Ming dynasty

史The dynasty

Zhu Yuanzhang, born a peasant, founded the Ming after expelling the Mongols. The early Ming was an aggressive consolidating force: the Hongwu Emperor reorganised land tenure and rural administration, the Yongle Emperor (his son) moved the capital to Beijing, built the Forbidden City, sent Zheng He on seven naval expeditions reaching East Africa, and codified the Yongle Encyclopaedia, the largest reference work in human history at that time.

After Zheng He, however, the Ming court turned inward. Maritime expeditions ceased. The Great Wall was rebuilt in stone — the dramatic version visible at Mutianyu, Jinshanling, and Badaling today is largely Ming construction. Trade restrictions, isolationism, and a recurring fiscal crisis defined the later dynasty. Ming porcelain — blue-and-white ware in particular — became the most-traded luxury commodity in the early modern world economy.

The dynasty fell to a combination of peasant rebellion (Li Zicheng), the rising Manchu Qing power on the northeast frontier, and a final Ming general defecting and inviting the Manchus through the Wall. The last Ming emperor hanged himself on Coal Hill behind the Forbidden City in 1644.