186-740: Kunyu Wanguo Quantu , printed in Ming China at the request of the Wanli Emperor in 1602 by the Italian Catholic missionary Matteo Ricci and Chinese collaborators, the mandarin Zhong Wentao, and the technical translator Li Zhizao , is the earliest known Chinese world map with the style of European maps. It has been referred to as the Impossible Black Tulip of Cartography , "because of its rarity, importance and exoticism". The map
372-460: A province . It has also been awarded the title of 2008 Habitat Scroll of Honor of China, Special UN Habitat Scroll of Honor Award and National Civilized City. Nanjing is also considered a Beta (global second-tier) city classification, together with Chongqing , Hangzhou and Tianjin by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network , and ranked as one of the world's top 100 cities in
558-756: A 1671 account by a French missionary. The commoners and officials in Beijing and Nanjing were waiting to support whichever side won. An official from Qing Beijing sent letters to family and another official in Nanjing, telling them all communication and news from Nanjing to Beijing had been cut off, that the Qing were considering abandoning Beijing and moving their capital far away to a remote location for safety since Koxinga's iron troops were rumored to be invincible. Koxinga's forces intercepted these letters and after reading them Koxinga may have started to regret his deliberate delays allowing
744-457: A 48 km (30 mi) long wall around Nanjing , as well as new palaces and government halls. The History of Ming states that as early as 1364 Zhu Yuanzhang had begun drafting a new Confucian law code, the Da Ming Lü , which was completed by 1397 and repeated certain clauses found in the old Tang Code of 653. Hongwu organized a military system known as the weisuo , which was similar to
930-861: A Japanese-collaborationist government known as the " Nanjing Regime " or "Reorganized National Government of China" led by Wang Jingwei was established in Nanjing as a rival to Chiang Kai-shek 's government in Chongqing. In 1946, after the Surrender of Japan , the KMT relocated its central government back to Nanjing. In April 1949, Communist forces crossed the Yangtze River and the Communist People's Liberation Army (PLA) captured Nanjing. The KMT government retreated to Canton ( Guangzhou ) until October 15, Chongqing until November 25, and then Chengdu before retreating to
1116-690: A central panel—a part of the Doppio Emisfero delle Stelle by the German mathematician and astronomer Johann Adam Schall von Bell —was inserted between the two sections by mistake. In 1958, Pasquale D'Elia, sinologist at the University of Rome certified the authenticity of the Chinese maps in this museum's possession, (see op. cit.) stating that "it is the third edition of a geographical and cartographical work that made Ricci famous throughout China. He had already made
1302-486: A complete science, based on a vast number of observations: and that's where one becomes old without the time to make use of this science. Is this not a painful thing? And this is why I put great store by [geographical] maps and history: history for fixing [these observations], and maps for handing them on [to future generations]. Respectfully written by the European Matteo Ricci on 17 August 1602." The figure of
1488-595: A copy of the map in a book about Guizhou published in Guiyang in 1604. Ricci estimated that more than 1,000 copies of the 1602 edition were reprinted. Various versions of the map were exported to Korea and later Japan . The first Korean copy was brought back from Beijing by visiting ambassadors in 1603. It is 533×170 cm, on mulberry paper. This map was brought to Korea in 1603 by Lee Gwan-jeong( Hangul : 이광정) and Gwon Hui( Hangul : 권희), two envoys of Joseon to China. An unattributed and very detailed two page coloured edition of
1674-733: A coup against the Tianshun Emperor out of fear of being next on his purge-list of those who aided him in the Wresting the Gate Incident. Cao's rebel force managed to set fire to the western and eastern gates of the Imperial City (doused by rain during the battle) and killed several leading ministers before his forces were finally cornered and he was forced to commit suicide. While the Yongle Emperor had staged five major offensives north of
1860-643: A decisive, single grand showdown as his father successfully did against the Dutch at the Battle of Liaoluo Bay , throwing away the surprise and initiative which led to its failure. Koxinga's attack on Qing held Nanjing which would interrupt the supply route of the Grand Canal leading to possible starvation in Beijing caused such fear that the Manchus (Tartares) considered returning to Manchuria (Tartary) and abandoning China according to
2046-646: A eunuch servant, hanged himself on a tree in the imperial garden right outside the Forbidden City. Seizing opportunity, the Eight Banners crossed the Great Wall after the Ming border general Wu Sangui (1612–1678) opened the gates at Shanhai Pass . This occurred shortly after he learned about the fate of the capital and an army of Li Zicheng marching towards him; weighing his options of alliance, he decided to side with
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#17330851345752232-592: A first edition in 1584 at Shiuhing, followed by a second in 1600 at Nanking , and two years later a third in Peking. In 1938, an exhaustive work by Pasquale d'Elia, edited by the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, was published with comments, notes, and translation of the whole map. The maps carry plentiful instructions for use and detailed illustrations of the instruments that went into their production, as well as explanations regarding conceptions of "systems of
2418-570: A force personally to face the Oirats after a recent Ming defeat; the emperor left the capital and put his half-brother Zhu Qiyu in charge of affairs as temporary regent. On 8 September, Esen routed Zhengtong's army, and Zhengtong was captured—an event known as the Tumu Crisis . The Oirats held the Zhengtong Emperor for ransom. However, this scheme was foiled once the emperor's younger brother assumed
2604-433: A historical work lambasting and belittling his political opponents. The instability at court came right as natural calamity, pestilence, rebellion, and foreign invasion came to a peak. The Chongzhen Emperor (r. 1627–44) had Wei dismissed from court, which led to Wei's suicide shortly after. The eunuchs built their own social structure, providing and gaining support to their birth clans. Instead of fathers promoting sons, it
2790-568: A history 2595 years long. In 541, Wu built Laizhu Town in Gaochun—because of its strong city, it was also called Gucheng. Fuchai , King of the State of Wu , founded a fort named Yecheng in today's Nanjing area in 495 BC. Wu was conquered by the State of Yue in 473 BC, and the city was rebuilt at the mouth of the Qinhuai River in the following year. Later it was called Yuecheng ( 越城 ) on
2976-434: A large section of the city for the bannermen 's cantonment, and occupied the former imperial Ming Palace , but otherwise the city was spared the mass murders and destruction that befell Yangzhou . Despite capturing many counties in his initial attack due to surprise and having the initiative, Koxinga announced the final battle in Nanjing in 1659 ahead of time giving plenty of time for the Qing to prepare because he wanted
3162-432: A low civil service rank. The one great advantage of the lesser functionaries over officials was that officials were periodically rotated and assigned to different regional posts and had to rely on the good service and cooperation of the local lesser functionaries. Eunuchs gained unprecedented power over state affairs during the Ming dynasty. One of the most effective means of control was the secret service stationed in what
3348-470: A major cause of "China's cultural stagnation and economic backwardness." However Benjamin Ellman argues there were some positive features, since the essay form was capable of fostering "abstract thinking, persuasiveness, and prosodic form" and that its elaborate structure discouraged a wandering, unfocused narrative". Scholar-officials who entered civil service through examinations acted as executive officials to
3534-447: A massive influx of South American silver. This abundance of specie remonetized the Ming economy, whose paper money had suffered repeated hyperinflation and was no longer trusted. While traditional Confucians opposed such a prominent role for commerce and the newly rich it created, the heterodoxy introduced by Wang Yangming permitted a more accommodating attitude. Zhang Juzheng 's initially successful reforms proved devastating when
3720-498: A much larger body of non-ranked personnel called lesser functionaries. They outnumbered officials by four to one; Charles Hucker estimates that they were perhaps as many as 100,000 throughout the empire. These lesser functionaries performed clerical and technical tasks for government agencies. Yet they should not be confused with lowly lictors, runners, and bearers; lesser functionaries were given periodic merit evaluations like officials and after nine years of service might be accepted into
3906-573: A number of other names, and some historical names are now used as names of districts of the city. The city was known as Yuecheng and Jinling or "Ginling" ( 金陵 ) from the Warring States Era. Jianye ( 建业 ; Chien-yeh ), which means 'build an empire', was officially designated for the city during the Eastern Wu dynasty . The city first became a Chinese national capital as early as the Jin dynasty and
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#17330851345754092-629: A proof that the Sun is larger than the Moon, a table showing the distances of planets from the Earth, an explanation of the varying lengths of days and nights, and polar projections of the Earth that are unusually consistent with its main map. Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) was a Jesuit priest. Ricci was one of the first Western scholars to live in China and he became a master of Chinese script and Classical Chinese . In 1583, Ricci
4278-412: A rebellion that sparked a three-year civil war . Under the pretext of rescuing the young Jianwen from corrupting officials, Zhu Di personally led forces in the revolt; the palace in Nanjing was burned to the ground, along with Jianwen himself, his wife, mother, and courtiers. Zhu Di assumed the throne as the Yongle Emperor (r. 1402–24); his reign is universally viewed by scholars as a "second founding" of
4464-502: A series of lit beacons and signalling stations to allow rapid warning to friendly units of advancing enemy troops. There were many problems—fiscal or other—facing Ming China that started during the reign of the Wanli Emperor (1572–1620). In the beginning of his reign, Wanli surrounded himself with able advisors and made a conscientious effort to handle state affairs. His Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng (1572–82) built up an effective network of alliances with senior officials. However, there
4650-464: A slowdown in agriculture was produced by the Little Ice Age . The value of silver rapidly increased because of a disruption in the supply of imported silver from Spanish and Portuguese sources, making it impossible for Chinese farmers to pay their taxes. Combined with crop failure, floods, and an epidemic , the dynasty collapsed in 1644 as Li Zicheng's rebel forces entered Beijing. Li then established
4836-462: A supposed continent including Australia, Antarctica, and Tierra del Fuego ), but a hundred years ago, Europeans came sailing in their ships to parts of the sea coast, and so discovered them." The Museo della Specola Bologna has in its collection, displayed on the wall of the Globe Room, original copies of panels 1 and 6 of the six panels comprising the 1602 Ricci map. During restoration and mounting,
5022-712: A thousand years, is recognized as one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China . It has been one of the world's largest cities , enjoying peace and prosperity despite various wars and disasters. Nanjing served as the capital of Eastern Wu (229–280), one of the three major states in the Three Kingdoms period; the Eastern Jin and each of the Southern dynasties ( Liu Song , Southern Qi , Liang and Chen ), which successively ruled southern China from 317 to 589;
5208-553: A vast imperial household, staffed with thousands of eunuchs, who were headed by the Directorate of Palace Attendants. The eunuchs were divided into different directorates in charge of staff surveillance, ceremonial rites, food, utensils, documents, stables, seals, apparel, and so on. The offices were in charge of providing fuel, music, paper, and baths. The bureaus were in charge of weapons, silverwork, laundering, headgear, bronze work, textile manufacture, wineries, and gardens. At times,
5394-442: A very expensive, sophisticated tutoring of the sort that wealthy gentry families specialized in providing their talented sons. In practice, 90 percent of the population was ineligible due to lack of education, but the upper 10 percent had equal chances for moving to the top. To be successful young men had to have extensive, expensive training in classical Chinese, the use of Mandarin in spoken conversation, calligraphy, and had to master
5580-471: Is a National Treasure . The map shows five world continents and over 850 toponyms. It contains descriptions of ethnic groups and main products associated with each region. In the margins outside the ellipse, there are images of the northern and southern hemispheres, the Aristotelian geocentric world system, and the orbits of the Sun and Moon. It has an introduction by Choe Seok-jeong providing information on
5766-453: Is a collective term for six Chinese dynasties mentioned above which all maintained national capitals at Jiankang. The six dynasties were: Eastern Wu (222–280), Eastern Jin dynasty (317–420) and four southern dynasties (420–589). At the end of the Eastern Han dynasty , the warlord Sun Quan , who ruled Jiangdong , moved his ruling office to Moling in 211 AD. The following year, he built
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5952-497: Is a very clear example of how trade was a driving force behind the spread of civilization." According to John D. Day, Matteo Ricci prepared four editions of Chinese world maps during his mission in China before 1603: Several prints of the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu were made in 1602. Most of the original maps now are lost. Only six original copies of the map are known to exist, and only two are in good condition. Known copies are in
6138-515: Is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of 6,600 km (2,500 sq mi), and as of 2021 a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yangtze River Delta region, Nanjing has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture , having served as the capital of various Chinese dynasties , kingdoms and republican governments dating from
6324-848: Is no other knowledge of that work. In 1633, the Jesuit, Francesco Sambiasi (1582–1649), composed and annotated another world map, entitled Kunyu Quantu (Universal Map of the World), in Nanjing . In 1674, Ferdinand Verbiest developed the Kunyu Quantu , a similar map, but with various improvements. It consists of eight panels, each 179 cm x 54 cm, together displaying two hemispheres in Mercator projection . The two outer scrolls individually depict cartouches that contain several kinds of information on geography and meteorology. The making of Verbiest's Kunyu Quantu
6510-734: Is now Qixia . In the Jiangning district, ruins of primitive villages from the Neolithic Age were discovered. About 4000 years ago, dense Bronze Age primitive settlements appeared in the Qinhuai River Basin, labeled as the Hushu culture. The earliest cities in Nanjing were formed around these settlements. Due to the volume of archeological finds in the area related to the Taowu and Hushu cultures, many historians, anthropologists, and archeologists frequent
6696-574: Is the first map in Chinese to show the Americas . The map's mirror image originally was carved on six large blocks of wood and then printed in brownish ink on six mulberry paper panels, similar to the making of a folding screen . It portrays both North and South America and the Pacific Ocean with reasonable accuracy. China appropriately is linked to Asia , India , and the Middle East . Europe ,
6882-579: Is underrepresented in modern scholarship. Others note the Ming need for Central Asian horses and the need to maintain the tea-horse trade . The Ming sporadically sent armed forays into Tibet during the 14th century, which the Tibetans successfully resisted. Several scholars point out that unlike the preceding Mongols, the Ming dynasty did not garrison permanent troops in Tibet. The Wanli Emperor (r. 1572–1620) attempted to reestablish Sino-Tibetan relations in
7068-562: The fubing system of the Tang dynasty (618–907). In 1380 Hongwu had the Chancellor Hu Weiyong executed upon suspicion of a conspiracy plot to overthrow him; after that Hongwu abolished the Chancellery and assumed this role as chief executive and emperor, a precedent mostly followed throughout the Ming period. With a growing suspicion of his ministers and subjects, Hongwu established
7254-713: The Censorate , and the Chief Military Commission and personally took charge of the Six Ministries and the regional Five Military Commissions. Thus a whole level of administration was cut out and only partially rebuilt by subsequent rulers. The Grand Secretariat , at the beginning a secretarial institution that assisted the emperor with administrative paperwork, was instituted, but without employing grand counselors, or chancellors . The Hongwu Emperor sent his heir apparent to Shaanxi in 1391 to "tour and soothe" ( xunfu )
7440-478: The Embroidered Uniform Guard , and other peoples such as Jurchens were also prominent. He frequently wrote to Mongol, Japanese, Korean, Jurchen, Tibetan, and Southwest frontier rulers offering advice on their governmental and dynastic policy, and insisted on leaders from these regions visiting the Ming capital for audiences. He resettled 100,000 Mongols into his territory, with many serving as guards in
7626-529: The First Opium War , was signed in the city harbor on Royal Navy warships. As the capital of the brief-lived rebel Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the mid-19th century, Nanjing was known as Tianjing ( 天京 ; 'Heavenly Capital" or "Capital of Heaven'). The rebellion destroyed most of the former Ming imperial buildings in the city, including the Porcelain Tower , considered up to that time as one of
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7812-578: The Global Financial Centres Index . As of 2021, Nanjing has 68 institutions of higher learning, including 13 double-first-class universities , ten 111-plan universities, eight 211 universities , and 97 academies. Nanjing University , which has a long history, is among the world's top 20 universities ranked by the Nature Index . The ratio of college students to the total population ranks No.1 among large cities nationwide. Nanjing has
7998-535: The Great Wall against the Mongols and the Oirats, the constant threat of Oirat incursions prompted the Ming authorities to fortify the Great Wall from the late 15th century to the 16th century; nevertheless, John Fairbank notes that "it proved to be a futile military gesture but vividly expressed China's siege mentality." Yet the Great Wall was not meant to be a purely defensive fortification; its towers functioned rather as
8184-634: The Han River to Wuchang , and finally along the northern border of Jiangxi province, Li Zicheng died there in the summer of 1645, thus ending the Shun dynasty . One report says his death was a suicide; another states that he was beaten to death by peasants after he was caught stealing their food. Despite the loss of Beijing and the death of the emperor, the Ming were not yet totally destroyed. Nanjing, Fujian, Guangdong, Shanxi, and Yunnan were all strongholds of Ming resistance. However, there were several pretenders for
8370-721: The International Military Tribunal for the Far East and the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal after the atomic bombings, was between 300,000 and 350,000. The city itself was also severely damaged during the massacre. The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall was built in 1985 to commemorate this event. A few days before the fall of the city, the National Government of China was relocated to the southwestern city Chongqing and resumed Chinese resistance. In 1940,
8556-606: The Japanese invasions of Korea in the 1590s. Ming officials declined the offer, but granted him the title of dragon-tiger general for his gesture. Recognizing the weakness of Ming authority in Manchuria at the time, he consolidated power by co-opting or conquering surrounding territories. In 1616 he declared himself Khan and established the Later Jin dynasty in reference to the previous Jurchen-ruled Jin dynasty . In 1618 he openly renounced
8742-644: The Japanese puppet regime of Wang Jingwei (1940–45) during the Second Sino-Japanese War . It suffered many notable devastating atrocities in both conflicts, most notably the Nanjing Massacre from late 1937 to early 1938. Nanjing became the capital city of Jiangsu province in 1952, after serving as a Direct-administered Municipality from 1949 to 1952 following the establishment of the People's Republic of China. It has many important heritage sites, including
8928-415: The Jingnan campaign , an uprising that placed the Prince of Yan upon the throne as the Yongle Emperor in 1402. The Yongle Emperor established Yan as a secondary capital and renamed it Beijing , constructed the Forbidden City , and restored the Grand Canal and the primacy of the imperial examinations in official appointments. He rewarded his eunuch supporters and employed them as a counterweight against
9114-399: The Jinyiwei , a network of secret police drawn from his own palace guard. Some 100,000 people were executed in a series of purges during his rule. The Hongwu Emperor issued many edicts forbidding Mongol practices and proclaiming his intention to purify China of barbarian influence. However, he also sought to use the Yuan legacy to legitimize his authority in China and other areas ruled by
9300-407: The Mediterranean , and Africa also are well delineated. Diane Neimann, a trustee of the James Ford Bell Trust, notes that: "There is some distortion, but what's on the map is the result of commerce, trade and exploration, so one has a good sense of what was known then." Ti Bin Zhang, first secretary for cultural affairs at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. , said in 2009: "The map represents
9486-409: The Ming imperial family —collectively called the Southern Ming —survived until 1662. The Ming dynasty's founder, the Hongwu Emperor ( r. 1368–1398), attempted to create a society of self-sufficient rural communities ordered in a rigid, immobile system that would guarantee and support a permanent class of soldiers for his dynasty: the empire's standing army exceeded one million troops and
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#17330851345759672-399: The Mongols ; during their rule as the Yuan dynasty , the city's status as a hub of the textile industry was further consolidated. According to Odoric of Pordenone , Chilenfu (Nanjing) had 360 stone bridges, which were finer than anywhere else in the world. It was well populated and had a large craft industry. After Zhu Yuanzhang (known from his era as the Hongwu Emperor ) overthrew
9858-409: The Northern and Southern dynasties period. After the Eastern Jin fell in 420, it continued to serve as the capital for the Southern dynasties of Liu Song , Southern Qi , Liang and Chen . During this time, Jiankang was the international hub of East Asia. Based on historical documents, the city had 280,000 registered households. Assuming an average Nanjing household consisted of about 5.1 people,
10044-405: The Nove Cieli (Nine Skies) is printed to the left of the title, illustrated as per sixteenth-century conceptions. The accompanying inscription explains the movement of the planets. The right-hand section (panel 6) has other inscriptions giving general ideas on geography and oceanography. Another inscription records an extract of the Storia dei Mongoli regarding the motions of the Sun. In the top of
10230-431: The Presidential Palace , Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum . Nanjing is famous for human historical landscapes, mountains and waters such as Fuzimiao , Ming Palace , Chaotian Palace , Porcelain Tower , Drum Tower , Stone City , City Wall , Qinhuai River , Xuanwu Lake and Purple Mountain . Key cultural facilities include Nanjing Library , Nanjing Museum and Jiangsu Art Museum. The city has
10416-471: The Qianlong Emperor , Jiangnan was fully divided into the present provinces of Anhui and Jiangsu . Separately, however, these provinces were reunited under the supervision of a new Viceroy of Liangjiang after 1723, whose seat was based in Jiangning. It was the site of a Qing Army garrison. It had been visited by the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors a number of times on their tours of the southern provinces. The 1842 Treaty of Nanking , which put an end to
10602-419: The Qing dynasty in 1739—states that the Ming established itinerant commanderies overseeing Tibetan administration while also renewing titles of ex-Yuan dynasty officials from Tibet and conferring new princely titles on leaders of Tibetan Buddhist sects . However, Turrell V. Wylie states that censorship in the Mingshi in favor of bolstering the Ming emperor's prestige and reputation at all costs obfuscates
10788-404: The Republic of China (1912–49) , jing ( 京 ; 'capital') was adopted as the abbreviation of Nanjing. Archaeological discovery shows that the so-called " Nanjing Man " lived more than 500,000 years ago. Zun , a kind of wine vessel, were found to exist in Beiyinyangying culture of Nanjing about 5000 years ago. About 7000 years ago, there was an agricultural civilization in the area that
10974-410: The Second Manchu invasion of Korea and forced Joseon to become a Qing tributary. Shortly after, the Koreans renounced their long-held loyalty to the Ming dynasty. A peasant soldier named Li Zicheng mutinied with his fellow soldiers in western Shaanxi in the early 1630s after the Ming government failed to ship much-needed supplies there. In 1634 he was captured by a Ming general and released only on
11160-452: The Shaanxi earthquake of 1556 , occurred during the Jiajing Emperor 's reign, killing approximately 830,000 people. Originally a Ming vassal who officially considered himself a guardian of the Ming border and a local representative of imperial Ming power, Nurhaci , leader of the Jianzhou Jurchens , unified other Jurchen clans to create a new Manchu ethnic identity. He offered to lead his armies to support Ming and Joseon armies against
11346-501: The Shun dynasty , but it was defeated shortly afterwards by the Manchu -led Eight Banner armies of the Qing dynasty , with the help of the defecting Ming general Wu Sangui . The Mongol -led Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) ruled before the establishment of the Ming dynasty. Explanations for the demise of the Yuan include institutionalized ethnic discrimination against the Han people that stirred resentment and rebellion, overtaxation of areas hard-hit by inflation , and massive flooding of
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#173308513457511532-405: The Southern Tang (937–75), one of the Ten Kingdoms ; the Ming dynasty when, for the first time, all of China was ruled from the city (1368–1421); and the Republic of China under the nationalist Kuomintang (1927–37, 1946–49) before its flight to Taiwan by Chiang Kai-Shek during the Chinese Civil War . The city also served as the seat of the rebel Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1853–64) and
11718-414: The Stone City at the site of Jinling Yi, and renamed Moling to Jianye. Jianye later became the capital of the Eastern Wu dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period, after Sun Quan proclaimed himself emperor in 229, opening Nanjing's history as a state capital. By the time Wu was conquered by the Western Jin dynasty in 280, Jianye and its neighboring areas had been well cultivated, developing into one of
11904-443: The Sui dynasty reunified China and almost destroyed the entire city, turning it into a small town. The city was razed after the Sui took it over. It was renamed Shengzhou ( 昇州 ) in the Tang dynasty and resuscitated during the late Tang. It was chosen as the capital and called Jinling ( 金陵 ) during the Southern Tang (937–976), which succeeded the state of Yang Wu . It was renamed Jiangning ( 江寧 , "Pacified Area of
12090-446: The Vatican Apostolic Library Collection I and at the James Ford Bell Library at the University of Minnesota. The Vatican's 1602 copy was reproduced by Pasquale d'Elia in the beautifully arranged book, Il mappamondo cinese del P Matteo Ricci, S.I. in 1938. This modern work also contains Italian translations of the colophons on the map, a catalogue of all toponyms , plus detailed notes regarding their identification. Other copies of
12276-429: The Yangtze ") in the Northern Song and renamed Jiankang in the Southern Song . Jiankang's textile industry burgeoned and thrived during the Song despite the constant threat of foreign invasions from the north by the Jurchen -led Jin dynasty . The court of Da Chu , a short-lived puppet state established by the Jurchens, and the court of Song were once in the city. The Southern Song were eventually destroyed by
12462-437: The Yellow River as a result of the abandonment of irrigation projects. Consequently, agriculture and the economy were in shambles, and rebellion broke out among the hundreds of thousands of peasants called upon to work on repairing the dykes of the Yellow River. A number of Han groups revolted, including the Red Turbans in 1351. The Red Turbans were affiliated with the White Lotus , a Buddhist secret society. Zhu Yuanzhang
12648-504: The conquest of Tibet by Güshi Khan (1582–1655) in 1642, establishing the Khoshut Khanate . The Hongwu Emperor specified his grandson Zhu Yunwen as his successor, and he assumed the throne as the Jianwen Emperor (r. 1398–1402) after Hongwu's death in 1398. The most powerful of Hongwu's sons, Zhu Di, then the militarily mighty disagreed with this, and soon a political showdown erupted between him and his nephew Jianwen. After Jianwen arrested many of Zhu Di's associates, Zhu Di plotted
12834-411: The fifth-largest scientific research output of any city in the world. As of 2024, it has been ranked as the world's second most prolific scientific research center in earth and environmental sciences and the world's third most prolific scientific research center in chemistry and physical sciences , according to the Nature Index . Nanjing, one of the nation's most important cities for over
13020-440: The island of Taiwan on December 10 where Taipei was proclaimed the temporary capital of the Republic of China. By late 1949, the PLA was pursuing remnants of KMT forces southwards in southern China, and only Tibet and Hainan Island were left. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in October 1949, Nanjing was initially a province-level municipality , but it was soon merged into Jiangsu and again became
13206-429: The navy 's dockyards in Nanjing were the largest in the world. He also took great care breaking the power of the court eunuchs and unrelated magnates, enfeoffing his many sons throughout China and attempting to guide these princes through the Huang-Ming Zuxun , a set of published dynastic instructions. This failed when his teenage successor, the Jianwen Emperor , attempted to curtail his uncle's power, prompting
13392-479: The "Land of Flowers". Several Central and South American places are named, including Guatemala (哇的麻剌, Wādemálá ), Yucatan (宇革堂, Yǔgétáng ), and Chile (智里, Zhīlǐ ). The map's cartographer , Matteo Ricci, gave a brief description of the discovery of the Americas. "In olden days, nobody had ever known that there were such places as North and South America or Magellanica (using a name that early mapmakers gave to
13578-642: The 12th century. Ming era examinations were perhaps more difficult to pass since the 1487 requirement of completing the " eight-legged essay ", a departure from basing essays off progressing literary trends. The exams increased in difficulty as the student progressed from the local level, and appropriate titles were accordingly awarded successful applicants. Officials were classified in nine hierarchic grades, each grade divided into two degrees, with ranging salaries (nominally paid in piculs of rice) according to their rank. While provincial graduates who were appointed to office were immediately assigned to low-ranking posts like
13764-565: The 1602 map are located at: Japan, Kyoto University Collection; collection of Japan Miyagi Prefecture Library; Collection of the Library of the Japanese Cabinet ; and a private collection in Paris, France. No original examples of the map are known to exist in China, where Ricci was revered and buried. The maps received widespread attention and circulation. The governor General of Guizhou reproduced
13950-411: The 3rd century to 1949, and has thus long been a major center of culture, education, research, politics, economy, transport networks and tourism, being the home to one of the world's largest inland ports . The city is also one of the fifteen sub-provincial cities in the People's Republic of China's administrative structure , enjoying jurisdictional and economic autonomy only slightly less than that of
14136-612: The American Association of Museums (now the American Alliance of Museums ) and a trustee of the James Ford Bell Trust started by his grandfather, James Ford Bell , the founder of General Mills , said in an interview with a reporter from Minnesota Public Radio 's All Things Considered : "These opportunities don't present themselves very often. This map was the only one on the market, and the only one likely to be on
14322-563: The Bedchamber, Bureau of Handicrafts, and Office of Staff Surveillance. Starting in the 1420s, eunuchs began taking over these ladies' positions until only the Bureau of Apparel with its four subsidiary offices remained. Hongwu had his eunuchs organized into the Directorate of Palace Attendants, but as eunuch power at court increased, so did their administrative offices, with eventual twelve directorates, four offices, and eight bureaus. The dynasty had
14508-619: The Confucian scholar-bureaucrats . One eunuch, Zheng He , led seven enormous voyages of exploration into the Indian Ocean as far as Arabia and the eastern coasts of Africa. Hongwu and Yongle emperors had also expanded the empire's rule into Inner Asia . The rise of new emperors and new factions diminished such extravagances; the capture of the Emperor Yingzong of Ming during the 1449 Tumu Crisis ended them completely. The imperial navy
14694-620: The Drum Tower Hospital and the boys' school would be expanded by later missionaries to become the University of Nanking and Medical School. The old mission property became the No. 13 Middle School, the oldest continually-used school grounds in the city. The Xinhai Revolution led to the founding of the Republic of China in January 1912 with Sun Yat-sen as the first provisional president and Nanjing
14880-562: The Manchus in late May 1645, the Hongguang Emperor fled Nanjing, and the imperial Ming Palace was looted by local residents. On June 6, Dodo's troops approached Nanjing, and the commander of the city's garrison, Zhao the Earl of Xincheng, promptly surrendered the city to them. The Manchus soon ordered all male residents of the city to shave their heads in the Manchu queue way . They requisitioned
15066-514: The Manchus. The Eight Banners under the Manchu Prince Dorgon (1612–1650) and Wu Sangui approached Beijing after the army sent by Li was destroyed at Shanhaiguan ; the Prince of Shun's army fled the capital on the fourth of June. On 6 June, the Manchus and Wu entered the capital and proclaimed the young Shunzhi Emperor ruler of China. After being forced out of Xi'an by the Qing, chased along
15252-592: The Ming court in 1557 to settle Macau as their permanent trade base in China. Their role in providing silver was gradually surpassed by the Spanish , while even the Dutch challenged them for control of this trade. Philip IV of Spain (r. 1621–1665) began cracking down on illegal smuggling of silver from New Spain and Peru across the Pacific through the Philippines towards China, in favor of shipping silver mined in
15438-449: The Ming dynasty since he reversed many of his father's policies. Yongle demoted Nanjing to a secondary capital and in 1403 announced the new capital of China was to be at his power base in Beijing . Construction of a new city there lasted from 1407 to 1420, employing hundreds of thousands of workers daily. At the center was the political node of the Imperial City , and at the center of this
15624-500: The Ming in campaigns against aboriginal tribes. In 1381, the Ming dynasty annexed the areas of the southwest that had once been part of the Kingdom of Dali following the successful effort by Hui Muslim Ming armies to defeat Yuan -loyalist Mongol and Hui Muslim troops holding out in Yunnan province. The Hui troops under General Mu Ying , who was appointed Governor of Yunnan, were resettled in
15810-533: The Ming overlordship and effectively declared war against the Ming with the " Seven Grievances ." In 1636, Nurhaci's son Hong Taiji renamed his dynasty the " Great Qing " at Mukden (modern Shenyang), which had been made their capital in 1625. Hong Taiji also adopted the Chinese imperial title huangdi , declared the Chongde ("Revering Virtue") era, and changed the ethnic name of his people from "Jurchen" to " Manchu ". In 1636, Banner Armies defeated Joseon during
15996-544: The Ming throne, and their forces were divided. These scattered Ming remnants in southern China after 1644 were collectively designated by 19th-century historians as the Southern Ming . Each bastion of resistance was individually defeated by the Qing until 1662, when the last Southern Ming emperor, Zhu Youlang , the Yongli Emperor, was captured and executed. Despite the Ming defeat, smaller loyalist movements continued until
16182-499: The Nanjing area. Hushu culture developed into Wu culture under the influence of the Shang and Zhou, who encroached from Central Plains. From the traditions, Taibo of Zhou came to Jiangnan and established the state of Wu during the 12th century BC. In 571 BC, the State of Chu established Tangyi in Liuhe. This is the oldest extant administrative establishment in Nanjing; as of 2024 it has
16368-513: The Qing to prepare for a final massive battle instead of swiftly attacking Nanjing. Koxinga's Ming loyalists fought against a majority Han Chinese Bannermen Qing army when attacking Nanjing. The siege lasted almost three weeks. Koxinga's forces were unable to maintain a complete encirclement, which enabled the city to obtain supplies and even reinforcements—though cavalry attacks by the city's forces were successful even before reinforcements arrived. Koxinga's forces were defeated and "slipped back" to
16554-596: The Spanish Latin American colonies through Spanish ports. People began hoarding precious silver as there was progressively less of it, forcing the ratio of the value of copper to silver into a steep decline. In the 1630s a string of one thousand copper coins equaled an ounce of silver; by 1640 that sum could fetch half an ounce; and, by 1643 only one-third of an ounce. For peasants this meant economic disaster, since they paid taxes in silver while conducting local trade and crop sales in copper. Historians have debated
16740-536: The Terrace empty, and the river flows on. Flourishing flowers of Wu Palace are buried beneath dark trails; Caps and gowns of Jin times all lie in ancient mounds. The Three-peaked Mountain lies half visible under the blue sky, The two-forked stream is separated by the White-Egret Isle in the middle. Clouds always block the sun, Chang'an cannot be seen and I grieve. The period of division ended when
16926-547: The Yongle Emperor was obliged to preserve its special status, at least in name. The "northern capital" came to be known as Beijing and the 'southern capital' as Nanjing ( 南京 ). Both controlled territories "directly administered" by the emperor and his staff, Beizhili in the north and Nanzhili in the south. The Hongxi Emperor wanted to restore Nanjing as the sole imperial capital and undertook preparations to do so. On February 24, 1425, he appointed Admiral Zheng He as
17112-584: The Yongle Emperor's reign (1402–1424) and afterwards managed huge imperial workshops, commanded armies, and participated in matters of appointment and promotion of officials. Yongle put 75 eunuchs in charge of foreign policy; they traveled frequently to vassal states including Annam, Mongolia, the Ryukyu Islands, and Tibet and less frequently to farther-flung places like Japan and Nepal. In the later 15th century, however, eunuch envoys generally only traveled to Korea. The eunuchs developed their own bureaucracy that
17298-799: The Yongle Emperor, the Ming Dynasty established the Nurgan Regional Military Commission on the banks of the Amur River , and Yishiha , a eunuch of Haixi Jurchen origin, was ordered to lead an expedition to the mouth of the Amur to pacify the Wild Jurchens. After the death of Yongle Emperor, the Nurgan Regional Military Commission was abolished in 1435, and the Ming court ceased to have substantial activities there, although
17484-501: The Yuan and established the Ming dynasty , he renamed the city Yingtian ( 應天 ) , rebuilt it, and made it the dynastic capital in 1368, overseeing the surrounding areas under a special administration. The Hongwu Emperor constructed a 48 km (30 mi) long city wall around Yingtian , as well as a new Ming Palace complex, and government halls. It took 200,000 laborers 21 years to finish
17670-464: The Yuan capital Dadu (present-day Beijing ) in 1368. The last Yuan emperor fled north to the upper capital Shangdu , and Zhu declared the founding of the Ming dynasty after razing the Yuan palaces in Dadu to the ground; the city was renamed Beiping in the same year. Zhu Yuanzhang took Hongwu, or "Vastly Martial", as his era name . Hongwu made an immediate effort to rebuild state infrastructure. He built
17856-402: The Yuan. He continued policies of the Yuan dynasty such as continued request for Korean concubines and eunuchs, Mongol-style hereditary military institutions, Mongol-style clothing and hats, promoting archery and horseback riding, and having large numbers of Mongols serve in the Ming military. Until the late 16th century Mongols still constituted one-in-three officers serving in capital forces like
18042-793: The aloof emperor and his officials; any senior official who wanted to discuss state matters had to persuade powerful eunuchs with a bribe simply to have his demands or message relayed to the emperor. There were several military campaigns, which included the Ordos campaign , Bozhou rebellion by the Chiefdom of Bozhou in southwestern China and the Imjin War , during the Wanli Emperor's reign. The Hongwu Emperor forbade eunuchs to learn how to read or engage in politics. Whether or not these restrictions were carried out with absolute success in his reign, eunuchs during
18228-459: The capital of the Republic of China, and this became internationally recognized once KMT forces took Beijing in 1928. The following decade is known as the Nanjing decade . During this decade, Nanjing was of symbolic and strategic importance. The Ming dynasty had made Nanjing a capital, the republic had been established there in 1912, and Sun Yat-sen 's provisional government had been there. Sun's body
18414-460: The capital. The emperor also strongly advertised the hospitality and role granted to Chinggisid nobles in his court. Hongwu insisted that he was not a rebel, and he attempted to justify his conquest of the other rebel warlords by claiming that he was a Yuan subject and had been divinely-appointed to restore order by crushing rebels. Most Chinese elites did not view the Yuan's Mongol ethnicity as grounds to resist or reject it. Hongwu emphasised that he
18600-429: The center of the world map, following Ricci's format and contents, but in a much smaller size (49 cm x 24 cm). This map was included in some editions of Aleni's geographical work, Zhifang waiji . (Descriptions of Foreign Land) His 1623 preface states that another Jesuit, Diego de Pantoja (1571–1618), on the command of the emperor, had translated a different European map, also following Ricci's model, but there
18786-458: The city or from superstitious fear of its geomantic properties . A monument to the huge human cost of some of the gigantic construction projects of the early Ming dynasty is the Yangshan Quarry (located some 15–20 km (9–12 mi) east of the walled city and Ming Xiaoling mausoleum), where a gigantic stele , cut on the orders of the Yongle Emperor, lies abandoned. As the center of
18972-603: The city had more than 1.4 million residents. A number of sculptural ensembles of that era, erected at the tombs of royals and other dignitaries, have survived (in various degrees of preservation) in Nanjing's northeastern and eastern suburbs, primarily in Qixia and Jiangning District . Possibly the best preserved of them is the ensemble of the Tomb of Xiao Xiu (475–518), a brother of Emperor Wu of Liang . The phoenix birds once frolicked on Phoenix Terrace, The birds are gone,
19158-498: The commercial, cultural and political centers of China. Not long after the unification of China, the Western Jin collapsed under the weight of civil wars by eight princes and rebellions from the so-called " Five Barbarians " in the north. Jianye, renamed to Jiankang in 313 to avoid Emperor Min of Jin's taboo name , was safely isolated from the chaos and became a popular refuge for the northern nobles and wealthy families. In 318,
19344-584: The constitution of the map and its production process. The James Ford Bell Trust announced in December 2009 that it had acquired one of two good copies of the 1602 Ricci map from the firm of Bernard J. Shapero , a noted dealer of rare books and maps in London, for US$ 1 million, the second most expensive map purchase in history. This copy had been held for years by a private collector in Japan. Ford W. Bell, president of
19530-631: The control imposed upon the Jurchens in Manchuria by the Mongols, yet it created a norm of organization that would ultimately serve as the main instrument for the relations with peoples along the northeast frontiers. By the end of the Hongwu reign, the essentials of a policy toward the Jurchens had taken shape. Most of the inhabitants of Manchuria, except for the Wild Jurchens , were at peace with China. In 1409, under
19716-441: The county graduates, those who passed the palace examination were awarded a jinshi ('presented scholar') degree and assured a high-level position. In 276 years of Ming rule and ninety palace examinations, the number of doctoral degrees granted by passing the palace examinations was 24,874. Ebrey states that "there were only two to four thousand of these jinshi at any given time, on the order of one out of 10,000 adult males." This
19902-589: The court of the Tianqi Emperor (r. 1620–1627) and had his political rivals tortured to death, mostly the vocal critics from the faction of the Donglin Society . He ordered temples built in his honor throughout the Ming Empire, and built personal palaces created with funds allocated for building the previous emperor's tombs. His friends and family gained important positions without qualifications. Wei also published
20088-532: The defender of Nanjing and ordered him to continue his command over the Ming treasure fleet for the city's defense. Zheng He governed the city with three eunuchs for internal matters and two military noblemen for external matters, awaiting the Hongxi Emperor's return along with the military establishment from the north. The emperor died on May 29, 1425, before this could have taken place. The succeeding Xuande Emperor preferred to remain in Beijing, leaving it
20274-544: The emperor and ministers at times). The Secretariat operated as a coordinating agency, whereas the Six Ministries— Personnel , Revenue , Rites , War , Justice , and Public Works —were direct administrative organs of the state: The imperial household was staffed almost entirely by eunuchs and ladies with their own bureaus. Female servants were organized into the Bureau of Palace Attendance, Bureau of Ceremonies, Bureau of Apparel, Bureau of Foodstuffs, Bureau of
20460-517: The emperor, handling paperwork under the reign of the Yongle Emperor and later appointed as top officials of agencies and Grand Preceptor, a top-ranking, non-functional civil service post, under the Hongxi Emperor (r. 1424–25). The Grand Secretariat drew its members from the Hanlin Academy and were considered part of the imperial authority, not the ministerial one (hence being at odds with both
20646-492: The emperor. As in prior dynasties, the provincial administrations were monitored by a travelling inspector from the Censorate. Censors had the power to impeach officials on an irregular basis, unlike the senior officials who were to do so only in triennial evaluations of junior officials. Although decentralization of state power within the provinces occurred in the early Ming, the trend of central government officials delegated to
20832-556: The empire, early-Ming Nanjing had worldwide connections. It was home of the admiral Zheng He , who went to sail the Pacific and Indian Oceans , and it was visited by foreign dignitaries, such as a king from Borneo ( 渤泥 ; Bóní ), who died during his visit to China in 1408. The Tomb of the King of Boni , with a spirit way and a tortoise stele , was discovered in Yuhuatai District (south of
21018-546: The establishment of the Xi dynasty , while Li's center of power was in Hubei with extended influence over Shaanxi and Henan. In 1640, masses of Chinese peasants who were starving, unable to pay their taxes, and no longer in fear of the frequently defeated Chinese army, began to form into huge bands of rebels. The Chinese military, caught between fruitless efforts to defeat the Manchu raiders from
21204-466: The exam generally limited participants to those already coming from the landholding class. However, the government did exact provincial quotas while drafting officials. This was an effort to curb monopolization of power by landholding gentry who came from the most prosperous regions, where education was the most advanced. The expansion of the printing industry since Song times enhanced the spread of knowledge and number of potential exam candidates throughout
21390-498: The government to properly manage irrigation and flood-control projects caused widespread loss of life and normal civility. The central government, starved of resources, could do very little to mitigate the effects of these calamities. Making matters worse, a widespread epidemic, the Great Plague of 1633–1644 , spread across China from Zhejiang to Henan, killing an unknown but large number of people. The deadliest earthquake of all time,
21576-424: The guards continued to exist in Manchuria. Throughout its existence, the Ming established a total of 384 guards (衛, wei ) and 24 battalions (所, suo ) in Manchuria, but these were probably only nominal offices and did not necessarily imply political control. By the late Ming period, Ming's political presence in Manchuria has declined significantly. The Mingshi —the official history of the Ming dynasty compiled by
21762-430: The intricate poetic requirements of the eight-legged essay. Not only did the traditional gentry dominated the system, they also learned that conservatism and resistance to new ideas was the path to success. For centuries critics had pointed out these problems, but the examination system only became more abstract and less relevant to the needs of China. The consensus of scholars is that the eight-legged essay can be blamed as
21948-677: The kingdoms visited by Zheng He, Yongle proclaimed the Kingdom of Cochin to be its protectorate. The Chinese had sent diplomatic missions over land since the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) and engaged in private overseas trade , but these missions were unprecedented in grandeur and scale. To service seven different tributary voyages, the Nanjing shipyards constructed two thousand vessels from 1403 to 1419, including treasure ships measuring 112 to 134 m (367 to 440 ft) in length and 45 to 54 m (148 to 177 ft) in width. Yongle used woodblock printing to spread Chinese culture. He also used
22134-585: The largest political division was the circuit ( lu 路). However, after the Jurchen invasion in 1127, the Song court established four semi-autonomous regional command systems based on territorial and military units, with a detached service secretariat that would become the provincial administrations of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Copied on the Yuan model, the Ming provincial bureaucracy contained three commissions: one civil, one military, and one for surveillance. Below
22320-453: The last opposing rebel faction, leaving Zhu Yuanzhang in uncontested control of the bountiful Yangtze River Valley and cementing his power in the south. After the dynastic head of the Red Turbans suspiciously died in 1367 while a guest of Zhu, there was no one left who was remotely capable of contesting his march to the throne, and he made his imperial ambitions known by sending an army toward
22506-607: The left-hand section (panel 1), there is an explanation of eclipses and the method for measuring the Earth and the Moon. Both sections carry the characteristic Jesuit seal, the IHS of the Society of Jesus . At the bottom left, in the Southern Hemisphere , is the name of the Chinese publisher of the map and the date: one day of the first month of autumn in the year 1602 . The map also incorporates an explanation of parallels and meridians,
22692-413: The level of the province ( sheng 省) were prefectures ( fu 府) operating under a prefect ( zhifu 知府), followed by subprefectures ( zhou 州) under a subprefect. The lowest unit was the county ( xian 縣), overseen by a magistrate. Besides the provinces, there were also two large areas that belonged to no province, but were metropolitan areas ( jing 京) attached to Nanjing and Beijing. Departing from
22878-672: The local peoples. After the overthrow of the Mongol Yuan dynasty by the Ming dynasty in 1368, Manchuria remained under control of the Mongols of the Northern Yuan dynasty based in Mongolia . Naghachu , a former Yuan official and a Uriankhai general of the Northern Yuan dynasty, won hegemony over the Mongol tribes in Manchuria ( Liaoyang province of the former Yuan dynasty). He grew strong in
23064-634: The main central administrative system generally known as the Three Departments and Six Ministries system, which was instituted by various dynasties since late Han (202 BCE – 220 CE), the Ming administration had only one department, the Secretariat, that controlled the six ministries. Following the execution of the Chancellor Hu Weiyong in 1380, the Hongwu Emperor abolished the Secretariat,
23250-558: The map recently was discovered in the store-rooms of the Shenyang Museum in China. A world search is currently in progress by Kendall Whaling Museum of Massachusetts. Hong Weilian, earlier established a list of twelve total Ricci maps, which differs considerably from Day's findings. In 1607 or 1609 the Shanhai Yudi Quantu , is a Chinese map which was published in the geographical treatise Sancai Tuhui . The Shanhai Yudi Quantu
23436-553: The map, known in Japanese as Konyo Bankoku Zenzu , was made in Japan circa 1604. Within this Japanese export copy, Japanese Katakana is utilised for foreign location names throughout the Western world. The Gonyeomangukjeondo ( Hangul : 곤여만국전도) is a Korean hand-copied reproduction print by Painter Kim Jin-yeo in 1708, the 34th year of King Sukjong's rule of Joseon . It is owned and displayed at Seoul National University Museum, and
23622-588: The market. So we had to take advantage of that opportunity." The map was displayed for the first time in North America at the Library of Congress from January through April, 2010. It was scanned by the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division to create a permanent digital image that will be posted on the internet later in 2010 in the World Digital Library for scholars and students to study. The map
23808-436: The military to expand China's borders. This included the brief occupation of Vietnam , from the initial invasion in 1406 until the Ming withdrawal in 1427 as a result of protracted guerrilla warfare led by Lê Lợi , the founder of the Vietnamese Lê dynasty . The Oirat leader Esen Tayisi launched an invasion into Ming China in July 1449. The chief eunuch Wang Zhen encouraged the Zhengtong Emperor (r. 1435–49) to lead
23994-445: The momentous first meeting of East and West" and was the "catalyst for commerce". The map includes images and annotations describing different regions of the world. Africa is noted to have the world's highest mountain and longest river. The brief description of North America mentions "humped oxen" or bison (駝峰牛 tuófēngníu ), feral horses (野馬, yěmǎ ), and names Canada (加拿大, Jiānádà ). The map identifies Florida as Huādì (花地),
24180-546: The most influential eunuch in the Directorate of Ceremonial acted as a de facto dictator over the state. Although the imperial household was staffed mostly by eunuchs and palace ladies, there was a civil service office called the Seal Office, which cooperated with eunuch agencies in maintaining imperial seals, tallies, and stamps. There were also civil service offices to oversee the affairs of imperial princes. The Hongwu emperor from 1373 to 1384 staffed his bureaus with officials gathered through recommendations only. After that
24366-408: The most modern cities in China. In 1937, the Empire of Japan started a full-scale invasion of China after invading Manchuria in 1931, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War (often considered a theater of World War II ). Their troops occupied Nanjing in December and carried out the systematic and brutal Nanjing Massacre (the "Rape of Nanjing"). The total death toll, including estimates made by
24552-422: The north and huge peasant revolts in the provinces, essentially fell apart. Unpaid and unfed, the army was defeated by Li Zicheng—now self-styled as the Prince of Shun —and deserted the capital without much of a fight. On 25 April 1644, Beijing fell to a rebel army led by Li Zicheng when the city gates were opened by rebel allies from within. During the turmoil, Chongzhen , the last Ming emperor, accompanied only by
24738-457: The northeast, with forces large enough (numbering hundreds of thousands) to threaten invasion of the newly founded Ming dynasty in order to restore the Mongols to power in China. The Ming decided to defeat him instead of waiting for the Mongols to attack. In 1387 the Ming sent a military campaign to attack Naghachu , which concluded with the surrender of Naghachu and Ming conquest of Manchuria. The early Ming court could not, and did not, aspire to
24924-412: The nuanced history of Sino-Tibetan relations during the Ming era. Modern scholars debate whether the Ming dynasty had sovereignty over Tibet. Some believe it was a relationship of loose suzerainty that was largely cut off when the Jiajing Emperor (r. 1521–67) persecuted Buddhism in favor of Daoism at court. Others argue that the significant religious nature of the relationship with Tibetan lamas
25110-664: The official records or "donated" their lands to tax-exempt eunuchs or temples. Haijin laws intended to protect the coasts from Japanese pirates instead turned many into smugglers and pirates themselves. By the 16th century, the expansion of European trade —though restricted to islands near Guangzhou such as Macau —spread the Columbian exchange of crops, plants, and animals into China, introducing chili peppers to Sichuan cuisine and highly productive maize and potatoes , which diminished famines and spurred population growth. The growth of Portuguese , Spanish , and Dutch trade created new demand for Chinese products and produced
25296-440: The outskirts of the present-day Zhonghua Gate , which was the beginning of the construction of the main city of Nanjing. In 333 BC, Chu defeated Yue and built Jinling Yi ( 金陵邑 ) on in the western part of Nanjing. It was the earliest administrative construction in the main city of Nanjing. The name of Jinling comes from this. In 210 BC, the First Emperor of Qin visited the east and changed Jinling City to Moling ( 秣陵 ). The area
25482-406: The palace until the coup against the Jingtai Emperor in 1457 known as the "Wresting the Gate Incident". The former emperor retook the throne under the new era name Tianshun (r. 1457–64). Tianshun proved to be a troubled time and Mongol forces within the Ming military structure continued to be problematic. On 7 August 1461, the Chinese general Cao Qin and his Ming troops of Mongol descent staged
25668-427: The primary and de facto capital and Nanjing as permanent secondary or reserve capital. Owing to the continuing importance of the ancestral injunctions , however, Nanjing was designated in official documents as the actual capital and Beijing as a temporary capital from 1425 to 1441. In 1441, the Yingzong Emperor ordered the "provisional" ( 行在 ) prefix removed from Beijing's government seals and further ordered that
25854-406: The proclamation of the Republic of China . Described as "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history" by Edwin O. Reischauer , John K. Fairbank and Albert M. Craig , the Ming emperors took over the provincial administration system of the Yuan dynasty, and the thirteen Ming provinces are the precursors of the modern provinces. Throughout the Song dynasty,
26040-553: The provinces as virtual provincial governors began in the 1420s. By the late Ming dynasty, there were central government officials delegated to two or more provinces as supreme commanders and viceroys, a system which reined in the power and influence of the military by the civil establishment. Governmental institutions in China conformed to a similar pattern for some two thousand years, but each dynasty installed special offices and bureaus, reflecting its own particular interests. The Ming administration utilized Grand Secretaries to assist
26226-427: The provinces. For young schoolchildren there were printed multiplication tables and primers for elementary vocabulary; for adult examination candidates there were mass-produced, inexpensive volumes of Confucian classics and successful examination answers. As in earlier periods, the focus of the examination was classical Confucian texts, while the bulk of test material centered on the Four Books outlined by Zhu Xi in
26412-468: The region as part of a colonization effort. By the end of the 14th century, some 200,000 military colonists settled some 2,000,000 mu (350,000 acres) of land in what is now Yunnan and Guizhou . Roughly half a million more Chinese settlers came in later periods; these migrations caused a major shift in the ethnic make-up of the region, since formerly more than half of the population were non-Han peoples. Resentment over such massive changes in population and
26598-479: The region; in 1421 the Yongle Emperor commissioned 26 officials to travel the empire and uphold similar investigatory and patrimonial duties. By 1430 these xunfu assignments became institutionalized as " grand coordinators ". Hence, the Censorate was reinstalled and first staffed with investigating censors, later with censors-in-chief. By 1453, the grand coordinators were granted the title vice censor-in-chief or assistant censor-in-chief and were allowed direct access to
26784-448: The resulting government presence and policies sparked more Miao and Yao revolts in 1464 to 1466, which were crushed by an army of 30,000 Ming troops (including 1,000 Mongols) joining the 160,000 local Guangxi . After the scholar and philosopher Wang Yangming (1472–1529) suppressed another rebellion in the region, he advocated single, unitary administration of Chinese and indigenous ethnic groups in order to bring about sinification of
26970-416: The right to establish a new dynasty . In 1363, Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated his archrival and leader of the rebel Han faction, Chen Youliang , in the Battle of Lake Poyang , arguably the largest naval battle in history . Known for its ambitious use of fire ships , Zhu's force of 200,000 Ming sailors were able to defeat a Han rebel force over triple their size, claimed to be 650,000-strong. The victory destroyed
27156-418: The ruling prince in Jiankang, Sima Rui proclaimed himself the new emperor and reestablished the dynasty as the Eastern Jin dynasty . This marked the first time a Chinese dynastic capital was moved from the north to southern China , as the north came under the rule of the Sixteen Kingdoms . Jiankang was the centre of administration in the south for more than two and a half centuries, even as China entered
27342-408: The scholar-officials who populated the many ranks of bureaucracy were recruited through a rigorous examination system that was initially established by the Sui dynasty (581–618). Theoretically the system of exams allowed anyone to join the ranks of imperial officials (although it was frowned upon for merchants to join); in reality the time and funding needed to support the study in preparation for
27528-414: The scrutiny of recorded evaluation, although they were expected to confess any of their faults. There were over 4,000 school instructors in county and prefectural schools who were subject to evaluations every nine years. The Chief Instructor on the prefectural level was classified as equal to a second-grade county graduate. The Supervisorate of Imperial Instruction oversaw the education of the heir apparent to
27714-432: The ships which had brought them. Under the Qing dynasty from 1645 to 1911, Nanjing returned to its previous name Jiangning . At first, it continued to administer the territory of Nanzhili under the name Jiangnan ("Area South of the Yangtze") but this administration was soon broken up into "Right" and "Left" governments based in Suzhou and Jiangning respectively. After a series of reorganizations, at some point under
27900-400: The southern imperial administration would henceforth be required to prefix "Nanjing" to their own seals to distinguish them. Besides the city wall, other Ming-era structures in the city included the famous Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum and Porcelain Tower , although the latter was destroyed by the Taipings in the 19th century either to prevent a hostile faction from using it to observe and shell
28086-411: The spelling as "Nanjing". During the Qing dynasty , the city was called Jiangning ( 江寧 ; Kiang-ning ), whose first character jiang ( Chinese : 江 ; pinyin : jiāng ; lit. 'river', i.e. the Yangtze ) is the former part of the name Jiangsu and second character ning ( 寧 , simplified form 宁 ; 'peace') is the shortened name of Nanjing. When it was the capital of
28272-407: The terms that he return to service. The agreement soon broke down when a local magistrate had thirty-six of his fellow rebels executed; Li's troops retaliated by killing the officials and continued to lead a rebellion based in Rongyang, central Henan province by 1635. By the 1640s, an ex-soldier and rival to Li— Zhang Xianzhong (1606–1647)—had created a firm rebel base in Chengdu , Sichuan , with
28458-425: The terrestrial and celestial world". There is a long preface by Matteo Ricci in the middle of the map, where it depicts the Pacific Ocean. D'Elia's translation reads: "Once I thought learning was a multifold experience and I would not refuse to travel [even] ten thousand Li to be able to question wise men and visit celebrated countries. But how long is a man's life? It is certain that many years are needed to acquire
28644-426: The throne under the era name Jingtai (r. 1449–57); the Oirats were also repelled once the Jingtai Emperor's confidant and defense minister Yu Qian (1398–1457) gained control of the Ming armed forces. Holding the Zhengtong Emperor in captivity was a useless bargaining chip for the Oirats as long as another sat on his throne, so they released him back into Ming China. The former emperor was placed under house arrest in
28830-408: The throne; this office was headed by a Grand Supervisor of Instruction, who was ranked as first class of grade three. Historians debate whether the examination system expanded or contracted upward social mobility. On the one hand, the exams were graded without regard to a candidate's social background, and were theoretically open to everyone. In actual practice, the successful candidates had years of
29016-456: The validity of the theory that silver shortages caused the downfall of the Ming dynasty. Famines became common in northern China in the early 17th century because of unusually dry and cold weather that shortened the growing season—effects of a larger ecological event now known as the Little Ice Age . Famine, alongside tax increases, widespread military desertions, a declining relief system, and natural disasters such as flooding and inability of
29202-401: The wake of a Mongol-Tibetan alliance initiated in 1578, an alliance which affected the foreign policy of the subsequent Manchu Qing dynasty (1644–1912) in their support for the Dalai Lama of the Yellow Hat sect. By the late 16th century, the Mongols proved to be successful armed protectors of the Yellow Hat Dalai Lama after their increasing presence in the Amdo region, culminating in
29388-410: The wall, which was intended to defend the city and its surrounding region from coastal pirates. The present-day City Wall of Nanjing was mainly built during that time and today it remains in good condition and has been well preserved. It is among the longest surviving city walls in China. The Jianwen Emperor ruled from Yingtian from 1398 to 1402. It is believed that Nanjing was the largest city in
29574-430: The walled city) in 1958, and has been restored. Over two centuries after the removal of the capital to Beijing, Nanjing was destined to become the capital of a Ming emperor one more time. After the fall of Beijing to Li Zicheng 's rebel forces and then to the Manchu -led Qing dynasty in the spring of 1644, the Ming prince Zhu Yousong was enthroned in Nanjing in June 1644 as the Hongguang Emperor. His short reign
29760-434: The wonders of the world. Both the Qing viceroy and the Taiping king resided in buildings that would later be known as the Presidential Palace . When Qing forces led by Zeng Guofan retook the city in 1864, a massive slaughter occurred in the city with over 100,000 estimated to have committed suicide or fought to the death. Since the Taiping Rebellion began, Qing forces allowed no rebels speaking its dialect to surrender. This
29946-422: The world from 1358 to 1425 with a population of 487,000 in 1400. Having usurped power from his nephew and uncertain of the loyalty of the region's officials, the Yongle Emperor relocated the capital in 1421 to Beijing, where he had long served as the regional governor as the Prince of Yan . Because the new status of Yingtian was included in the Hongwu Emperor's " ancestral injunctions " for his dynasty, however,
30132-409: The world that he believed grew out of Christian faith. The map's text shows it as part of a diplomatic attempt by Ricci to affirm the greatness of his own religion and culture. Ricci declares that it offers testimony "to the supreme goodness, greatness and unity of Him who controls heaven and earth." Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty ( / m ɪ ŋ / MING ), officially the Great Ming ,
30318-441: Was a matter of uncles promoting nephews. The Heishanhui Society in Peking sponsored the temple that conducted rituals for worshiping the memory of Gang Tie, a powerful eunuch of the Yuan dynasty. The Temple became an influential base for highly placed eunuchs, and continued in a somewhat diminished role during the Qing dynasty. During the last years of the Wanli era and those of his two successors, an economic crisis developed that
30504-401: Was a penniless peasant and Buddhist monk who joined the Red Turbans in 1352; he soon gained a reputation after marrying the foster daughter of a rebel commander. In 1356, Zhu's rebel force captured the city of Nanjing , which he would later establish as the capital of the Ming dynasty. With the Yuan dynasty crumbling, competing rebel groups began fighting for control of the country and thus
30690-550: Was allowed to fall into disrepair while forced labor constructed the Liaodong palisade and connected and fortified the Great Wall into its modern form. Wide-ranging censuses of the entire empire were conducted decennially, but the desire to avoid labor and taxes and the difficulty of storing and reviewing the enormous archives at Nanjing hampered accurate figures. Estimates for the late-Ming population vary from 160 to 200 million, but necessary revenues were squeezed out of smaller and smaller numbers of farmers as more disappeared from
30876-457: Was among the first Jesuits to enter China from Macao. The first Chinese world map was named Yudi Shanhai Quantu (輿地山海全圖) and made in Zhaoqing in 1584 by Matteo Ricci with Chinese collaborators. Ricci had a small Italian wall map in his possession and created Chinese versions of it at the request of the governor of Zhaoqing at the time, Wang Pan, who wanted the document to serve as a resource for explorers and scholars. On January 24, 1601, Ricci
31062-423: Was an imperial dynasty of China , ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol -led Yuan dynasty . The Ming dynasty was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people , the majority ethnic group in China. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng (who established the short-lived Shun dynasty ), numerous rump regimes ruled by remnants of
31248-598: Was brought and placed in a grand mausoleum to cement Chiang's legitimacy. Chiang was born in the neighboring province of Zhejiang and the general area had strong popular support for him. In 1927, the Nationalist government proposed a comprehensive planning proposal, the Capital Plan ( 首都計劃 ), to reconstruct the war-torn city of Nanjing into a modern capital. It was a decade of extraordinary growth with an enormous amount of construction. A lot of government buildings, residential houses, and modern public infrastructures were built. During this boom, Nanjing reputedly became one of
31434-424: Was called the Eastern Depot at the beginning of the dynasty, later the Western Depot. This secret service was overseen by the Directorate of Ceremonial, hence this state organ's often totalitarian affiliation. Eunuchs had ranks that were equivalent to civil service ranks, only theirs had four grades instead of nine. Nanking Nanjing is the capital of Jiangsu province in eastern China . The city, which
31620-417: Was centered on a sudden widespread lack of the empire's chief medium of exchange: silver. The Portuguese first established trade with China in 1516. Following the Ming Emperor's decision to ban direct trade with Japan, Portuguese traders acted as an intermediary between China and Japan by buying Chinese silks from China and selling it to Japan for silver. After some initial hostilities gained consent from
31806-408: Was crucial in expanding Chinese knowledge of the world. It was eventually exported to Korea then Japan and was influential there as well, though less so than Giulio Aleni 's Zhifang Waiji . The 1602 Ricci map is a very large, 5 ft (1.52 m) high and 12 ft (3.66 m) wide, woodcut using a pseudocylindrical map projection showing China at the center of the known world. It
31992-411: Was described by later historians as the first reign of the so-called Southern Ming dynasty . Zhu Yousong, however, fared a lot worse than his ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang three centuries earlier. Beset by factional conflicts, his regime could not offer effective resistance to Qing forces, when the Qing army, led by the Manchu prince Dodo approached Jiangnan the next spring. Days after Yangzhou fell to
32178-427: Was his third and largest world map, the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu . In this map, European geographic knowledge, new to the Chinese, was combined with Chinese information unknown to Europeans to create the first map known to combine Chinese and European cartography. Among other things, this map revealed the existence of America to the Chinese. Ford W. Bell said: "This was a great collaboration between East and West. It really
32364-536: Was in comparison to the 100,000 shengyuan ('government students'), the lowest tier of graduates, by the 16th century. The maximum tenure in office was nine years, but every three years officials were graded on their performance by senior officials. If they were graded as superior then they were promoted, if graded adequate then they retained their ranks, and if graded inadequate they were demoted one rank. In extreme cases, officials would be dismissed or punished. Only capital officials of grade 4 and above were exempt from
32550-430: Was influenced highly by the work of Matteo Ricci . Matteo Ricci had several of his own maps entitled Shanhai Yudi Quantu . The locations in the map have been identified and translated by Roderich Ptak in his work, The Sino-European Map ("Shanhai yudi quantu"), in the Encyclopedia Sancai tuhui : About 1620 Giulio Aleni made the world map Wanguo Quantu (萬國全圖, lit. "Complete map of all the countries"), putting China at
32736-412: Was intended to meet the interest of the Kangxi Emperor , as Verbiest's introductory dedication implies. There currently are at least fourteen or fifteen copies and editions of this map known in Europe, Japan, Taiwan, America, and Australia. Ricci was a Jesuit priest whose mission was to convert the Chinese to Roman Catholicism. He thought that might be helped by demonstrating the superior understanding of
32922-431: Was no one after him skilled enough to maintain the stability of these alliances; officials soon banded together in opposing political factions. Over time Wanli grew tired of court affairs and frequent political quarreling amongst his ministers, preferring to stay behind the walls of the Forbidden City and out of his officials' sight. Scholar-officials lost prominence in administration as eunuchs became intermediaries between
33108-449: Was not conquering territory from the Yuan dynasty but rather from the rebel warlords. He used this line of argument to attempt to persuade Yuan loyalists to join his cause. The Ming used the tribute they received from former Yuan vassals as proof that the Ming had taken over the Yuan's legitimacy. Tribute missions were regularly celebrated with music and dance in the Ming court. Hui Muslim troops settled in Changde , Hunan , after serving
33294-471: Was one of two historically significant instances of systematic civilian massacres in Nanjing, the other one was the Houjing Disturbance of the 6th century. The New York Methodist Mission Society's superintendent Virgil Hart arrived in Nanjing in 1881. After some time, he succeeded in buying land near the city's Southern Gate and Confucian Temple to build the city's first Methodist church, Western hospital and boys' school. The hospital would later be unified with
33480-448: Was organized parallel to but was not subject to the civil service bureaucracy. Although there were several dictatorial eunuchs throughout the Ming, such as Wang Zhen , Wang Zhi, and Liu Jin , excessive tyrannical eunuch power did not become evident until the 1590s when the Wanli Emperor increased their rights over the civil bureaucracy and granted them power to collect provincial taxes. The eunuch Wei Zhongxian (1568–1627) dominated
33666-404: Was renamed Jiankang . Nanjing is also called Jincheng ( 金城 , Golden City), derived from Jinling City. The name Nanjing , which means "southern capital", was officially designated for the city during the Ming dynasty , about six hundred years later. In English, the spelling Nanking was traditional until pinyin , developed in the 1950s and internationally adopted in the 1980s, standardized
33852-423: Was selected as its new capital. However, the Qing Empire controlled large regions to the north, so the revolutionaries asked Yuan Shikai to replace Sun as president in exchange for the abdication of Puyi , the last emperor. Yuan demanded the capital be moved to Beijing (closer to his power base). In 1927, the Kuomintang (KMT; Nationalist Party) under Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek again established Nanjing as
34038-434: Was successively part of Kuaiji , Zhang and Danyang prefectures in Qin and Han dynasty, and part of Yangzhou region which was established as the nation's 13 supervisory and administrative regions in the 5th year of Yuanfeng in Han dynasty (106 BC). Nanjing was later the capital city of Danyang Prefecture, and had been the capital city of Yangzhou for about 400 years from late Han to early Tang . Six Dynasties
34224-438: Was the Forbidden City , the palatial residence of the emperor and his family. By 1553, the Outer City was added to the south, which brought the overall size of Beijing to 6.5 by 7 kilometres (4 by 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 miles). Beginning in 1405, the Yongle Emperor entrusted his favored eunuch commander Zheng He (1371–1433) as the admiral for a gigantic new fleet of ships designated for international tributary missions . Among
34410-439: Was the first Jesuit - and one of the first Westerners - to enter the Ming capital Beijing , bringing atlases of Europe and the West that were unknown to his hosts. The Chinese had maps of the East that were equally unfamiliar to Western scholars. In 1602, at the request of the Wanli Emperor , Ricci collaborated with Mandarin Zhong Wentao, a technical translator, Li Zhizao , and other Chinese scholars in Beijing to create what
34596-484: Was then exhibited briefly at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts , before moving to its permanent home at the James Ford Bell Library at the University of Minnesota , where it has been on display since September 15, 2010. Before his death at Peking in 1610, Matteo Ricci prepared four more world maps after the 1602 one: Most of these maps now are lost. Later copies of the 1602 edition of the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu may be found in China, Korea, London, and Vienna; one copy of
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