contributor
26,978
edits
Changes
From SamuraiWiki
Jump to navigationJump to searchno edit summary
Zhu Yuanzhang was the first emperor of China's [[Ming Dynasty]], and the first dynastic founder to come from a genuinely humble, peasant, birth. Having led a successful rebellion to overthrow the [[Mongol]] [[Yuan Dynasty]] in [[1368]], he named himself the Hongwu Emperor, marking the beginning of a new dynasty, and came to be known as well as "Ming Taizu," or "Great Ancestor/Founder of Ming."
Zhu Yuanzhang was the first emperor of China's [[Ming Dynasty]], and the first dynastic founder to come from a genuinely humble, peasant, birth. Having led a successful rebellion to overthrow the [[Mongol]] [[Yuan Dynasty]] in [[1368]], he named himself the Hongwu Emperor, marking the beginning of a new dynasty, and came to be known as well as "Ming Taizu," or "Great Ancestor/Founder of Ming."
Hongwu is known for his autocratic style of rule, centralizing power in the hands of the emperor even further than it had been previously, by eliminating several of the top ministerial positions; his paranoia against others gaining power extended to the establishment of a powerful spy network, which was used to keep officials in line. Hongwu was extremely hard-working, looking over thousands of memorials a week, but this put an exceptional burden on his successors. He also created an overarching legal framework known as the Great Ming Code, which was meant to transform and regulate society in a new, Ming, form; it had some considerable lasting impacts, but Hongwu also frequently contradicted or undermined the Code through his judgements on individual matters.<ref name=schiro244>Conrad Schirokauer, et al, ''A Brief History of Chinese and Japanese Civilizations'', Fourth Edition, Cengage Learning (2012), 244.</ref>
This Code, and Hongwu's policy decisions otherwise, were heavily motivated, however, by a desire to restore the greatness of China after nearly a hundred years of Mongol rule. He restored the [[Chinese imperial examinations|civil service examination system]], and the [[National Academy]], and oversaw the establishment of a great number of schools across the empire.<ref name=schiro244/>
==Early Life==
==Early Life==
The Hongwu Emperor sought to restore, or at least evoke, the glories of the great Chinese dynasties of the past, in particular the [[Tang Dynasty]], and so had many aspects of court protocol, including court costume, patterned after that of the Tang. Even so, many aspects of Ming Dynasty court protocol, and especially governance policies and administrative structures, can be traced more directly to a continuation and/or modification of Yuan Dynasty systems, rather than any more dramatic break from the immediate past or more complete restoration of the more distant past. One example of this is seen in the [[Chinese imperial examinations]], put back into place in [[1384]], but based on the [[Neo-Confucianism]] of [[Zhu Xi]] and of the Yuan Dynasty examinations, rather than the classical Confucian forms of the Tang dynasty exams.
The Hongwu Emperor sought to restore, or at least evoke, the glories of the great Chinese dynasties of the past, in particular the [[Tang Dynasty]], and so had many aspects of court protocol, including court costume, patterned after that of the Tang. Even so, many aspects of Ming Dynasty court protocol, and especially governance policies and administrative structures, can be traced more directly to a continuation and/or modification of Yuan Dynasty systems, rather than any more dramatic break from the immediate past or more complete restoration of the more distant past. One example of this is seen in the [[Chinese imperial examinations]], put back into place in [[1384]], but based on the [[Neo-Confucianism]] of [[Zhu Xi]] and of the Yuan Dynasty examinations, rather than the classical Confucian forms of the Tang dynasty exams.
The Hongwu Emperor initially based the structure of the Ming government on that of the Yuan Dynasty, with a chancellor or prime minister overseeing a government divided into Six Boards. However, concerned that the chancellor (potentially) wielded too much power, he abolished that position in [[1380]]. The organization of regional administration - including titles/posts and geographic administrative borders - was left largely intact as it existed under the Yuan.
The Hongwu Emperor initially based the structure of the Ming government on that of the Yuan Dynasty, with a chancellor or prime minister overseeing a government divided into Six Boards. However, concerned that the chancellor, or ''chengxiang'' (potentially) wielded too much power, he abolished that position in [[1380]], along with the chief agency of administration ''zhongshu sheng''. This was intended to protect the Imperial government from having any one man gain too much power; however, the elimination of these positions placed a great burden of daily administrative work on the emperor himself, and resulted in palace [[eunuchs]] and officials taking on executive powers.<ref>Wing Sit-Chan, Joseph Adler (eds.), ''Sources of Chinese Tradition: Volume 2: From 1600 Through the Twentieth Century'', Columbia University Press (2013), 12n27.</ref> The organization of regional administration - including titles/posts and geographic administrative borders - was left largely intact as it existed under the Yuan.
One major program initiated by the Hongwu Emperor was the restoration of a system of family registers, known as [[Yellow Registers]], inspired by Tang precedent. As under the Yuan, people were expected to perform much the same professions/occupations as their fathers; this, as well as numerous other data about each family was recorded in a system of registers, providing the government with a better knowledge about the population than had existed since the fall of the Tang. This, in turn, allowed for more accurate and thorough taxation, etc. Taxes were collected twice a year - in winter, and in summer - as under the Tang following the [[An Lushan Rebellion]]; though the government planned to perform periodical land surveys & population censuses, in order to update the tax obligations, the Ming, like the Tang before them, found they lacked the manpower to do so effectively.
One major program initiated by the Hongwu Emperor was the restoration of a system of family registers, known as [[Yellow Registers]], inspired by Tang precedent. As under the Yuan, people were expected to perform much the same professions/occupations as their fathers; this, as well as numerous other data about each family was recorded in a system of registers, providing the government with a better knowledge about the population than had existed since the fall of the Tang. This, in turn, allowed for more accurate and thorough taxation, etc. Taxes were collected twice a year - in winter, and in summer - as under the Tang following the [[An Lushan Rebellion]]; though the government planned to perform periodical land surveys & population censuses, in order to update the tax obligations, the Ming, like the Tang before them, found they lacked the manpower to do so effectively.
