The Fall of the Chinese Ming Dynasty - Essay Example

The Fall of the Chinese Ming Dynasty China continues to bear echoes of its past despite traveling fast with the incredible pace of change. China has been defined differently during different periods of time depending on the greatness of its leaders, the peacefulness of succession, the dealings with foreign incursions and the suppression of peasant rebellions. The second stage of the Chinese high civilization took place during the Ming Dynasty. Signs of crisis brewed when early industrialization gave way to full industrialization. During and after the fall of the Ming dynasty to the Manchu’s in the third quarter of the 17th century, the attitude and behavior of the Chinese meritocracy towards the native Chinese ruling class moved forward to a crisis in civilization. In his highly original and masterly approach towards Modern Chinese history, Jonathan D. Spence narrates in his own inimitable way, the causes that led to the Chinese revolution. By deftly handling literary materials and merging or combining them with more conventional and modern sources of social and political history, Spence gives us an unparalleled account of China and her subjects offering valuable insight into the conflicts between the power of state and its teeming millions. Failure of the Ming Meritocracy: After Ming lost Northern China to the Manchu’s it was not capable of putting together a strong and stable Southern Ming dynasty or a new Chinese dynasty. There were great differences and disparities in ruling strategies between Song and Ming which led to the formation of a crisis in civilization. Song’s ruling class was made up of a mixture of aristocratic and meritocratic components which limited the number of factions within the meritocratic component of the ruling class. On the other hand, the Ming ruling class was almost a pure meritocracy. The Meritocrat’s often engaged in issue free factionalism and envying other fellow Meritocrat’s in office. Therefore, factionalism provided greater security to those Meritocrats who managed to obtain Government jobs. China’s past is reflected in the present when our steps are retraced to the 16th century, during the waning years of the Ming Dynasty. One such misfortunate harbinger that was to reflect the future China was the Korean War that took place in 1592. Japanese military commander Hideyoshi was very ambitious and sent a huge and powerful fleet of ships as well as strong ground forces to conquer Korea. The Chinese put up a brave fight and stopped the advancing of the Japanese who finally retreated. Many such conquests were led by the Ming where they suffered huge material losses as well as human casualties. This prolonged entanglement with no permanent or tangible benefits ultimately weakened the Ming Dynasty. The Western Depot: Eunuchs The Imperial household of the Ming Dynasty were staffed with thousands of eunuchs divided into various directorates who administered duties such as seeing to the food, stables, documents, gardens, factories and seals. They were given a lot of power which they misused badly or used it to their advantage. The Western Depot was the famous “secret service” of the eunuchs and was filled with intrigue and resentment. This was a great weakening point for the Ming Dynasty. The corruption within the Ming court, mainly due to the intrigues of the eunuchs was a major contributing factor that led to the decline of the Ming Dynasty. Weakening through Conquests: By the year 1610, after waging mindless wars, the country suffered huge financial losses that further weakened them. The decline of the Ming Dynasty became more obvious during the second half of the Ming period when the power often fell into the hands of unscrupulous and ambitious officers and eunuchs who worked for the Emperors who were already leading a life of retirement. Corruption ran rampant in the courts right to the end of the Ming Dynasty. During the rule of King Hongwu, who noticed the destructive role played by the court eunuchs, he took away the power vested in their hands and insisted that they were illiterate. But despite his endeavor, his successors once again revived their power in the governing process. The eunuchs would be remembered in Chinese history as the wrecking force that brought the Ming Dynasty to its knees. Spence tells us that since the Manchu’s however constituted an aristocracy of ethnic conquest, they were in a position to tame the Ming Meritocrats. The Chinese deemed them to be “barbarians” but still they preferred them, to the chaos of runaway factionalism. They preferred conquest by the Manchus than a conquest by the Mongols. After the Manchus conquered the region of the Liaodong Peninsular, they imbibed or assimilated the values of Neo – Confucian from the Chinese who lived there. As a result of this, it would take a couple of centuries before they lost their aristocratic aura, even though they did not have an aristocracy for ages, but at least it could tame the pure Meritocracy of the Ming. On the other hand, those of the Ming Meritocrats who had fled south seemed ever willing to abandon many of the potential and lucrative Ming governments in the South, so that they could cross over to a government led by the Manchus. They did not mind doing this at all, as long as the foreigners respected the cultural principles of the present Neo – Confucian template of merit and supplied them with good jobs in the government. Since there were a very limited number of slots of merit to be filled in, those Meritocrats who came first to the Manchus were given first priority. Spence explains that this particular aspect seemed very interesting because it anticipated the shape of the party state which deemed to take over not only China but other nations in the course of the 20th century. References: Jonathan D. Spence, “China Rising”, pgs – 2, 3, &4 FP (Foreign Policy) Special Report The Once and Future of China http://www.carnegieendownment.org/programs/china/chinese/pdf/FP/ChinaRise.pdf Jonathan D. Spence, Chap. (26) pgs. 1, 2 &3 Late Imperial China http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~kaplan/eas201/201-26.pdf Jonathan D. Spence, paperback, Oct. 2001 The Search for Modern China www.amazon.com/Search-Modern-China-Jonathan-Spence/dp/0393307808 Read More