Ming dynasty: A Visual History

The Ming dynasty (1368-1644) was founded by Zhu Yuanzhang, a former beggar and monk who led the rebellion that expelled the Mongol Yuan. Its 276 years saw the Forbidden City, the Great Wall in its present form, Zheng He's voyages to Africa, a population of perhaps 160 million and a booming silver economy. Court factionalism, a global silver shortage, famines of the Little Ice Age and peasant revolt culminated in the suicide of the last emperor in 1644 and the Manchu conquest.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Ming dynasty. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Population of Ming China

Estimates vary widely; official registers stayed near 60 million and understated growth.

Timeline of the Ming dynasty

1. 1368
   Ming foundedZhu Yuanzhang takes Dadu.
2. 1405
   Zheng He's first voyageThe largest fleet the world had seen.
3. 1421
   Capital moved to BeijingThe Forbidden City completed.
4. 1449
   Tumu CrisisThe emperor captured by the Mongols.
5. 1557
   Portuguese at Macau
6. 1592
   Imjin WarMing armies defend Korea from Japan.
7. 1618
   Nurhaci attacksThe Manchu wars begin.
8. 1644
   Beijing fallsThe last emperor hangs himself.

The Hongwu and Yongle emperors

Zhu Yuanzhang, orphaned by famine and plague, rose through the Red Turban rebels to take Nanjing in 1356 and Dadu in 1368. As the Hongwu Emperor he abolished the chancellorship, terrorised his officials with purges that killed tens of thousands and issued a legal code that lasted to 1912. His son Yongle usurped the throne in 1402, moved the capital to Beijing, built the Forbidden City, repaired the Grand Canal and sent the eunuch admiral Zheng He on seven voyages to Southeast Asia, India, Arabia and East Africa.

Turning inward, growing rich

After 1433 the voyages stopped and the fleet rotted. The Zhengtong Emperor was captured by the Mongols at Tumu in 1449, and the Ming rebuilt the Great Wall in stone and brick. Yet the economy boomed: Japanese and American silver poured in to pay for silk, porcelain and tea, taxes were converted to silver, cities and printing flourished, and Jesuits like Matteo Ricci reached the court.

Collapse

The Wanli Emperor stopped attending court for decades; eunuchs and Confucian factions fought bitterly. War in Korea against Japan (1592-1598) drained the treasury. From the 1620s cold, drought, famine and epidemic struck as the Manchus pressed the frontier and silver imports faltered. Li Zicheng's rebels took Beijing on 25 April 1644 and the Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself on a hill behind the palace. Ming loyalist courts held out in the south until 1662.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Yuan dynasty (1271 to 1368)
• Qing dynasty (1636 to 1912)
• Northern Yuan dynasty (1368 to 1635)
• First Portuguese Empire (1415 to 1663)
• Timurid Empire (1370 to 1507)
• British Empire (1583 to 1997)

Wars of the same era and region

• Manchu conquest of China (1618 to 1683)
• Japanese invasions of Korea (Imjin War) (1592 to 1598)
• Mongol invasions and conquests (1206 to 1368)

8 surprising things about the Ming dynasty

1. The Hongwu Emperor is the only Chinese ruler to rise from actual beggary; he spent years as a wandering monk begging for food.
2. Zheng He's largest ships were probably over 100 metres long, several times the size of Columbus's Santa Maria.
3. Most of the Great Wall tourists see today is Ming work of the sixteenth century.
4. The Yongle Encyclopedia of 1408 ran to 11,000 volumes and was never printed; only about 400 survive.
5. The Wanli Emperor refused to hold court for over 20 years in a sulk over the succession.
6. By 1600 perhaps a third of the silver mined in Spanish America ended up in China.
7. The Ming founder gave the dynasty a name meaning 'brilliant', reflecting his links to the Manichaean-tinged White Lotus movement.
8. The Forbidden City has 980 buildings and was the seat of 24 emperors of two dynasties.

Sources

• Ming dynasty Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Ming dynasty Wikipedia
• Ming Dynasty World History Encyclopedia
• Timothy Brook, The Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties (2010) Harvard University Press

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