Ming dynasty

“ Rapidly rising to the highest military rank, he gradually found himself at the head of a huge army, and by 1368 was master of so many provinces that he proclaimed himself first emperor of the Great Ming dynasty, under the title of Hung (Hoong) Wu, and fixed his capital at Nanking. In addition to his military genius, he showed almost equal skill in the administration of the empire, and also became a liberal patron of literature and education. ”

“ This emperor was an ardent Buddhist, and the priests of that religion were raised to high positions and exerted considerable influence at court. In times of famine there were loud complaints that some ten thousand priests were living comfortably at Peking, while the people of several provinces were reduced to eating bark and grass.
The porcelain of the Ming dynasty is famous all over the world. Early in the sixteenth century a great impetus was given to the art, owing to the extravagant patronage of the court, which was not allowed to pass without openly expressed remonstrance. ”

“ As had been the Ming Dynasty five centuries ago, so had become their so promising succeeding race. "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad." There had been that irritating intercourse with the outside {263} world, and the war—disastrous to China—consequent upon the proud Empire's attempt to treat all foreign peoples as vassals of the Son of Heaven. But it was hoped that with the signing of the Treaty of Nanking wiser councils would prevail, and that the Chinese had learned to respect the foreigners, or at least the thunder of their guns. ”

“ No sooner was Peking taken by the One-Eyed Rebel, than a number of officials fled southwards and took refuge in Nanking, where they set up a grandson of the last Emperor but one of the Ming Dynasty, who was now the rightful heir to the throne. The rapidly growing power of the Manchus had been lost sight of, if indeed it had ever been thoroughly realised, and it seemed quite natural that the representative of the House of Ming should be put forward to resist the rebels. ”

“ In the 16th century they were strong enough to cope with their Chinese neighbours. Doubtless the Mings tried to check their ambition by cruel reprisals, but against this must be put numerous Manchu raids into Liao-tung.
The accession to the throne of the emperor Shun-chi did not restore peace to the country. In Kiang-si, Fu-kien, Kwang-tung and Kwang-si the adherents of the Ming dynasty defended themselves vigorously but unsuccessfully against the invaders, while the pirate Chêng Chi-lung, the father of the celebrated Coxinga, kept up a predatory warfare against them on the coast. ”

“ The Ming Dynasty extended over nearly three centuries; then China, being threatened by an invasion of the Manchus from the north, was aided in her resistance by the Manchus at home, and, through a peculiar combination, they secured possession of the throne and have held it ever since. The foreign rule is hated by the true Chinese.
The four sections of Peking are: (1) The Forbidden City, called the Purple City by the Chinese because formerly only purple mortar was used. It consists virtually of a palace and adjacent buildings, and embraces a population of nearly six thousand. ”

“ On the other hand, germs of serious disaffection do exist; the actual Dynasty is a foreign one, which, at the beginning of the century, the terrible Taiping Rebellion—only suppressed with the assistance of Europeans—nearly ruined, and the descendants of the old national Ming Dynasty are still living. ”

“ The Manchus conquered China, and China began again in her time-honored way to swallow up the conquerors, until to-day there is no such thing as a Manchu nation, hardly a spoken remnant of the sonorous Manchu language, no one resembling the fierce warriors and hardy horsemen who put an end to the Ming dynasty such a little while ago. ”

“ In the 13th century arose the Mongol power, and Kublai Khan conquered China. The Mongol dynasty lasted less than a century, but the Ming, the native Chinese dynasty which succeeded it, reigned for nearly 300 years and despatched expeditions which reached India, Ceylon and East Africa. In 1644 the Ming succumbed to the attacks of the Manchus, a northern tribe who captured Peking and founded the present imperial house.
Until the advent of Europeans, the Chinese were always in contact with inferior races. ”

“ Ch'ung is composed of 山 shan hills as radical, and 宗 tsung ancestral as phonetic. It means high.
Chêng is composed of 示 shih divine manifestation as radical and 貞 chêng or chên chaste as phonetic. It means lucky, but here stands, with Ch'ung, for the title of the reign of the last Emperor of the Ming dynasty, who came to the throne in A.D. 1628. ”

“ In 1627 Tsʽung-chêng, the last emperor of Manchu invasion: 17th century. the Ming dynasty, ascended the Chinese throne. In his reign English merchants first made their appearance at Canton. The empire was now torn by internal dissensions. Rebel bands, enriched by plunder, and grown bold by success, began to assume the proportion of armies. Two rebels, Li Tsze-chʽêng and Shang Kʽo-hi, decided to divide the empire between them. Li besieged Kʽai-fêng Fu, the capital of Ho-nan, and so long and closely did he beleaguer it that in the consequent famine human flesh was regularly sold in the markets. ”

“ At Pa-li Chiao we came upon the real grand stone road, with the grand bridge made by the Ming Dynasty—when they moved their capital from Nanking to Peking, in order better to repel invading Tartar hordes—and never in the centuries since repaired by the Tartar horde of Manchus, who at once conquered them, when they thus obligingly put themselves within easy reach at the very extreme limit of their vast empire. ”

“ Each kingdom, whether China or those of foreign countries, has been ruled over by men of its own nation. (This has been the universal practice.)
"But in the time of the Ming dynasty the Tartar imps, originally serfs from beyond the northern frontier, stole into China, and usurped the emblems of royalty [lit., seized upon the divine materials] , making unclean and polluting the land to a degree that no tongue can tell of [lit., to a degree difficult for the fingers to reckon] . ”

“ The most celebrated of these sects is the White Lotus. Under the Yüan dynasty it was anti-Mongol, and prepared the way for the advent of the Ming. When the Ming dynasty in its turn became decadent, we hear again of the White Lotus coupled with rebellion, and similarly after the Manchus had passed their meridian, its beautiful but ill-omened name frequently appears. It seems clear that it is an ancient and persistent society with some idea of creating a millennium, which becomes active when the central government is weak and corrupt. ”

“ It is the hard necessity of war, which we would avoid if we could; but knowing, as we do, the conduct of Napoleon in Europe, of the British in India, &c., and the Americans in their own country, we think such accusations come with a bad grace from [553] foreigners. The Ming dynasty was founded by a revolution such as is now in progress; and we have never heard of a people who expelled tyrants from their country who did not suffer both offensively and defensively.
"That the foreign Powers are playing a game to suit their own profit in China, is to us perfectly clear. ”

“ At the time when Chu Yüan-chang conquered Peking, in 1368, becoming the recognized emperor of China (Ming dynasty) , it seemed as though he would remain a revolutionary in spite of everything. His first laws were directed against the rich. Many of the rich were compelled to migrate to the capital, Nanking, thus losing their land and the power based on it. Land was redistributed among poor peasants; new land registers were also compiled, in order to prevent the rich from evading taxation. The number of monks living in idleness was cut down and precisely determined ”

“ In 1699, while in mourning, he was ordered to place in the ancestral temple of the first Emperor of the Ming dynasty a tablet on which K'ang Hsi had inscribed, "Good government surpassing that of the T'aug and Sung (dynasties) ," while the Emperor himself poured a libation at the dead monarch's tomb. He died while attending K'ang Hsi to Jehol. He is said to have been a learned and dignified man, a vegetarian and a misogynist, who slept in his clothes so as to be ready to rise at the first streak of dawn. ”

“ Death put an end to Tao Kuang’s reign in 1850, and his fourth son, Hien Feng, assumed rule over the distracted empire which was bequeathed him by his father. There is a popular belief among the Chinese that two hundred years is the natural life of a dynasty. This is one of those traditions which are apt to bring about their own fulfilment, and in the beginning of the reign of Hien Feng the air was rife with rumors that an effort was to be made to restore the Ming dynasty to the throne. On 87such occasions there are always real or pretended scions of the required family forthcoming. ”

“ But, alas! ever since the Ming dynasty lost its [90] influence, the Manchoos availed themselves of the opportunity to throw China into confusion, and deprive the Chinese of their empire; they also robbed them of their food and clothing, as well as oppressed their sons and ravished their daughters; and the Chinese, notwithstanding they possessed such an extensive territory and multitudinous subjects, allowed the Tartars to do as they pleased without making the least objection. Can the Chinese still deem themselves men? ”

“ In the time of the Ming dynasty, which flourished in China from 1368 to 1644, the Mantchous, or Eastern Tartars, after a long series of internal wars, concurred in the selection of a chief, who united all the tribes into one, and established a kingdom. ”

“ They will not for the present grant concessions or subsidies to foreigners. They will not even take money from any syndicate by mortgage.” Complaint was also made that the Ming dynasty, 268 years ago, left as a heritage to the Manchu dynasty, a land full of public works, bridges, roads, temples, pagodas, canals, and that while the Manchu collected large taxes, he seldom or never repaired a temple, canal or road, so that China is now desolate. ”

“ I am ashamed to meet my ancestors; and therefore I myself take off my crown, and with my hair covering my face, await dismemberment at the hands of the rebels. Do not hurt a single one of my people!" Emperor and eunuch then committed suicide by hanging themselves, and the Great Ming Dynasty was brought to an end.
Li Tzŭ-chʽêng made a grand official entry into Peking, upon which many of the palace ladies committed suicide. ”

“ The beginning of the seventeenth century was a time of internal trouble and revolution in China. The old Chinese dynasty of the Mings was about to be replaced by the present Tartar dynasty, the Chi̔ng. That the Jesuits had become a real power in the land is proved by the fact that the claimant to the Ming throne was supported by the missionaries, his troops being led by two native Christian generals, Kiu who was called Thomas, and Chin who was baptized Luke. ”

“ A boatload of men belonging to the overthrown Ming dynasty appeared on the southern coast and asked aid in an attempt to wrest again the scepter from the Manchus, but they were politely refused; the king abolished that form of punishment which consisted in applying red hot irons to the limbs; he built the Chung-sŭng, or inner wall at P’yŭng-yang in order to cut off the view of a kyu-bong or “spying peak,” which in Korea is supposed to bring bad luck. ”

“ In the reign of the founder of the Ming dynasty in China, Hung Wu, there was published the “Ko ku yao lun” (A.D. 1387) , a learned antiquarian, art, and literary work written by Tsao Ch’ao, and comprised in thirteen books. From this we learn of the following sorts of lacquer then held in esteem: ancient rhinoceros horn reproductions, carved red lacquer, painted red lacquer, lacquer with gold reliefs, pierced lacquer, and lacquer with mother-of-pearl incrustations. Tsao Ch’ao’s erudition enables us, I think, to trace Chinese lacquer-work back to the{249} Sung dynasty with reasonable certainty. ”

“ Having obtained the leadership of a large fleet of junks, traders or pirates as occasion served, he was compelled to place his services at the command of the last sovereign of the Ming dynasty, in whose cause he fought against the Manchu invaders. In 1628 he tendered his submission to the latter, and for a time was well treated, and cleared the seas of other great pirates. Gradually however he became too powerful, and it was deemed necessary to restrain him by force. ”

“ If it is, I would observe that there is no evidence of progress in the decorative and ornamental arts during the Ming Dynasty; and even in the Jesuit instruments that part of the work is purely Chinese, excepting in one instrument, which I am persuaded must have been made in Europe.
“I have a Chinese work called Luh-King-t’oo-Kaou, ‘Illustrations and Investigations of the Six Classics.’ This was written in A.D. 1131–1162, and revised and 451printed in 1165–1174. It contains a representation of an armillary sphere, which appears to me to be much the same as the sphere in question. ”

“ TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
Conquerors are deemed successful robbers, while robbers are unsuccessful conquerors. If the founder of the dynasty of the Ming had failed in his rebellion against the Moguls, history would have called him a robber; and if any one of the various robber-chiefs, who in the course of the two last centuries made war against the reigning Manchow, had overthrown the government of the foreigners, the official historiographers of the "Middle empire" would have called him the far-famed, illustrious elder father of the new dynasty. ”