The ming dynasty

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.

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.

Map of the Ming Dynasty.

Source: The Art of Asia

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.

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

The Great Wall. Source: Lonely Planet

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.

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

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.-

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

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

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.

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.

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

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: 14051433 (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.

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.

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

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.

A Ming emperor and his subjects.

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 scholarofficials lost prominence. Wanli was also reclusive and completely out of touch with the needs of 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.

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.

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 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

National Geographic Feature about Zheng He’s Armada http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/05 07/feature2/ NOVA post on PBS.org about Chinese Naval Expeditions http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/anci ent-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

Documentary hosted on YouTube about Zheng He http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_ id=annotation_38624&feature=iv&src_vid=t3QSGRN1-U&v=x3xJCA3SfpM

Princeton University Asian Art Museum Ming Collection http://etcweb.princeton.edu/asianart/timepe riod_china.jsp?ctry=China&pd=Ming

Fordham University History sourcebook for Imperial China http://www.fordham.edu/HALSALL/eastasia /eastasiasbook.asp#Imperial China

The Forbidden City during the Ming Dynasty http://www.beijingforbiddencity.com/royalty/beijing-forbiddenming-qing-dynasties.html

Freer and Sackler (Asian Art gallery of the Smithsonian Gallery) art galleries timeline of Chinese art history http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/online/ch inatimeline/main.swf

The New York Times article about the Grand Canal http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/world /asia/24canal.html

Information on the Ming Dynasty provided by the Chinese Government http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/histo ry/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/mingmasterpieces-shanghai-museum National Geographic Article about the Grand Canal http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05 /chinas-grand-canal/johnson-text

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

_________. Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.

Adshead, S.A.M. “The Seventeenth Century General Crisis in China.” Asian Profile 1 (1973): 271-280.

_________. The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China.

Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998.

Angle, Stephen C. Sagehood: The Contemporary Significance of NeoConfucian 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 MidMing.” 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.

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): 136168.

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 SeventeenthCentury 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, 16441662. 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 (13681644), 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: Shuihu 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.