The latter half of the Ming period (15th–17th centuries) was an energetic era marked by the flourishing of Wang Yangming's philosophy and the development of a commodity economy, even as the Ming struggled with northern nomadic peoples (the northern Mongols) and wokou pirates along the southeastern coast (the southern Japanese).
The Northern Mongols and Southern Wokou
Because the Ming maintained its “sea ban policy,” wokou (mixed groups consisting mainly of Chinese and Japanese), formed from smugglers and pirates, ravaged the East China Sea. In the north, the Mongol Oirat and Tatars invaded, even leading to a situation in which Beijing was surrounded (the Tumu Crisis, 1449).
- Northern Mongols: Invasions by nomadic peoples of Mongol origin from the north
- Southern wokou: Damage caused by wokou along the southeastern coast
- Large-scale renovation of the Great Wall: The brick walls seen today were built during this period
・Wang Yangming (Wang Shouren, 1472–1528) criticized Zhu Xi's philosophy and founded Yangmingism. He advocated “the mind is principle” and “the unity of knowledge and action”
・As a practical moral philosophy, Yangmingism greatly influenced Japan's samurai class (leading to early modern Japanese bushido and ideas of the Meiji Restoration)
・Ming technical book: Song Yingxing's “The Exploitation of the Works of Nature” (1637) recorded agricultural and industrial technologies with illustrations
・Development of fiction: Vernacular novels such as “Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” “Journey to the West,” and “Water Margin” were established
The Influence of the Song, Yuan, and Ming on East Asia
Song Neo-Confucianism and the Three Great Inventions, Yuan East–West exchange, and the Ming tributary system and Yangmingism all deeply penetrated the politics, culture, and thought of East Asia (Japan, Korea, and Vietnam). At the beginning of the 17th century, the Jurchen (Qing) began to threaten the Ming, and the Ming fell in 1644.
Practice
- What was the name of Wang Yangming's idea that knowledge and action are one?
- State two representative vernacular novels from the Ming period.
- Explain what the “northern Mongols and southern wokou” referred to, respectively.