Faeelin
Banned
I'm reading a Early Ming China, by Edward Dreyer, and it concludes with a chapter that discusses the alternative possibilities for the Early Ming State, and their effect on history. Some interesting ideas, actually.
*Political Unification: Chu Yuan-chang military victories permitted a speedy reunification of the empire; he survived two apparent assassination attempts in 1362 and 1380, attempts which, if successful, would have shattered htis unity; and the total victory of his son, Yongle, in the civil war following his death ended the threat to unity posed by the princes."
"Previous Chinese history suggets what might have happened if events had gone differently. By 1360 most of China was under the control of military regimes nominally loyal to the Yuan. If... the the rebel leaders had been destroyed in the wars of the 1360s, the result would have been nominal reuniciation under the Yuan, but in the fact the situation would have resembled that of the late Eastern Han... or of the middle and late Tang: a weak or powerless dynasty would have ruled in name over a group of actually independent and mutually hostile regional warlords. Judging from the late Tang example, such a state of affairs could have gone on for generations.
*Civil service and government administration: Surprisingly, the use of a Confucian civil service wasn't a guaranteed act. "Civil adminsitration was rudiemtnary before 1364, but from then until 1380 there was a steady growth of the civil service and a steady differentiation of civil from military functions.The Six Ministries and the provincial civil governments were created, and regular administration was restored at the prefectural and county levels. During this period of growth, officials were recruited chiefly by crecommendation. Hungwu had tried and rejected civil service examinations, feeling that they would not recruit practical talents."
This changed after the purge of Chancelor Hu Wei-yung in 1380, at which point Hungwu sacrificed every other consideration for his desire for personal control.
Furthermore, in the Early Ming, there was a hereditary elite that controlled teh seperate military colonies, farmed by soldier-tenants, and the ranks and salaries of military officers were set several grades higher than those of civil officials of corresponding degrees of responsibility. Nobles, in turn, were elevated to a position above the nine ranks, so that they stood above all officials, civil or military. But this dominance was undermined when the civil officials gained control of the military in the years 1435-1440, and the military's policy, supply system, and even the higher field commands were monopolized by civil officials.
But in th eearlyMing there existed "both an embryonic nobility and a class of hereditary military officers, and the way was open to the recfreation of powerful noble families connected to the dynasty by marriage, a class of territorial magnates, or a combination of the two".
*The Capital. Essentially, it was very weird for the Ming to locate their capital in Bejing. The Yantze area was the economic heart of the Empire at this point, and while the Yongle emperor may have placed the capital at Bejing in order to defend against the Mongols, but the only other emperor to follow his example was Zhengtong , in 1449.
Nanking was in the area of the Yangtze valley and the southern coastal urban culture that had grown in population and importance during the Southern Sung, and had the court and Emperors been directly involved in that culture, who knows what would have happened?
I'm still thinking bout the implications of this, but it seems to me that the possibilities could be interesting. A Ming Emperor, ruling from Nanjing, over a series of great magnates? Perhaps, in such a scenario, the emperor would have a direct interest in supporting commerce abroad, especially if that was one of the only ways for him to earn revenue.
Thoughts?
*Political Unification: Chu Yuan-chang military victories permitted a speedy reunification of the empire; he survived two apparent assassination attempts in 1362 and 1380, attempts which, if successful, would have shattered htis unity; and the total victory of his son, Yongle, in the civil war following his death ended the threat to unity posed by the princes."
"Previous Chinese history suggets what might have happened if events had gone differently. By 1360 most of China was under the control of military regimes nominally loyal to the Yuan. If... the the rebel leaders had been destroyed in the wars of the 1360s, the result would have been nominal reuniciation under the Yuan, but in the fact the situation would have resembled that of the late Eastern Han... or of the middle and late Tang: a weak or powerless dynasty would have ruled in name over a group of actually independent and mutually hostile regional warlords. Judging from the late Tang example, such a state of affairs could have gone on for generations.
*Civil service and government administration: Surprisingly, the use of a Confucian civil service wasn't a guaranteed act. "Civil adminsitration was rudiemtnary before 1364, but from then until 1380 there was a steady growth of the civil service and a steady differentiation of civil from military functions.The Six Ministries and the provincial civil governments were created, and regular administration was restored at the prefectural and county levels. During this period of growth, officials were recruited chiefly by crecommendation. Hungwu had tried and rejected civil service examinations, feeling that they would not recruit practical talents."
This changed after the purge of Chancelor Hu Wei-yung in 1380, at which point Hungwu sacrificed every other consideration for his desire for personal control.
Furthermore, in the Early Ming, there was a hereditary elite that controlled teh seperate military colonies, farmed by soldier-tenants, and the ranks and salaries of military officers were set several grades higher than those of civil officials of corresponding degrees of responsibility. Nobles, in turn, were elevated to a position above the nine ranks, so that they stood above all officials, civil or military. But this dominance was undermined when the civil officials gained control of the military in the years 1435-1440, and the military's policy, supply system, and even the higher field commands were monopolized by civil officials.
But in th eearlyMing there existed "both an embryonic nobility and a class of hereditary military officers, and the way was open to the recfreation of powerful noble families connected to the dynasty by marriage, a class of territorial magnates, or a combination of the two".
*The Capital. Essentially, it was very weird for the Ming to locate their capital in Bejing. The Yantze area was the economic heart of the Empire at this point, and while the Yongle emperor may have placed the capital at Bejing in order to defend against the Mongols, but the only other emperor to follow his example was Zhengtong , in 1449.
Nanking was in the area of the Yangtze valley and the southern coastal urban culture that had grown in population and importance during the Southern Sung, and had the court and Emperors been directly involved in that culture, who knows what would have happened?
I'm still thinking bout the implications of this, but it seems to me that the possibilities could be interesting. A Ming Emperor, ruling from Nanjing, over a series of great magnates? Perhaps, in such a scenario, the emperor would have a direct interest in supporting commerce abroad, especially if that was one of the only ways for him to earn revenue.
Thoughts?