When it comes to the Ming Dynasty, most people will think of "the Son of Heaven guards the country, and the king dies", which is exactly the case.
After Zhu Yuanzhang opened the Ming Dynasty, he unified the north and south, completed the task of reorganizing mountains and rivers, and later Zhu Di, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, moved the capital from south to north to Beijing, blocking the only way for ethnic minorities to invade the Central Plains with his own capital, and then, when the Ming Dynasty fell, the Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide and died, but the restoration movement of the Third Prince Zhu was still engaged in decades, and the people all missed it, which is enough to show that the Ming Dynasty plays a pivotal role in Chinese history.
Many people believe that if the Ming Dynasty had not reorganized China, modern Chinese might have forgotten Tang poetry and Song poetry, and now China's basic plate might have split into north and south, and the orthodox concept of "China" might have been contested by Japan and South Korea.
In the eyes of the Chinese, the Ming Dynasty was the last unified empire established by the Han people, so what is the Ming Dynasty in the eyes of the Japanese?
Several confrontations between Japan and the Ming Dynasty
The first time the Ming Dynasty came into contact with the Japanese state was in the early years of the founding of Hongwu the Great.
During that time period, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang had just secured the throne, and the situation between the north and the south was stable, so he sent envoys from various countries to inform Goryeo in the north of the mainland and Annan in the south, as well as Siam, Japan and other countries: China has changed dynasties, and the Yuan Dynasty has entered the dust of history, so the rulers of the Ming Dynasty should communicate with these countries to show their friendship.
The change of dynasties in ancient Chinese society is very common, so the countries are not surprised, Goryeo and Siam once again sent envoys to Nanjing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty at that time, to pay homage to Hongwu the Great, and saw the envoys of various countries to see him, Zhu Yuanzhang was very satisfied, but only one country's envoys did not come, that is, Japan.
In order to find out the truth, Emperor Hongwu sent an envoy to Japan again the following year to inform the news, but the second trip to Japan was a rare defeat in Emperor Hongwu's life and diplomacy, because most of the Ming Dynasty missions to Japan were killed by the Japanese government, leaving only the envoy and the deputy envoy imprisoned.
After being locked up for a while, they were humiliated and then expelled from Japan. Zhu Yuanzhang, who learned of the result, could not bear it, so he ordered a thorough investigation of the ins and outs of the Japanese envoys who had prayed to the Heavenly Empire several times.
After investigation, it turned out that the Ming Dynasty, who visited Japan for the first time, was killed as soon as he entered Japan, so the same result was obtained when the Ming Dynasty was sent again for the second time.
It stands to reason that Emperor Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, who has always killed decisively, would definitely take the initiative to attack to avenge the country, but he uncharacteristically did not immediately move, although he was already very angry because of this. Therefore, he also wrote to the king of Japan, claiming that "the Ming Dynasty's strike was for the peace of the world, and Japan's disloyalty was for not thinking of return."
Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang only shouted these slogans verbally, and did not really fight against Japan, after all, he had just ascended the throne at that time, thinking that the foundation of thousands of generations could not be destroyed in one fell swoop.
At that time, the Ming Dynasty and Japan were separated by a deep sea area, and Ming Taizu knew that the Ming Dynasty army was not counted as going to sea to fight, so he said in a subsequent letter to the Japanese mission: "It is the tolerance and generosity of Ming that lists you as an indisputable country." It can be seen from this that Yuanzhang swallowed this evil breath, and at the same time began to secretly organize forces to resist the enemy.
At that time, the Ming Dynasty had just been established, there were still ethnic minorities in the north, and at the same time Japan's power was rising, Zhu Yuanzhang had to temporarily restrain his edge and reconcile with Japan first, even if there was embarrassment and embarrassment in diplomacy. In the face of several provocations by Japan, Zhu Yuanzhang did not immediately attack, on the contrary, his letter to the Japanese king was very gentle and peaceful.
Perhaps seeing the change in attitude of the Daming Dynasty, the Japanese side also expressed it.
From the beginning of the Hongwu period, the southeast coastal areas of the mainland and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions were often attacked by the Wokou, and Zhu Yuanzhang repeatedly organized troops to confront him, although there were several large victories, the Wokou did not invade the interior of the Ming Dynasty, but on the whole, the Ming Dynasty has always been in a defensive posture, while Japan mostly has the meaning of attack.
In order to maintain the stability of state power and social stability, Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice but to implement the policy of sea ban, and this policy gradually developed with the continuation of Daming.
Japan took the initiative to make good friends with the Ming Dynasty in exchange for benefits
The implementation of the sea ban interrupted maritime commerce between the Chinese feudal dynasty and Japan, and the Japanese government began to make new moves towards China. A few years later, the Japanese delegation came to the Ming Dynasty to pay homage, bringing a few horses and specialties with them, a move that satisfied Zhu Yuanzhang.
In fact, the Japanese side took the initiative out of economic temptation, which was a well-known thing at the time, and the Ming rulers had to turn a blind eye.
After Zhu Di ascended the throne, in order to achieve the status of the "co-lord of the world" of the Celestial Empire, he deliberately wooed Japan again, and at that time, Japan was experiencing a great war between the north and the south, and the country was in chaos, so they also began to lower their posture and seek perfection from Daming.
At that time, when the mission sent by the Ming Dynasty had just entered Japan, the Japanese side immediately learned the etiquette of the Chinese feudal dynasty and knelt down on its knees, making a reverent obedience.
You must know that usually Japanese officials can only do this to their own emperor, and the government's pious performance is naturally bowing to the Ming Dynasty, and soon after, they also exchanged it for the financial reward they wanted.
From the fifth year of Yongle, the money distributed by the Ming Dynasty to Japan began to increase over the years, from 20,000 guan a year to 30,000 or 40,000 guan a year, and the Japanese officials profited a lot from the Ming Dynasty every year, and they took away not only money, but also silver, silk fabrics, porcelain, and so on.
However, all Ming Dynasty people coming and going to Japan will be treated very highly, and the very courteous posture of the Japanese government makes the Ming rulers very useful.
The Ming Dynasty's grand gestures pleased the Japanese, and they began to lower their posture in exchange for greater benefits. The Japanese envoy changed his previous arrogant attitude and did not hesitate to kneel down and call the Ming Dynasty "China", which was unique before, and after the Ming Dynasty, Japan's evaluation of the Qing Dynasty was quite playful.
According to historical research, Japan did not recognize the Kang Qian prosperous era during the Qing Dynasty, and called the Chinese at that time "China", but for the Ming Dynasty, they intimately called it "China", whether it was from the heart of respect or not, which shows that during that time, Japan recognized the honored status of the Ming Dynasty.
Japan's true view of the Ming Dynasty
After getting the attitude of the Japanese side, the rulers of the Ming Dynasty were mostly immersed in it without thinking about it.
The "Records of Emperor Taizong of the Ming Dynasty" records that in the eighth year of Yongle, the Wokou attacked again, they killed the coastal areas to loot money, and the local army of the Ming Dynasty was repeatedly repulsed; In the thirteenth year of Yongle, the Wokou once again forcibly landed in Lushun, killing more than 20,000 people, and boarded the ship with gold and silver treasures and set off; In the sixteenth year of Yongle, 7,000 Wokou attacked the city and plundered the land, and the Ming Dynasty army guarding the sea area was defeated.
In other words, while the Japanese side was making small gains in exchange for profits, it was also indulging the invasion of the territory of the Ming Dynasty by the Wokou.
In the face of the arrogant crimes of the Wokou, Ming Chengzu, who has always implemented a high-pressure policy against the military and civilians, showed extraordinary generosity, and in order to ease international relations, he not only sent the Woku slaves who had killed all the compatriots of the Chinese nation back to the mainland, but also continued to trade with Japan during the Ming Xuande period.
Therefore, the Ming Dynasty's approach also gave a signal to the Japanese side, that is, the Ming Dynasty's rivers and mountains were illusory, looking vast, but the national strength was empty, so the Ming Dynasty's later diplomatic relations with Japan were "spending money to buy peace" in the eyes of Japanese envoys.
Under the influence of such ideas and concepts, when the subsequent Japanese envoys visited the Ming Dynasty, they had an arrogant attitude, most of them were of low quality, presumptuous and wild, and caused great disasters several times.
Later, the attitude of the Japanese side became more and more arrogant, but whenever the Japanese mission passed through the Ming Dynasty, they would rob money in broad daylight, and even directly beat the Ming Dynasty officers who hindered their murder.
It is recorded in the "Records of Emperor Xiaozong of Ming" that in the fourteenth year of Chenghua, at the foot of the Son of Heaven in Beijing, the Japanese delegation committed murder on the street and killed the people of Jingshi, and they released a slogan, claiming that "the Great Ming has its appearance", and the rampant guests of Fanbang can see that Japan's attitude towards the Ming Dynasty at that time was very disdainful.
This matter then developed into the fact that in order to "start from the overall situation of diplomatic relations", the Ming Dynasty only let the Japanese mission give 10 taels of silver to burn the corpse, which was the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Ming Dynasty. In addition, the Japanese side always scoffed at the national strength of the Ming Dynasty, after all, they fought several battles with the Ming Dynasty in history and returned from great victories, and even took the initiative to invade the territory of the Ming Dynasty without being expelled by the Ming army.
In this way, Japan did not take the Ming Dynasty to heart at that time, but in terms of culture and thought, Japan did respect it.
During the Tang and Song dynasties, many Japanese delegations came to the Chinese feudal dynasty to worship, and during the Tang Taizong period, Japan also sent experts to China many times to study and rest, but they brought the Tang system back to China but did not achieve great results, so it was gone.
However, the cultural ideas of the Ming Dynasty were brought back to China by Japanese envoys, especially Cheng Zhu Lixue and Yangming Xinxue, and after the development of the Song Dynasty, these two ideas and cultures have been circulated in the Central Plains society, forming a mature system.
In the early days of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, these two ideologies and cultures even became the mainstream ideology of the society at that time, and many experts and scholars were happy to study them. After the Japanese mission brought these two theories back to China, it caused heated discussions within Japanese society, especially the Yangming Shingaku, which fully combined the spirit of bushido with Wang Yangming's psychology to form a unique Japanese culture.
To this day, the Japanese are still very optimistic about Wang Yangming's theory, and Wang Yangming also has a high historical status in Japan.
Although historically, they did not recognize the hard power of the Ming Dynasty, they learned more thoroughly about the various cultures and social customs of the Ming Dynasty. It is worth mentioning that although the strength of the Ming Dynasty failed to bring Japan to its knees, Japan also called itself a "vassal state" to the Ming Dynasty.