Editing Ming dynasty (section)

=== Founding ===

==== Revolt and rebel rivalry ====
The [[Mongol]]-led [[Yuan dynasty]] (1271–1368) ruled before the establishment of the Ming. Explanations for the demise of the Yuan include institutionalized ethnic discrimination against the [[Han people]] that stirred resentment and rebellion, overtaxation of areas hard-hit by [[inflation]], and massive flooding of the [[Yellow River]] as a result of the abandonment of irrigation projects. Consequently, agriculture and the economy were in shambles, and rebellion broke out among the hundreds of thousands of peasants called upon to work on repairing the [[Levee|levees]] of the Yellow River.{{sfnp|Gascoigne|2003|p=150}} A number of Han groups revolted, including the [[Red Turban Rebellion|Red Turbans]] in 1351. The Red Turbans were affiliated with the [[White Lotus Societies|White Lotus]], a [[Chinese Buddhism|Buddhist]] secret society. [[Zhu Yuanzhang]] was a penniless peasant and Buddhist monk who joined the Red Turbans in 1352; he soon gained a reputation after marrying the foster daughter of a rebel commander.{{sfnp|Ebrey|1999|pp=190–191}} In 1356, Zhu's rebel force captured the city of [[Nanjing]],{{sfnp|Gascoigne|2003|p=151}} which he would later establish as the capital of the Ming dynasty.

With the Yuan dynasty crumbling, competing rebel groups began fighting for control of the country and thus the right to establish a new dynasty. In 1363, Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated his archrival and leader of the rebel Han faction, [[Chen Youliang]], in the [[Battle of Lake Poyang]], arguably the [[largest naval battle in history]]. Known for its ambitious use of [[fire ships]], Zhu's force of 200,000 Ming sailors were able to defeat a Han rebel force over triple their size, claimed to be 650,000-strong. The victory destroyed the last opposing rebel faction, leaving Zhu Yuanzhang in uncontested control of the bountiful [[Yangtze]] valley and cementing his power in the south. After the dynastic head of the Red Turbans suspiciously died in 1367 while a guest of Zhu, there was no one left who was remotely capable of contesting his march to the throne, and he made his imperial ambitions known by sending an army toward the Yuan capital [[Khanbaliq|Dadu]] (present-day [[Beijing]]) in 1368.{{sfnp|Ebrey|1999|p=191}} The last Yuan emperor fled north to the upper capital [[Shangdu]], and Zhu declared the founding of the Ming dynasty after razing the Yuan palaces in Dadu to the ground;{{sfnp|Ebrey|1999|p=191}} the city was renamed Beiping in the same year.{{sfnp|Naquin|2000|p=xxxiii}} Zhu Yuanzhang took Hongwu, or "Vastly Martial", as his [[Chinese era name|era name]].

==== Reign of the Hongwu Emperor ====
[[File:A Seated Portrait of Ming Emperor Taizu.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Portrait of the [[Hongwu Emperor]] ({{reign|1368|1398}})]]
Hongwu made an immediate effort to rebuild state infrastructure. He built a {{convert|48|km|mi|adj=mid|-long}} [[City Wall of Nanjing|wall around Nanjing]], as well as new palaces and government halls.{{sfnp|Ebrey|1999|p=191}} The ''[[History of Ming]]'' states that as early as 1364 Zhu Yuanzhang had begun drafting a new [[Confucian]] law code, the ''[[Great Ming Code]]'', which was completed by 1397 and repeated certain clauses found in the old [[Tang Code]] of 653.{{sfnp|Andrew|Rapp|2000|p=25}} Hongwu organized a military system known as the ''weisuo'', which was similar to the [[Fubing system|''fubing'' system]] of the [[Tang dynasty]] (618–907).

In 1380 Hongwu had the Chancellor [[Hu Weiyong]] executed upon suspicion of a conspiracy plot to overthrow him; after that Hongwu abolished the [[Chancellor (China)|Chancellery]] and assumed this role as chief executive and emperor, a precedent mostly followed throughout the Ming period.{{sfnp|Ebrey|1999|pp=192–193}}{{sfnp|Fairbank|Goldman|2006|p=130}} With a growing suspicion of his ministers and subjects, Hongwu established the [[Embroidered Uniform Guard]], a network of [[secret police]] drawn from his own palace guard. Some 100,000 people were executed in a series of purges during his rule.{{sfnp|Ebrey|1999|pp=192–193}}{{sfnp|Fairbank|Goldman|2006|pp=129–130}}

The Hongwu Emperor issued many edicts forbidding Mongol practices and proclaiming his intention to purify China of barbarian influence. However, he also sought to use the Yuan legacy to legitimize his authority in China and other areas ruled by the Yuan. He continued policies of the Yuan dynasty such as continued request for Korean concubines and eunuchs, Mongol-style hereditary military institutions, Mongol-style clothing and hats, promoting archery and horseback riding, and having large numbers of Mongols serve in the Ming military. Until the late 16th century, Mongols still constituted one-third of officers serving in capital forces like the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and other peoples such as [[Jurchens]] were also prominent.{{sfnp|Robinson|2008|pp=365–399}} He frequently wrote to Mongol, Japanese, Korean, Jurchen, Tibetan, and Southwest frontier rulers offering advice on their governmental and dynastic policy, and insisted on leaders from these regions visiting the Ming capital for audiences. He resettled 100,000 Mongols into his territory, with many serving as guards in the capital. The emperor also strongly advertised the hospitality and role granted to Chinggisid nobles in his court.{{sfnp|Robinson|2020|pp=8–9}}

Hongwu insisted that he was not a rebel, and he attempted to justify his conquest of the other rebel warlords by claiming that he was a Yuan subject and had been divinely-appointed to restore order by crushing rebels. Most Chinese elites did not view the Yuan's Mongol ethnicity as grounds to resist or reject it. Hongwu emphasised that he was not conquering territory from the Yuan dynasty but rather from the rebel warlords. He used this line of argument to attempt to persuade Yuan loyalists to join his cause.{{sfnp|Robinson|2019|pp=144–146}} The Ming used the tribute they received from former Yuan vassals as proof that the Ming had taken over the Yuan's legitimacy. Tribute missions were regularly celebrated with music and dance in the Ming court.{{sfnp|Robinson|2019|p=248}}

==== South-Western frontier ====
{{Main|Ming conquest of Yunnan|Miao rebellions in the Ming dynasty}}
Hui Muslim troops settled in [[Changde]], Hunan, after serving the Ming in campaigns against aboriginal tribes.{{sfnp|Shi|2002|p=133}} In 1381, the Ming dynasty annexed the areas of the southwest that had once been part of the [[Kingdom of Dali]] following the successful effort by Hui Muslim Ming armies to defeat Mongol and Hui Muslim troops loyal to the Yuan holding out in Yunnan. The Hui troops under General [[Mu Ying]], who was appointed Governor of Yunnan, were resettled in the region as part of a colonization effort.{{sfnp|Dillon|1999|p=34}} By the end of the 14th century, some 200,000 military colonists settled some 2,000,000 ''mu'' (350,000 acres) of land in what is now [[Yunnan]] and [[Guizhou]]. Roughly half a million more Chinese settlers came in later periods; these migrations caused a major shift in the ethnic make-up of the region, since formerly more than half of the population were non-Han peoples. Resentment over such massive changes in population and the resulting government presence and policies sparked more [[Miao people|Miao]] and [[Yao people|Yao]] revolts in 1464 to 1466, which were crushed by an army of 30,000 Ming troops (including 1,000 Mongols) joining the 160,000 local [[Guangxi]]. After the scholar and philosopher [[Wang Yangming]] (1472–1529) suppressed another rebellion in the region, he advocated single, unitary administration of Chinese and indigenous ethnic groups in order to bring about [[sinicisation]] of the local peoples.{{sfnp|Ebrey|1999|p=197}}

==== Campaign in the North-East ====
{{Main|Manchuria under Ming rule}}
[[File:Chemin de ronde muraille long.JPG|thumb|left|The [[Great Wall of China]]: while segments of earlier [[rammed earth]] walls were first unified by the [[Qin dynasty|Qin]] and [[Han dynasty|Han]] dynasties, the vast majority of the brick and stone Great Wall is a product of the Ming.]]

After the overthrow of the [[Yuan dynasty]] in 1368, Manchuria remained under control of the [[Northern Yuan]] based in [[Mongolia]]. [[Naghachu]], a former Yuan official and a [[Uriankhai]] general of the Northern Yuan, won hegemony over the Mongol tribes in Manchuria (the former Yuan province of [[Liaoyang province|Liaoyang]]). He grew strong in the northeast, with forces large enough (numbering hundreds of thousands) to threaten invasion of the newly founded Ming dynasty in order to restore the Mongols to power in China. The Ming decided to defeat him instead of waiting for the Mongols to attack. In 1387 the Ming sent [[Ming military campaign against Naghachu|a military campaign to attack Naghachu]],{{sfnp|Wang|2011|pp=101–144}} which concluded with the surrender of Naghachu and Ming conquest of Manchuria.

The early Ming court could not, and did not, aspire to the control imposed upon the [[Jurchens]] in Manchuria by the Mongols, yet it created a norm of organization that would ultimately serve as the main instrument for the relations with peoples along the northeast frontiers. By the end of the Hongwu reign, the essentials of a policy toward the Jurchens had taken shape. Most of the inhabitants of Manchuria, except for the [[Wild Jurchens]], were at peace with China. In 1409, under the Yongle Emperor, the Ming established the [[Nurgan Regional Military Commission]] on the banks of the [[Amur River]], and [[Yishiha]], a eunuch of [[Haixi Jurchens|Haixi Jurchen]] origin, was ordered to lead an expedition to the mouth of the Amur to pacify the Wild Jurchens. After the death of Yongle Emperor, the Nurgan Regional Military Commission was abolished in 1435, and the Ming court ceased to have substantial activities there, although the guards continued to exist in Manchuria. Throughout its existence, the Ming established a total of 384 guards ({{zhi|c=衛}}, ''wei'') and 24 battalions ({{zhi|c=所}}, ''suo'') in Manchuria, but these were probably only nominal offices and did not necessarily imply political control.{{sfnp|Tsai|2001|p=159}} By the late Ming period, Ming's political presence in Manchuria has declined significantly.

==== Relations with Tibet ====
{{Main|Ming–Tibet relations}}
[[File:17th century Central Tibeten thanka of Guhyasamaja Akshobhyavajra, Rubin Museum of Art.jpg|upright=0.9|thumb|A 17th-century Tibetan [[thangka]] of Guhyasamaja Akshobhyavajra; the Ming court gathered various tribute items that were native products of Tibet (such as thangkas),<ref>{{harvp|Zhang|Xiang|2002|p=73}}</ref> and in return granted gifts to Tibetan tribute-bearers.{{sfnp|Wang|Nyima|1997|pp=39–41}}]]
The ''[[History of Ming]]''—the official dynastic history compiled in 1739 by the subsequent [[Qing dynasty]] (1644–1912)—states that the Ming established itinerant commanderies overseeing Tibetan administration while also renewing titles of ex-Yuan dynasty officials from [[Tibet]] and conferring new princely titles on leaders of [[Tibetan Buddhism|Tibetan Buddhist sects]].<ref>{{harvp|History of Ming|loc=Geography I, III; Western Territory III}}</ref> However, Turrell V. Wylie states that censorship in the ''History of Ming'' in favor of bolstering the Ming emperor's prestige and reputation at all costs obfuscates the nuanced history of Sino-Tibetan relations during the Ming era.{{sfnp|Wylie|2003|p=470}}

Modern scholars debate whether the Ming had [[sovereignty]] over Tibet. Some believe it was a relationship of loose [[suzerainty]] that was largely cut off when the [[Jiajing Emperor]] ({{reign|1521|1567}}) persecuted Buddhism in favor of [[Taoism]] at court.{{sfnp|Wylie|2003|p=470}}{{sfnp|Wang|Nyima|1997|pp=1–40}} Others argue that the significant religious nature of the relationship with Tibetan lamas is underrepresented in modern scholarship.{{sfnp|Norbu|2001|p=52}}{{sfnp|Kolmaš|1967|p=32}} Others note the Ming need for Central Asian horses and the need to maintain the [[Tibet during the Ming dynasty#Tribute and exchanging tea for horses|tea-horse trade]].{{sfnp|Wang|Nyima|1997|pp=39–40}}{{sfnp|Sperling|2003|pp=474–475, 478}}{{sfnp|Perdue|2000|p=273}}{{sfnp|Kolmaš|1967|pp=28–29}}

The Ming sporadically sent armed forays into Tibet during the 14th century, which the Tibetans successfully resisted.{{sfnp|Langlois|1988|pp=139, 161}}{{sfnp|Geiss|1988|pp=417–418}} Several scholars point out that unlike the preceding Mongols, the Ming did not garrison permanent troops in Tibet.{{sfnp|Ebrey|1999|p=227}}{{sfnp|Wang|Nyima|1997|p=38}} The [[Wanli Emperor]] ({{reign|1572|1620}}) attempted to reestablish Sino-Tibetan relations in the wake of a [[History of Tibet#The origin of the title of 'Dalai Lama'|Mongol–Tibetan alliance]] initiated in 1578, an alliance which affected the foreign policy of the subsequent Qing dynasty in their support for the [[Dalai Lama]] of the [[Gelug|Yellow Hat]] sect.{{sfnp|Wylie|2003|p=470}}{{sfnp|Kolmaš|1967|pp=30–31}}{{sfnp|Goldstein|1997|p=8}}<ref>{{harvp|The Ming Biographical Dictionary (1976)|p=23}}</ref> By the late 16th century, the Mongols proved to be successful armed protectors of the Yellow Hat Dalai Lama after their increasing presence in the [[Amdo]] region, culminating in the [[Mongol conquest of Tibet|conquest of Tibet]] by [[Güshi Khan]] (1582–1655) in 1642,{{sfnp|Wylie|2003|p=470}}{{sfnp|Kolmaš|1967|pp=34–35}}{{sfnp|Goldstein|1997|pp=6–9}} establishing the [[Khoshut Khanate]].