Why Ming Dynasty Declined?

郑和下西洋的西海从1405年至1433年7次在中国导航历史最值得骄傲的事件。比哥伦布早87年，比比伽马的更早93年，更比麦哲伦早116年前，但为什么郑和下西洋之后明朝下降，而欧洲国家占据大量的殖民地遍布世界各地？事实上，从中国封建社会开始以来，明朝开始下降。我认为原因可以从政治，经济和社会方面来说明。

Why Ming Dynasty Declined?
Zheng He’s voyages to the Western Sea for seven times from 1405 to 1433 became the proudest event in Chinese navigation history. Zheng He, a court eunuch in Ming Dynasty was sent for leading fleets to the Western Sea by Emperor Cheng Zu since 1402. “Zheng He's voyages are 87 years earlier than that of Columbus, 93 years earlier than that of Gama, and 116 years earlier than that of Magellan”(Zheng He, ChinaCulture). Ming Dynasty’s expedition started nearly a century ahead of European countries. But why Ming Dynasty declined after Zheng He’s voyages while European Countries occupied numerous colonies all over the world? As a matter of fact, Chinese feudal society began to decline since the Middle Ming Dynasty. I think the reasons can be illustrated from political, economical and social aspects.

Politically, the ruling of Ming Dynasty was nearly the darkest in Chinese history in terms of the incompetent or brutal emperors and the supreme power of eunuchs. To start with, Ming Dynasty had the most incompetent rulers than any other dynasties had. The founder of Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang (Ming Taizu, 1328-1398) was the most illiterate among all Chinese emperors. He was born in a poor peasant family with all the other family members starving to death and he was once even a beggar when he was a kid. For the lack of education, he couldn’t provide his offspring proper instruction in governing the country. Most of Zhu Yuanzhang’s descendants were indulged in physical pleasure so that most of them were died at very young age and no one lived longer than Zhu Yuanzhang himself. By contrast, nearly all the emperors of Qing Dynasty were excellent both in literature and military affairs and most of them enjoyed longevity. Zhu Yuanzhang’s two successors were famous for addicting to carpentry and Taoist alchemy. Zhu Houcong (Ming Shizong, 1522-1566) entrusted his duty to some of his favorites and spent great amount of his time and money, especially in the later years of his life, in Taoist alchemy in the hope of finding an elixir to be immortal. Zhu Youxiao (Ming Xizong, 1621–1627) was an emperor who regarded carpentry much more important than governmental affairs, and his reign was the time when Chinese most powerful eunuch, Wei Zhongxian was created.

The emperors’ brutality was the main reason of the dark governance of Ming Dynasty. Due to the suspicion of a conspiracy plot to overthrow his ruling, the founding emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang slaughtered his prime minister, Hu Weiyong and the General Lan Yu as well as 30,000 other officials, who were nearly composed of all the civil officials who had contributed to the founding of Ming Dynasty. Another notorious event, demostrating the rulers’ brutality was “Fang Xiaoru Case” during Zhu Di (Ming Cheng, 1403-1424)’s time, in which ten related generations were all executed. Fang Xiaoru was one of the greatest scholars in Confucianism in Ming Dynasty. In feudal China, there was the most ruthless punishment  called “Zhu Lian Jiu Zu”, literally means killing nine related generations of the criminal, which included all the patriarchal and matriarchal relatives. However, in Fang Xiao Ru’s case, not only all his relatives but his pupils were all involved, which made it ten generations and it also became the cruelest punishment in Chinese history.
The emperors’ brutality, incompetence and negligence of duty all made the ruling of the country very unstable and the country was vulnerable while confronting outside threats. The royal descendants couldn’t pull the country together even when Ming Dynasty was overthrown. There were all together five new countries, established by the descendants when Qing Dynasty was already in power. However, the newly-founded countries couldn’t work in collaboration to fight against exterior threats. On the contrary, what they did was attacking each other, to be the only emperor in Ming’s scope.

Second, the bureaucratic system of Ming Dynasty reversed the country’s development in some way. To strengthen the control of the country, Zhu Yuanzhang replaced the position of Prime Minister for the Cabinet of Grand Secretaries. Prime Minister’s power was said to be just under one person, the emperor and above all the others while the Cabinet was composed of several secretaries, who were not entitled much power. As a result, the Emperor’s power was greatly enhanced because he had direct power over the Six Ministries. “ Instead of reporting to the chief administrative agency of the Grand Secretariat as in the past, the ministries now reported directly to the emperor” (Ming Dynasty, Asian Art Collection). It may not be bad influence if the emperor was a very wise one. But the rulers in Ming Dynasty were not, so the elimination of Prime Ministry proved to be a bad impact on the country’s management.

Third, Zhu Yuanzhan’s enfeoffment was a kind of historical retroversion, which appeared only in Han Dynasty. The emperor’s initial purpose was to unite his sons against uprisings and outside invasion. It may help strengthening his power but also armed his sons, so after his grandson Zhu Yunwen took over the throne, it lasted only four years when his uncle Zhudi launched a coup. Before Ming Dynasty, the administration of province and county had been maturely developed, which was proved to be good for a country’s stabilization. To much extent, Ming Dynasty’s enfeoffment law was a barrier to the country’s development.
Fourth is the establishment of spy agencies, which was under the direct control of the emperor, independent of the civil service bureaucracy. Since the first emperor, there emerged Jin Yi Wei, an organization formed by spy agents and Eastern Depot as well as Western Depot, formed by eunuchs. The members of Jin Yi Wei were the secret agents of the emperor, who were dispersed all over the country to spy for the emperor. Anyone who were talking something bad about the emperor may be eavesdropped by Jin Yi Wei. With the involvement of Jin Yi Wei, many officials were wronged. The slaughter mentioned above partially because of the extravagant information of Jin Yi Wei. The establishment of Jin Yi Wei was both a way to enhance the emperor’s absolutism and also the introduction of cruel punishment.

Eunuchs during the Ming Dynasty gained unprecedented power over state affairs. Eunuchs had ranks that were equivalent to civil service ranks, only theirs had four grades instead of nine. Since the Middle and Late Ming Dynasty, Eunuchs sometimes even surpassed the emperors’ power, among whom Wei Zhongxian was the most powerful and notorious eunuch in Chinese history. He was best known for his service in the court of the carpentry-addicted Emperor Ming Xizong, when his power eventually rivaled that of the emperor. Eunuchs’ absolute power greatly disturbed the politics the society since nearly every eunuch was illiterate and was forced to be eunuch for survival.
The existence of Jin Yi Wei or Eastern and Western Depot deteriorated the chaos of Ming Dynasty. Many Bureaucrats were wronged by the organizations for their false accusation. There were many problems in Ming Dynasty’s political system ranging from the rulers to the administration mechanism. The above-mentioned problems all led to the decline of Ming Dynasty.

In economics, the measures taken by Ming Dynasty were not helpful, either. Although Zheng He’s exploration on the sea was more half a century ahead, the objective for the voyages was for political reason while voyages carried out by European countries were for trade purpose only. The Emperor, Zhu Di sent Zheng He on voyage was for spreading the influence of China, to show the world how powerful the country was. Zheng He’s voyages cost the court huge amount of treasure so that the emperor had to cut his expedition when the country’s wealth began to decline. “The imperial trade and tribute missions were very expensive, and a huge amount of money was needed to fight the wars with the Mongols and to reconstruct the Great Wall for defense against them” (Ming Dynasty, China Highlights).The navigator’s expedition facilitated China’s foreign trade to some extent, but couldn’t help too much in the economical development. In addition, the way Ming Dynasty dealt with trade was not proper. To demonstrate the Kingdom of Heaven’s power, the court always dispatched large amount of goods to other countries. Whenever foreign ambassadors came to China to pay tribute to the country, the court would give them gold or silver and also Zheng He would give much to the countries whoever admitted the presence or the power of Ming Dynasty during his voyages. Either when Zheng He was doing trade in overseas country or when foreign leaders coming to China, China always returned their business partners with much more valued goods, which was totally against the rule of equivalent exchange.

Another obstacle in the process of Ming Dynasty’s economical development is the seclusion policy of the country, caused by coastal pirates’ invasion. It was believed the pirates were all Japanese and it was the foreign trade along the coastal areas that caused the invasion, so the rulers decided to stop doing trade with foreign countries. Actually, many pirates were Chinese people who were deprived of land and were forced to be pirates to survive. Though General Qi Jiguang was sent for fighting against the pirates, the rulers took negative attitude toward the coastal invasion. The shutdown of foreign trade tremendously obstructed the country’s economy.

Socially speaking, one main factor comes from the cultural area. Because of Zhu Yuanzhang’s illiteracy, Ming Dynast had the most rigid imperial examination. The examination content was confined to the Four Books and Five Classics (traditional Confucian books) and the form was called Ba Gu Wen , a stereotyped style including eight parts. “By the end of the Ming dynasty, the writing of examination responses had become highly stylized and formalized in a pattern called “the eight-legged essay” ( baguwen), which in subsequent centuries became notoriously repressive of creative thought and writing” (Ba Gu Wen, Encyclopaedia Britannica). There is an old Chinese saying nothing is lofty except reading. In Chinese feudal society, one could only stand out by taking the imperial examination. So very few students would study other subjects such as natural science. The imperial examination greatly restricted the talents’ development, which accordingly affect the country’s scientific development while western countries were blooming in all areas.

With all the above-mentioned political, economical and cultural factors for the decline of Ming Dynasty, there are still some reasons which cannot be defined in one specific aspect. Some factors are intersectional. The establishment of enfeoffment also resulted in economical and social problems. The land the emperors enfeoffed the princes were robbed from the farmers. With the expansion of the princes’ families, the land plundered from the peasants was increasing, which severely restricted the development of agricultural economy. Throughout Chinese feudal societies, no industry other than farming was encouraged by the government and population movement was strictly controlled, so peasants couldn’t find another way to feed themselves when they lost their land. Naturally, large-scale famine was caused. In the late Ming Dynasty, thousands of people were starved to death, which finally led to the famous peasantry uprising led by Li Zicheng, who defeated Ming Dynasty’s army and founded a new regime called Dashun, which was later eliminated by Qing Dynsaty.
The combined problems in the aspects of politics, economics or society finally led to the decline and collapse of Ming Dynasty, which not only signifies the dynasty’s fall but also the start of Chinese feudal system’s decline as well as the disappearance of China’s position as a superpower in the world.


Works Cited
“Ba Gu Wen” 24th, Nov. 2014. web.
URL: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/437381/baguwen
“MingDynasty”. 7th, Nov. 2014. web.
URL: http://etcweb.princeton.edu/asianart/timeperiod_china.jsp?ctry=China&pd=Ming
http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/china-history/the-ming-dynasty.htm
“Zheng He”. 7th, Nov. 2014. web.
http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_aboutchina/2003-09/24/content_22644.htm

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