Aim: How should we remember the Ming and Manchu Dynasties? Period 4: 1450 – 1750 CE.

Aim: How should we remember the Ming and Manchu Dynasties?

Period 4: 1450 – 1750 CE

The Chinese Dynasties We Have Already StudiedShang Dynasty 1700 – 1027 BCE

Began by Yellow River, first Chinese Dynasty and earliest Chinese writing on Oracle Bones

Zhou Dynasty 1027 - 221 BCEBegan the Mandate of Heaven and the Dynastic Cycle

Qin Dynasty 221 BCE – 207 BCEFollowed the official philosophy of Legalism, began the Great Wall of China

Han Dynasty 206 BCE – 220 CEGovernment officials had to pass the Civil Service Exam, official philosophy of Confucianism, trade flourished

along the Silk Road, invented paper

Sui Dynasty 580 – 618 CEBuilt the Grand Canal

Tang Dynasty 618 – 907 CEInvented gunpowder, the astronomical clock, block printing

Song Dynasty 960 – 1279 CEInvented a vaccination for smallpox, paper money

Yuan Dynasty 1279 – 1368 CEControlled by the Mongols, Chinese were treated as 2nd class citizens, trade flourished on the Silk Road

I The Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644)

The Ming Dynasty Continued…A) The Ming Dynasty tried to rid China of Mongol influence and return to traditional Chinese culture. Neo-Confucianism was the dominant philosophy. (Women’s role continued to be subservient to her husband, and foot binding remained a practice of the wealthy.) The Civil Service Exam was brought back (for all government workers, based on Confucianism), and the Great Wall of China was completed.

B) Emperor Yongle (ruled 1402 – 1424) widened the size of the Grand Canal to improve trade within China.

C) Yongle also built the “Forbidden City”; his imperial home, in his capital of Beijing. No one could enter or leave the city without his permission!

Ming means “brilliant”. Above is a

statue of the Ming Emperor

Yongle.

The Forbidden City

178 acres, 800 buildings, and stables for elephants! It took approximately 1,000,000 laborers to build.

Yellow is the predominant color, as it was the color of royalty.Legend says that it has 9,999 rooms, but there are actually 8,707. The Emperor slept in

a different room each night to prevent assassination attempts.Was the home of 24 Ming and Qing Emperors from 1420 – 1911.

II Zheng He’s fleet (1405 - 1433)A) Ming Emperor Yongle desired to send ships to the west of China. Yongle appointed Zheng He, a trusted official, to command these western voyages.B) Zheng He led 7 great expeditions to India, the Middle East, and even Eastern Africa!

Unlike later Western European explorers like Vasco de Gama, Zheng He was NOT exploring the unknown; China ALREADY KNEW

about ports in India and East Africa. China also did not desire trade; merchants came to China. So what was the real purpose of Zheng He’s trips? To show off the greatness of China, and to bring back

exotic luxuries for the Emperor.

How Does Zheng He Compare to Other Explorers?

Navigator Number of Ships

Number of Crew

Zheng He (1405 - 1433) 48 to 317 28,000

Columbus (1492) 3 90

Da Gama (1498) 4 160

Magellan (1521) 5 265

Zheng He Continued…

“We, [Zheng] He and the rest, have been favored with a gracious commission from our Sacred Prince to convey to the distant barbarians the favor [earned by their] respectfulness and good faith…. We have beheld in the ocean huge waves like mountains rising in the sky… while our sails, loftily unfurled like clouds day and night…” - Zheng He, 1432.

III Why did the Ming stop overseas exploration?

A) In 1435 Zheng He died. The new Emperor, Yongle’s son, Emperor Hongle, banned any further sea voyages.B) Why did Emperor Hongle ban any further voyages? 1. Being a believer of Confucius, he ranked merchants on the lowest scale of society, arguing that they didn’t create anything or advance society forward.2. As the voyages were not for trade, they cost China more money than they brought in.

IV China beat Columbus to it, perhapsBelow is an article about Mr. Menzies, a British historian, who claims that a map proves Zheng He sailed to the California coast before Columbus. “…It is a copy, made in 1763, of a map, dated 1418... Six Chinese characters in the upper right-hand corner of the map say this is a “general chart of the integrated world”... The detail on the copy of the map is remarkable. The outlines of Africa, Europe and the Americas are instantly recognizable... But the inaccuracies, also, are glaring. California is shown as an island; the British Isles do not appear at all. The distance from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean is ten times greater than it ought to be. Australia is in the wrong place (though cartographers no longer doubt that Australia and New Zealand were discovered by Chinese seamen centuries before Captain Cook arrived on the scene). The commentary on the map, which seems to have been drawn from the original, is written in clear Chinese characters which can still be easily read. Of the west coast of America, the map says: “The skin of the race in this area is black-red, and feathers are wrapped around their heads and waists.” Of the Australians, it reports: “The skin of the aborigine is also black. All of them are naked and wearing bone articles around their waists.” But this remarkable precision, rather than the errors, is what critics of the Menzies theory are likely to use to question the authenticity of the 1418 map.... The map makes good estimates of the latitude and longitude of much of the world, and recognises that the earth is round. “The Chinese were almost certainly aware of longitude before Zheng He set sail,” says Robert Cribbs of California State University…

China beat Columbus to it, perhapsThey certainly assumed the world was round. “The format of the map is totally consistent with the level of knowledge that we should expect of royal Chinese geographers following the voyages of Zheng He,” says Mr Thompson. Tai-Peng, a scholarly journalist in Vancouver who does not doubt that the Chinese explored the world early in the 15th century, doubts whether Zheng He's ships landed in North America. Mr Wang also claims that Zheng He's navigation maps were drawn in a totally different Chinese map-making tradition. Most forgeries are driven by a commercial imperative, especially when the market for ancient maps is booming, as it is now. The Library of Congress recently paid $10m for a copy of a 1507 world map by Martin Waldseemuller, a German cartographer… How much does this matter? Showing that the world was first explored by Chinese rather than European seamen would be a major piece of historical revisionism. But there is more to history than that. It is no less interesting that the Chinese, having discovered the extent of the world, did not exploit it, politically or commercially. After all, Columbus's discovery of America led to exploitation and then development by Europeans which, 500 years later, made the United States more powerful than China had ever been.

The Economist, 2006

V The Qing Dynasty 1644 -1912Qing translates as “pure”. This was the LAST Chinese dynasty!

The Manchu/Qing Dynasty Continued…A) The Manchu were mostly nomads from Manchuria (northeast China). Nurhaci (reigned 1616- 1626) unified the Manchu tribes into a unified state, imposed a law code, and organized a strong military. In the 1620s-1630s, the Manchu captured Korea and Mongolia. During the same time, many Chinese generals deserted the Ming due to corruption. Confucian scholar-bureaucrats also worked against the Ming as they despised the eunuchs who served the royal court. Confucianists respected the Manchu more, who were schooled in the Chinese language and Confucianism.B) In 1644, Chinese rebels captured the Ming capital at Beijing. Manchu invaders allied with the army loyal to the Ming, crushed the rebels, and recovered Beijing. The Manchus portrayed themselves as avengers who saved the Ming Dynasty, but instead, they simply replaced the Ming rule with their own!

Nurhaci

The Qing Dynasty Continued…C) Reforms of the Manchu government:1. Outlawed intermarriage between Chinese and Manchus, and forbade Chinese from traveling to Manchuria and learning the Manchurian language. Chinese men were forced to shave the front of their heads.2. Day to day government fell to Confucian scholar-bureaucrats appointed by the emperor. They had to pass rigorous civil service exams. *The exams provided an avenue for social mobility and were open to all males regardless of age or social class.3. Manchurians attempted to ban foot binding but were unsuccessful

The Qing Dynasty Continued…D) Emperor Kangxi (1661 – 1722)1.Sponsored Confucian schools2.Conquered the island of Taiwan3.Imposed a protectorate over TibetE) Emperor Qianlong (1736 – 1795) made Vietnam, Burma, and Nepal vassal states of the Qing.

Emperor Kangxi

Emperor Qianlong

VI Christianity in ChinaA) When Marco Polo returned to Europe, he reported of Christians in China. The Pope sent a missionary to Beijing in 1294. The Mongols were tolerant of various religions, and they allowed the Catholics to build churches. However, the Chinese resented the Mongols, and when they rebelled against the Mongols, they also attacked Christians. During the Ming Dynasty, most Christians were expelled.B) Towards the end of the Ming Dynasty, Catholics came to China again. During the European Counter-Reformation, Jesuits came as missionaries to Asia under the authority of the Pope. In 1582, a Jesuit named Ricci went to Beijing. He said that by 1605, there were a thousand converts. By 1615, there were 10,000. The number of Catholics increased during the Qing Dynasty (1636–1911).

Wangfujing Catholic Church 1655

HW Questions1. Fill in the appropriate spaces on your Period 4 Chart.2. What was the purpose of the Forbidden City? If you were Emperor Yongle, would you have built it? Why?3. What were the accomplishments of Zheng He? Why did he explore?4. Why did China stop overseas exploration? Do you think they should have stopped? Do you see a corollary with the US government and space exploration?5. What continued in China under the Qing? What changed? Was it for the better or worse? 6. Briefly discuss the history of Christianity under the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. 7. What is the evidence for and against Zheng He exploring California prior to Columbus? In YOUR view, how would this change history?

Key Vocabulary

The Now Shut Starbucks at the Forbidden City