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Ming Dynasty

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   The Míng Dynasty (Chinese: 明朝; pinyin: Míng Cháo) was the ruling
   dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644. It was the last ethnic Han-led
   dynasty in China, supplanting the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty before
   falling to the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty. The Míng Dynasty ruled over the
   Empire of the Great Míng (大明國; Dà Míng Guó), as China was then known.
   Although the Míng capital, Beijing, fell in 1644, remnants of the Míng
   throne and power (now collectively called the Southern Míng) survived
   until 1662.

   Míng rule saw the construction of a vast navy, including four-masted
   ships of 1,500 tons displacement, and a standing army of 1,000,000
   troops. Over 100,000 tons of iron per year were produced in North China
   (roughly 1 kg per inhabitant), and many books were printed using
   movable type. There were strong feelings amongst the Han ethnic group
   against the rule by non-Han ethnic groups during the subsequent Qing
   Dynasty , and the restoration of the Míng dynasty was used as a
   rallying cry up until the modern era.

Origins of the Míng Dynasty

   The Hongwu Emperor (r. 1368 - 1398)
   Enlarge
   The Hongwu Emperor (r. 1368 - 1398)

   The Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty ruled before the establishment of the Míng
   Dynasty. Some historians believe the Mongols' discrimination against
   Han Chinese during the Yuan dynasty is the primary cause for the end of
   that dynasty. The discrimination led to a peasant revolt that pushed
   the Yuan dynasty back to the Mongolian steppes. However, historians
   such as JAG Roberts dispute this theory. Other causes include paper
   currency over-circulation, which caused inflation to go up ten-fold
   during the reign of Yuan Emperor Shundi, along with the flooding of the
   Yellow River as a result of the abandonment of irrigation projects. In
   Late Yuan times, agriculture was in shambles. When hundreds of
   thousands of civilians were called upon to work on the Yellow River,
   war broke out. A number of Han Chinese groups revolted, and eventually
   the group led by Zhu Yuanzhang, assisted by an ancient and secret
   intellectual fraternity called the Summer Palace people, established
   dominance. The rebellion succeeded and the Míng Dynasty was established
   in Nanjing in 1368. Zhu Yuanzhang took Hongwu as his reign title. The
   Ming dynasty emperors were members of the Zhu family.

   Hongwu kept a powerful army organized on a military system known as the
   Wei-so system, which was similar to the Fu-ping system of the Tang
   Dynasty. According to Ming Shih Gao, the political intention of the
   founder of the Míng Dynasty in establishing the Wei-so system was to
   maintain a strong army while avoiding bonds between commanding officers
   and soldiers.

   Hongwu supported the creation of self-supporting agricultural
   communities. Neo-feudal land-tenure developments of late Song times
   were expropriated with the establishment of the Míng Dynasty. Great
   land estates were confiscated by the government, fragmented and rented
   out; private slavery was forbidden. Consequently, after the death of
   the Yongle Emperor, independent peasant landholders predominated in
   Chinese agriculture.

   It is notable that Hongwu did not trust Confucians. However, during the
   next few emperors, the Confucian scholar gentry, marginalized under the
   Yuan for nearly a century, once again assumed their predominant role in
   running the empire.

Exploration to Isolation

   This is the only surviving example in the world of a major piece of
   lacquer furniture from the "Orchard Factory" (the Imperial Laquer
   Workshop) set up in Beijing during the early Míng Dynasty. Decorated in
   dragons and phoenixes it was made to stand in an imperial palace. Made
   sometime during the Xuande reign period (1426-1435) of the Míng
   Dynasty. Currently on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in
   London.( See the closeup for more detail )
   Enlarge
   This is the only surviving example in the world of a major piece of
   lacquer furniture from the "Orchard Factory" (the Imperial Laquer
   Workshop) set up in Beijing during the early Míng Dynasty. Decorated in
   dragons and phoenixes it was made to stand in an imperial palace. Made
   sometime during the Xuande reign period ( 1426- 1435) of the Míng
   Dynasty. Currently on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in
   London.

                     ( See the closeup for more detail )

   The Chinese gained influence over Turkestan. The maritime Asian nations
   sent envoys with tributes for the Chinese emperor. Internally, the
   Grand Canal was expanded to its farthest limits and proved to be a
   stimulus to domestic trade.

   The most extraordinary venture, however, during this stage was the
   dispatch of Zheng He's seven naval expeditions, which traversed the
   Indian Ocean and the Southeast Asian archipelago. An ambitious eunuch
   of Hui descent, a quintessential outsider in the establishment of
   Confucian scholar elites, Zheng He led seven expeditions from 1405 to
   1433 with six of them under the auspices of Yongle. He traversed
   perhaps as far as the Cape of Good Hope and, according to the
   controversial 1421 theory, the Americas. Zheng's appointment in 1403 to
   lead a sea-faring task force was a triumph the commercial lobbies
   seeking to stimulate conventional trade, not mercantilism.

   The interests of the commercial lobbies and those of the religious
   lobbies were also linked. Both were offensive to the neo-Confucian
   sensibilities of the scholarly elite: Religious lobbies encouraged
   commercialism and exploration, which benefited commercial interests, in
   order to divert state funds from the anti-clerical efforts of the
   Confucian scholar gentry. The first expedition in 1405 consisted of 317
   ships and 28,000 men--then the largest naval expedition in history.
   Zheng He's multi-decked ships carried up to 500 troops but also cargoes
   of export goods, mainly silks and porcelains, and brought back foreign
   luxuries such as spices and tropical woods.

   The economic motive for these huge ventures may have been important,
   and many of the ships had large private cabins for merchants. But the
   chief aim was probably political; to enroll further states as
   tributaries and mark the dominance of the Chinese Empire. The political
   character of Zheng He's voyages indicates the primacy of the political
   elites. Despite their formidable and unprecedented strength, Zheng He's
   voyages, unlike European voyages of exploration later in the fifteenth
   century, were not intended to extend Chinese sovereignty overseas.
   Indicative of the competition among elites, these excursions had also
   become politically controversial. Zheng He's voyages had been supported
   by his fellow low eunuchs at court and strongly opposed by the
   Confucian scholar officials. Their antagonism was in fact so great that
   they tried to suppress any mention of the naval expeditions in the
   official imperial record. A compromise interpretation realizes that the
   Mongol raids tilted the balance in the favour of the Confucian elites.
   This tripod planter from the Míng Dynasty is an example of Longquan
   celadon. It is housed in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
   Enlarge
   This tripod planter from the Míng Dynasty is an example of Longquan
   celadon. It is housed in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

   By the end of the 15th century, imperial subjects were forbidden from
   either building oceangoing ships or leaving the country. Some
   historians speculate that this measure was taken in response to piracy.
   But during the mid-1500s, trade started up again when silver replaced
   paper money. The value of silver skyrocketed relative to the rest of
   the world, and both trade and inflation increased as China began to
   import silver.

   Historians of the 1960s, such as John Fairbank III and Joseph Levinson
   have argued that this renovation turned into stagnation, and that
   science and philosophy were caught in a tight net of traditions
   smothering any attempt at something new. Historians who held to this
   view argue that in the 15th century, by imperial decree the great navy
   was decommissioned; construction of seagoing ships was forbidden; the
   iron industry gradually declined.

Míng Military Conquests

   The beginning of the Míng Dynasty was marked by Ming Dynasty military
   conquests as they sought to cement their hold on power.
   Ming foreign relations in 1580
   Enlarge
   Ming foreign relations in 1580

   Early in his reign the first Míng Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang provided
   instructions as injunctions to later generations. These instructions
   included the advice that those countries to the north were dangerous
   and posed a threat to the Míng polity and those to the south did not.
   Furthermore, he stated that those to the south, not constituting a
   threat, were not to be subject to attack. Yet, either because of or
   despite this, it was the polities to the south which were to suffer the
   greatest effects of Míng expansion over the following century. This
   prolonged entanglement in the south with no long-lasting tangible
   benefits ultimately weakened the Míng.

Agricultural Revolution

   Historians consider the Hongwu emperor to be a cruel but able ruler.
   From the start of his rule, he took great care to distribute land to
   small farmers. It seems to have been his policy to favour the poor,
   whom he tried to help to support themselves and their families. For
   instance, in 1370 an order was given that some land in Hunan and Anhui
   should be distributed to young farmers who had reached manhood. To
   preclude the confiscation or purchase of this land by unscrupulous
   landlords, it was announced that the title to the land was not
   transferable. At approximately the middle of Hongwu's reign, an edict
   was published declaring that those who cultivated wasteland could keep
   it as their property and would never be taxed. The response of the
   people was enthusiastic. In 1393, the cultivated land rose to 8,804,623
   ching and 68 mou, a record which no other dynasty has reached.

   One of the most important aspects of the development of farming was
   water conservancy. The Hong Wu emperor paid special attention to the
   irrigation of farms all over the empire, and in 1394 a number of
   students from Kuo-tzu-chien were sent to all of the provinces to help
   develop irrigation systems. 40,987 ponds and dikes were dug.

   Having himself come from a peasant family, Hong Wu emperor knew very
   well how much farmers suffered under the gentry and the wealthy. Many
   of the latter, using influence with magistrates, not only encroached on
   the land of farmers, but also by bribed sub-officials to transfer the
   burden of taxation to the small farmers they had wronged. To prevent
   such abuses the Hongwu Emperor instituted two very important systems:
   "Yellow Records" and "Fish Scale Records", which served to guarantee
   both the government's income from land taxes and the people's enjoyment
   of their property.

   Hongwu kept a powerful army organized on a military system known as the
   wei-so system. The wei-so system in the early Míng period was a great
   success because of the tun-tien system. At one time the soldiers
   numbered over a million and Hong Wu emperor, well aware of the
   difficulties of supplying such a number of men, adopted this method of
   military settlements. In time of peace each soldier was given forty to
   fifty mou of land. Those who could afford it supplied their own
   equipment; otherwise it was supplied by the government. Thus the empire
   was assured strong forces without burdening the people for its support.
   The Míng Shih states that 70% of the soldiers stationed along the
   borders took up farming, while the rest were employed as guards. In the
   interior of the country, only 20% were needed to guard the cities and
   the remaining occupied themselves with farming. So, one million
   soldiers of the Míng army were able to produces five million piculs of
   grain, which not only supported great numbers of troops but also paid
   the salaries of the officers.

Commerce Revolution

   Hong Wu's prejudice against the merchant class did not diminish the
   numbers of traders. On the contrary, commerce was on much greater scale
   than in previous centuries and continued to increase, as the growing
   industries needed the cooperation of the merchants. Poor soil in some
   provinces and over-population were key forces that led many to enter
   the trade markets. A book called "Tu pien hsin shu" gives a detailed
   description about the activities of merchants at that time. In the end,
   the Hong Wu policy of banning trade only acted to hinder the government
   from taxing private traders. Hong Wu did continue to conduct limited
   trade with merchants for necessities such as salts. For example, the
   government entered into contracts with the merchants for the transport
   of grain to the borders. In payments, the government issued salt
   tickets to the merchants, who could then sell them to the people. These
   deals were highly profitable for the merchants.

   Private trade continued in secret because the coast was impossible to
   patrol and police adequately, and because local officials and
   scholar-gentry families in the coastal provinces actually colluded with
   merchants to build ships and trade. The smuggling was mainly with Japan
   and Southeast Asia, and it picked up after silver lodes were discovered
   in Japan in the early 1500s. Since silver was the main form of money in
   China, lots of people were willing to take the risk of sailing to Japan
   or Southeast Asia to sell products for Japanese silver, or to invite
   Japanese traders to come to the Chinese coast and trade in secret
   ports. The Míng court's attempt to stop this 'piracy' was the source of
   the wokou wars of the 1550s and 1560s. After private trade with
   Southeast Asia was legalized again in 1567, there was no more black
   market. Trade with Japan was still banned, but merchants could simply
   get Japanese silver in Southeast Asia. Also, Spanish Peruvian silver
   was entering the market in huge quantities, and there was no
   restriction on trading for it in Manila. The widespread introduction of
   silver into China helped monetize the economy (replacing barter with
   currency), further facilitating trade.

The Míng Code

   The legal code drawn up in the time of Hong Wu emperor was considered
   one of the great achievements of the era. The Míng shih mentions that
   early as 1364, the monarch had started to draft a code of laws known as
   Ta-Ming Lu. Hong Wu emperor took great care over the whole project and
   in his instruction to the ministers told them that the code of laws
   should be comprehensive and intelligible, so as not to leave any
   loophole for sub-officials to misinterpret the law by playing on the
   words. The code of Míng Dynasty was a great improvement on that of Tang
   Dynasty as regards to treatment of slaves. Under Tang code slaves were
   treated almost like domestic animals. If they were killed by a free
   citizen, the law imposed no sanction on the killer. Under the Míng
   Dynasty, however, this was not so. The law assumed the protection of
   slaves as well as free citizens, an ideal that harkens back to the
   reign of Han Dynasty emperor Guangwu in the first century CE. The Míng
   code also laid great emphasis on family relations. Ta-Ming Lu was based
   on Confucian ideas and remained one of the factors dominating the law
   of China until the end of the nineteenth century.

Scrapping The Prime Minister Post

   Many argue that Hongwu emperor, wishing to concentrate absolute
   authority in his own hands, abolished the office of prime minister and
   so removed the only insurance against incompetent emperors. However the
   statement is misleading as a new post was created called "Senior Grand
   secretary" which replaced the abolished prime minister post. Ray Huang,
   Professor from Sate University of college argues that
   Grand-secretaries, outwardly powerless, could exercise considerable
   positive influence from behind the throne. Because of their prestige
   and the public trust which they enjoyed, they could act as
   intermediaries between emperor and the ministerial officals, thus
   provide stabilizing force in the court.

Decline of the Míng

   The Yongle Emperor, being a warrior, was able to maintain the foreign
   policy of his father. However, Yongle's successors attached little
   importance to foreign affairs and this lead to deterioration of the
   army. Annam regained its independence in 1427 and in the north the
   Mongols quickly regained their strength. Starting around 1445, the
   Oirat Horde became a military threat under their new leader Esen Taiji.
   The Zhengtong Emperor personally led a punitive campaign against the
   Horde but the mission turned into a disaster as the Chinese army was
   annihilated and the Emperor was captured. Later, under Jia-Jing
   Emperor, the capital itself nearly fell into the hands of the Mongols,
   if not for the heroic efforts of the patriot Yu Qian. At the same time
   the Japanese pirates were raging along the coast - a front so extensive
   that it was scarcely within the power of the government to guard it. It
   was not until local militia were formed under Qi Jiguang that the
   Japanese raid ended. Next, the Japanese under the leadership of
   Hideyoshi set out to conquer Korea and China. While the Chinese
   defeated the Japanese, the empire suffered financially. By the 1610s,
   the Míng Dynasty had lost de facto control over northeast China. A
   tribe descended from Jin dynasty rapidly extended its power as far
   south as Shanhai Pass, i.e. directly opposite the Great Wall, and would
   have taken over China quickly if not for the brilliant Ming commander,
   Yuan Chonghuan. Indeed, the Ming did produce capable commanders such as
   Yuan Chonghuan, Qi Jiguang, and others; who were able to turn this
   unfavourable sitation into a satisfising one. The corruption within the
   court, largely the fault of the eunuchs, also contributed to the
   decline of the Ming Dynasty.

   The decline of Míng Empire become more obvious in the second half of
   the Míng period. Most of the Míng Emperors lived in retirement and
   power often fell into the hands of influential officials, and also
   sometimes into the hands of eunuchs. Furthering the decline was strife
   among the ministers, which the eunuchs used to their advantage.
   Corruption in the court persisted to the end of the dynasty.

   Historians debate the relatively slower "progression" of European-style
   mercantilism and industrialization in China since the Míng. This
   question is particularly poignant, considering the parallels between
   the commercialization of the Míng economy, the so-called age of "
   incipient capitalism" in China, and the rise of commercial capitalism
   in the West. Historians have thus been trying to understand why China
   did not "progress" in the manner of Europe during the last century of
   the Ming Dynasty. In the early 21st century, however, some of the
   premises of the debate have come under attack. Economic historians such
   as Kenneth Pomeranz have argue that China was technologically and
   economically equal to Europe until the 1750's and that the divergence
   was due to global conditions such as access to natural resources from
   the new world.

   Much of the debate nonetheless centers on contrast in political and
   economic systems between East and West. Given the causal premise that
   economic transformations induce social changes, which in turn have
   political consequences, one can understand why the rise of
   mercantalism, an economic system in which wealth was considered finite
   and nations were set to compete for this wealth with the assistance of
   imperial governments, was a driving force behind the rise of modern
   Europe in the 16-1700s. Capitalism after all can be traced to several
   distinct stages in Western history. Commercial capitalism was the first
   stage, and was associated with historical trends evident in Míng China,
   such as geographical discoveries, colonization, scientific innovation,
   and the increase in overseas trade. But in Europe, governments often
   protected and encouraged the burgeoning capitalist class, predominantly
   consisting of merchants, through governmental controls, subsidies, and
   monopolies, such as British East India Company. The absolutist states
   of the era often saw the growing potential to excise bourgeois profits
   to support their expanding, centralizing nation-states.

   This question is even more of an anomaly considering that during the
   last century of the Míng Dynasty a genuine money economy emerged along
   with relatively large-scale mercantile and industrial enterprises under
   private as well as state ownership, such as the great textile centers
   of the southeast. In some respects, this question is at the centre of
   debates pertaining to the relative decline of China in comparison with
   the modern West at least until the Communist revolution. Chinese
   Marxist historians, especially during the 1970s identified the Ming age
   one of "incipient capitalism", a description that seems quite
   reasonable, but one that does not quite explain the official
   downgrading of trade and increased state regulation of commerce during
   the Míng era. Marxian historians thus postulate that European-style
   mercantilism and industrialization might have evolved had it not been
   for the Manchu conquest and expanding European imperialism, especially
   after the Opium Wars.

   Post-modernist scholarship on China, however argues that this view is
   simplistic and at worst, flat out wrong. The ban on ocean going ships,
   it is pointed out, was intended to curb piracy and was lifted in the
   Mid-Míng at the strong urging of the bureaucracy who pointed out the
   harmful effects it was having on coastal economies. These historians,
   who include Jonathan Spence, Kenneth Pomeranz, and Joanna Waley-Cohen
   deny that China "turned inward" at all and point out that this view of
   the Ming Dynasty is inconsistent with the growing volume of trade and
   commerce that was occurring between China and southeast Asia. When the
   Portuguese reached India, they found a booming trade network which they
   then followed to China. In the 16th century Europeans started to appear
   on the eastern shores and founded Macao, the first European settlement
   in China. As mentioned, since the era of Hongwu the emperor's role this
   became even more autocratic, although Hongwu necessarily continued to
   use what he called the Grand Secretaries to assist with the immense
   paperwork of the bureaucracy, which included memorials (petitions and
   recommendations to the throne), imperial edicts in reply, reports of
   various kinds, and tax records.

   Hongwu, unlike his successors, noted the destructive role of court
   eunuchs under the Song, drastically reducing their numbers, forbidding
   them to handle documents, insisting that they remained illiterate, and
   liquidating those who commented on state affairs. Despite Hongwu's
   strong aversion to the eunuchs, encapsulated by a tablet in his palace
   stipulating: "Eunuchs must have nothing to do with the administration",
   his successors revived their informal role in the governing process.
   Like its predecessor the Eastern Han Dynasty, the eunuchs would be
   remembered as the major factor that brings the dynasty to its knees.

   Yongle was also very active and very competent as an administrator, but
   an array of bad precedents was established. First, although Hongwu
   maintained some Mongol practices, such as corporal punishment, to the
   consternation of the scholar elite and their insistence on rule by
   virtue, Yongle exceeded these bounds, executing the families of his
   political opponents, and murdering thousands arbitrarily. Third,
   Yongle's cabinet, or Grand Secretariat, would become a sort of
   rigidifying instrument of consolidation that became an instrument of
   decline. Earlier, however, more competent emperors supervised or
   approved all the decisions of the latter council. Hongwu himself was
   generally regarded as a strong emperor who ushered in an energy of
   imperial power and effectiveness that lasted far beyond his reign, but
   the centralization of authority would prove detrimental under less
   competent rulers.

Building the Great Wall

   After the Míng army defeat at Battle of Tumu and later raids by the
   Mongols under a new leader, Altan Khan, the Ming adopted a new strategy
   for dealing with the northern horsemen: a giant impregnable wall.

   Almost 100 years earlier (1368) the Míng had started building a new,
   technically advanced fortification which today is called the Great Wall
   of China. Created at great expense the wall followed the new borders of
   the Míng Empire. Acknowledging the control which the Mongols
   established in the Ordos, south of the Huang He, the wall follows what
   is now the northern border of Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces. Work on the
   wall largely superseded military expeditions against the Mongols for
   the last 80 years of the Míng dynasty and continued up until 1644, when
   the dynasty collapsed.

   The wall was a continuation of a wall created earlier by the Qin
   Dynasty

The Network of Secret Agents

   In the Míng Dynasty, networks of secret agents flourished throughout
   the military. Due to the humble background of Zhu Yuanzhang before he
   became emperor, he harbored a special hatred against corrupt officials
   and had great awareness of revolts. He created the Jinyi Wei, to offer
   himself further protection and act as secret police throughout the
   empire. Although there are a few successes in their history, they were
   more known for their brutality in handling crime than as an actually
   successful police force. In fact, many of the people they caught were
   actually innocent. The Jinyi Wei had spread a terror throughout their
   empire, but their powers were decimated as the eunuchs' influence at
   the court increased. The eunuchs created three groups of secret agents
   in their favour; the East Factory, the West Factory and the Inner
   Factory. All were no less brutal than the Jinyi Wei and probably worse,
   since they were more of a tool for the eunuchs to eradicate their
   political opponents than anything else.

Fall of the Míng Dynasty

   The fall of the Míng Dynasty was a protracted affair, its roots
   beginning as early as 1600 with the emergence of the Manchu under
   Nurhaci. Under the brilliant commander, Yuan Chonghuan, the Ming were
   able to repeatedly fight off the Manchus, notably in 1623 (where
   Nurhaci himself was killed by a much smaller force commanded by Yuan)
   and in 1628. Succeeding generals, however, proved unable to eliminate
   the Manchu threat. Earlier, however, in Yuan's command he had securely
   fortified the Shanhai pass, thus blocking the Manchus from crossing the
   pass to attack Liaodong Peninsula.

   Unable to attack the heart of Míng directly, the Manchu instead bided
   their time, developing their own artillery and gathering allies. They
   were able to enlist Míng government officials and generals as their
   strategic advisors. A large part of the Ming Army home mutinied to the
   Manchu banner. In 1633 they completed a conquest of Inner Mongolia,
   resulting in a large scale recruitment of Mongol troops under the
   Manchu banner and the securing of an additional route into the Míng
   heartland.

   By 1636 the Manchu ruler Huang Taiji was confident enough to proclaim
   the Imperial Qing Dynasty at Shenyang, which had fallen to the Manchu
   in 1621, taking the Imperial title Chongde. The end of 1637 saw the
   defeat and conquest of Míng's traditional ally Korea by a 100,000
   strong Manchu army, and the Korean renunciation of the Míng Dynasty.

   On May 26, 1644, Beijing fell to a rebel army led by Li Zicheng.
   Seizing their chance, the Manchus crossed the Great Wall after Míng
   border general Wu Sangui opened the gates at Shanhai Pass, and quickly
   overthrew Li's short-lived Shun Dynasty. Despite the loss of Beijing
   (whose weakness as an Imperial capital had been foreseen by Zhu
   Yuanzhang) and the death of the Emperor, Míng power was by no means
   destroyed. Nanjing, Fujian, Guangdong, Shanxi and Yunnan could all have
   been and were in fact strongholds of Míng resistance. However, the loss
   of central authority saw multiple pretenders for the Míng throne,
   unable to work together. Each bastion of resistance was individually
   defeated by the Qing until 1662, when the last real hopes of a Ming
   revival died with the Yongli emperor, Zhu Youlang. Despite the Ming
   defeat, smaller loyalist movements continued till the proclamation of
   the Republic Of China.
   Preceded by:
   Yuan Dynasty Ming Dynasty
                1368–1644   Succeeded by:
                            Qing Dynasty

Recommended Reading

   Huang, Ray. 1587, A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in
   Decline. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.

   Brook, Timothy. The Confusions of Pleasure: commerce and culture in
   Ming China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998

   Source for "Fall of the Míng Dynasty":- Dupuy and Dupuy's "Collins
   Encyclopedia of Military History"
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