The cambridge history of china volume 8 the ming dynasty, 1368 — 1644, part 2

Tai Lieu Chat Luong


THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY
OF CHINA
J

General Editors

r

DENIS TWITCHETT AND JOHN K. FAIRBANK

Volume 8
The Ming Dynasty, 1368 - 1644, Part 2

r

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008


Work on this volume was partially supported by the National Endowment for the
Humanities, Grants RO-20431-Sj, RO-21i}6i-86, andRO-22077-90.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008


THE CAMBRIDGE
HISTORY OF
CHINA
Volume 8

The Ming Dynasty, 1368 — 1644, Part 2
edited by

DENIS TWITCHETT and FREDERICK W. MOTE

CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008


Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 iRP
40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA
1 o Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia
© Cambridge University Press 1998
First published 1998
Printed in the United States of America
The Cambridge History of China
Vol. 1 edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe;
v. 3 edited by Denis Twitchett;
v. 6 edited by Herbert Franke and Denis Twitchett;
v. 7-8 edited by Frederick W. Mote and Denis Twitchett;
v. 10 edited by John K. Fairbank;
v. 11 edited by John K. Fairbank and Kwang-Ching Liu;
v. 12 edited by John K. Fairbank;
v. 13 edited by John K. Fairbank and Albert Feuerwerker;
v. 14—1 j edited by Roderick MacFarquhar and John K. Fairbank.
Includes bibliographies and indexes
v. 1 The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.G-A.D. 220.

v. 3. Sui and T'ang China, 5 89-906, pt. I.
v. 6. Alien regimes and border states, 710-1368.
v. 7-8 The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644, pt. 1-2.
v. 10-11. LateCh'ing, 1800-1911.pt. 1—2.
v. 12—13. Republican China, 1912-1949.pt. 1—2
v. 14—1 j . The People's Republic, pt. 1—2.
Library 0/Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data

(Revised for volume 8)
Main entry under title:
The Cambridge history of China.
Bibliography: v. 1 o, pt. 1, p.
Includes indexes.
Contents —v. 2, Sui and T'ang China, 589-906.
pt. 1. — v. 7. The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644,
pt. 1 — v. 8. The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644,
pt. u - v . 10. LateCh'ing, 1800-1911,
pt. 1 - [etc.]
1. China — History. 1. Twitchett, Denis Crispin.
11. Fairbank, John King, 1907—
DS735.C314; 93i'.o3 76-29852
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBNO 521 24333 5 hardback

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008


GENERAL EDITORS' PREFACE

When The Cambridge History of China wasfirstplanned, more than two decades

ago, it was naturally intended that it should begin with the very earliest periods of Chinese history. However, the production of the series has taken
place over a period of years when our knowledge both of Chinese prehistory
and of much of the first millennium BC has been transformed by the spate of
archeological discoveries that began in the 1920s and has been gathering
increasing momentum since the early 1970s. This flood of new information
has changed our view of early history repeatedly, and there is not yet any generally accepted synthesis of this new evidence and the traditional written
record. In spite of repeated efforts to plan and produce a volume or volumes
that would summarize the present state of our knowledge of early China, it
has so far proved impossible to do so. It may well be another decade before
it will prove practical to undertake a synthesis of all these new discoveries
that is likely to have some enduring value. Reluctantly, therefore, we begin
the coverage of The Cambridge History of China with the establishment of the
first imperial regimes, those of Ch'in and Han. We are conscious that this
leaves a millennium or more of the recorded past to be dealt with elsewhere
and at another time. We are equally conscious of the fact that the events and
developments of the first millennium BC laid the foundations for the Chinese
society and its ideas and institutions that we are about to describe. The institutions, the literary and artistic culture, the social forms, and the systems of
ideas and beliefs of Ch'in and Han were firmly rooted in the past, and cannot
be understood without some knowledge of this earlier history. As the modem
world grows more interconnected, historical understanding of it becomes
ever more necessary and the historian's task ever more complex. Fact and theory affect each other even as sources proliferate and knowledge increases.
Merely to summarize what is known becomes an awesome task, yet a factual
basis of knowledge is increasingly essential for historical thinking.
Since the beginning of the century, the Cambridge histories have set a pattern in the English-reading world for multivolume series containing chapters

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008


VI

GENERAL EDITORS

PREFACE

written by specialists under the guidance of volume editors. The Cambridge
Modem History, planned by Lord Acton, appeared in sixteen volumes between
1902 and 1912. It was followed by The Cambridge Ancient History, The Cambridge Medieval History, The Cambridge History of English Literature, and Cam-

bridge histories of India, of Poland, and of the British Empire. The original
Modem History has now been replaced by The New Cambridge Modem History
in twelve volumes, and The Cambridge Economic History ofEurope is now being

completed. Other Cambridge histories include histories of Islam, Arabic literature, Iran, Judaism, Africa, Japan, and Latin America.
In the case of China, Western historians face a special problem. The history
of Chinese civilization is more extensive and complex than that of any single
Western nation, and only slightly less ramified than the history of European
civilization as a whole. The Chinese historical record is immensely detailed
and extensive, and Chinese historical scholarship has been highly developed
and sophisticated for many centuries. Yet until recent decades, the study of
China in the West, despite the important pioneer work of European sinologists, had hardly progressed beyond the translation of some few classical historical texts, and the outline history of the major dynasties and their
institutions.
Recently Western scholars have drawn more fully upon the rich traditions
of historical scholarship in China and also in Japan, and greatly advanced
both our detailed knowledge of past events and institutions, and also our critical understanding of traditional historiography. In addition, the present
generation of Western historians of China can also draw upon the new outlooks and techniques of modern Western historical scholarship, and upon
recent developments in the social sciences, while continuing to build upon
the solid foundations of rapidly progressing European, Japanese, and Chinese
studies. Recent historical events, too, have given prominence to new problems, while throwing into question many older conceptions. Under these
multiple impacts the Western revolution in Chinese studies is steadily gathering momentum.
When The Cambridge History of China was first planned in 1966, the aim was

to provide a substantial account of the history of China as a benchmark for
the Western history-reading public: an account of the current state of knowledge in six volumes. Since then the outpouring of current research, the application of new methods, and the extension of scholarship into new fields
have further stimulated Chinese historical studies. This growth is indicated
by the fact that the history has now become a planned fifteen volumes, but
will still leave out such topics as the history of art and of literature, many
aspects of economics and technology, and all the riches of local history.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008


GENERAL EDITORS PREFACE

Vll

The striking advances in our knowledge of China's past over the last decade will continue and accelerate. Western historians of this great and complex
subject are justified in their efforts by the needs of their own peoples for
greater and deeper understanding of China. Chinese history belongs to the
world not only as a right and necessity, but also as a subject of compelling
interest.
JOHN K. FAIRBANK
DENIS TWITCHETT
1976

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008


Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008


GENERAL EDITORS' PREFACE TO VOLUME 8

Thirty years have elapsed since 1966, when the late John King Fairbank and
myself laid the first plans for a Cambridge History of China. The above General Editors' Preface was written twenty years ago, in 1976, and the first
volumes appeared shortly afterwards in 1978 and 1979. With the appearance
of this volume, eleven volumes are now in print.
Much has changed in the intervening years. In 1966, China and China's academe were entering into one of their bleakest periods with the onset of
Mao's Great Cultural revolution. The historical profession, in common
with all branches of intellectual endeavor, was devastated. Those Chinese colleagues whose participation in this enterprise we would have sought in normal times were silenced and humiliated. It was impossible to communicate
with them and would have endangered them had we done so.
When we wrote in 1976, the unbelievable scale of the human suffering and
the appalling damage that had been wrought was clear to see. Some prominent historians were dead, some by their own hands. Very many others had
spent a decade and more living in degrading conditions in enforced banishment, prevented from continuing their work. Great institutions had ceased
to function. Such academic life as survived was entirely politicized. The publication of serious scholarly historical journals and monographs had ceased
from 1967 until 1972. Such few historical works as appeared were banal political propaganda. Even in 1976, serious publication was still a mere trickle,
much of it completed in happier circumstances before the Cultural Revolution. There was still no formal graduate-level teaching in Chinese universities
to produce the urgently needed younger generation of scholars.
When the first volumes of the Cambridge History of China appeared in
1978-9, the situation had begun to change. A number of Chinese historians
had been allowed to travel to the West, at first mostly senior scholars warily
participating in meetings and conferences. The initial planning of the two
volumes of The Cambridge History ofChina on the Ming, of which this is the second, took place at two international workshops held in Princeton in 1979
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008


X

PREFACE TO VOLUME 8

and 1980, among the first such international meetings in which scholars from
the People's Republic of China took part. Shortly after, in the early 1980s,

the first students from the People's Republic began to enroll to take higher
degrees in Western universities.
Sixteen years later, this present volume has been completed in a transformed atmosphere. Large international conferences on various aspects of history take place many times each year. Chinese graduate students come to the
West in great numbers, their standards of training ever improving. Western
historians no longer have to deal with Chinese contemporaries who have
been deliberately isolated from world scholarship for decades. Much of the
writing of Western historians on China is translated into Chinese. The spectrum of historical scholarship in China may still be more restricted than that
with which we are familiar in the West, but China's historians now enjoy relatively free access to the world of Western knowledge. Many have been trained
pardy in Europe or North America, have a network of friends living abroad,
and have some sense of common purpose in trying to understand the past in
all its variety.
Fortunately, the disasters that befell those Chinese historians working in
the People's Republic did not affect all Chinese historians. There have always
been comparatively small groups of scholars in universities in Hong Kong,
Malaysia, and Singapore who fruitfully combined Western and traditional
Chinese historical approaches, and these have continued to thrive.
More important, however, has been the scholarly world of Taiwan, where
many important Chinese scholars of the 1930s and 1940s resettled, and
where they and their successors have systematically built up a scholarly community with great resources that has played a crucial international role in historical studies since the 1960s. In addition to the abundant research of its
own scholars, who have preserved the best qualities of the historical scholarship of the Ch'ing and Republican periods, Taiwan has been an important
training-ground for many Western historians. Its own historians have
enjoyed longer and closer contacts with the Western scholarly community
than their contemporaries working on the mainland. Many of them hold academic posts in North America. Their work is now available to and widely
read by historians in the mainland and this helps gready to give the historical
profession a feeling of common purpose.
The last quarter century has seen other changes. Western scholarship on
China has also been through a vast expansion in scale, in the diversity of subject matter that attracts serious academic interest, and has undergone a great
improvement in the overall quality of scholarship. Western historians now
freely use archival materials of all sorts both in the People's Republic and in
Taiwan, access to which a quarter century ago would have been undiinkable.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008


PREFACE TO VOLUME 8

xi

Western and Chinese libraries collaborate in compiling global catalogs. Not
only have a host of young Chinese scholars been able to travel abroad to pursue historical studies; many young Western graduate students and scholars
have been able to study seriously in Chinese universities and institutes, and
to travel freely in parts of China that were forbidden to foreigners until the
early 1980s.
One striking result of this has been the emergence of a new generation of
young Western scholars specializing in the early history of China, afieldthat
had been seriously neglected in the west since the 1940s, but which had been
transformed by the emergence of modern archaeology in the China of the
late 1920s and 1930s, and particularly by new excavations after 1950. In the
mid-1970s, when the flood of new archaeological discoveries were beginning
to be published, we decided that the field of early Chinese history, although
obviously of crucial importance, was still in such a state of flux that it would
be premature to attempt an overview suitable for inclusion in The Cambridge
History of China, and reluctandy we left it out of our coverage. Specialists in
the period showed more courage, and eagerly exploited this new material;
many young historians, archaeologists, social anthropologists, epigraphers,
and linguists began to publish work of the highest standards and to form a
highly professional specialist group. This new wave of scholarship on early
China has recendy enabled Cambridge University Press to commission a separate Cambridge History of Ancient China that will fill this very important gap.
Another striking change since this enterprise began has been the radical
change in our potential Western readership. In 1966, China was still for ordinary Western readers, even for many professional historians, a country on the
periphery of Western man's vision, arousing general interest for the most

part because of its recent revolution and its role in world politics. Its history
was still territory for specialists. The movement to broaden the educational
horizons in Western countries to include some coverage of non-Western cultures was then just beginning. It gathered momentum in the 1970s and
1980s and we can now assume that most educated persons will have had
some exposure to Chinese culture and history, at least on a superficial level.
The myopic view of the world that prevailed forty years ago, and which was
exaggerated by China's own deliberate exclusion of foreigners and hostility
to all things Western, broke down in the late 1970s and early 1980s as Asia
began to loom ever larger in our common economic future, and as more Westerners began to visit the country as tourists and businessmen. Television
also had a large role in creating this new awareness. By the mid-i 980s, every
Western owner of a television had absorbed a wealth of vivid images of
what China looked like, from picturesque landscapes and some of the monuments of the past to the belching pollution of the industrial cities. Television
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008


Xii

PREFACE TO VOLUME 8

coverage of the events in T'ien-an men square produced visual impressions of
the political system with a worldwide impact far more memorable than the
best of printed journalism.
The end of isolation not only increased the knowledge of and interest in
China in the West. A new openness was also forced upon the rulers of
China. It was no longer possible for them to keep their population in ignorance of events and conditions in the rest of the world. Through television,
the Chinese first saw in vivid images what the rest of the world looked like;
later, more and more of them travelled and saw the world outside, or were
able to establish links with relatives, colleagues, and business associates living
abroad. The coming of the computer and the fax machine established permanent two-way links with the world outside which can no longer be broken,
however much the authorities deplore the flood of anti-social and decadent

influences that have accompanied it.
The Chinese historian of the 1990s to whom we address this volume,
whether he or she is Chinese or Western, whatever language he writes in, is
part of this new internationalized system created by information technology,
interlinkages, and interdependencies. We are still different in many ways, in
the subjects we find of prime importance, in our overall conception of the
social context of past events, in the lessons we seek from the past. But we all
realize that the past is a permanent part of our identity, however rapidly our
attitudes towards it and our interpretation of it may change. The disasters of
China in the 1960s sprang from a misguided and futile belief that men can
be made entirely anew and cut off from their past cultural experiences.
This past is not the monopoly of one country or of one culture. All our histories are part of the past experience of mankind. As we were saying twenty
years ago, "Chinese history belongs to the world," and this becomes the
more compelling as we live on into a future world in which China will
undoubtedly regain its historical importance. We hope that this history,
which is currently being translated into Chinese both in Beijing and Taipei,
will contribute something to this mutual understanding.
DENIS TWITCHETT
1996

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008


CONTENTS

General Editors'Preface
General Editors' Preface to Volume 8
hist of maps, tables, and
Acknowledgments
Conventions

hist of abbreviations
Ming weights and measures
Genealogy of the Ming imperial family
Ming dynasty emperors
General map of the Ming empire

figures

Introduction

pagev
ix
xvii
xix
xx
xxii
xxiii
xxiv
xxv
xxvi
i

by DENIS TWITCHETT and FREDERICK W. M O T E

Ming government
by the late CHARLES O.

9
HUCKER,

University ofMichigan, emeritus

Administrative geography
The personnel of government
The structure of government
The quality of Ming governance

2 The Ming fiscal administration

10
16
72
103

106

by RAY HUANG

Introduction
The formation of the Ming fiscal system
Fiscal organization and general practices
State revenues and their distributions
Readjustments in the sixteenth century and the final collapse
Conclusion

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

106
107
114

126
148
168


XIV

CONTENTS

3 Ming law
by J O H N D.

172
LANGLOIS, JR.,

/ . P. Morgan and Co., Incorporated.

The character of Ming law
The Ming penal system
Ming legal procedure
Legal education and professionalism
Conclusion
Appendix A: Ming commentaries on the code and handbooks
on jurisprudence
Appendix B: Ming handbooks for local magistrates
by T H O M A S G . N I M I C K , United States Military

176
180
188

202
209
211
214

Academy

4 T h e M i n g and I n n e r Asia

221

by M O R R I S ROSSABI, Queens College

T h e sources
T h e M o n g o l threat
T h e M i n g and the disunited land of the lamas
Central Asia: diminishing relations with China
F r o m Jurchens t o Manchus

222
224
241
246
258

5 S i n o - K o r e a n tributary relations under the M i n g

272

by

DONALD

N.

CLARK,

Trinity University.

The pattern of Sino-Korean tributary relations
Ming-Korean relations: the first phase
Tribute missions
The Ming-Korean-Jurchen triangle
Other issues in Ming-Korean relations
Ming-Korean relations during Hideyoshi's invasions
Korea and the fall of the Ming

272
273
279
284
289
293
299

6 Ming foreign relations: Southeast Asia
by W A N G GUNGWU, University 0]rHong Kong, emeritus

301

7 Relations with maritime Europeans, 1514—1662

333

by

JOHN

E.

WILLS, JR.

University ofSouthern California

The tribute system matrix
The Portuguese entry, 1514 - 15 24

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

333
335


CONTENTS

From Liampo to Macao, 1530— 1572
Macao and Nagasaki, 15 72 — 1640
Manila
Missionaries and the Ming state
The Dutch onslaught

The Dutch and the Spanish on Taiwan
The world of the maritime Chinese
8 Ming China and the emerging world economy, c. 1470 - 1650
by WILLIAM ATWELL, Hobart- William Smith College
Introduction
Silver and the Ming monetary system
Mining in Central Europe and the New World and its impact
on Sino-Western trade
Japanese silver and the expansion of Sino-Japanese trade during
the late Ming period
Monetary factors affecting Chinese foreign trade during the
late Ming period
Foreign silver and the late Ming economy
9 The socio-economic development of rural China during the Ming
by MARTIN HEIJDRA, Princeton University
Introduction
The macro-economic setting
Rural administration: tax collection and the rural social order
Rural administration: changes in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries
Commercialization of the countryside
The agricultural response
Socio-economic developments in the late Ming
Conclusion
10 Communications and commerce
by TIMOTHY BROOK, University of Toronto
State systems of communication and transportation
Transport
Travel
The circulation of knowledge

Commerce

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

XV

341
345
353
363
366
369
373
376
376
381
388
396
400
403
417
417
417
45 8
477
496
516
552
575
579

582
603
619
63 5
670


XVI

CONTENTS

11 Confucian learning in late Ming thought
by WILLARD PETERSON, Princeton University
Introduction
The Learning of the Way in late Ming
Other endeavors in learning by literati as Confucians
12 Learning from Heaven: the introduction of Christianity and
other Western ideas into late Ming China
by WILLARD PETERSON, Princeton University
Putting on new clothes
Literati who associated themselves with the Learning from
Heaven: the Three Pillars
13 Official religion in the Ming
by ROMEYN TAYLOR, University of Minnesota
Introduction
Official religion
Imperial autocracy and literati elitism: the great sacrifices
Taoism and the great sacrifices
The official religion and the empire
Conclusions

14 Ming Buddhism
by Yu CHUN-FANG, Rutgers University

708
708
716
770

789
793
810
840
840
847
849
877
879
891
893

Introduction
Buddhism in the early Ming period
Buddhism during the middle period of the Ming
Buddhism in the late Ming period
Four Buddhist masters of the late Ming period
Buddhism in late Ming society
15 Taoism in Ming culture

893
899

918
927
931
946
95 3

by J U D I T H A. BERLING, Graduate Theological Union

Bibliographic notes

>

Bibliography
Glossary-index

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

987
100 5
1084


MAPS, TABLES, AND FIGURES

Maps
T h e Ming Empire
page
9.1 National market in the late Ming
9.2 Ming economic centers and roads
9.3 Ming economic centers in the Yangtze Delta

10.1 Journey of the Persian embassy t o China, 1420-22
10.2 Journey of C h ' o e P u in Central China, 1488
10.3 T h e national courier network, 15 87
10.4 T h e Grand Canal
10.5 Routes within Fukien Province
10.6 Routes within N o r t h Chih-li
10.7 Sixteenth century mariner's chart of the navigation route
through the Hai-hsia Miao-tao Archipelago north of Shantung,
compared with modern m a p
10.8 Routes out of Hui-chou Prefecture
10.9 Journey of Hsu Hung-tsu t o Yunnan, 1636-40
1 o. 1 o J ourney of L o Hung-hsien, 1539
Tables
1.1 Reported provincial populations
1.2 Prestige titles of M i n g civil officials
1.3 M i n g titles of merit
1.4 Salary scale of M i n g civil officials
1.5 Prestige titles awarded t o military officials
1.6 Merit titles awarded to military officials
1.7 G o v e r n m e n t hierarchies
2.1 Estimated land tax appropriation, as of 1578
2.2 Estimated annual income of the salt m o n o p o l y , ca. 1570-80
3.1 T h e Great M i n g C o d e of 1389
3.2 T h e standard five punishments of the M i n g Code

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

xxvi
504
5o5

51 o
584
587
5 90
598
61 o
614

618
621
627
6 3 4.

14
5o
51
51
59
60
73
133
144
174
181


XV111

8.1

M A P S , TABLES A N D F I G U R E S

382

8.2

Exchange rates between Ming paper currency and silver,
1376-1567
Bimetallic ratios between gold and silver in China,
1282—1431

384

8.3

Ming government revenues from domestic silver mining,
1401 — 1520

8.4
8.5

Silver production at Potosi, Peru, 1556—1650
Imports of gold and silver from the New World into Spain,
1503 — 1660
8.6 Estimated silver exports to Asia by the Dutch East India
Company, c. 1602—50
8.7 Bimetallic ratios of gold and silver in Japan, 1434 — 1622
8.8 Value of 1,000 copper coins in Southeastern China, 1638 —46
9.1 Available regional population data for 1393 and 1812
9.2 Population "guesstimates" for late Ming China

9.3 Early available data on cultivated area, Ming China
9.4 Cultivated area "guesstimates" for late Ming China
9.5 Estimates of cultivated area per person in Ming China
13.1 Imperial sacrifices in the late Ming
Figures
9.1 Ming weather according to Liu Chao-min
9.2 Ming weather according to the Chung-kuo chin wu-pai-nien
han-lao ti-fu-cbi
9.3 Regional life expectancy from 1500 to 1800
9.4 Su-chou tax distribution in 1370
9.5 The distribution of household categories in 1586 Wen-an
9.6 Socio-economic groups in late Ming Ch'ang-chou
9.7 Socio-economic groups in late Ming Ch'ang-chou II

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

386

390
394
397
397
412
440
440
450
451
452
843

426
426
437
475
48 5
541
542


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The completion of this volume has been a collaborative effort extending over
a period of fourteen years, and has involved in some way not only the contributors, but a large proportion of the community of Western Ming historians
and many of our Chinese colleagues. They have generously given us help
and detailed advice that has improved this volume in many ways. We cannot
mention all by name, but we would like to record our special obligation to
the late Professor Charles O. Hucker, who sadly did not live to see the
volume's publication, but who not only played a large part in its planning
and preparation, but more importantly was a major figure in the whole
development of the field of Ming studies since the 1950s.
Assembling the chapters for a large multi-authored volume such as this is
only one step in its production. Much intricate and laborious work is then
required to make the volume as a whole consistent and uniform in style.
The present volume has benefited greatly from the dedication and meticulous
attention to detail of two managing editors, Dr James Geiss, himself a distinguished Ming historian, and since 1990 Ralph L. Meyer, whose computer
skills and editorial ingenuity have transformed our work. We have also been
fortunate in having the assistance of Dr Martin Heijdra of the Gest Library,
Princeton University, and of his colleague, Mrs Soowin Kim, in solving
bibliographical problems and acquiring materials for us.
The long years of preparation of this volume have been generously supported by successive grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and by Princeton University, who have provided facilities and

material support for our efforts.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008


CONVENTIONS

Chinese is transliterated according to the Wade-Giles system, which for all its
imperfections is still employed almost universally in the serious literature on
China written in English. There are a few exceptions which are noted
below. For Japanese, the Hepburn system of romanization is followed. Mongolian is transliterated following A. Mostaert, Dictionnaire Ordos (Peking,
Catholic University, 1941) as modified by Francis W. Cleaves, and used in
Morris Rossabi, ed., Chinaamongequals (Berkeley, 1983), p. xi. These modifications are as follows:
C becomes ch
s becomes sh
7 becomes gh
q becomes kh
j becomes j
The transliteration of other foreign languages follows the usage in L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming biography (New
York and London: Columbia University Press, 1976).
Chinese personal names are given following their native form, that is with
surname preceding the given name, transliterated in the Wade-Giles system.
In the case of Chinese authors of Western-language works, the names are
given in their published form in which the given name may sometimes precede the surname (for example, Chaoying Fang). In the case of some contemporary scholars from the People's Republic of China we employ their
preferred romanization in the Pinyin system (for example, Wang Yuquan),
and for some Hong Kong scholars we follow the Cantonese transcriptions
of their names under which they publish in English (for example Hok-lam
Chan, Chiu Ling-yeoung).
Chinese place names are transliterated according to the Wade-Giles system
with the exception of those places familiar in the English-language literature

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008


CONVENTIONS

XXI

in non-standard Postal spellings. For a list of these see G. William Skinner,
Modern Chinese society: a critical bibliography (Stanford: Stanford University

Press, 1973), Vol. I, Introduction, p. lix.
Ming official titles follow those given in Charles O. Hucker, A dictionary of
official titles in imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985), with
the following modifications regarding the terms "Secretariat" and "grand
secretariat". For die period until 1380 the term "Secretariat" is employed.
After that date, we employ consistently the form "grand secretariat" to translate nei-ko to underline the unofficial character of that institution. Its members
are referred to with the tide "grand secretary." The translation "county" is
used for hsien rather than "district" to avoid ambiguities.
Emperors are referred to by their temple names or by their reign titles during their reign and by their personal names prior to their accession. The
reign tide of Ch'eng-tsu is transliterated in the form Yung-lo, which has
become conventional in English-language literature, radier than in the more
correct form Yung-le.
Dates have been converted to their Western equivalents in the Julian calendar until 1582 and the Gregorian calendar thereafter, following Keith Hazelton, A synchronic Chinese-Western daily calendar 1341-1661 AD,

Ming Studies

Research Series, No. 1 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984).
The reader should remember that when Chinese sources refer to a year
alone, this year does not correspond exactly with its Western equivalent.
The ages of individuals are sometimes cited in the Chinese form of sui. Conventionally, a person was one sui at birth and became two sui on the New

Year following. Thus in Western terms a person was always at least one year
younger than his Chinese age in sui and might be almost two years younger
if he were born at the end of the Chinese year.
The maps are based upon the recent historical adas of Yuan and Ming
China, which appears as Vol. 7 of the series Chtmg-kuo li-shih ti-t'u chi (Shanghai: Chung-hua ti-t'u hsiieh-she, 1975).

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Chungyangyen cbiuyiian li shihyiiyenyen chiu so (Bulletin ofthe Institute
ofHistory and Philology, A cademia Sinica)
Bulletin of the School of Oriental andAfrican Studies
BSOAS
Chokenglu
CKL
Chung-kuo
neiluanwaihuo lishih ts'ungshu (alternately Chung-kuo chin
CNW
tai net luan wai huo li shih ku shih ts'ung shu)
Ta Ch'ing li ch'ao shih lu
CSL
Dictionary of Ming Biography
DMB
Eminent Chinese ofthe Ch'ing Period
ECCP
HarvardJournal ofA static Studies
HJAS
Journal of the A merican Oriental Society

JAOS
Journal of A sian Studies
JAS
Km ch'iieh
KC
Ming chi
MC
Ming ch'ing shihyen chiu ts'ung kao
MCSYC
TaMinghuiyao
MHY
Ming
shih
MS
Ming shih chi shih pen mo
MSCSPM
Ming shih lu
MSL
Mingt'ungchien
MTC
Ming tai chih tu shih lun fsung
MTCTS
MTSHCCS Ming tai she hui ching chi shih lun ts'ung
Ta Ming hui tien
TMHT
Tai-wan wen hsien ts'ung k'an
TW
Yuan
shih
YS

BIHP

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008


MING WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

I. Length

II. Weight

i ch'ih

i o ts'un
12.3 inches (approx.)

1 pu (double pace) =
1 chang
—
1 li
1 Hang (tael)
=
1 chin (catty)
=

5
10

l

h

1.3
16

ch'ih
ch'ih

mile
ounces
Hang

-3 pounds (approx.)
0.99 quart (approx.)
x

III. Capacity 1 sheng

IV.

=

1 ton

—

10

sheng

1 shihjtan (picul)*

10

tou

99

Area 1 mou (mu)

=
—
=
=

1 ch'ing

=

100

quarts
bushels
acre
mou

3.1
0.14

Note: The Chinese measurements sometimes mentioned in these chapters derive from a bewildering variety of sources
and from regions where standard units varied. They do not imply a dynasty-long or empirewide standard and are to be
treated only as approximations.
*The ibib\tan was properly a measure of capacity. It is, however, frequently used also as a measure of weight equivalent
to 100 chin.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008


GENEALOGY OF THE MING IMPERIAL FAMILY
ai'lsu (1328-98)
r. 1368-98
26 sons
,s,|—

I

4 th

Chu Piao (1355-92)
HA 1368-92
5 sons

lOthTI I m i 6 t h |
Chu Tan Chu Chan
I (1378-1448)

Ch'eng-tsu (1360-1424)
(T'ai-tsung) r. 1403-24

d
Hui-tsung (1377-1402?)
HA 1392; r. 1399-1402

Jen-tsung (1378-1425)
HA 1404; r. 1425

I7th| I I I I 123rd! I I 1
Chu Ch'iian Chu Ching
|
'

3rd!

Chu Kao-hsii
(1380-1429)
rcb. 1426

Chu Kao-sui
reb. 1426

I I I I I I I I I
Hsiian-tsung (1399-143))
HA 1404: r. 1426-35

Ying-rsung (1427-64)
HA 1428; r. 1435-49. M57-<>4

Chu Chih-fan
reb. 1510

Ching-ti (1428-57)
(Tai-tsung) r. 1450-56

I I I I I I I I
Hsicn-tsung (1447-87)
HA 1449-52. 1457-64; f. 1465-87

Chu Chien-chi
HA 1452-53

j

2 mil
Chu Yu-chi
HA 1471-

Hsiao-tsung (1470-1505)
HA 1475; r. 1488-1505

Wu-tsung (1491-1521)
HA 1492; r. 1506-21

Chu Chcn-hao
reb. 1519

I I I I I I I I II

Chu Yu-yiian

Shih-tsung (1507—67)
r. 1522-66

Chu Tsai-huo
HA 1539-49

Mu-tsung (1537-72)
r. 1567-72
r

I Shao-tsun£ ' j Chu Yu-yiieh i
j 0602-46)1 j (d. 1647) [
Jr. 1645-46. I r. 1646-4- !

Shen-tsung (1563-1620)
HA 1568; r. 1573-1620

•Chu l-shih
d. 1559

3rd
I I T 7th|
I
Chu Ch ang-hstin Chu Ch ang-ying
Chu Ch an^-tang Chu 1-hai
I
(Prince of Luh) (regent Lu)

±

I Kuang-tsung (1582-1620)
HA 1601; r. 1620
I I I 5th!

Hji-tsung (1605-27)
r. 1621-27

Ssu-tsung (1611-44)
(Chuang-lieh-ti) r. 1628-44

7J

7 stms

1—r
*
HA

r

[ An-tsung
(1607-46) 11 I1 Chu Yu-lang
(1623-62)1
r. 1644-45
r. 1646-62
.1

I

Chu Tzu-lang (1629-45)

HA ?-?
=
=

Sonswhodiedbeforematurity(xlectcd).
Male heir apparent.
reb. = Rebelled.

= Reign period as empetot.
Dashed box = Southern Ming emperors

Note: Table shows only male members of the Chu imperial family who were significant in the line of
imperial succession, who were important rebels, or who were forebears of such men. The numbers of
sons and generational placement of certain individuals follow data in the "Pen chi" and "Chu wang hsi
piao" sections of the Mingsbib, corroborated closely in DMB and ECCP. Other sources may vary on
account of criteria for establishing "legitimate" sons, etc.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008