Kharara

The Rise and Fall of the Ming Dynasty_China, 1368–1644_By Dr. Rahul S. Kharat Abstract The Ming dynasty (1368–1644) governed China for 276 years and left an imprint on its geography, institutions, economy, and culture that outlasted the dynasty itself. Founded by a destitute orphan turned rebel commander, Zhu Yuanzhang, it expelled Mongol rule, restored native Chinese government, and built one of the most durable bureaucratic empires in world history. This article traces the dynasty's trajectory from its origins in the mid-fourteenth-century rebellions to its collapse in the spring of 1644. It argues that the Ming's greatest strengths and its fatal weaknesses were closely related: an autocratic constitution designed by its founder to prevent the emergence of rival power centers also deprived the state of flexibility; a low-tax agrarian fiscal settlement gave the early dynasty stability but starved the late dynasty of resources; and a commercial boom fuelled by global silver flo...