Changes

By the beginning of the 17th century, the Ming was beginning to severely weaken, due to a number of factors. Declining tax revenues made it difficult to pay officials and the military, leading to many disgruntled army officers and soldiers; meanwhile, British and Dutch attacks on Iberian shipping severely impacted the amount of [[silver]] flowing into China, causing silver to become more precious - peasants who made their income in [[copper]] coin but paid their taxes in silver now had to pay two or three times as much copper for the same amount of silver. Further, the Little Ice Age contributed to famines and pestilence in various parts of the empire, exacerbated by poor granary emergency preparation policies.<ref>Spence, 3, 20-21.</ref>

By the beginning of the 17th century, the Ming was beginning to severely weaken, due to a number of factors. Declining tax revenues made it difficult to pay officials and the military, leading to many disgruntled army officers and soldiers; meanwhile, British and Dutch attacks on Iberian shipping severely impacted the amount of [[silver]] flowing into China, causing silver to become more precious - peasants who made their income in [[copper]] coin but paid their taxes in silver now had to pay two or three times as much copper for the same amount of silver. Further, the Little Ice Age contributed to famines and pestilence in various parts of the empire, exacerbated by poor granary emergency preparation policies.<ref>Spence, 3, 20-21.</ref>

A weakened Ming Dynasty saw the rise of numerous rebel and bandit groups, in part in response to these famines and onerous tax burdens. One rebel leader, [[Li Zicheng]], known by some as a "dashing prince," captured Beijing in [[1644]], finding only a few companies of soldiers and a few thousand eunuchs defending the city's twenty-one miles of city walls. The [[Chongzhen Emperor]] hanged himself two days later.<ref name=tignor500>Tignor, Elman, et al., 501.</ref>

A weakened Ming Dynasty saw the rise of numerous rebel and bandit groups, in part in response to these famines and onerous tax burdens. One rebel leader, [[Li Zicheng]], captured Beijing in [[1644]], finding only a few companies of soldiers and a few thousand eunuchs defending the city's twenty-one miles of city walls. The [[Chongzhen Emperor]] hanged himself two days later.<ref name=tignor500>Tignor, Elman, et al., 501.</ref>

Meanwhile, the Ming had been fighting the Manchus in the north, suffering a notable early defeat in [[1619]], but otherwise managing to hold back the steppe nomads. Hearing of the fall of Beijing, however, the commander of the Ming armies in the northeast enlisted the aid of the Manchus to help oust Li Zicheng. The Manchu armies, led by Ming forces to Beijing, did just that, defeating Li Zicheng, but afterwards, they kept Beijing for themselves, going on to conquer the remainder of China in the ensuing decades.<ref name=tignor500/>

Meanwhile, the Ming had been fighting the Manchus in the north, suffering a notable early defeat in [[1619]], but otherwise managing to hold back the steppe nomads. Hearing of the fall of Beijing, however, the commander of the Ming armies in the northeast, [[Wu Sangui]], enlisted the aid of the Manchus to help oust Li Zicheng. The Manchu armies, led by Ming forces to Beijing, did just that, defeating Li Zicheng, but afterwards, they kept Beijing for themselves, going on to conquer the remainder of China in the ensuing decades.<ref name=tignor500/>

Ming loyalists initially fled to [[Fujian province]], attempting to set up an Imperial Court in exile there,<ref>Jansen, 26.</ref> and remained active in southern China and Taiwan into the 1680s, sending numerous requests for aid to Japan. The Japanese referred to those bringing these requests as ''Nihon kisshi'' (日本乞師). Some prominent shogunate officials supported the notion of sending support, and the matter was briefly discussed; the shogunate went so far as to send messages to the Korean court, via [[Tsushima han]], testing out Korean support for such pro-Ming actions. However, a number of prominent officials opposed sending any support. They pointed to the Ming's unfriendly and even hostile attitudes for nearly a century against Japanese ships coming to China, and to the fact that the loyalists requesting aid were not clear representatives of the Ming Imperial Court, but were essentially unknowns. In the end, no aid was offered or provided by the shogunate.<ref>Mizuno Norihito, “China in Tokugawa Foreign Relations: The Tokugawa Bakufu’s Perception of and Attitudes toward Ming-Qing China,” ''Sino-Japanese Studies'' 15 (2003), 138.; Jansen, 27.</ref>

Ming loyalists initially fled to [[Fujian province]], attempting to set up an Imperial Court in exile there,<ref>Jansen, 26.</ref> and remained active in southern China and Taiwan into the 1680s, sending numerous requests for aid to Japan. The Japanese referred to those bringing these requests as ''Nihon kisshi'' (日本乞師). Some prominent shogunate officials supported the notion of sending support, and the matter was briefly discussed; the shogunate went so far as to send messages to the Korean court, via [[Tsushima han]], testing out Korean support for such pro-Ming actions. However, a number of prominent officials opposed sending any support. They pointed to the Ming's unfriendly and even hostile attitudes for nearly a century against Japanese ships coming to China, and to the fact that the loyalists requesting aid were not clear representatives of the Ming Imperial Court, but were essentially unknowns. In the end, no aid was offered or provided by the shogunate.<ref>Mizuno Norihito, “China in Tokugawa Foreign Relations: The Tokugawa Bakufu’s Perception of and Attitudes toward Ming-Qing China,” ''Sino-Japanese Studies'' 15 (2003), 138.; Jansen, 27.</ref>