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Military Of The Ming Dynasty
The military of the Ming dynasty was the military apparatus of China from 1368 to 1644. It was founded in 1368 during the Red Turban Rebellion by Hongwu Emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang (Hongwu Emperor). The military was initially organised along largely hereditary lines and soldiers were meant to serve in self-sufficient agricultural communities. They were grouped into guards (''wei'') and battalions (''suo''), otherwise known as the wei-suo system. This hereditary guard battalion system went into decline around 1450 and was discarded in favor of mercenaries a century later. Background The Ming emperors from Hongwu to Zhengde continued policies of the Mongols, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty such as hereditary military institutions, dressing themselves and their guards in 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-in-three officers serving ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ming Lamellar Coat Cavalry
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, the majority ethnic group in China. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng (who established the short-lived Shun dynasty), numerous rump state, rump regimes ruled by remnants of the House of Zhu, Ming imperial family, collectively called the Southern Ming, survived until 1662. The Ming dynasty's founder, the Hongwu Emperor (1368–1398), attempted to create a society of self-sufficient rural communities ordered in a rigid, immobile system that would guarantee and support a permanent class of soldiers for his dynasty: the empire's standing army exceeded one million troops and the naval history of China, navy's dockyards in Nanjing were the largest in the world. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tun Tian
''Tuntian'' (屯田) or ''tunken'' (屯墾) was a form of frontier "military-agricultural colonies" or settler colony in the history of China. Troops were sent to takeover strategic under- or uncultivated land and convert them into self-sustained, agrarian colony. In other words, the soldiers doubled as farmers. The system was also adopted by other regimes throughout the Chinese cultural sphere. Han dynasty The ''tuntian'' (literally "garrisoning (on) farms") system evolved during the victorious campaign of 61–60 BC by Zhao Chongguo against the Qiang people. While the ''tuntian'' system was made famous by Cao Cao's administration ( 196–220 AD), Cao Cao's writings show that the system had been instituted as early as the Western Han dynasty during the reign of Emperor Wu ( 141–87 BCE), where soldiers on distant expeditions were set to work converting and farming the conquered land, both to provide food for the army and to convert the conquered land into agricultural lan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Treasure Voyages
The Ming treasure voyages were maritime expeditions undertaken by Ming China's treasure fleet between 1405 and 1433. The Yongle Emperor ordered the construction of the fleet in 1403. The grand project resulted in seven far-reaching ocean voyages to the coastal territories and islands of the South China Sea and Indian Ocean. Admiral Zheng He was commissioned to command the fleet for the expeditions. Six of the voyages occurred during the Yongle Emperor's reign () and the seventh voyage occurred during the Xuande Emperor's reign (). The first three voyages reached up to Calicut on India's Malabar Coast, while the fourth voyage went as far as Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. In the last three voyages, the fleet traveled up to the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa. The Chinese expeditionary fleet was heavily militarized and carried great amounts of treasures, which served to project Chinese power and wealth to the known world. They brought back many foreign ambassadors whose king ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shaolin Monks
Shaolin Monastery ( zh, labels=no, c=少林寺, p=shàolínsì), also known as Shaolin Temple, is a monastic institution recognized as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the cradle of Shaolin kung fu. It is located at the foot of Wuru Peak of the Songshan mountain range in Dengfeng county, Zhengzhou prefecture, in Henan province, China. The name reflects its location in the ancient grove () of Mount Shaoshi, in the hinterland of the Songshan mountains. Mount Song occupied a prominent position among Chinese sacred mountains as early as the 1st century BC, when it was proclaimed one of the Five Holy Peaks (). It is located some southeast of Luoyang, the former capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386–534), and southwest of Zhengzhou, the modern capital of Henan Province. As the first Shaolin abbot, Butuo Buddhabhadra devoted himself to translating Buddhist scriptures and preaching doctrines to hundreds of his followers. According to legend, Bodhidharma, the 28th patriar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yu Dayou
Yu Dayou (1503–1579), courtesy name Zhifu, art name Xujiang, was a Chinese martial artist, military general, and writer best known for countering the ''wokou'' pirates along China's southeastern coast during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor in the Ming dynasty. Life Yu Dayou was born in present-day Heshi Village, Fujian, but his ancestral home was in present-day Huoqiu County, Lu'an, Anhui. He sat for the military version of the imperial examination in 1535 and obtained the position of a ' ( zh, c=武進士, l=successful candidate, poj=Bú Chìn-sū). He was awarded the title of a ' ( zh, c=千戶, l=lord over 1,000 households, poj=Chhian-hō͘ ) and appointed as a guard in Jinmen Island (金門島), Fujian. In 1555, Yu Dayou, along with the Zhuang noblewoman, Wa Shi, led Ming forces to attack the ''wokou'' pirates who were raiding near Jiaxing, Zhejiang and defeated about 2,000 of them. In the following year, he was promoted to garrison commander ( zh, c=總兵, poj=C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qi Jiguang
Qi Jiguang (, November 12, 1528 – January 17, 1588), courtesy name Yuanjing, art names Nantang and Mengzhu, posthumous name Wuyi, was a Chinese military general and writer of the Ming dynasty. He is best known for leading the defense on the coastal regions against ''wokou'' pirate activities in the 16th century, as well as for the reinforcement of the Great Wall of China. Qi is also known for writing the military manuals '' Jixiao Xinshu'' and Lianbing Shiji or ''Record of Military Training'' (), which he based on his experience as a martial educator and defensive planner in the Ming military forces. He is regarded as a hero in Chinese culture. Biography Early life Qi Jiguang was born in the town of Luqiao in Shandong province to a family with a long military tradition. His forefather served as a military leader under the Hongwu Emperor and died in battle. When Zhu Yuanzhang became the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty, he bestowed upon the Qi family the hereditary p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jiajing Wokou Raids
The Jiajing wokou raids caused extensive damage to the coast of China in the 16th century, during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor (r. 1521–67) in the Ming dynasty. The term "wokou" originally referred to Japanese pirates who crossed the sea and raided Korea and China; however, by the mid-Ming, the wokou consisted of multinational crewmen that included the Japanese and the Portuguese, but a great majority of them were Chinese instead. Mid-Ming wokou activity began to pose a serious problem in the 1540s, reached its peak in 1555, and subsided by 1567, with the extent of the destruction spreading across the coastal regions of Jiangnan, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong. Historical background Maritime trade in 16th century China Up until the establishment of the Ming dynasty in 1368, China had had a great maritime trading tradition that extended the Chinese trading network by sea all the way into the Indian Ocean. In 1371, the Ming founder Hongwu Emperor implemented the "Haijin, m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yiwu
Yiwu () is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Jinhua, in central Zhejiang province, China. It is best known for hosting the Yiwu International Trade City, the world’s largest wholesale market for small commodities. History Yiwu was originally established as Wushang City (乌商) in 222 BCE during the Qin dynasty. It was renamed Yiwu County in 624 CE under the Tang dynasty. Due to its poor soil and mountainous terrain, Yiwu residents historically relied on trade rather than agriculture. A long-standing local tradition was the "sugar-for-chicken feathers" barter system (鸡毛换糖), where peddlers exchanged sugar and small goods for chicken feathers used in fertilizer or dusters. Early forms of itinerant and local trading date back to the 16th century, with proto-market activities appearing by the 1700s. After 1949, private trade was suppressed under the planned economy. Despite restrictions, Yiwu traders continued informally until market reforms began under ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wokou
''Wokou'' ( zh, c=, p=Wōkòu; ; Hepburn romanization, Hepburn: ; ; literal Chinese translation: "dwarf bandits"), which translates to "Japanese pirates", were pirates who raided the coastlines of China and Korea from the 13th century to the 17th century.Wakō Encyclopaedia Britannica The wokou were made of various ethnicities of East Asian people, East Asian ancestry, which varied over time and raided the mainland from islands in the Sea of Japan and East China Sea. Wokou activity in Korea declined after the Treaty of Gyehae in 1443 but continued in Ming dynasty, Ming China and peaked during the Jiajing wokou raids in the mid-16th century. Chinese reprisals and strong clamp-downs on pirates by Japanese authorities saw the wokou disappear by the 17th century. Hist ...
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