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.

Map of the Ming Dynasty.

Source: The Art of Asia

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.

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.

The Great Wall. Source: Lonely Planet

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

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

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.

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.-

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

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

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.

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

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.

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: 1405-

1433 (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.

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

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.

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.

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 scholar-

officials lost prominence. Wanli was also

reclusive and completely out of touch with

the needs of his subjects.

A Ming emperor and 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.

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

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.

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 Documentary hosted on YouTube about Zheng He http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_38624&feature=iv&src_vid=-

t3QSGRN1-U&v=x3xJCA3SfpM Fordham University History sourcebook for Imperial China http://www.fordham.edu/HALSALL/eastasia/eastasiasbook.asp#Imperial China Freer and Sackler (Asian Art gallery of the Smithsonian Gallery) art galleries timeline of Chinese art history http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/online/chinatimeline/main.swf Information on the Ming Dynasty provided by the Chinese Government http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/history/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/ming-masterpieces-shanghai-museum National Geographic Article about the Grand Canal http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05

/chinas-grand-canal/johnson-text

National Geographic Feature about Zheng He’s Armada http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0507/feature2/ NOVA post on PBS.org about Chinese Naval Expeditions http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/ancient-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 Princeton University Asian Art Museum Ming Collection http://etcweb.princeton.edu/asianart/timeperiod_china.jsp?ctry=China&pd=Ming The Forbidden City during the Ming Dynasty http://www.beijing-forbiddencity.com/royalty/beijing-forbidden-ming-qing-dynasties.html The New York Times article about the Grand Canal http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/world

/asia/24canal.html 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

Adshead, S.A.M. “The Seventeenth Century

General Crisis in China.” Asian Profile 1 (1973): 271-280.

Angle, Stephen C. Sagehood: The

Contemporary Significance of Neo-Confucian 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 Mid-Ming.” 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.

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

_________. The Confusions of Pleasure:

Commerce and Culture in Ming China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998.

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): 136-168.

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 Seventeenth-Century 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, 1644-

1662. 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 (1368-1644), 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: Shui-hu 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.