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possessed zamindar rights. Women from mercantile

castes sometimes took an active role in business activities.

At the same time, however, as Muslims, the Mughals

subjected women to certain restrictions under Islamic

law. On the whole, these Mughal practices coincided with

and even accentuated existing tendencies in Indian soci-

ety. The Muslim practice of isolating women and pre-

venting them from associating with men outside the

home (purdah) was adopted by many upper-class Hindus

as a means of enhancing their status or protecting their

women from unwelcome advances by Muslims in posi-

tions of authority. In other ways, Hindu practices were

unaffected. The custom of sati continued to be practiced

despite efforts by the Mughals to abolish it, and child

marriage (most women were betrothed before the age of

ten) remained common. Women were still instructed to

obey their husbands without

question and to remain chaste.

For their part, Hindus some-

times attempted to defend them-

selves and their religious practices

against the efforts of some Mughal

monarchs to impose the Islamic

religion and Islamic mores on the

indigenous population. In some

cases, despite official prohibitions,

Hindu men forcibly married

Muslim women and then con-

verted them to the native faith,

while converts to Islam normally

lost all of their inheritance rights

within the Indian family. Govern-

ment orders to destroy Hindu

temples were often ignored by

local officials, sometimes as the

result of bribery or intimidation.

Sometimes Indian practices had

an influence on the Mughal elites,

as many Mughal chieftains mar-

ried Indian women and adopted

Indian forms of dress.

The Economy Long-term sta-

bility led to increasing commer-

cialization and the spread of

wealth to new groups within In-

dian society. The Mughal era saw

the emergence of an affluent

landed gentry and a prosperous

merchant cla ss. Members of

prestigious castes from the pre-

Mughal period reaped many of

the benefits of the increasing

wealth, but some of these changes transcend ed caste

boundaries and led to the emergence of new groups who

achieved status and wealth on the basis of economic

achievement rather than traditional kinship ties. During

the late eighteenth century, this economic prosperity was

shaken by the decline of the Mughal Empire and the

increasing European presence. But many prominent

Indians reacted by esta blishing commercial relationships

with the foreigners.

Mughal Culture

The era of the Mughals was one of synthesis in culture as

well as in politics and religion. The Mughals combined

Islamic themes with Persian and indigenous motifs to

produce a unique style that enriched and embellished

Arabian

Sea

Indian

Ocean

Bay of

Bengal

Kabul

Lahore

Delhi

Jaipur

Varanasi

(Benares)

Bombay (Br.)

Surat

Calcutta

Buxar

Madras

Pondicherry (Fr.)

KASHMIR

ORISSA

SIKHS

RAJPUTS

SIND

MARATHAS

NEPAL

BENGAL

GOA

SRI LANKA

Plassey

0 250 500 Miles

0 250 500 750 Kilometers

British

territory

MAP 16.4 India in 1805. By the early nineteenth century, much of the Indian

subcontinent had fallen under British domination.

Where was the capital of the Mughal Empire located?

View an animated version of this map or related maps at www.c engage.com/history/

duikspiel/essentialworld6e

404 CHAPTER 16 THE MUSLIM EMPIRES

Indian art and culture. The Mughal emperors were zeal-

ous patrons of the arts and enticed painters, poets, and

artisans from as far away as the Mediterranean. Appar-

ently, the generosity of the Mughals made it difficult to

refuse a trip to India. It was said that they would reward a

poet with his weight in gold.

Architecture Undoubtedly, the Mughals’ most visible

achievement was in architecture. Here they integrated

Persian and Indian styles in a new and sometimes

breathtakingly beautiful form best symbolized by the Taj

Mahal, built by the emperor Shah Jahan in the mid-

seventeenth century (see the comparative illustration

above). Although the human and economic cost of the

Taj tarnishes the romantic legend of its construction,

there is no denying the beauty of the building. It had

evolved from a style that originated several decades earlier

with the tomb of Humayun.

Humayun’s mausoleum had combined Persian and

Islamic motifs in a square building finished in red

sandstone and topped with a dome. The Taj brought the

style to perfection. Working with a model created by his

Persian architect, Shah Jahan raised the dome and re-

placed the red sandstone with brilliant white marble. The

entire exterior and interior surface is decorated with cut-

stone geometrical patterns, delicate black stone tracery, or

intricate inlay of colored precious stones in floral and

Qur’anic arabesques. The technique of creating dazzling

floral mosaics of lapis lazuli, malachite, carnelian, tur-

quoise, and mother of pearl may have been introduced by

Italian artists at the Mughal court. Shah Jahan spent his

last years imprisoned in a room in the Red Fort at Agra;

from his windows, he could see the beautiful memorial to

his beloved wife.

The Taj was by no means the only magnificent

building erected during the Mughal era. Akbar, who, in

the words of a contemporary, ‘‘[dressed] the work of his

mind and heart in the garment of stone and clay,’’ was the

first of the great Mughal builders. His first palace at Agra,

the Red Fort, was begun in 1565. A few years later, he

COMPARATIVE ILLUSTRATION

The T aj Maha l: Sym bol of the Exotic East. The Taj Mahal, completed in 1653,

was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a tomb to glorify the memory of

his beloved wife. Raised on a marble platform above the Jumn a River, the Taj is

dramatically framed by contrasting twin red sandstone mosques, magnificent gardens, and a

long reflecting pool that mirrors and magnifies its beauty. The effect is one of monumental

size, near blinding brilliance, and delicate lightness, a startling contrast to the heavier and

more masculine Baroque style then popular in Europe. The Taj Mahal inspired many

imitations, including the Royal Pavilion at Brighton, England (see the inset), constructed in

1815 to commemorate the British victory over Napoleon at Waterloo. The Pavilion is a good

example of the way Europeans portrayed the ‘‘exotic’’ East.

How would you compare Mughal ar chitecture, as exemplified by the Taj Majal, with the

mosques erected b y builders such as Sinan in the Ottoman Empire?



Ian Bell



William J. Duiker

THE GRANDEUR OF THE MUGHALS 405

ordered the construction of a new palace at Fatehpur

Sikri, 26 miles west of Agra. The new palace was built in

honor of a Sufi mystic who had correctly forecast the

birth of a son to the emperor. In gratitude, Akbar decided

to build a new capital city and palace on the site of the

mystic’s home in the village of Sikri. Over a period of

fifteen years, from 1571 to 1586, a magnificent new city in

red sandstone was constructed. Although the city was

abandoned before completion and now stands almost

untouched, it is a popular destination for tourists and

pilgrims.

Painting The other major artistic achievement of the

Mughal period was painting. As in so many other areas of

endeavor, painting in Mughal India resulted from the

blending of two cultures. While living in exile, Emperor

Humayun had learned to admire Persian miniatures. On

his return to India in 1555, he invited two Persian masters

to live in his palace and introduce the technique to his

adopted land. His successor, Akbar, appreciated the new

style and popularized it with his patronage. He estab-

lished a state workshop at Fatehpur Sikri for two hundred

artists, mostly Hindus, who worked under the guidance

of the Persian masters to create the Mughal school of

painting.

The ‘‘Akbar style’’ combined Persian with Indian

motifs, such as the use of extended space and the por-

trayal of physical human action, characteristics not

usually seen i n Persian art. Akbar also apparently en-

couraged the imitation of European art forms, including

the portrayal of Christian subjects, the use of perspec-

tive, lifelike portraits, and the shading of colors in the

Renaissance style . The depiction of the human figure in

Mughal painting outraged orthodox Muslims at court,

but Akbar argued that the painter, ‘‘in sketching any-

thing that has life ...must come to fe el that he cannot

bestow individuality upon his work, and is thus forced

to think of God, the Giver of Life, and will thus increase

in knowledge.’’

Literature The development of Indian literature was

held back by the absence of printing, which was not

introduced until the end of the Mughal era. Literar y

works were inscribed by calligraphers, and one histo-

rian has estimated that the librar y of Agra contained

more than 24,000 volumes. Poetry, in particular,

flourished under the Mug hals, who established poet

laureates at court. Poems were w ritten in the Persian

style and in the Persian language. In fact, Persian be-

came the official language of the cour t until the sack of

Delhi in 1739.

Another aspect of the long Mughal reign was a

Hindu revival of devotional literature, much of it

dedi cated to Krishna and Rama. The retelling of the

Ramayana in the vernacular culminat e d in the s ix te e nt h-

century Hindi version by the great poet Tulsidas (1532--

1623) . His Ramcaritmanas presents the devotional story

with a deified Rama and Sita. Tulsidas’s genius was in

combining the conflicting cults of Vishnu and Shiva into

a uni fied and overwhelming love for the divine, which

he expressed in some of the mos t moving of all Indian

poetry. The Ramcaritmanas has ecli psed its two-

thousand-year-old Sanskrit ancestor in popularity and

even became the basis of an Indian television series in

the late 1980s.

Jahangir the Magnifi cent. In 1615, the English ambassador

to the Mugha l court presented an official portrait of King James I to

Shah Jahangir, who returned the favor with a portrait of himself. Thus

was established a long tradition of excha nging paintings between the two

empires. As it turned out, the practice altered the art of Mughal

por traiture, which had previously shown the emperor in action poses,

hunting, at official functions, or in battle. Henceforth , portraits of the

ruler followed European practice by proclaiming the opulence and

spiritual power of the empire. In this painting, Jahangir has chosen

spiritual o ver earthly power by offering a book to a sheikh while

ignoring the Ottoman sultan, King Jame s I, an d the Hindu artist who

painted the picture. Even the cherubs, a European artifice, are dazzled

by the shah’s divine character, which is further demonstrated by an

enormous halo.



Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, NY

406 CHAPTER 16 THE MUSLIM EMPIRES

CONCLUSION

THE THREE EMPIRES THAT we have discussed in this chapter

exhibit a number of striking similarities. First of all, they were

Muslim in their religious affiliation, although the Safavids were

Shi’ite rather than Sunni, a distinction that often led to mutual

tensions and conflict. More important, perhaps, they were all of

nomadic origin, and the political and social institutions that they

adopted carried the imprint of their preimperial past. Once they

achieved imperial power, however, all three ruling dynasties

displayed an impressive capacity to administer a large empire and

brought a degree of stability to peoples who had all too often lived

in conditions of internal division and war.

Another similarity is that the mastery of the techniques of

modern warfare, including the use of firearms, played a central role

in all three empires’ abilit y to overcome their rivals and rise to

regional hegemony. Some scholars have therefore labeled them

‘‘gunpowder empires’’ in the belief that technical prowess in the art

of warfare was a key element in their success. Although that is

undoubtedly true, we should not forget that other factors, such as

dynamic leadership, political acumen, and the possession of an

ardent following motivated by religious zeal, were equally if not

more important in their drive to power and ability to retain it.

Weapons by themselves do not an empire make.

The rise of these powerful Muslim states coincided with the

opening period of European expansion at the end of the fifteenth

century and the beginning of the sixteenth. The military and

political talents of these empires helped protect much of the Muslim

world from the resurgent forces of Christianity. To the contrary, the

Ottoman Turks carried their empire into the heart of Christian

Europe and briefly reached the gates of the great city of Vienna. By

the end of the eighteenth century, however, the Safavid dynasty had

imploded, and the powerful Mughal Empire was in a state of virtual

collapse. Only the Ottoman Empire was still functioning. Yet it too

had lost much of its early expansionistic vigor and was showing

signs of internal decay.

The reasons for the decline of these empires have inspired

considerable debate among historians. One factor was undoubt-

edly the expansion of European power into the Indian Ocean

and the Middle East. But internal causes were probably more

important in the long run. All three empires experienced growing

factionalism w ithin the ruling elite, incompetence w ithin the

palace, and the emergence of divisive forces in the empire a t

large---factors that have marked the passing of traditional empires

since early times. Paradoxically, one of the greatest strengths of

these empires---their master y of gunpowder---may have simulta-

neously been a serious weakness in that it allowed them to develop

a complacent sense of security. With little incentive to turn their

attention to new developments in science and technology, they

were increasingly vulnerable to attack by the advanced nations of

TIMELINE

1450

15501500 1600 1650 1700 1750

Ottoman Turks capture

Constantinople

Ismail becomes shah of Persia

Babur seizes Delhi

Reign of Shah Jahan Death of Aurangzeb

Building of Taj Mahal

Collapse of Safavid Empire

Ismail conquers Baghdad from Uzbeks

Reign of Shah Abbas I

Turks defeat Mamluks

in Syria and

seize Cairo

Ottomans evicted from

central Europe

Reign of Suleyman I

(the Magnificent)

Battle of Lepanto

Reign of Akbar

Portuguese defeat Turkish

fleet in Indian Ocean

CONCLUSION 407

SUGGESTED READING

Constantinople A dramatic recent account of the Muslim

takeover of Constantinople is provided by R. Crowley in 1453: The

Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West

(New York, 2005). Crowley acknowledges his debt to the classic by

S. Runciman, The Fall of Constantinople, 1453 (Cambridge, 1965).

Ottoman Empire Two useful general surveys of Ottoman

history are C. Finkel, Osman’s Dream: The History of the Ottoman

Empire (Jackson, Tenn., 2006), and J. Goodwin, Lords of the

Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire (London, 2002).

A highly readable, albeit less definitive, account is Lord Kinross,

The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Empire

(New York, 1977), which features a great many human-interest

stories.

The life of Mehmet II is chronicled in F. Babinger, Meh med

the Conqueror and His Time, trans. R. Manheim (Princeton, N.J.,

1979). On Suleyman the Magnificent, see R. Merriman, Suleiman

the Magnificent, 1520--1566 (Cambridge, 1944).

For the argument that the decline of the Ottoman Empire was

not inevitable, see E. Karsh et al., Empires of the Sand: The

Struggle for Mastery in the Middle East, 1789--1923 (Cambridge,

Mass., 2001).

The Safavids On the Safavids, see R. M. Savory, Iran Under

the Safavids (Cambridge, 1980), and E. B. Monshi, History of Shah

Abbas the Great, 2 vols. (Boulder, Colo., 1978). For a thoughtful if

scholarly account of the reasons for the rise of the Safavid Empire,

see R. J. Abisaab, Converting Persia: Shia Islam and the Safavid

Empire, 1501--1736 (London, 2004).

The Mughals For an elegant overview of the Mughal Empire

and its cultural achievements, see A. Schimmel, The Empire of the

Great Mughals: History, Art and Culture, trans. C. Attwood

(London, 2004). A dramatic account for the general reader is

W. Hansen, The Peacock Throne: The Drama of Mogul India

(New York, 1972).

There are a number of specialized works on various aspects of

the period. For a treatment of the Mughal era in the context of

Islamic rule in India, see S. M. Ikram, Muslim Civilization in India

(New York, 1964). The concept of ‘‘gunpowder empires’’ is

persuasively analyzed in D. E. Streusand, The Formation of the

Mughal Empire (Delhi, 1989). Economic issues predominate in

much recent scholarship. For example, S. Subrahmanyan,

The Political Economy of Commerce: Southern India, 1500--1650

(Cambridge, 1990), focuses on the interaction between internal and

external trade in southern India during the early stages of the

period. The Mughal Empire is analyzed in a broad Central Asian

context in R. C. Foltz, Mughal India and Central Asia (Karachi,

1998). Finally, K. N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilization in the

Indian Ocean: An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750

(Cambridge, 1985), views Indian commerce in the perspective of the

regional trade network throughout the Indian Ocean.

For treatments of all three Muslim empires in a comparative

context, see J. J. Kissling et al., The Last Great Muslim Empires

(Princeton, N.J., 1996), and M. G. S. Hodgson, Rethinking World

History: Essays on Europe, Islam, and World History (Cambridge,

1993).

Women of the Ottoman and Mughal Empires On the lives

of women in the Ottoman and Mughal Empires, see S. Hughes and

B. Hughes, Women in World History, vol. 2 (Armonk, N.Y., 1997).

For a more detailed presentation of women in the imperial harem,

consult L. P. Peirce, ‘‘Beyond Harem Walls: Ottoman Royal

Women and the Exercise of Power,’’ in Gendered Domains:

Rethinking Public and Private in Women’s History, ed. D. O. Helly

and S. M. Reverby (Ithaca, N.Y., 1992), and L. P. Peirce, The

Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire

(Oxford, 1993). The fascinating story of the royal woman who

played an important role behind the scenes is found in E. B. Findly,

Nur Jahan: Empress of Mughal India (Oxford, 1993).

Art and Architecture On the art of this era, see R. C.

Craven, Indian Art: A Concise History, rev. ed. (New York, 1997);

J. Bloom and S. Blair, Islamic Arts (London, 1997); M. C. Beach,

The Imperial Image (Washington, D.C., 1981); M. C. Beach and

E. Koch, King of the World: The Padshahnama (London, 1997);

and M. Hattstein and P. Delius, Islam: Art and Architecture

€

onigswinter, Germany, 2004).

the West. The weakening of the gunpowder empires created a

political vacuum into which the dynamic and competitive forces

of European capitalism were quick to enter.

The gunpowder empires, however, were not the only states in

Asia that were able to resist the first outward thrust of European

expansion. Farther to the east, the mature civilizations in China and

Japan successfully faced a similar challenge from Western merchants

and missionaries. Unlike their counterparts in South Asia and the

Middle East, as the nineteenth century dawned, they continued to

thrive.

Visit the website for The Essential World History to access study

aids such as Flashcards, Critical Thinking Exercises, and

Chapter Quizzes:

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408 CHAPTER 16 THE MUSLIM EMPIRES

409

CHAPTER 17

THE EAST ASIAN WORLD

CHAPTER OUTLINE

AND FOCUS QUESTIONS

China at Its Apex

Why were the Manchus so successful at establishing a

foreign dynasty in China, and what were the main

characteristics of Manchu rule?

Changing China

How did the economy and society change during the

Ming and Qing eras, and to what degree did these

changes seem to be leading toward an industrial

revolution on the European mod el?

Tokugawa Japan

How did the societ y and economy of Japan change

during the Tokugawa era, and how did Japanese culture

reflect those changes?

Korea and Vietnam

To what degree did developments in Korea during

this period reflect conditions in China and Japan?

What were the most unique aspects of Vietnamese

civilization?

CRITICAL THINKING

How did China and Japan respond to the coming of the

Europeans, and what explains the differences in their

approach? What impact did European contacts have on

these two East Asian civilizations through the end of the

eighteen th century?

Emperor Kangxi



Hu Weibiao/Panorama/The Image Works

410

IN DECEMBER 1717, Emperor Kangxi returned from a hunting

trip north of the Great Wall and began to suffer from dizzy spells.

Conscious of his approaching date with mortality---he was now

nearly seventy years of age---the emperor called together his sons

and leading government officials in the imperial palace and issued

an edict summing up his ideas on the art of statecraft. Rulers, he

declared, should be sincere in their reverence for Heaven’s laws as

the fundamental strategy for governing the country. Among those

laws were the following: show concern for the welfare of the people,

practice diligence, protect the state from its enemies, choose able

advisers, and strike a careful balance between leniency and

strictness, principle and expedience. That, he concluded,

was all there was to it.

Any potential successor to the throne would have been well

advised to attend to the emperor’s advice. Kangxi was not only one

of the longest reigning of all Chinese rulers but also one of the wis-

est. His era was one of peace and prosperity, and after a half century

of his rule, the empire was now at the zenith of its power and influ-

ence. As his life approached its end, Heaven must indeed have been

pleased at the quality of his stewardship.

As for the emperor’s edict, it clearly reflected the genius

of Confucian teachings at their best and, with its emphasis on

China at Its Apex

Focus Question: Why were the Manchus so successful

at establishing a foreign dynasty in China, and what

were the main characteristics of Manchu rule?

In 1514, a P ortuguese fleet dropped anc hor off the coast of

China, just south of the Pearl River estuary and present-

day Hong Kong. It was the first direct contact between the

Chinese Empire and the West since the arrival of the

Venetian adventurer Mar co P olo two centuries earlier, and

it opened an era that would eventually change the face of

China and, indeed, all the world.

From the Ming to the Qing

Marco Polo had reported on the magnificence of China

after visiting Beijing during the reign of Khubilai Khan,

the great Mongol ruler. By the time the Portuguese fleet

arrived off the coast of China, of course, the Mongol

Empire had long since disappeared. It had gradually

weakened after the death of Khubilai Khan and was fi-

nally overthrown in 1368 by a massive peasant rebellion

under the leadership of Zhu Yuanzhang, who had de-

clared himself the founding emperor of a new Ming

(Bright) dynasty and assumed the reign title of Ming

Hongwu (Ming Hung Wu, or Ming Martial Emperor).

As we have seen, the Ming inaugurated a period of

territorial expansion westward into Central Asia and

southward into Vietnam while consolidating control over

China’s vast heartland. At the same time, between 1405

and 1433 the dynasty sponsored a series of voyages under

Admiral Zhenghe that spread Chinese influence far into

the Indian Ocean. Then suddenly the voyages were dis-

continued, and the dynasty turned its attention to do-

mestic concerns (see Chapter 10).

First Contacts with the West Despite the Ming’s re-

treat from active participation in maritime trade, when

the Portuguese arrived in 1514, China was in command

of a vast empire that stretched from the steppes of Central

Asia to the China Sea, from the Gobi Desert to the

tropical rain forests of Southeast Asia. From the lofty

perspective of the imperial throne in Beijing, the Euro-

peans could only have seemed like an unusually exotic

form of barbarian to be placed within the familiar

framework of the tributary system, the hierarchical ar-

rangement in which rulers of all other countries were

regarded as ‘‘younger brothers’’ of the Son of Heaven.

Indeed, the bellicose and uncultured behavior of the

Portuguese so outraged Chinese officials that they ex-

pelled the Europeans, but after further negotiations, the

Portuguese were permitted to occupy the tiny territory of

Macao, a foothold they would retain until the end of the

twentieth century.

Initially, the arrival of the Europeans did not have

much impact on Chinese society. Direct trade between

Europe and China was limited, and Portuguese ships

became involved in the regional trade network, carrying

silk from China to Japan in return for Japanese silver.

Eventually, the Spanish also began to participate, using

the Philippines as an anchor in the galleon trade between

China and the great silver mines in the Americas.

More influenti al than trade, perhaps, were the ideas

introduced by Christian missionaries. Among the most

active and the most effective we re highly educated Jes-

uits, who were familiar with European philosophical and

CHINA AT ITS APEX 411

prudence, compassion, and tolerance, has a timeless quality that

applies to our age as well as to the golden age of the Qing dynasty

(1644--1911).

Kangxi reigned during one of the most glorious eras in the

long history of China. Under the Ming (1369--1644) and the early

Qing dynasties, the empire expanded its borders to a degree not

seen since the Han and the Tang. Chinese culture was the envy of its

neighbors and earned the admiration of many European visitors, in-

cluding Jesuit priests and Enlightenment philosophes.

On the surface, China appeared to be an unchanging society

patterned after the Confucian vision of a ‘‘golden age’’ in the re-

mote past. This indeed was the image presented by China’s rulers,

who referred constantly to tradition as a model for imperial institu-

tion s and cultural values. Although few observers could have been

aware of it at the time, however, China was changing---and rather

rapidly.

A similar process was under way in neighboring Japan. A

vigorous new shogunate called the Tokugawa rose to power in the

early seventeenth century and managed to revitalize the traditional

system in a somewhat more centralized form that enabled it to

survive for another 250 years. But major structural changes were

taking place in Japanese society, and by the nineteenth century,

tensions were growing as the gap between theory and reality

widened.

One of the many factors involved in the quickening pace of

change in both countries was contact with the West, which began

with the arrival of Portuguese ships in Chinese and Japanese ports

in the first half of the sixteenth century. The Ming and the Toku-

gawa initially opened their doors to European trade and missionary

activity. Later, however, Chinese and Japanese rulers became con-

cerned about the corrosive effects of Western ideas and practices and

attempted to protect their traditional societies from external

intrusion. But neither could forever resist the importunities of

Western trading nations; nor were they able to inhibit the societal

shifts that were taking place within their borders. When the doors to

the West were finally reopened in the mid-nineteenth century, both

societies were ripe for radical change.

scientific developments. Recognizing the Chinese pride

in their own culture, the Jesuits attempted to draw

parallels between Christian and Confucian concepts (for

example, they identified the Western concept of God

with the Chinese character for Heaven) and to show the

similarities between Chri stian m orality and Confucian

ethics. European inventions such as t he clock, the prism,

and various astronomical and musical instruments im -

pressed Chinese officials, hitherto deeply imbued with a

sense of the superiority of Chinese civilization, and

helpe d Western ideas win acceptance at court. An elderly

Chinese scholar expressed his wonder at the miracle of

eyeglasses:

White glass from across the Western Seas

Is imported through Macao:

Fashioned into lenses big as coins,

They encompass the eyes in a double frame.

I put them on---it suddenly becomes clear;

I can see the very tips of things!

And read fine print by the dim-lit window

Just like in my youth.

For their part, the missionaries were much impressed

with many aspects of Chinese civilization, and reports of

their experiences heightened European curiosity about

this great society on the other side of the world (see the

box above). By the late seventeenth century, European

philosophers and political thinkers had begun to praise

Chinese civilization and to hold up Confucian in-

stitutions and values as a mirror to criticize their coun-

terparts in the West.

The Ming Brought to Earth During the late sixteenth

century, the Ming began to decline as a series of weak

rulers led to an era of corruption, concentration of

landownership, and ultimately peasant rebellions and

tribal unrest along the northern frontier. The inflow of vast

amounts of foreign silver resulted in an alarming increase

in inflation. Then the arrival of the English and the Dutch,

whose ships preyed on the Spanish galleon trade between

Asia and the Americas, disrupted the silver trade; silver

imports plummeted, severely straining the Chinese econ-

omy by raising the value of the metal relative to that of

copper. Crop yields declined due to harsh weather, and the

THE ART OF PRINTING

Europeans obta ined much of their early informa-

tion about China from the Jesuits who served at

the Ming court in the sixteenth and seventeenth

centuries. Clerics such as the Italian Matteo Ricci

(1552–1610), who arrived in China i n 1601, found much to

admire in Chinese civilization. Here Ricci expresses a keen

interest in Chinese printing methods, which at that time were

well in advance of the techniques used in the West. Later

Christian missionaries expressed strong interest in Confucian

philosophy and Chinese ideas of statecraft.

Matteo Ricci, The Diary of Matthew Ricci

The art of printing was practiced in China at a date somewhat ear-

lier than that assigned to the beginning of printing in Europe, which

was about 1405. It is quite certain that the Chinese knew the art of

printing at least five centuries ago, and some of them assert that

printing was known to their people before the beginning of the

Christian era, about 50

B.C.E. Their method of printing differs widely

from that employed in Europe, and our method would be quite im-

practicable for them because of the exceedingly large number of

Chinese characters and symbols. ...

Their method of making printed books is quite ingenious. The

text is written in ink, with a brush made of very fine hair, on a

sheet of paper which is inverted and pasted on a wooden tablet.

When the paper has become thoroughly dry, its surface is scraped

off quickly and with great skill, until nothing but a fine tissue bear-

ing the characters remains on the wooden tablet. Then, with a steel

graver, the workman cuts away the surface following the outlines of

the characters until these alone stand out in low relief. From such a

block a skilled printer can make copies with incredible speed, turn-

ing out as many as fifteen hundred copies in a single day. ... This

scheme of engraving wooden blocks is well adapted for the large

and complex nature of the Chinese characters, but I do not think it

would lend itself very aptly to our European type, which could

hardly be engraved upon wood because of its small dimensions.

Their method of printing has one decided advantage, namely,

that once these tablets are made, they can be preserved and used

for making changes in the text as often as one wishes. Additions

and subtractions can also be made as the tablets can be readily

patched. ... We have derived great benefit from this method of

Chinese printing, as we employ the domestic help in our homes to

strike off copies of the books on religious and scientific subjects

which we translate into Chinese from the languages in which they

were written originally. In truth, the whole method is so simple that

one is tempted to try it for himself after once having watched the

process. The simplicity of Chinese printing is what accounts for the

exceedingly large numbers of books in circulation here and the

ridiculously low prices at which they are sold.

How did the Chinese method of printing differ from that

used in Europe at that time? What were its advantages?

412 CHAPTER 17 THE EAST ASIAN WORLD

resulting scarcity reduced the ability of the government to

provide food in times of imminent starvation. High taxes,

provoked in part by increased official corruption, led to

rural unrest and worker violence in urban areas.

As always, internal problems were accompanied by

unrest along the northern frontier. Following long pre-

cedent, the Ming had attempted to pacify the frontier

tribes by forging alliances with them and granting trade

privileges. One of the alliances was with the Manchus

(also known as the Jurchen), the descendants of peoples

who had briefly established a kingdom in northern China

during the early thirteenth century. The Manchus, a

mixed agricultural and hunting people, lived northeast of

the Great Wall in the area known today as Manchuria.

At first, the Manchus were satisfied with consolidat-

ing their territory and made little effort to extend their

rule south of the Great Wall. But during the first decades

of the seventeenth century, a major epidemic devastated

the population in many areas of the country. The suffering

brought on by the epidemic helped spark a vast peasant

revolt led by Li Zicheng (Li Tzu-ch’eng, 1604--1651), a

postal worker in central China

who had been dismissed from his

job as part of a cost-saving mea-

sure by the imperial court. In the

1630s, Li managed to extend the

revolt throughout the country, and

his forces finally occupied the

capital of Beijing in 1644. The last

Ming emperor committed suicide

by hanging himself from a tr ee in

the palace gardens.

But Li was unable to hold his

con ques t. The overthrow of the

Ming dynasty presented a great

temptation to the Manchus. With

the assistance of many military

commanders who had deserted

from the Ming, they conquered

Beijing on their own (see

Map 17.1). Li Zicheng’s army

disintegrated, and the Manchus

declared the creation of a new

dynasty with the reign title of the

Qing (Ch’ing , or Pure). Once

again, China was under foreign

rule.

The Greatness of the Qing

The accession of the Manchus to

power in Beijing was not univer-

sally applauded. Some Ming loy-

alists fled to Southeast Asia, but others continued their

resistance to the new rulers from inside the country. To

make it easier to identify the rebels, the government or-

dered all Chinese to adopt Manchu dress and hairstyles.

All Chinese males were to shave their foreheads and braid

their hair into a queue; those who refused were to be

executed. As a popular saying put it, ‘‘Lose your hair or

lose your head.’’

But the Manchus eventually proved to be more adept

at adapting to Chinese conditions than their predecessors,

the Mongols. Unlike the latter, who had tried to impose

their own methods of ruling, the Manchus adopted the

Chinese political system (although, as we shall see, they

retained their distinct position within it) and were

gradually accepted by most Chinese as the legitimate

rulers of the country.

Like all of China’s great dynasties, the Qing was

blessed with a series of strong early rulers who pacified the

country, rectified many of the most obvious social and

economic inequities, and restored peace and prosperity.

For the Ming dynasty, these strong emperors had been

CHINA

KOREA

JAPAN

ZHEJIANG

FUJIAN

HENAN

Taiwan

Mongols

Jurchen (Manchus)

Pirates

Xi’an

Beijing

Nanjing

Wuhan

Nanchang

Canton

Macao

Fuzhou

Great

Wall

Yellow

Sea

East

China

Sea

Sea of

Japan

(East Sea)

South China

Sea

0 200 400 Miles

0 200 400 600 Kilometers

MAP 17.1 Chin a and Its Enemie s Du ring th e La te Ming Era. During the seventeenth

century, the Ming dynasty faced challenges on two fronts: from China’s traditional

adversaries, nomadic groups north of the Great Wall, and from new arrivals, European

merchants who had begun to press for trading privileges along the southern coast.

How did these threats differ from those faced by pr evious dynasties in China?

CHINA AT ITS APEX 413