Ming China and Its Neighbors

The OTTOMANS, the MAMLUKS, and the MING HIST 1301 | History Ming China and Its Neighbors The collapse of Mongol control in East Asia coincided with the rise of the Turks and the end of Mongol power in western Asia in the thirteenth century. By the middle of the thirteenth century, China was experiencing several issues. Kublai Khan, the ruler of the Yuan dynasty, launched many costly operations against the kingdoms of Java in the Indian Ocean, Burma (now Myanmar), and Annam and Champa in Southeast Asia. After two unsuccessful invasion efforts, uprisings against Mongol control broke out. The Quanzhou-based Ispah Rebellion was one of these uprisings. Quanzhou, a significant port city in the Fujian Province of southeast China, was a stop on the Maritime Silk Road, an ocean trade route that linked China with other commercial ports in Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, and India. Highly sought-after Chinese products, such as silk and porcelain, travelled westward via this route to reach western Asia, Europe, Africa, and India. In the thirteenth century, Quanzhou was the biggest port in China and maybe the world, with a population of over two million. Foreign-born merchants from Arabia, Persia, India, Armenia, and other countries made up the majority of the population. Among the numerous Arabs, Persians, and Turks from western and central Asia who had travelled to China for commerce or to work for the Yuan administration were the Muslims residing in Quanzhou. Despite encouraging Muslims from other parts of Asia to relocate to China, Yuan officials frequently treated Muslims unfairly, prohibiting them from killing animals in accordance with Islamic law, interfering with Muslim marriage customs, and impeding the Muslim community's attempts to establish self-government. Muslims in Quanzhou rebelled against the Mongols in 1357. Not until 1367 was the uprising put down. The treasury was depleted by Kublai's failed military efforts as well as the ongoing attempts to put down these uprisings. His successors occasionally occupied the throne for very short periods of time and frequently mishandled the money. By the first part of the fourteenth century, China was already experiencing challenges, which were made worse by natural calamities. Famines and food shortages were caused by floods and droughts. The price of food increased beyond the means of many peasants due to a combination of shortage and inflation. Unusually cold weather made conditions worse for people, and millions of people died as plagues spread over the nation in the 1330s to the 1350s. The countryside was full with bandits, and the army did nothing to apprehend the many criminals who preyed on the common people. Numerous religious groups emerged that predicted the end of time. Among them was the White Lotus sect of Buddhism, which prophesied a new age and a new Buddha. A covert peasant group known as the Red Turbans capitalised on the White Lotus prophesy to demand the fall of the Mongol Empire and the restoration of the Song dynasty. There was an armed uprising in 1351. Zhu Yuanzhang, a youthful wandering Buddhist monk, joined the Red Turbans in 1352 and wed the leader's daughter. His army took control of Nanjing, a city in southern China, in 1356. Zhu overthrew the final Yuan emperor in 1368 after driving out his competitors from the Red Turbans, and the monarch left China. Zhu established himself as emperor under the name Hongwu, which translates to "vast and martial," and demolished the Yuan palace in Dadu's capital, Beijing. He also gave his new dynasty the name Ming, which means "bright." As the first emperor of the Ming dynasty, Hongwu started by consolidating his authority and enhancing China's security. Despite his efforts to reduce social inequality by outlawing slavery and raising taxes on the rich, the expense of his army severely hurt China's economy. He never succeeded in closing the gap between the affluent and the poor, and his efforts to keep China safe from invasion and insurrection resulted in harsh internal policies. However, the early Ming period was a period of great prosperity and strength for China due to the restoration of political stability and agricultural output. During his reign, Hongwu made great efforts to bolster his personal authority, fortify himself against threats, and reestablish and broaden Chinese dominance. In order to rule without challenge, he abolished the position of chief minister, created a secret police, and ordered the death of thousands of those he thought disagreed with his policies. He also put an end to uprisings quickly. In Hunan Province in the southwest, an uprising by the Miao ethnic minority was put down. After the Mongol armies sought safety in what is now the southeast's Yunnan Province, they overthrew the Kingdom of Dali and annexed the area into China. Northeastern Manchuria was overrun by Ming forces in 1387, following the establishment of a Yuan dynasty-aligned Mongol stronghold there. Hongwu made military duty in certain places hereditary in order to secure the boundaries in sparsely inhabited areas. In order to increase the population in areas of central and northern China that had been severely affected by diseases and crop failures, he pushed the wholesale transfer of peasants from the south. Zhu Di, sometimes referred to as the Yongle emperor, succeeded Hongwu and carried on his father's attempts to increase Chinese dominance. Chinese soldiers attempted in vain to attack and conquer the kingdom of Vietnam between 1406 and 1427. In response to the ongoing Mongol threat, the Great Wall of China was extended and maintained. Zhu Di, however, undid his father's policy in other respects. Hongwu had outlawed almost all maritime trade in an effort to keep China isolated from potentially harmful foreign influences. Instead, the Yongle emperor worked to forge connections with other countries in an effort to inform their leaders of China's might and prosperity. In order to do this, Emperor sent Admiral Zheng Emperor on seven different naval missions from 1405 to 1433. Thousands of ships from Chinese fleets travelled to East Africa, Arabia, India, and Southeast Asia. Zheng He sent tribute for the emperor in the form of ivory and exotic animals like ostriches and zebras, and he also gave gifts of gold, silk, and porcelain to other kings to show them the splendour of the Ming dynasty. Zhu Di also forged diplomatic ties with the kings of the Philippines and the Indian Ocean, as well as with Shah Rukh, the son and successor of Timur. But China didn't communicate directly with the Ottoman Empire. Hongwu sent a message to the Byzantine emperor, whom he thought was still in charge in Constantinople, upon taking the throne. But after then, the two states didn't communicate or have direct touch with one another for at least a century. China's capital was transferred from Nanjing to Beijing by the Yongle emperor, who also started building the new Forbidden City, a walled complex with palaces, temples and gardens for the emperor and his household to enjoy. In 1420, he also gave the order to have an ornate mausoleum erected north of Beijing, where other dynasty members constructed their own last resting places. Each of these buildings portrayed the grandeur, strength, and prosperity of China. The Ming rulers may still be rendered powerless in the face of Mongol attack in spite of their wealth and influence. The Oirats were the most western of the Mongol tribes, inhabiting what is now western Mongolia and the Altai area of Siberia. The Yongle emperor made a failed attempt to conquer them. Following the Mongol army's victory over a far larger Chinese military force at the Battle of Tumu Fortress in 1449, the twenty-one-year-old Ming emperor Yingzong was taken prisoner by the Oirat chieftain Esen. In response, the Ming reduced Yingzong to the position of "retired emperor" and installed his younger half-brother in the throne. After shrewdly marrying the imprisoned emperor to his daughter, Esen's attempts to bring Yingzong back to Beijing were unsuccessful, and Mongol attempts to seize Beijing by force were thwarted. Yingzong stayed a prisoner of the Oirat until a member of his court paid a ransom and brought him back to Beijing, where his half-brother, who was unwilling to cede the throne, put him under house imprisonment in a palace within the Forbidden City. Before Yingzong was able to overthrow his half-brother and take back his kingdom, another seven years passed. When Chinese commander Cao Qin launched a coup with Mongol soldiers' help in 1461, Yingzong was once more forced to face up against Mongol armies. Only until a fortuitous downpour thwarted attempts to destroy the gates that barred the rebels' passage into the Forbidden City did the emperor escape unharmed.