Editing History of East Asia (section)

===Ming dynasty: 1368–1644===
{{Main|Ming dynasty}}
[[File:Ming Empire cca 1580 (en).svg|thumb|Ming China around 1580]]

The Ming period is the only era of later imperial history during which all of [[China proper]] was ruled by [[Han Chinese|ethnic Han]]. All the counties in China had a county government, a Confucian school, and the standard Chinese family system. Typically the dominant local elite consisted of high status families composed of the gentry owners and managers of land and of other forms of wealth, as well as smaller groups that were subject to elite domination and protection. Much attention was paid to genealogy to prove that high status was inherited from generations back. Substantial land holdings were directly managed by the owning families in the early Ming period, but toward the end of the era marketing and ownership were depersonalized by the increased circulation of silver as money, and estate management gravitated into the hands of hired bailiffs. Together with the departure of the most talented youth into the imperial service, the result was direct contacts between the elite and subject groups were disrupted, and romantic images of country life disappeared from the literature. In villages across China elite families participated in the life of the empire by sending their sons into the very high status imperial civil service. Most of the successful sons had a common education in the county and prefectural schools, had been recruited by competitive examination, and were posted to offices that might be anywhere in the empire, including the imperial capital. At first the recommendation of an elite local sponsor was important; increasing the imperial government relied more on merit exams, and thus entry into the national ruling class became more difficult. Downward social mobility into the peasantry was possible for less successful sons; upward mobility from the peasant class was unheard of.<ref>John W. Dardess, ''Ming China, 1368–1644: A Concise History of a Resilient Empire'' (2011). [https://www.amazon.com/Ming-China-1368-1644-Resilient-International/dp/1442204915 excerpt]</ref>