ECON 101:
US Interest Rate Down = 
China Exchange Rate Up !
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Escape from Hengyang by Qiong Yao |
MING DYNASTY
First Ming Emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang, like first Han Emperor (Liu Bang), was a commoner. Further, Zhu originally was a monk before joining the rebellion. Owning to this, there was a legend about the successor emperor fleeing Nanking as a monk when attacked by his uncle, i.e., Yongle or Yung-Lo Emperor (Zhu Di). It was said that Zhu Yuanzhang had left a will saying that should there be an emergency, the young emperor could open up the will box. Inside the box would be the knife for haircutting and the gown of a monk. Yongle Emperor, after usurpation, moved the capital to Peking from Nanking. Ming Dynasty lasted 276 years with 17 emperors, till the Manchurians came to power by taking advantage of peasant rebellions which forced last Ming emperor hang himself inside of the Forbidden City. Expulsion of the Mongols Mongol's discrimination against Chinese should be the top cause for the ending of its rule in China. The other causes would be collusion with Tibetan lamas in depriving Chinese of their lands. Paper currency over-circulation, which caused inflation to go up ten folds during Yuan Emperor Shundi's reign, should also be an important cause for its loss of power. Yuan's Prime Minnister Toktoghan (Tuo Tuo), against an objection by a Chinese official (Lu Sicheng) in charge of Guo Zi Jian (i.e., Confucian Academy), would print over five versions of paper currency. Still one more cause would be the Yellow River Flooding as a result of Mongols' abandoning the irrigation projects. In Mongol times, the Chinese agriculture lands were very much in wastage. Once hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians were called upon to work on the Yellow River, the time was ripe for a great rebellion. In history, China's dynastic substitution was mostly the results of usurpation, mutiny or foreign invasion, except for Yellow Turpans of Eastern Han Dynasty and Red Turbans of Yuan Dynasty. China's dynasties twice changed by religious organizations, namely, Zhang Jiao's Daoist "Yellow Turbans" in Han Dynasty, and Yuan Dynasty's Red Turbans that were related to "Ming" [bright] religion, history, though a mirror, may not have to repeat. (Religious agitations might not work in 21st century, as in the case of Fa Lun Gong movement. Religion-related rebellion that had crippled but failed to topple a dynasty would be the "White Lotus Society" and "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom", incidentally. Similarly, I had also read about Wang Dan's interpretation of today's China as condusive to a similar Chen Sheng & Wu Guang rebellion of Qin Dynasty.) Religion was used by the Chinese in rebelling against the Mongols. The secret societies rebelling against Mongol rule would be mixed combinations of Taoism, Buddhist elements and Central Asia religions. Major branches would include White Lotus Society ("Bailian Jiao"), White Cloud Society ("Baiyun" by Kong Qingjiao), and "bright" religion ("Ming Jiao", ? Zoroastrianism mutation). Mao Ziyuan of Southern Song Dynasty first founded the "White Lotus Society" as a Mahayanist sect of Buddhism with adoration for bodhisattva Amitabha; however, the sect had transferred the adoration to a different buddha [Maitreya Buddha?] by Yuan Dynasty. (Later, in 16th century, "White Lotus Society" developed into hundreds of sub-sects, with ocurrence of major uprising against the Manchu rule in AD 1796.) Radical Chinese historians, who had attributed Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming Dynasty to an alien rule belonging to the Muslims, had pointed out that the character "ming" to the fire adoration religion of the Central Asia. The Red Turbans, i.e., "Hongjin Jun", which overthrew the Mongol rule, derived from the "bright religion". Yellow River Flooding & The Red Turbans Yellow River flooding caused massive damages to people in Jinan area of Shandong Prov. The Yellow River was first worked on by Lord Yu, and eight hundred years after, the Shang people began to experience the flooding again. Major river-course changes had occurred for over half a dozen times in past 3500 years. During the 25th year reign of Yuan Emperor Shizu (Khubilai), i.e., AD 1288, the River changed course again. During the 1st year reign of Yuan Emperor Shundi, i.e., AD 1335, river bank was breached at Kaifeng, Henan Prov; in AD 1344, breached at Caozhou Prefecture and Kaifeng; in AD 1345, breached near Jinan, Shandong Prov. A Chinese official, by the name of Jia Lu, proposed to have the river course changed to the Huai-sui River in the south. Toktoghan dispatched an official, Cheng Zun, on an inspection trip, and Cheng Zun proposed an alternative scheme by citing the fact that there were not enough royal savings for a huge project like Jia Lu's and that any mobilization of 200,000 laborers might cause social instability. Toktoghan, angry with Cheng Zun for the suggestion that people might rebel, would petition with Emperor Shundi to have Jia Lu take charge of 170,000 soldiers and laborers and work on revamping the Yellow River course. Yuan court ordered that 150,000 peasants from three circuits, including Bianliang (Kaifeng) and Daming, work on the river. Mongols further dispatched 20,000 army as supervisors of the peasants. Jia Lu started work in April of AD 1351 and finished work in July of the same year. White Lotus Society, led by Han Shantong (from Yingzhou of Henan Prov) and Liu Futong (from Luancheng of Henan Prov), had secretly implanted an one-eye stone statute in Huanglinggang area and then spread the rumor stating that rebellion would erupt should a stone man with one eye be dug up from the Yellow River bed. Jia Lu did not pay attention to the stone man and ordered that it be destroyed. Han Shantong declared himself jiu shi ming wang, i.e., bright-minded king for salvation of mankind, and rebelled in Ru-Ying areas of Henan Prov. Liu Futong, after the Yuan Dynasty arrested and executed Han Shantong, would rally an army called the 'Red Turbans' and supported Han Shantong's son (Han Lin'er) as the leader. Liu Futong declared the dynasty of 'Song' and based his army in Bo-zhou. Cai Dongfan commented that the Mongols should have hired the displaced Shandong people as labor for repairing the Yellow River rather than mobilizing 170,000 people for the project. Answering the 'Red Turbans' rebellion would be several more bands, including: Li Er (Sesame Lee)-Peng Da-Zhao Junyong in Xuzhou of Shandong Prov, Xu Shouhui (a cloth vendor from Luotian) in Qi-shui of Hubei Prov. Guo Zixing from Dingyuan rebelled against Yuan Dynasty in Hao-Liang areas in AD 1352. Zhang Shicheng (salt merchant from Taizhou of Jiangsu) rebelled against Yuan Dynasty in Gaoyou of Jiangsu Prov in AD 1353. Before that, in AD 1348, Fang Guozhen (a salt worker and a pirate from Huangyan of Fujian Prov) had rebelled against the Mongols in Taizhou & Wenzhou of today's Zhejiang Prov. Xu Shouhui declared the dynastic era of Tianwuan. Zhang Shicheng declared himself King Chengwang and the dynasty of 'Zhou'. Toktoghan advised Emperor Shundi to put down the rebellion in Henan Prov first. Since Shundi did not want Toktoghan leave the court, Toktoghan's brother, Yexian-temur, was ordered to quell rebellion with an army of over 100,000. Yexian-temur first attacked the city of Shangcai and captured a Red Turban leader called Han Yao'er. Next, Mongol army would defeat Li Er (Sesame Lee). However, Yuan Emperor Shundi indulged himself in lust with his women under the sexual help of lamas from the West (i.e., Tibet and Central Asia) and concentrated his efforts in obtaining and practicing secret sexual skills from the lamas. Toktoghan was exiled, and cunning ministers, like Ha-ma brothers and Tulu-timur, were retained at the court. First Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang Excelling among the rebels would be Zhu Yuanzhang under Guo Zixing. Zhu Yuanzhang was born in Zhongli County of Haozhou Prefecture where his father Zhu Shizhen had relocated from neighboring Sizhou Prefecture. Zhu Yuanzhang, originally sent to a richman's family as a shepherd by his parents, left for the Buddhist Monastery of Huangjueshi at the age of 17 in AD 1344 after his parents and three elder brothers died of famine and epidemic. Zhu Yuanzhang, having suffered bullying in the hands of fellow monks for three years after the death of the Elder Monk, would leave the monastery as a traveller-monk for three years. After witnessing the famine, epidemic and poverty in the world, Zhu Yuanzhang returned to the monastery, only to find it vacant. At the old monastery, Zhu Yuanzhang spent another 3-4 years. In Feb of 1352, Guo Zixing and Sun Deya rebelled against the Yuan Dynasty. Yuan Dynasty General Che-li-bu-hua, being afraid of fighting the rebels, caught innocent civilians to pretend as captured rebels. Villagers around the monastery dispersed, and Zhu Yuanzhang, after throwing 'milfoil divination' at the buddha, conceived the idea of joining the Guo Zixing rebellion. Zhu Yuanzhang broke through Guo Zixing's camp at Haozhou (near Hao-shui River of Anhui Prov) and was caught and bound for inspection by Guo Zixing. When Zhu Yuanzhang complained about the soldiers' disrespect for 'brave man', Guo Zixing showed great interest in him and assigned him the job of a personal bodyguard. As an appreciation of Zhu Yuanzhang's bravery in fightings, Guo Zixing promoted Zhu Yuanzhang to 'column chief' and Guo Zixing's wife, i.e., Zhang-shi, further married over their adopted daughter Ma-shi to Zhu Yuanzhang as a wife. Ma-shi was an adopted daughter whom Guo Zixing took over from his slick-throat pal at Suzhou. (Mediocre sinologists often associated the surname of 'ma' with Muslims and further assigned the ancestry of those muslims to Central Asia. Hence, Zhu Yuanzhang's wife was taken as a muslim of Central Asia ancestry similar to Zheng He the traveller.) After Mongol Yuan army, under Jia Lu, sacked Xuzhou and defeated Sesame Li, two banditry heads, Peng Da and Zhao Junyong fled to the asylum with Guo Zixing at Haozhou. Jialu chased the banditry to Haozhou, defeated Guo Zixing outside of the city, and laid a siege of the city. Sun Deya, a Guo Zixing crony, broke through the siege line to the relief of Haozhou, but Sun Deya colluded with Zhao Junyong in placing Guo Zixing under house arrest. Zhu Yuanzhang broke though Sun's camp and rescued Guo. 3-4 months later, by next year, Mongol army withdrew from the siege after Jia Lu fell sick and passed away. Zhu Yuanzhang was authorized to go back to his hoemtown for recruiting 700 soldiers, among whom would be 24 founding generals of Ming Dynasty: Xu Da, Tang He, Wu Liang, Wu Zhen, Hua Yun, Chen De, Gu SHi, Fei Ju, Geng Zaicheng, Geng Bingwen, Tang Shengzong, Lu Zhongheng, Xu Yunlong, Zheng Yuchun, Guo Xing, Guo Ying, Hu Hai, Zhang Long, Chen Huan Xie Cheng, Li Xincai, Zhang He, Zhou Quan and Zhou Dexing. At the advice of Xu Da, Zhu Yuanzhang led 24 cronies southward to Dingyuan area for a campaign. Zhu Yuanzhang took over a banditry castle at Zhangjiabao near Dingyuan and subdued 3000 men. Thereafter, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that Hua Yun take over another banditry site at Hengjianshan Mountain and subdue 20,000 men. Smaller banditry nearby submitted to Zhu Yuanzhang. Two brothers from Dingyuan area, Feng Guoyong and Feng Guosheng, came to serve Zhu and recommended that Zhu campaign further southward to take over Nanking as the cauldron-setting place. A more intellectual by the name of Li Shanchang came to see Zhu Yuanzhang for a proposal of imitating first Han Dynasty Emperor Liu Bang who obtained the throne within 5 years of rebellion. Li Shanchang was assigned the post of bookkeeper. Hua Yun took over Tuyang, and Zhu's army quelled neigboring cities and castles. At Tuyang, Zhu converged with two nephews (Wen Zheng and Li Wenzhong) and one adopted son (Mu Ying). Meanwhile, Peng Da and Zhao Junyong left Sun Deya in charge of Haozhou and compelled Guo Zixing into a move to Sizhou. After Zhao Junyong killed Peng Da, Zhu Yuanzhang managed to bribe Zhao Junyong to have Guo Zixing retrieved from Sizhou. Zhu's wife came to Tuyang-cheng together with Guo Zixing and had pacified differences between her husband and her adopted father several times. When Mongol army, under prime minister Tuotuo, defeated Zhang Shicheng at Taizhou of Jiangsu Prov and lay siege of neigboring Liuhe city, Zhu Yuanzhang would petition for a relief with 10,000 men. Tuotuo, while enagaging Zhu Yuanzhang's army, would order a secretive march against Tuyang city. Zhu returned to the aid of Tucheng and defeated Yuan Dynasty's army at a creek crossing. Thereafter, Tuotuo was deprived of his posts and exiled to border areas. A brave man by the name of Hu Dahai came to serve Zhu Yuanzhang at Tuyang. By AD 1355, Zhu Yuanzhang led a campaign at neighboring Heyang city by disguizing 3000 green-uniform Luzhou turncoat soldiers as Yuan Dynasty's imperial bestowal column. Ming Emperor Hongwu (Ming Taizu, Zhu Yuanzhang, r. 1368-1398) Ming Emperor Jianwen (Ming Huidi, Zhu Yunwen, r. 1399-1402) Ming Emperor Yongle (Ming Chengzu, Zhu Di, r. 1403-1424) Ming Emperor Hongxi (Ming Renzong, Zhu Gaochi, r. 1425-1425) Ming Emperor Xuande (Ming Xuanzong, Zhu Zanji, r. 1426-1435)
TO BE CONTINUED ! Written by Ah Xiang |
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Li Hongzhang's Poem After 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki:
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ECON 101: US Interest Rate Down = China Exchange Rate Up !
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![Though, Anna Wang [Anneliese Martens], in her memoirs, expressed jealousy over Gong Peng by stating that the Anglo-American reporters had flattered the Chinese communists and the communist movement as a result of being entranced with the goldfish-eye'ed personal assistant of Zhou Enlai](GongPeng.jpg)
