Hello everyone, here is a small broadcast reading, today we continue to share the book "History and Culture". Earlier we talked from the Zhou Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, which was the peak of science and technology and culture in Chinese history.
Daming Dynasty
In the middle and late period of the Yuan Dynasty, political corruption, the people did not have a good life, in 1308 to 1333 25 years, 8 emperors were changed, the internal strife of the imperial court can be seen. In this historical background, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born a beggar, launched an uprising, passing through the pass and defeating Chen Youyu, Zhang Shicheng and other local forces that occupied the local area. In 1368, the Yuan Dynasty was overthrown and the Ming Dynasty was established, and the 41-year-old Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne as the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Taizu. Next, we will explain the rise and fall of the Ming Dynasty from several aspects: political, cultural and economic aspects.
In terms of political strategy, Zhu Yuanzhang, who turned from a low-level commoner into an emperor of a generation, was well aware of the suffering of the people at the bottom, and in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, he put an end to corruption with an iron fist, formulated a series of strict laws and torture, and severely punished corruption. Hongwu's famous Air Seal case and Guo Heng's case in 15 and 18 years are major cases against corruption, killing tens of thousands of people in total.
At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang was a cautious and cautious person, who must do everything himself, was a hard-working monarch, but also a monarch who monopolized power, in terms of power, he tried his best to weaken local forces, deeply aware of the threat to the imperial court after the local forces grew, and after he ascended the throne, he killed a number of founding fathers, such as Hu Weiyong, Lan Yu, Li Shanchang, and others, and abolished the system of prime ministers, and returned military power and political power to the imperial power. Centralized power was achieved, and in fact it was also an imperial system in which the emperor centralized his power.
In terms of cultural system, in 1370, the third year after ascending the throne (the third year of Hongwu), the imperial examination was restored, and at the same time, in the imperial examination system, the Ming Dynasty reached an unprecedented degree of perfection, imprisoning people's minds with the "Eight Strands of Literature", and also leading the examination system itself to a dead end.
In terms of economy and foreign trade, the famous Zheng He made seven voyages to the West, opening up China's great navigation era, but this prosperity lasted for decades before it went to the road of seclusion. In the third year of Yongle of the Ming Dynasty (1405), Zheng He led 27,800 people and 208 sailing ships from Liujiagang, which lasted for 28 years. Reaching more than 120 Asian and African countries, the length of the route and the length of the voyage were the largest in the world at that time.
Zheng He's primary purpose in going to the West was for Zhu Di, the ancestor of Ming Cheng at the time, in order to trace the whereabouts of Emperor Minhui. At the same time, it also completed the exchange and dissemination of foreign economy and culture of the Ming Dynasty at that time. Zheng He can also be called the pioneer of the world's great navigation era.
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, it gradually moved towards the closure of the country, foreign trade ports were closed, foreign economic trade and cultural exchanges came to an abrupt end, and the central government became increasingly corrupt, bringing the Ming Dynasty to the brink of extinction. The Ming Dynasty was a major turning point in China's 2,000-year history. After a long and dark Middle Ages in Europe, the political system and democratic process began to sprout and recover, while China continued its prosperity for two thousand years and gradually moved towards leadership, the Ming Dynasty and purges had begun to lag behind the world in terms of political system and scientific and technological innovation, and the world's pendulum began to swing from the East to the West.
Qing Dynasty
In 1636, Nurhaci's son Emperor Taiji ascended the throne and changed the name of the country to Daqing, and in 1644 Dashun captured the capital of the Ming Dynasty, Beijing, and the Ming Dynasty collapsed. The Qing Dynasty was the last feudal dynasty in ancient China, which lasted for 268 years after 10 emperors.
The Three Dynasties of the Qing Dynasty, Kang Yongqian, reached its peak and pushed the feudal system to its peak, with four major achievements:
1: He sent Zheng to successfully recover Taiwan;
2: The Treaty of Nebuchu was signed with the invading Russia at that time, and Nebuchu and Heilongjiang were incorporated into China's territory;
3: Ping Ding Junggar. In the early Qing Dynasty, the southern Mongolian and northern desert regions also successively submitted to the Qing Dynasty;
4: The governance of Tibet has been strengthened.
In terms of culture, the culture of the Qing Dynasty was centered on scripture, and the study of scripture developed to a completely new stage during this period, surpassing the classics of the Two Han Dynasties and the Cheng Zhu Lixue. Among them, during the Kangxi Dynasty, there were many famous Song scholars, including Lu Longqi, Tang Bin, Zhang Boxing and others who were all Song scholars.
At the same time, Kangxi also accepted the Jesuits and the Western learning they brought. And like Jesus Bachelor studied Western science. And Western medicine was also introduced into our country. The 61 years of the kangxi emperor's reign laid the foundation for the prosperity of the Qing Dynasty. Later Yongzheng and Qianlong also continued the prosperity of the Qing Dynasty.
In addition, in terms of land reform, Yongzheng began to implement land reform in the fourth year, and implemented the reform of land and returned to the stream. The return of land to the land is replaced by the hereditary toastmasters appointed by the central government, which eliminates many bad rules and vices, improves transportation, and enhances the vitality of the local economy.
Kang Yongqian three dynasties will be the Qing Dynasty's economic development to the peak, domestic trade and foreign trade have made great achievements, to Songjiang Jiangsu centered on the Yangtze River Delta production of cotton textiles, after entering the Qing Dynasty, there has been further development, daily sales can reach 150,000 horses, on the eve of the Opium War, the domestic cotton cloth commodity volume is more than 30 million horses of scale, Songjiang area is also known as "Nanjing cotton cloth". The development of the cotton textile industry is a microcosm of the economic prosperity of the Qing Dynasty. However, at the end of the Qianlong Period, the Qing Dynasty began to turn from prosperity to decline. The Qing government began to be self-imposed and extravagant. Among them, the later Hongli Dazhuang Palace Garden, the Yuanmingyuan was built in the Kangxi Ten Thousand Years, the Yongzheng Dynasty built twenty-eight scenes, and the Qianlong was expanded into forty scenic spots. With the abundance of the national treasury at that time, the extravagance and waste of the imperial court were manifested in all aspects, and the princess married, and the reward was more than a few million taels of silver. At the same time, corruption is rampant throughout the country, and corruption cases that shock the whole country are emerging one after another. Among them, the huge greed and yan of the Qing Dynasty are typical representatives. Moreover, with the rapid growth of the population, in 1790, the national population exceeded 300 million, and the financial burden of the country became heavier and heavier. Also accelerated the decline of the Qing Dynasty.
At the same time as the recession, the Qing government began to adopt a closed-door policy in foreign trade, which generally went through three stages: the period of sea prohibition, the period of multi-port trade, and the period of one-port trade in Guangzhou. The continuous narrowing of the window of foreign trade has further led to the interruption of economic, trade and cultural exchanges between the East and the West.
In the 18th century, more than 200 million silver dollars flowed into Britain's purchases of Chinese goods. After the Qing government closed the country, especially the Western powers represented by the United Kingdom urgently need to open the door to China, in order to obtain a trade surplus, the British-controlled East India Company carried out opium smuggling trade with China, which was severely resisted by the Qing government, which led to the escalation of the contradictions between the Qing government and the United Kingdom, in 1840, the first Opium War broke out between China and Britain, thus China entered a hundred years of turmoil and humiliation.
Well, today's content is these, these days we shared this "History and Culture", a simple browse of China's thousands of years of history, if you like my article, please pay attention to the "small broadcast reading" or share it with your friends, thank you.