History
How well do you know the Ming dynasty ? Learn more about the Ming dynasty of China .Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.See all videos for this article The Ming dynasty, which succeeded the Yuan ( Mongol ) dynasty ( 1206–1368 ), was founded by Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu, who was of humble origins, late assumed the reign deed of Hongwu. The Ming became one of the most static but besides one of the most authoritarian of all chinese dynasties .
Zhu Yuanzhang The Hongwu emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, fourteenth hundred ; in the National Palace Museum, Taipei .Courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan (CC BY 4.0) The basic governmental structure established by the Ming was continued by the subsequent Qing ( Manchu ) dynasty and lasted until the imperial initiation was abolished in 1911/12. The civil service system was perfected during the Ming and then became stratified ; about all the clear Ming officials entered the bureaucracy by passing a government examen. The Censorate ( Yushitai ), an office designed to investigate official wrongdoing and putrescence, was made a distinguish organ of the government. Affairs in each province were handled by three agencies, each coverage to separate agency in the cardinal government. The status of prime minister was abolished. alternatively, the emperor took over personal control of the politics, ruling with the aid of the specially appointed Neige, or Grand Secretariat. basically, the Ming incorporated the Song dynasty ’ sulfur policy of relying on the literati in managing department of state affairs. however, from the Yongle emperor forth, the emperors relied increasingly on trusted eunuch to contain the literati. besides introduced at that time was a organization of punishment by flogging with a stick in woo, which was designed to humiliate civil officials—while besides making use of them to realize the emperor ’ s target of maintaining virtual control of the state of matter in his own hands. By decree of the emperor butterfly, a huge detection servicing was organized under three extra agencies.
Struggles with peoples of respective nationalities continued throughout the Ming period. Clashes with Mongols were closely ceaseless. During the first base decades of the dynasty, the Mongols were driven north to Outer Mongolia ( contemporary Mongolia ), but the Ming could not claim a decisive victory. From then onward the Ming were by and large able to maintain their northern border, though by the former stages of the dynasty it in impression only reached the line of the Great Wall. On the northeast, the Juchen ( chinese : Nüzhen, or Ruzhen ), who rose in the northeast around the end of the sixteenth century, pressed the Ming army to withdraw successively south, and finally the Ming made the east end of the Great Wall their concluding line of defense. The Ming devoted considerable resources toward maintaining and strengthening the wall, particularly near Beijing, the dynasty ’ mho capital .
Great Wall of China dowry of the Great Wall of China construct during the Ming dynasty .© Joanna Glab/Fotolia In early Ming times, China ’ mho world extended well in the south as a result of its successful invasion of northern Vietnam. But the brief occupation of Vietnam was met with specify local guerrilla resistance, and the Ming government promptly decided to restore the boundary to its master production line. It never again attempted to push southbound. During the fifteenth century the government had organized big tribute-collecting flotillas commanded by Zheng He to extend China ’ south influence. besides during the Ming, Japan became more aggressive. In the fifteenth hundred japanese raiders teamed up with chinese pirates to make coastal raids in taiwanese waters, which were of a relatively belittled scale but were still highly disruptive to taiwanese coastal cities. The ming government finally tried to stop Japan ’ s attempt to control Korea, which became a long and costly crusade. The Ming government was gradually weakened by factionalism between civil officials, intervention by palace eunuch, the burdens of a growing population, and a succession of weak and inattentive emperors. In 1644 a insurgent leader, Li Zicheng, captured Beijing, and the local anesthetic Ming military commanding officer requested aid from the Manchu tribal peoples who had been encroaching on China ’ s northern borders. The Manchu drove out Li Zicheng and then remained, establishing the Qing dynasty.
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