Chinese Imperial Government

*Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)

Zhu Yuanzhang, Hongwu Emperor (r. 1368-98)

*“Mandate of Heaven”

Moral basis for government

Religious justification for government

Zhou Dynasty (1045-256 BCE)

Tian (Sky/Heaven)=high god

Emperor was the “Son of Heaven”

Names of Ming and Qing Emperors

Personal name (taboo)	Reign title	Temple name (after death)
Zhu Yuanzhang	Hongwu “Surging Military Power” (r. 1368-98)	Taizu "Great Ancestor"
Zhu Di	Yongle “Eternal Happiness” (r. 1402-1424)	Chengzu “Accomplished Ancestor”
Injen	Yongzheng “Harmonious Rectification” (r. 1723-35)	Shizong “Epochal Ancestor”
Hungli	Qianlong “Heaven’s Flourishing” (r. 1736-96)	Gaozong “High Ancestor”

Imperial Administration, since ca. 200 BCE

Central administration in the capital

Six Ministries

Personnel, Revenue, Rites, War, Justice, and Works

Yongle Emperor, r. 1403-24

Dredged Grand Canal

Capital moved to Beijing, 1420

Local administration

Why was the Ministry of Revenue in charge of local administration?

Civil service exams

County: “student official”

Provincial: “elevated person”

Imperial (Beijing): “presented scholar” eligible for government service

Palace (Beijing)

Content of Exams

Confucian Classics

Confucius (ca. 551- 479 BCE)

Scholar-Official Class

Landowners

Confucian education

Pass civil service exams to serve in government

Shang Lu (1414-1486) (Brook, p. 151, fig. 11)

Enjoyed refined hobbies

"Enjoying Antiquities" (Brook, p. 195)

Inner Palace Life

Emperor

Wife

Concubines

Eunuchs

Maids

Brook, “Families,” The Troubled Empire, 134-160

1. On pages 134-135, Brook begins the chapter with the story of a gravestone. What can a 17th century gravestone tell us about Chinese families? At the bottom of page 135, why does Brook say that Chinese lived within a kinship matrix in which, “Your identity and status depended…on whom you were related to”?

2. Keep in mind that societies have social ideals that are not necessarily matched in reality. For example, families composed of married couples and children seem to be social ideal the U.S., but the marriage rate currently is the lowest in U.S. history and U.S. has the highest rate of single-parent households in the world (23% in 2019).

How were traditional Chinese families ideally organized? What deviations from the ideals existed?

3. How did the status of men and women differ?

How did the preference for sons over daughters exist within families? What kinds of problems did this cause for the wider society?

4. What were ideals of high and low status occupations in traditional China? How did this conflict with reality?

What type of social elite were the gentry? (pp. 149-56)

5. Brook begins the chapter in a gravestone and ends it with a legal dispute over a gravesite. Why did the treatment of the dead receive so much attention in Chinese society?

What does the lawsuit teach about corruption in Ming government?