Ming Dynasty Rule

The Ming dynasty was one of the most influential empires in history. At its beginning, the Ming empire was founded on the basic Chinese institutions of government by Hongwu. Hongwu rejected Mongol customs and stopped trading with other countries. He also made a list of rules to protect the citizens from the unfair ways of the Chinese officials. Throughout the Ming empire’s time in power, the dynasty became a world power through their changes made in rules, exploration, and expansion. When Hongwu came into power, he spent a lot of time to changing Chinese culture by reintroducing Confucian values and traditions. To do so, he made a list of forty-one rules called the “Placard of People’s Instructions.” This list was made in hopes to preserve

Emperor Yongle agreed with the Mongol ideas of a world empire. Because of this, Yongle worked with Admiral Zheng He to create a series of sea explorations. Zheng He was sent out on his first voyage in 1405. One of Yongle’s goals in these explorations was to expand southward and to stop the Mongols tribes from the north from invading China but ended up doing it with little to no success. These explorations spread the Chinese power deep into the Indian Ocean and presented the Ming empire with many opportunities to expand. Despite exploration seeming like a good idea, it was expensive. Zheng He was sent out with sixty-three ships and almost twenty-eight thousand people, including officials, sailors and soldiers. The cost of building the ships and providing them with equipment cost the Ming treasury a large amount of money. Overall, this had a negative effect on the empire because the expeditions were used to spread the Ming empire’s political agenda not conquer new land and ended up costing the empire a

First a new set of rules was put into place to reinstate old, traditional Chinese values. Hongwu also wanted a self-sufficient society, so he stopped foreign trade. After his death, his son Yongle took over with more Mongol values. This caused Yongle to start looking towards exploring other parts of the work to spread his political agenda. With the help of Zheng He, the Ming Empire started to explore the Indian Ocean. As a result of the exploration, the Ming Empire invaded Vietnam to expand their empire. Changes to rules, exploration, and expansion made the Ming empire into one of the most powerful and influential dynasties of its