HIS 1307 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Yongle Encyclopedia, Ma Huan, Yongle Emperor
14 Jan 2016
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Lecture #1 ming china and the indian ocean world. *china at this time was much more populated and powerful than european countries. Ma huan"s overall survey of the ocean shores published (book) Yuan versus ming ( brilliant ) dynasty and era of yongle ( perpetual happiness ) 1400"s population: 50 million in europe; 60+ million in ming china. Yuan: mongol rule; ethnic chinese (han) subjected during this dynasty: mongols didn"t like big cities; wanted people to spread out. This made the people easier to control not congregated in one space; less powerful: helped spread of islam, rule ends in mid-late 1300s; collapsed ming dynasty takes over. Ming dynasty: run by yongle (zhu di) came into power by violence: established himself as emperor; known for his huge building projects, projects: forbidden city, great wall, grand canal. Forbidden city (https://upload. wikimedia. org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/verbotene-stadt1500. jpg: people only on the outside it"s forbidden; you can"t just go in, looks like it"s ascending into heaven.
