China Rejects European Outreach

Objectives:

• Know what the Ming dynasty was and what dynasty it conquered.

• Know who Hongwu and Yonglo were and what each of them did.

• Know who Zheng He was and, what his expeditions did and what the treasure ships were.

• Know what the Forbidden City was.

• Know what the Qing Dynasty was and what Kangxi did.

• Why did the isolationist Chinese reject the British offers of increased trade?

• Know what foot binding was.

Ming Dynasty

• Lasted from 1368-1644

• They dominate the Asian region and all its trade.

• Hongwu was the first Ming emperor and he conquered the Mongol-originate Yuan dynasty, which was in shambles due to mismanagement and who the Chinese never like anyway.

• Hongwu established an effective military system that prevented commanders from having too much power, redistributed land to the poor and introduced paper money (though he didn’t understand inflation and made too much).

Hongwu

Hongwu is succeeded by his son, Yonglo.• Yonglu was a curious guy

who launched the expedition of Zheng He.

Yonglo

Junks

• Chinese ships.

• The Chinese junk is thought to be one of the most efficient and easy to operate sailing ships in the world.

• Its mast designs didn’t overly stress any part of the ship and the sails didn’t require complicated rigging.

• Contrast this with later European designs that have exceptionally complicated rope rigging and a lot of strain is placed on the masts.

• Had a flat bottom instead of a European keel design.

• Because of this, it required a strong sizable sternpost rudder to guide the ship and keep it from sliding sideways in the water.

• Some rudders had holes in them to increase maneuverability. This wasn’t used in the west until 1901 for torpedo boats.

• Flat bottom allowed it to operate in shallower water too.

• Flat bottom? No junk in the junk’s trunk?

• Also had watertight bulkheads that ran the length and the width of the ship.

• This created compartments that helped the ship resist sinking and also made the ship extreme strong structurally.

Zheng He

• He was a eunuch (a castrated servant of the emperor), was Muslim, and about six foot seven.

• He commanded ginormous fleets on seven different expeditions from 1405-1433. The largest one had nearly 28,000 people of all different occupations with 62 treasure ships and 190 smaller vessels.

• The treasure ships were staggeringly huge. The biggest were 600 feet long and 180 feet wide, weighed 1500 tons, and had nine masts.

• By comparison, the Titanic was 882 feet long and 92 feet wide.

• European ships at the time were tiny by comparison, with a displacement of only 150 tons.

• The treasure ships may be the largest wind-powered ships ever constructed.

• He explored a vast amount of area in Asia, India, Arabia, and Africa. There’s even speculation he visited the Americas.

• Zheng He was quite the admiral and diplomat. He curried favor wherever he went by distributing luxury goods and impressing people.

• The impressing people part also led some to give tribute to the Chinese emperor

• After this big burst of exploration, the Chinese turned inward and became isolationist.

• The Chinese were afraid of other cultures unduly influencing and corrupting their own.

The Chinese forbid its people to make oceangoing vessels or even leaving the country.

• At only a few ports were goods allowed to be traded and ships to dock

• Not that this stopped a great deal of smuggling, however.

• This increased with silver replacing paper money.

• It worked out well. The Chinese wanted silver. The Spanish wanted Chinese goods and the Spanish were getting a lot of silver from the Americas.

Unfortunately for the Ming dynasty, many of the rulers after Yonglo weren’t all that great.

• It didn’t help that there were continual power struggles.

• Hongwu had established a secret police force that, like all secret police forces, was rather brutal (that’s usually why they’re secret).

• The court eunuchs in turn established their own special forces and it was a big mess.

• By the mid-1600’s the Machus take over China and establish the Qing dynasty.

It was during the Ming dynasty under Yonglo, though, that the Forbidden City was built… around 1406.

• It took 14 years and 200,000 workers to complete.

• It’s about 2.4 million square feet, has 800 buildings and over 8,000 rooms.

• It’s surrounded by a 19 foot deep moat and a 32 foot wall.

• Only the emperor, court officials and functionaries lived there. Foreigners and common people were allowed in only with special permission.

Qing Dynasty

• Lasted from 1644 to 1912.

• Effective rulers.

• Invoked the Mandate of Heaven when they conquered the Mings. Obviously.

Kangxi

• Qing emperor from 1661 to 1722 (it helped that he was only 8 years old when he became emperor).• His mother ruled in his place

until he was old enough.

• Commissioned the most comprehensive dictionary of Chinese characters.

• This endeared him to scholars and fancy folks who didn’t like the Qing dynasty. He asked them to work on the dictionary without formally working for him. Gradually, though, they did.

• Reduced government expenses and lowered taxes (he was a Reagan Republican?!)

• Consolidated more power in the imperial throne by crushing the revolt of three powerful feudal lords.

By the time the European explorers get to China, isolationism is in full effect. The Chinese severely limited their trading.

• If you wanted to trade, you had to pay tribute to the emperor and perform the kowtow ritual, which involved bowing before the emperor and touching your head to the ground (once, not nine times).

• The kowtow wasn’t a sign of worship, just court etiquette.

• The Dutch had no problem with it… they represented only themselves.

• The British, though, did have a problem – they represented the British king and kowtowing would have symbolized the king being subject to the Chinese emperor.

• Due to this reluctance, the emperor refused to grant Lord George Macartney’s request for better trade relations with China.

• Could also be the emperor didn’t like the proposed terms which involved relaxed trade restrictions, the acquisition of a Chinese island for the British, and a British embassy in Beijing.

• Could also have involved the Chinese understanding of the Mandate of Heaven, which made too many foreigners problematic.

• At any rate, the rejection of Macartney is seen as a missed opportunity for China to move into the modern industrial world and it got held back.

Culture

• Greater rice production made for a growing population; it was 300 million by 1800 – the current population of the U.S.

• Family life was very patriarchal and sons were valued over daughters for economic and religious reasons.

• Daughters could sometimes be killed because of this.

• Became an issue due to China’s one-child policy that began in the 20th century. Females would be aborted.

• Because of this, the sex ratio is now about 120:100 male to female. That’s a demographic problem and will likely become a big issue for China in the next 20 years.

• Another patriarchal element is the practice of footbinding.

• The feet of girls no older than 6 would be broken and bound with cloth strips so that they’d heal oddly.

• The ideal was to have a foot between 3-4 inches.

• The woman would be severely hobbled and unable to walk any significant distance or perform labor.

• It was seen as a status symbol since only the rich could afford to have their women so incapacitated they couldn’t work.

• It wasn’t abolish until the 20th century.

From Ning Lao T'ai-t'ai

• “A girl's beauty and desirability were counted more by the size of her feet than by the beauty of her face. Matchmakers were not asked, 'Is she beautiful?' but 'How small are her feet?' A plain face is given by heaven but poorly bound feet are a sign of laziness.”

Ouch.