Great Ming

  General Description   After 300 years of rule by outsiders, the Ming Dynasty, lasting from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries CE, restored Chinese rule to the region. ^[1] The dynasty was founded by a peasant rebel general, Zhu Yuanzhang, later known as Emperor Taizu or the Hongwu Emperor. ^[2] Taizu destroyed the Yuan capital in Beijing, forced the Mongols to retreat to Mongolia, and founded the Ming capital in Nanjing in 1368 CE. ^[3] The period saw a resurgence of Chinese intellectualism and economic activity, ^[4] but Ming emperors often struggled to control their massive empire and they do not tend to number among the Chinese emperors considered ’great’ by historians. ^[5]
The Ming expanded their territory to the southwest during their rule. ^[6] However, they never expanded into Mongolia - conflict with the Mongols in the north led the Ming emperors instead to carry out restorations works on the Great Wall. ^[7] The Dynasty came to an end in 1644 CE, when the region was re-captured by descendants of Jin Dynasty’s Jurchen rulers from Manchuria known as Qing.
Population and political organization
Ming emperors were not consistent in their style of rule. While Emperor Taizu ruled as an autocrat, some Ming emperors left the governance of the nation in the hands of officials and eunuchs. ^[5] The emperor presided over the central government in concert with various levels of chief ministers and imperial officials, and the central government structure was replicated on a smaller scale at the provincial level. ^[1] Officials were recruited through an examination system. ^[1]
The period was marked by increasing openness to non-Confucian ideas and an increase in literacy among the lower levels of society. ^[7] Intellectual culture flourished among the elites ^[4] and the publishing industry expanded greatly in the Lower Yangtze region. ^[6] Novels, including The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin, and the play Peony Pavilion were written in the Ming period. ^[1]
The rapid growth of the international trading system along with foreign desire for Chinese porcelain and silk led to large increases in foreign trade and an influx of silver into the Ming economy. ^[7] In the later Ming period, trade conflicts impacted China’s foreign silver supply, leading to massive deflation. The Ming government, near bankruptcy, could not fund military campaigns against the rebellion spreading through the nation. ^[8]
The Ming population was between 60 million and 66.5 million in 1400 CE and 90 million and 110 million in 1600 CE. ^{[9] [10]}

[1]: (Theobald 2000) Theobald Ulrich. 2000. ’Ming Dynasty Government and Administration’. Chinaknowledge.de. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Ming/ming-admin.html. Accessed 16 March 2017.

[2]: (Brook 1998, 8) Timothy Brook. 1998. The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

[3]: (Ebrey 1996, 191) Patricia Buckley Ebrey. 1996. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[4]: (Mote, Twitchett and Fairbank 1988, 1) Frederick W. Mote, Denis Twitchett and John K. Fairbank. 1988 ’Introduction’, in The Cambridge History of China, Volume 7: The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644, edited by Frederick W. Mote and Denis Twitchett, 1-10. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[5]: (Ebrey 1996, 216) Patricia Buckley Ebrey. 1996. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[6]: (Ebrey 1996, 190) Patricia Buckley Ebrey. 1996. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[7]: (Ebrey 1996, 212) Patricia Buckley Ebrey. 1996. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[8]: (Ebrey 1996, 215) Patricia Buckley Ebrey. 1996. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[9]: 《明太祖實錄 卷140》

[10]: (Weatherhead East Asian Institute 2008) Weatherhead East Asian Institute. 2008. ’Issues and Trends in China’s Demographic History’. Asia for Educators. Columbia University. http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1950_population.htm. Accessed 16 March 2017.