The Ming Dynasty and The Qing Dynasty
3 min readThe Ming Dynasty(1368-1644)
The Ming Dynasty was founded by a peasant uprising leader Zhu Yuanzhang at1368. He drove the Mongol emperor away from the capital(now Beijing), and restored Han nationality rule in China. The Ming Dynasty lasted 277 years with 16 emperors with its capital firstat Nanjing and later from 1421 year at Beijing. In 1644 the Ming Dynasty was overthrown by the peasant armies under LiZicheng.
During the Ming Dynasty, the development of agriculture and handicraft production brought an expansion to the commodity economy. From the middle of Ming times onward, capitalism began to burgeon in some handicraft industries along the coastal regions. There were enormous projects of construction including the restoration of the Grand Canal and the Great Wall and the establishment of the Forbidden City in Beijing. Overseas contacts also greatly increased with the growth of ship building industry and navigation technology. Zheng He,a famous navigator, traveled to the West in seven epic voyages from 1405 to1433, visiting over 30 countries throughout South Pacific, Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and distant Africa.
There was a great amount of literary achievements in the Ming Dynasty. The travel literature author Xu Xiake’s Travel Diaries is of high scientific and literary value. The classic fictional novel The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Pilgrimage to the West, and The Golden Lotus (Jin Ping Mei) were very well received and noticed. One of the most famous plays in Chinese history, the Peony Pavilion, written by the Ming playwright Tang Xianzu is still on show.
The Qing Dynasty(1636-1911)
In 1616, after reunifying all the Nuzhen tribes, Nurhachu set up “LatterJin”and proclaimed himselfemperor. In 1636, Huang Taiji, son of Nurhachu changed the regime title into “Qing”, thus established the Qing Dynasty. In 1644, the Manchus seized the control of Beijing, and in October of the same year, the capital was moved to Beijing. The Qing Dynasty lasted 276 years with 11 emperors.
The Qing Dynasty reached its peak during the reigns of emperors Kang Xi, Yong Zheng and Qian Long, which is known as the Kang Qian Sheng Shi. Its territory was extensive; economy and commerce developed; literature and arts flowered and culture of various forms thrived.
However, due to the isolation policy and corruption, the late years of the Qing Dynasty began to decline with intensified social conflicts and continuous uprisings. In 1840, when the Opium War broke out, the Qing court was confronted with crisis at home and abroad. In the end, the revolution of 1911 led by Sun Yat-sen broke out and overthrew the Qing Dynasty.
Before Daoguang age, the Qing enjoyed great culture achievements with the eminent theoreticians and thinkers like Wang Fuzhi, Gu Yanwu, and the important history critics Huang Zongxi etc. The Qing promoted the collection of knowledge and writing of China, and the most famous collection that tried to summarize all existent writings that had ever been published was The Imperial Collection of Four, the largest collection of books in Chinese history and also probably the most ambitious editorial enterprise in the history of the world. The most conspicuous accomplishments in the Qing were the creations of novels like Cao Xueqin’ sADream of Red Mansions, Wu Jingzi’s The Scholars. Other literary forms were also very well received, such as the short story collection Strange Tales of the Make-Do studio by Pu Songling, the theatre plays The Hall of Everlasting Life by Hong Sheng and The Peach Blossom Fan by Kong Shangren.
