Seizing And Maintaining Power Ming And Qing Empires

Seizing and Maintaining Power
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Ming and Qing Empires
The eviction of the Mongols from China ushered in an era of peace and prosperity in China under the Ming Dynasty regime (Dillon, 2008).The early emperors of Ming revived the wealth and power of Chinese through governmental, economic and foreign policies. In the kingdom of foreign rule, some strong emperors extended Chinese power to the Han empire borders. Not surprisingly, the threat of nomads from the North who had embarrassed China was the main concern of the Ming dynasty. Therefore, they made a lot of efforts to defeat the nomads. In their struggle, they had different impacts on the areas they settled. It was difficult to maintain power within one group because maintaining power meant having a dominion over the other group. This set the two sides on a struggle. The struggle affected the power on both sides because it led into the separation of different groups of people between the warring sides. Among other effects, the fight, as well as the interference, made it difficult to maintain power and affected different aspects such as the government, economy, culture, and society over time, validating the proposition, “to seize power is easy, to maintain power is difficult” which, this essay seeks to address.[Dillon, Transport And Marketing In The Development Of The Jingdezhen Porcelain Industry During The Ming And Qing Dynasties, 549.]
The Ming moved their capital to the North so that they can keep the nomadic movements, something, which economically endangered the capital because it was close to the energetic south. However, the nomads did not threaten China during the Ming’s dynasty rule. Beijing then became a big city with big walls builds up to 14 miles perimeter. The emperor’s capital palace was built at the center of the capital, which was also called the Forbidden City. Ming economic strategies helped China to prosper during this era. Dykes and canals were repaired as well as reclaiming the land in areas, which were not highly populated by the Mongols. The government offered tax relief to people who had moved to the damaged areas, a policy, which greatly revived China economically. Moreover, the government introduced extensive reforestation for the purpose of building ships.[Jun-qi, Study of the State of Huizhou Wushu in the Ming and Qing Dynasty in Advocating Letters, 17]
The Qing dynasty aided in the innovation and change of China’s economic system and the introduction of silver currency, which boosted the supply of money making the markets to be stable and competitive. Also, other regions, which traded with China, boosted its economic power. Majority of the Qing dynasty residents were laborers and farmers and traded vegetables and fruits. In their efforts to boost the economy of China, they introduced a tax policy in which the lowest taxes were imposed on the small peasant, therefore, increasing their income. This was one of the greatest achievements of the Qing Empire in China. The good economic system strengthened the Qing dynasty, which kept it strong through the entire period of struggle. It also boosted the economy of China in different aspects hence maintaining the country’s economic stability.[Zhang, The Short Essays of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, 43]
Politically, the Ming dynasty ruled after a century of domination by a foreign power. It was ruled on ethnic grounds and later introduced the old civil service examination to increase the hierarchical structure. The first emperor of Ming, Hung-Wu re-introduced bureaucracy of the previous government. The most powerful bureaucrats accessed the emperor directly. The individual members in the group watched over the agencies of the bureaucracy to watch over corruption and send reports and information to the emperor directly. The Ming dynasty had six ministries each with its own administrator to oversee the various agencies in China. The ministry of war was involved in military administration while the ministry of justice was in charge of the legal systems in the government.[Zhang, The Short Essays of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, 51]
The civil administration of the Ming dynasty was hierarchically organized to rule over the provinces of China. The 1144 counties of the Ming empire were led by prefectures, which reported any arising matters to the provincial administration office based in their province. Several enormous economic problems led to the collapse of the Ming dynasty. Several factors were attributed to the financial crisis. For instance, the imperial clan recruited many staffs and paying all the members became a big burden, therefore, hindering its progress. Military campaigns also greatly contributed to the fall of the Ming dynasty with Japan and Korea making the worst damage. Disaster in the field of agriculture also led to the depletion of funds. These harsh circumstances led to the starving soldiers leaving their posts, thus, leading to the decline of the Ming dynasty.[Jun-qi, Study of the State of Huizhou Wushu in the Ming and Qing Dynasty in Advocating Letters, 29]
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