population, the measure
was instituted as an attempt to simplify
the complex fiscal code that included
different types of taxes such as land taxes
and poll taxes, labor obligations (like the
corvée tax in Europe), and the smaller
prefecture taxes. By commuting all the
taxes into a single payment (where the
name comes from—you only had to crack
the tax whip once) that was to be paid in
silver, the tax was meant to simplify the
process of tax collection, reduce the high
cost of tax collection, and increase the tax
base. The unit of tax collection was also
changed from rice to silver, which had a
profound impact on the global economy.
Almost all of the silver from Spanish
America and Japan flowed into China so
that prefectures could pay their taxes in
silver. The huge amounts of silver being
imported into China caused the price of
silver to skyrocket, which then led to
inflation in the country and the rest of the
world. Some scholars argue that the shift
from paying taxes in rice to silver, along
with the reforms of the single whip law led
to the downfall and overthrow of the Ming
Dynasty as peasants faced serious
inflations and became increasingly
disgruntled. However, it also led to more
frequent contact between China and
Europe, as the Ming became the largest
importer of silver from the new world.
Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty
Eunuchs have a sorted past in China. As
castrated servants to the emperor, they
expressed their devotion (sometimes not
by choice since they were forced into
service) through their inability to father
children. However, since they were so
close to the emperor, they were able to
garner power in ways that made other
officials cringe. Some scholars blame the
proliferation of eunuchs for the decline of
the Ming Dynasty. Although the Hongwu
Emperor forbade eunuchs from learning
how to read or engage in politics in order
to limit their power, by the reign of the
Yongle Emperor, Ming rulers became
increasingly dependent on eunuchs who
became extremely influential in court
politics. More eunuchs, including Zheng
He, were educated from a young age.
Eunuchs in the Ming court
By the end of the Yongle Emperor’s rule,
the eunuchs had developed their own
bureaucracy that operated outside the
purview of the imperial examination
system. When the Wanli Emperor
assumed the throne, eunuchs and their
tyranny became a serious problem. The
Wanli Emperor granted them the power to
collect taxes, which meant that some
eunuchs were able to amass huge wealth
and essentially act independently of the
government. One of the archetypical “evil”
eunuchs was a man named Wei Zhongxian
who ruled the court during the Tianqi
Emperor’s reign (r. 1620-1627). Wei
ordered his political rivals tortured and
temples built in his honor, and used
nepotism to promote his friends and
family to important positions without any
qualifications. When the Chongzhen
Emperor came to power in 1627, he
dismissed Wei, who committed suicide
shortly after. Little did Chongzhen know
that eunuchs’ excessive exercise of would
one day destroy the Ming Dynasty. In 1644,
as the Manchu Qing Dynasty invaded the
capital from the north, Chongzhen met the
same fate as Wei; the emperor committed
suicide.
Eunuchs in the Ming court
The End of the Mind In addition to eunuchs and their abuse of
power, there were other factors that
precipitated the Ming Dynasty’s end. First,
there was the tumultuous reign of the
Wanli emperor from 1572 to 1620. During
Wanli’s reign, China engaged in costly
wars against Japan on the Korean
peninsula. As noted, he also gave
unprecedented power to the eunuchs,
which meant that the traditional scholar-
officials lost prominence. Wanli was also
reclusive and completely out of touch with
the needs of his subjects.
A Ming emperor and his subjects.
Second, the empire was plagued with
economic problems and natural disasters
during the last years of Wanli’s reign.
Changes in the global silver economy—
which China had grown so dependent on—
meant that as the demand for silver
increased, it became less available. This
led to massive inflation and economic
disaster for peasants who could barely get
by on their measly incomes. This meant
that many provinces were simply unable
to pay their taxes. Moreover, as the wars
raged on in Korea, the Ming coffers
emptied quickly. In conjunction with this
was something that is now known to
historians as “the Little Ice Age.” For most
of the seventeenth century, cold weather
and unusually dry climates plagued the
world, leading to smaller harvests and
massive famines. Because the coffers were
empty, the Ming could not do anything to
mitigate the natural disasters that its
people faced. Finally, in 1556, one of the
deadliest earthquakes on record ravaged
Shaanxi province in China, killing nearly a
million people.
Third, the Manchus began to consolidate
their power under the leadership of a man
named Nurhaci. Nurhaci rallied local
tribes around him, and recognizing the
weaknesses of the Ming, he continued to
increase his power base throughout the
1620s. The Ming, too preoccupied with
problems within the Great Wall, paid
scant attention to Nurachi who continued
to consolidate his power. By the 1630s,
Nurhaci’s son Hong Taiji established the
Great Qing Dynasty and defeated Korea,
the Ming Dynasty’s old ally. After this
defeat, they began to set their sights on
Beijing.
All of these factors contributed to the
collapse of the Ming Dynasty in 1644. By
1640, Chinese peasants who were starving,
unable to pay their taxes, and no longer in
fear of the frequently defeated Chinese
army, began to rebel groups. The Chinese
military, caught between fruitless efforts
to defeat the Manchu raiders from the
north and huge peasant revolts in the
provinces, essentially fell apart. Rebels
took Beijing and Chongzhen hanged
himself. The Manchus saw an opportunity;
with the help of a defeated Ming general,
Wu Sangui, they crossed the Great Wall
and quickly occupied Beijing.
The Southern Ming, 1644-1662
However, even after the Ming Dynasty fell
to the Qing, there were many people who
remained loyal to the Ming, mainly
because the Qing was another non-Han
dynasty, much like the Jin and the Yuan.
Ming loyalists and the Ming imperial
family, along with possible heirs to the
throne escaped south where they
regrouped while the Manchus
consolidated power in the North. A new
Ming emperor was crowned, but his reign
was short-lived. The Qing quickly
gathered themselves and started marching
south to defeat the Ming loyalists,
capturing the new emperor and bringing
him back to Beijing where he died in
captivity. Over the next few years the Ming
and the Qing played a cat and mouse game,
with the Ming retreating further and
further into southern China and the Qing
fast on their heels. Finally, in 1658, nearly
fifteen years after occupying Beijing, the
Qing forces were able to take Yunnan,
resulting in the young Ming “Emperor”
Yongli’s escape to Burma. Yongli was
finally captured and executed in 1662 by
Wu Sangui, the same general who had
helped the Manchus cross the Great Wall
years before.
Four Beauties. Source: Chinaculture.org
Useful Websites Bibliography of the Ming Dynasty—collection of sources hosted by the University of Maine
http://hua.umf.maine.edu/China/ming.html Chinese Government Website about the Forbidden City and the Palace Museum at the Forbidden City http://www.dpm.org.cn/index1280800.html Discovering the Great Wall http://hua.umf.maine.edu/China/great.html Documentary hosted on YouTube about Zheng He http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_38624&feature=iv&src_vid=-
t3QSGRN1-U&v=x3xJCA3SfpM Fordham University History sourcebook for Imperial China http://www.fordham.edu/HALSALL/eastasia/eastasiasbook.asp#Imperial China Freer and Sackler (Asian Art gallery of the Smithsonian Gallery) art galleries timeline of Chinese art history http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/online/chinatimeline/main.swf Information on the Ming Dynasty provided by the Chinese Government http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/history/ming.htm Metropolitan Museum of Art—Ming Dynasty Art http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ming/hd_ming.htm Ming Dynasty exhibition from the Shanghai Museum http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/ming-masterpieces-shanghai-museum National Geographic Article about the Grand Canal http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05
/chinas-grand-canal/johnson-text
National Geographic Feature about Zheng He’s Armada http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0507/feature2/ NOVA post on PBS.org about Chinese Naval Expeditions http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/ancient-chinese-explorers.html Primary Source Documents from Matteo Ricci’s sojourn in China from CUNY Brooklyn http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phals all/texts/ric-jour.html Princeton University Asian Art Museum Ming Collection http://etcweb.princeton.edu/asianart/timeperiod_china.jsp?ctry=China&pd=Ming The Forbidden City during the Ming Dynasty http://www.beijing-forbiddencity.com/royalty/beijing-forbidden-ming-qing-dynasties.html The New York Times article about the Grand Canal http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/world
/asia/24canal.html Timeline of the Ming Dynasty http://www.softschools.com/timelines/ming_dynasty_timeline/113/ UCLA project on Zheng He’s Armada http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=10387 UNESCO website about the Forbidden City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/439
Suggestions for Further Reading
Adshead, S.A.M. “The Seventeenth Century
General Crisis in China.” Asian Profile 1 (1973): 271-280.
Angle, Stephen C. Sagehood: The
Contemporary Significance of Neo-Confucian Philosophy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Atwell, William S. "Time, Money, and the
Weather: Ming China and the 'Great Depression' of the Mid-Fifteenth Century." The Journal of Asian Studies 61 (2002): 83-113.
Atwell, William. “Notes of Silver, Foreign
Trade, and the Late Ming Economy.” Chingshi Wenti (1977): 1-33.
Berg, Daria. "Cultural Discourse on Xue Susu,
a Courtesan in Late Ming China." International Journal of Asian Studies 6 (2009): 171-200.
Birch, Cyril. Scenes for Mandarins: the Elite
Theater of the Ming. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.
Bol, Peter. Neo-Confucianism in History.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.
Brook, Timothy. “Edifying Knowledge: the
Building of School Libraries in the Mid-Ming.” Late Imperial China 17 (1996): 93-119.
_________. “Mapping Knowledge in the
Sixteenth Century: The Gazetteer Cartography of Ye Chunji.” East Asian Library Journal 7 (1994): 5-32.
_________. “The Spatial Structure of Ming
Local Administration.” Late Imperial China 6 (1985): 1-55.
_________. Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.
_________. The Confusions of Pleasure:
Commerce and Culture in Ming China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998.
Cass, Victoria. Dangerous Women: Warriors,
Grannies and Geishas of the Ming. Lanham, MD.: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1999.
Chan, Albert. The Glory and Fall of the Ming
Dynasty. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma, 1982.
Chang Chun-shu. Crisis and Transformation
in Seventeenth-Century China: Society, Culture and Modernity in Li Yu’s World. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992.
Chen, Xinquan. "A Tentative Analysis of the
Slaughter of Meritorious Officials and Veteran Generals by Zhu Yuanzhang." Chinese Studies in History 33 (2000): 50-67.
Clunas, Craig. Fruitful Sites: Garden Culture
in Ming Dynasty China. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1996.
_________. Elegant Debts: The Social Art
of Wen Zhengming, 1470-1559. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press, 2004.
_________. Empire of Great Brightness:
Visual and Material Cultures in Ming China. New York: Reaktion Books, 2012.
Dardess, John W. Blood and History in
China: the Donglin Faction and its Repression 1620-1627. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press, 2002.
_________. Confucianism and Autocracy:
Professional Elites in the Founding of
the Ming Dynasty. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1983.
de Bary, W.T. ed. Self and Society in Ming
Thought. New York: Columbia UP, 1970.
Dreyer, Edward L. Early Ming China, a Political History, 1355-1435. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1982.
Fei Siyen. Negotiating Urban Space:
Urbanization and Late Ming Nanjing. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.
Gao, Xiang (Deng, Yilin and Deng, Shiwu, tr).
"The Rise of a New Tradition: Changes in Values and Life Styles in Late Ming China." Frontiers of History in China 5 (2010): 1-29.
Huang, Ray. 1587, A Year of No Significance:
The Ming Dynasty in Decline. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1981.
Hucker Charles O. Chinese Government in
Ming Times: Seven Studies. New York: Columbia University Press, 1969.
Naquin, Susan. Peking: Temples and City
Life, 1400-1900. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000.
Robinson, David. Bandits, Eunuchs, and the
Son of Heaven: Rebellion and the Economy of Violence in Mid-Ming China. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001.
Rossabi, Morris. “The Tea and the Horse
Trade with Inner Asia during the Ming.” Journal of Asian History 4 (1970): 136-168.
Roth, Gertraude. “The Manchu-Chinese
Relationship, 1618-1636” in Jonathan Spence and John Willis Jr., eds. From Ming to Ch’ing 1979 pages 1-38.
Roy, David, trans. The Plum in the Golden
Vase or, Chin P'ing Mei. Volume One:
"The Gathering." Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993.
Schneewind, Sarah. Community Schools and
the State in Ming China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006.
Serruys, Henry. Mongols and Ming China:
Customs and History. ed. Francoise Aubin. London: Ashgate, 1987.
Shin, Leo, The Making of the Chinese State:
Ethnicity and Expansion on the Ming Borderlands. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Smith, Joanna Handlin. The Art of Doing
Good: Charity in the Late Ming. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press 2009.
So Kwan-wai. Japanese Piracy in Ming China
during the Sixteenth Century. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 1975.
Spence, Jonathan D., and John E. Willis, Jr.,
eds. From Ming to Qing: Conquest, Region, and Continuity in Seventeenth-Century China. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1979.
Standaert, Nicolas. Yang Tingyun. Confucian
and Christian in Late Ming China: His Life and Thought. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1988.
Struve, Lynn A. The Southern Ming, 1644-
1662. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984.
_________. Voices from the Ming-Qing
Cataclysm: China in Tiger’s Jaws. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993.
Struve, Lynn, ed. Time, Temporality, and
Imperial Transition: East Asia from Ming to Qing. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press, 2005.
Tani Mitsutaka. A Study on Horse Administration in the Ming Period. Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 1972.
Tong, James. Disorder Under Heaven:
Collective Violence in the Ming Dynasty. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1991.
Tsai, Shih-shan Henry. Eunuchs in the Ming
Dynasty. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1996.
Tsai, Shih-shan Henry. Perpetual Happiness:
The Ming Emperor Yongle. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001.
Twitchett, Denis, & Frederick W. Mote,
eds. The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 7: The Ming Dynasty 1368-1644, Part 1. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Volumes Seven and Eight of The Cambridge History of China are devoted to the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), providing the largest and most detailed account in any language. Both volumes also include extensive bibliographic notes.
Von Glahn, Richard. Fountain of Fortune:
Money and Monetary Policy in China, 1000-1700. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996.
Wakeman, Fredric Jr. “China and the
Seventeenth Century Crisis.” Late Imperial China 7 (1986): 1-23.
Waldron, Arthur. The Great Wall of China:
From History to Myth. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Wang, Richard T. Ming Studies in Japan
1961-1981: A Classified Bibliography. Ming Research Series. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1985.
Ward, Julian. Xu Xiake (1587-1641): The Art
of Travel Writing. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2001.
Widmer, Ellen. The Margins of Utopia: Shui-hu hou-chuan and the Literature of Ming Loyalism. Cambridge, MA. Cambridge University Press, 1987.
_________. “The Epistolary World of
Female Talent in Seventeenth-Century China.” Late Imperial China 10 (1989): 1-43.
Wilson, Thomas A. Genealogy of the Way:
The Construction and Uses of the Confucian Tradition in late Imperial China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1995.
Wu Yanhong et al. "The Emperor's Four
Bodies: Embodied Rulership and Legal Culture in Early Ming China." Frontiers of History in China 2 (2007): 25-59.
Yu Chun-fang. The Renewal of Buddhism in
China: Chu-hung and the Late Ming Synthesis. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981.
Yuan Zujie. "Dressing for Power: Rite,
Costume, and State Authority in Ming Dynasty China." Frontiers of History in China 5 (2010): 181-212.
Zheng Yangwen. The Social Life of Opium in
China. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.