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CHINA from MONGOL RULE to the MING (2 of 2)

The first concern of China's new Ming emperor in 1370 was military strength and preventing Mongol resurgence. The emperor, Hong-wu, established garrisons at strategic points and created an hereditary military caste of soldiers who would sustain themselves by farming and be ever ready for war. And Hong-wu made his commanders a new military nobility.

Troops were forbidden to abuse civilians. Hong-wu's regime executed many who violated his laws and were suspected of treason. He banned secret societies. And he worked toward economic recovery. Farms had been devastated and he settled a huge number of peasants on what had been wasteland and gave them tax exemptions. Between 1371 and 1379 the land under cultivation tripled, as did revenues. The government sponsored tree planting and reforestation. Neglected dikes and canals were repaired and thousands of reservoirs were rebuilt or restored.

Hong-wu died in 1398, at the age of seventy. And, as usual, the man who had managed to rise to power and found a dynasty was followed by sons less able than he. Hong-wu's death was followed by four years of civil war and the disappearance of his son and heir, Jianwen. Jianwen had been indecisive and scholarly and no match for his uncle, who in 1403 became the emperor, Zhi Di -- also known as the Emperor of Yongle (Perpetual Happiness), said to have been born of a Korean concubine. Emperor Yongle ruled to 1424, using eunuchs as spies and appointing them to high positions in government.

One of Emperor Yongle's eunuchs, Zheng He, was a Muslim whose father had made a pilgrimage to Mecca. Zheng He knew the world a little more than others, and he led a group of can-do eunuchs that performed special tasks for the emperor. Emperor Yongle ordered Zheng to make naval expeditions.

From the Mongols, the Ming rulers had inherited extensive maritime contacts and technology. During Mongol rule, large Chinese cargo ships plied the oceans around China, including a regular run of grain from the south, along the coast, to the north. And Chinese ships traded through southeast Asia to the island of Lanka (Sri Lanka) and to India.

The Ming dynasty did not maintain this trade. Zheng He's expedition, beginning in 1405, was made not for the sake of trade but for geographical exploration and diplomacy -- an expedition with sixty-three ships and 27,000 men. Six more expeditions led by Zheng followed, the last one in 1433 under the emperor Xuan-de. The expeditions reached Surabaya at the island of Java, and they reached India and then Mogadishu on the coast of Africa, Hormuz at the Persian Gulf, and up the Red Sea to Jeddah. Gifts were exchanged, and rare spices, plants and animals, including a giraffe, were brought back to China.

China had the world's greatest navy, with an estimated 317 ships -- constructed at Nanjing. These ships were made with special woods and waterproofing techniques and an adjustable centerboard keel. Some of the ships were 440 feet long and 180 feet wide, ships with four to nine masts that were as high as ninety feet, with silk sails and with crews as large as five hundred. But in China interest in a great navy and merchant shipping was overshadowed by concern about military defenses on land. Attempts to control Annam failed and were expensive. In mid-century (the 1400s) the Mongols were making border raids and appeared to the Chinese as an even greater threat. Also, with independence from Mongol rule, Confucian influence had increased at court. Confucian scholars were filling the ranks of senior officialdom and remained hostile to commerce and foreign contacts. The Confucianists had little or no interest in seeing China develop into a great maritime trading power.

In the wake of Mongol rule, China's leaders were eager to restore things Chinese, and that included shipping on China's canals -- which had gone into disrepair under the Mongols. They saw internal trade as enough. The government ended its sponsorship of naval expeditions, and, in the spirit of isolationism, the government forbade multi-masted ships sailing out of port. The development of world maritime trade was left to Europeans, who were beginning to extend their voyages.

The Forbidden City

Between 1406 and 1420 a great "Palace of Heavenly Purity," of marble and wood, was built at Beijing. It became known as the Forbidden City because people needed the emperor's permission to enter. The palace was in the middle of a yard surrounded by a 7.9 meters high wall, behind a six-metre deep and 52-metre wide moat. The yard is now 880 meters (almost 10 U.S. football fields) by 500 meters and known to the world as Tiananmen Square. Emperor Yongle moved there in 1420.

Incentives

Matt Ridley wrote of disincentives to invention and commercial enterprise. He quotes a Christian missionary in Ming China as follows:

Any man of genius is paralyzed immediately by the thought that his efforts will bring him punishment rather than reward.