Ming : Revolutionaries or rebels ?
Andre Willers
4 Oct 2013
Synopsis :
The Founder of the Ming Dynasty started as a rebel , then
grew into a revolutionary .
Discussion :
1.A quick recap :
The Mongols conquered the Chinese and enslaved them .
2. In typical divide-and-conquer fashion , they suborned Chinese
landowners as proxy slave masters . (Mongols specialised in this , due to their
small numbers . See Middle East Christians and Muslims , Russian boyars , etc)
3. Zhu Yuanzhang (see Appendix A) was an ugly man . But like
Socrates , his arguments could not be gainsaid .
4.He started as a peasant rebel , then metamorphosed into a
Revolutionary . Incorporating both the peasants and the landowners into a Chinese
Flowering that is still the envy of the world . (Considered buying a Ming vase
lately ?)
5. Interesting is the comparison with Trafalgar . Both were
water battles decisive in the future pathways of the society .
6. Pyongang Lake is much more complex , though . It was a
combined land-sea operation , and very large numbers of combatants were
involved .
7.But the decision was on water .
8.Note the tactics , strategies and technology . By this
time the Chinese had equalled or surpassed Mongols in the arts of war .
But so had the proxy reactionaries . Civil war ensued .This
is it’s history .
9. Where Zhu Yuanzhang got the Mandate of Heaven from is
that he did not massacre the oppressors . He incorporated them into the body
politic .
10.Remember , Chinese families have a member in every
faction . A simple safeguard in an old society .
Killing large segments of societies will isolate the ruler
from any support base whatsoever .
11.Not even Mao tried it . He tried Re-education . Stalinism
in China would lead to another Ming-style revolution .
The definitive Slave Rebellion .
The only example of a large society destroying slavery from
the inside , without outside help .
12. Zhu Yuanzhang’s Legacy .
He started as an ugly slave in a caste-ridden society and
left it free with every Chinese with a bit of the Mandate of Heaven in his knapsack
.
A salute is called for .
Andre
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Appendix A
The Battle of Poyang Lake
by Joshua Gilbert
In late August 1363 AD the two main contenders for control
of China, Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang, faced off on Poyang (also called
Boyang) Lake, the largest freshwater body of water in China. In the end Zhu
Yuanzhang would win the battle and go on to found one of China’s greatest
dynasties: the Ming.
The circumstances
that would lead to Poyang Lake are tied to the fall of the Yuan Dynasty. When
Khubilai Khan founded his Yuan Dynasty in 1271 many of the Chinese resented it.
In fact they never regarded the Yuan as a legitimate dynasty, but as a foreign
occupation army. As time would show very few Yuan Emperors were capable and
they became more decedent and sinicized over time. In the 1320s a massive
famine swept China and 7 to 8 million people died of starvation. The inability
of the Yuan to handle the crises was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Many secret societies devoted to the destruction of the Yuan popped up all over
the land.
In 1325 the first rebellion broke out. The central Yuan
government in Dadu (modern Beijing) was paralyzed and unable to act. Further
the Yuan Army had denigrated into an ineffectual force. The wealthy landowning
class realized the uprising, which was made of peasants, threatened them just
as much as the Yuan. So they armed their own private armies and saved the Yuan
from collapse. But the next time they would not be so lucky. In 1344 a flood
broke the dams along the Huang He. The Yuan called up 170,000 peasants to fix
the dams. But instead the peasants rose in revolt in 1352, and from there
snowballed out of control. More rebellions broke out all over the country, and
this time the landowners could not save the Yuan. By 1355 the dynasty was for
all intents and purposes dead, although the Yuan Emperor remained in power until
1368.
Among the various rebel groups, many of which were religious
in nature, the most powerful was the Song regime. The Song regime was
originally a combined Buddhist-Manichean sect called the White Lotus, and
became the Song regime in 1355. The titular leader was Han Lin'er, the Minor
Prince of Brilliance, and the son of Han Shantong, the sect’s founding father.
But true power lay in the hands of the so called Red Turban (the military arm
of the White Lotus) generals and in particular with a former beggar named Zhu
Yuanzhang.
Zhu had been a Buddhist monk, but left his monastery to join
the Song. Despite being so ugly that he was compared to a pig in looks Zhu was
a strong and charismatic leader. People came to him in droves and Zhu rose
quickly among the Song. In 1356 Zhu Yuanzhang conquered Yingtian (modern
Nanjing) and from there abandoned the last vestiges of his Buddhist past,
proclaiming himself the defender of Confucianism and the people. The Confucian
scholars in return began to invent for him a claim to The Mandate of Heaven,
the principle by which the Chinese considered no one could rule with out. Zhu
could now effectively make his own claim to power, but Zhu Shen, a scholar,
persuaded him to hold off. Saying:
"Build high walls, stock up rations, and don’t be too
quick to call yourself a prince"
…
The battles are discussed , until the decision point . Then
he went after the Mongols .
“until 1367 when he unified the south. That same year Zhu
Yuanzhang finally attacked the Yuan remnants in the north for the first time,
sending Xu Da with the task of capturing Dadu. He also sent Liao Yongzhong to
attack the Mongols in Guangdong and Guangxi.
In 1368 Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed a new dynasty in Yingtian, the
Da Ming (taking inspiration from the name of his former superior, the Little
Ming King). Yingtian’s name was changed to Nanjing, meaning southern capital.
Furthermore Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself Emperor Ming Taizu (Great
Ancestor), with the era name Hongwu (Immensely Martial). It is by his era name
that he is best recorded in history. By 1369 the new emperor had chased the
last vestige of Mongol rule out of China, marking the beginning of Ming rule
over the entire country. The Ming dynasty would go on to rule for 300 years,
ending at the hands of the Manchus of Qing in 1644.
In conclusion the Battle of Poyang Lake was the decisive
battle in the wars between the various rebel groups and by wining the battle
Zhu Yuanzhang ensured his supremacy, eventually paving the way for the
foundation of Ming rule.
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