Throughout ancient Chinese history, the territory of each dynasty was different, and according to the level of combat strength and the exertion of various political means, the territory was finally expanded to the maximum. The territory of the Ming and Qing dynasties was often compared. From a practical point of view, the territory of the Ming Dynasty is indeed inferior to that of the Qing Dynasty. Not to mention that the Ming Dynasty had tens of millions of territories, which is not realistic. How big was the territory of the Ming Dynasty? The textbook gives the figure of 9.97 million. However, some people also said that the territory of the Ming Dynasty was only two capitals and thirteen provinces. How big are the two capitals and thirteen provinces?
The two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty were: Nanzhili and Beizhili, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Huguang, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou. This was the area under the de facto control of the Ming Dynasty, and it was also the core area. According to this area, the territory of the Ming Dynasty was only more than four million.
In addition to these, the Ming Dynasty also had the Qiangzhi region, that is, adopted the Policy of Qiangzhi in other places, and set up a capital division for jurisdiction. For example, nuer gandusi, which was an administrative institution established by the Ming Dynasty in the northeast region. However, the Nuer Gandusi only existed for 25 years, and in 1434, due to financial problems and poor conditions, Emperor Mingxuan abolished the Nuer Gandusi. It can also be seen from this that the Ming Dynasty began to enter a state of defense. The development of the Zhu Di period maximized the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and after his death, the frontiers of the Ming Dynasty began to shrink back.
Abandoning the rule of Nuer Gandusi led to the rise of the Mongols and Jurchens in the northeast. Although the Ming Dynasty abolished the Nuer Gandu division, it adopted a policy of bondage, and the ethnic minorities in the northeast often paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty also appointed the leaders of ethnic minorities and used them to govern the northeast region. For example, Nurhaci's ancestors were canonized by the Ming Dynasty.
But this has no practical significance, because these ethnic minorities have a great impact on the stability of the northeast. Out of the Liaoning region, the Ming Dynasty did not send troops to garrison. In order to obtain the rewards of the Ming Dynasty, the Jurchens sent more and more people during the tribute. To this end, the Ming Dynasty limited the number of tributes to the Jurchen tribes, which made the Jurchen people dissatisfied, and eventually turned into war. It can be seen from here that the abolition of nuer gandusi was a major mistake of the Ming Dynasty, which made the ethnic minorities here continue to rise and finally threaten the Ming Dynasty.
In Tibet, the Ming Dynasty was mainly canonized, and the capital divisions and health centers set up were all held by local monks and lay leaders. However, this kind of canonization is meaningless, equivalent to the Ming Dynasty giving Tibet a set of governance methods, the Ming Dynasty did not send troops to garrison, let alone send officials to rule and govern. The various canonizations only increased Tibet's trade with the Ming Dynasty, and Tibet was not restricted by the Policies of the Ming Dynasty. Although the "History of Ming" depicts the huge territory of the Ming Dynasty, from the perspective of rule, the Ming Dynasty in the northeast region did not want to rule, and the conditions on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were even worse, would the Ming Dynasty be more willing to rule here? This doesn't make sense.
Judging from the territory of the Ming Dynasty, many regions were also ruled, but the time of rule was too short, and finally they were abandoned. For example, the Vietnamese region only ruled for twenty years, and finally gave up. It can be seen that with the decline of the Ming Dynasty's strength, the territorial frontier also retracted.
Let's look at the Qing Dynasty's rule over the surrounding areas. The Qing Dynasty originated in the northeast region, and the northeast naturally became part of the territory of the Qing Dynasty, and the entire Mongolian region was also included in the territory. Later, Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang all became the territory of the Qing Dynasty. And Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia, their territory is very large. Especially in the entire Mongolian region, up to more than 2.7 million, Xinjiang is also more than 2 million. It was also in this way that the Qing Dynasty gathered the frontier regions we wanted, and the territory reached the peak of 13.16 million. And the reign was very long, more than a hundred years.
It can be seen from here that in terms of territorial rule, the Qing Dynasty was significantly higher than the Ming Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty also laid the map of today's China, although in modern history, the Qing Dynasty has ceded many territories, but at the time of the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty still retained more than 11 million territories. Without Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet, we would not have imagined the consequences. Outer Mongolia broke away during the Republic of China period, and after the end of World War II, it eventually formed the current situation. Looking at the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was a time for our country to face the world's powers. The rise of Western countries, no matter which Dynasty in China is put into modern history, will face various crises and threats, after all, feudal ideas have a great influence on the ancients.