History

Founding

Revolt and rebel rivalry

The Mongol-led Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) ruled before the establishment of the Ming. 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 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 levees 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 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 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 the last opposing rebel faction, leaving Zhu Yuanzhang in uncontested control of the bountiful Yangtze 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 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.

Reign of the Hongwu Emperor

Hongwu made an immediate effort to rebuild state infrastructure. He built a 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 Great Ming Code, 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 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 the Embroidered Uniform Guard, 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 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-third of officers serving in capital forces like 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 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 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.

South-Western frontier

Hui Muslim troops settled in Changde, Hunan, after serving 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 Mongol and Hui Muslim troops loyal to the Yuan holding out in Yunnan. The Hui troops under General Mu Ying, who was appointed Governor of Yunnan, were resettled in 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 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 sinicisation of the local peoples.

Campaign in the North-East

After the overthrow of the Yuan dynasty in 1368, Manchuria remained under control of the Northern Yuan based in Mongolia. Naghachu, a former Yuan official and a Uriankhai general of the Northern Yuan, won hegemony over the Mongol tribes in Manchuria (the former Yuan province of Liaoyang). He grew strong in 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 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 the Yongle Emperor, the Ming 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 the guards continued to exist in Manchuria. Throughout its existence, the Ming established a total of 384 guards (, wei) and 24 battalions (, 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.

Relations with Tibet

The History of Ming—the official dynastic history compiled in 1739 by the subsequent Qing dynasty (1644–1912)—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 History of Ming in favor of bolstering the Ming emperor's prestige and reputation at all costs obfuscates the nuanced history of Sino-Tibetan relations during the Ming era.

Modern scholars debate whether the Ming had sovereignty over Tibet. Some believe it was a relationship of loose suzerainty that was largely cut off when the Jiajing Emperor persecuted Buddhism in favor of Taoism at court. Others argue that the significant religious nature of the relationship with Tibetan lamas 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 did not garrison permanent troops in Tibet. The Wanli Emperor attempted to reestablish Sino-Tibetan relations in the wake of a Mongol–Tibetan alliance initiated in 1578, an alliance which affected the foreign policy of the subsequent Qing dynasty 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 the conquest of Tibet by Güshi Khan (1582–1655) in 1642, establishing the Khoshut Khanate.

Reign of the Yongle Emperor

Rise to power

The Hongwu Emperor specified his grandson Zhu Yunwen as his successor, and he assumed the throne as the Jianwen Emperor 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 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; his reign is universally viewed by scholars as a "second founding" of the Ming dynasty since he reversed many of his father's policies.

New capital and foreign engagement

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 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 .

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 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 in length and in width.

Yongle used woodblock printing to spread Chinese culture. He also used 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.

Tumu Crisis and the Ming Mongols

The Oirat leader Esen Tayisi launched an invasion into Ming China in July 1449. The chief eunuch Wang Zhen encouraged the Zhengtong Emperor to lead 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 the throne under the era name Jingtai; 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 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.

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 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 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 a series of lit beacons and signalling stations to allow rapid warning to friendly units of advancing enemy troops.

Decline

Reign of the Wanli Emperor

The reign of the Wanli Emperor (1572–1620) featured many problems, some of them fiscal in nature. 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 (1572–1582) built up an effective network of alliances with senior officials. However, there 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 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 during the Wanli Emperor's reign, Ordos campaign, the response to the Bozhou rebellion, and the Imjin War.

Role of eunuchs

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 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 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 the court of the Tianqi Emperor 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 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 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 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.

Economic breakdown and natural disasters

During the last years of the Wanli era and those of his two successors, an economic crisis developed that 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 the Portuguese gained consent from 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 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 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 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 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, the Shaanxi earthquake of 1556, occurred during the Jiajing Emperor's reign, killing approximately 830,000 people.

Fall of the Ming

Rise of the Manchus

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 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 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 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.

Rebellion, invasion, collapse

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 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, Henan 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 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 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 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 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 the Han River to Wuchang, and finally along the northern border of Jiangxi, 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 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. In 1683, the Qing forces conquered Taiwan and dismantled the Kingdom of Tungning, which had been established by Zheng Chenggong and was the final stronghold of forces loyal to the Ming dynasty.

Government

Province, prefecture, sub-prefecture and county

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, the largest political division was the circuit. 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 the level of the province were prefectures operating under a prefect (zhifu 知府), followed by subprefectures under a subprefect. The lowest unit was the county, overseen by a magistrate. Besides the provinces, there were also two large areas that belonged to no province, but were metropolitan areas attached to Nanjing and Beijing.

Institutions and bureaus

Institutional trends

Departing from the main central administrative system generally known as the Three Departments and Six Ministries system, which was instituted by various dynasties since the 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, 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) 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 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 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.

Grand Secretariat and Six Ministries

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 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. 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 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 Ministry of Personnel was in charge of appointments, merit ratings, promotions, and demotions of officials, as well as granting of honorific titles.

• The Ministry of Revenue was in charge of gathering census data, collecting taxes, and handling state revenues, while there were two offices of currency that were subordinate to it.

• The Ministry of Rites was in charge of state ceremonies, rituals, and sacrifices; it also oversaw registers for Buddhist and Daoist priesthoods and even the reception of envoys from tributary states.

• The Ministry of War was in charge of the appointments, promotions, and demotions of military officers, the maintenance of military installations, equipment, and weapons, as well as the courier system.

• The Ministry of Justice was in charge of judicial and penal processes, but had no supervisory role over the Censorate or the Grand Court of Revision.

• The Ministry of Public Works had charge of government construction projects, hiring of artisans and laborers for temporary service, manufacturing government equipment, the maintenance of roads and canals, standardization of weights and measures, and the gathering of resources from the countryside.

Bureaus and offices for the imperial household

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 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 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, the most influential eunuch in the Directorate of Ceremonial acted as 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.

Personnel

Scholar-officials

The Hongwu emperor from 1373 to 1384 staffed his bureaus with officials gathered through recommendations only. After that 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 the intricate poetic requirements of the eight-legged essay. Not only did the traditional gentry dominate 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 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".

Lesser functionaries

Scholar-officials who entered civil service through examinations acted as executive officials to 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 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, princes, and generals

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 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.

Descendants of the first Ming emperor were made princes and given (typically nominal) military commands, annual stipends, and large estates. The title used was "king" (王, wáng) but—unlike the princes in the Han and Jin dynasties—these estates were not feudatories, the princes did not serve any administrative function, and they partook in military affairs only during the reigns of the first two emperors. The rebellion of the Prince of Yan was justified in part as upholding the rights of the princes, but once the Yongle Emperor was enthroned, he continued his nephew's policy of disarming his brothers and moved their fiefs away from the militarized northern border. Although princes served no organ of state administration, the princes, consorts of the imperial princesses, and ennobled relatives did staff the Imperial Clan Court, which supervised the imperial genealogy.

Like scholar-officials, military generals were ranked in a hierarchic grading system and were given merit evaluations every five years (as opposed to three years for officials). However, military officers had less prestige than officials. This was due to their hereditary service (instead of solely merit-based) and Confucian values that dictated those who chose the profession of violence (wu) over the cultured pursuits of knowledge (wen). Although seen as less prestigious, military officers were not excluded from taking civil service examinations, and after 1478 the military even held their own examinations to test military skills. In addition to taking over the established bureaucratic structure from the Yuan period, the Ming emperors established the new post of the travelling military inspector. In the early half of the dynasty, men of noble lineage dominated the higher ranks of military office; this trend was reversed during the latter half of the dynasty as men from more humble origins eventually displaced them.

Society and culture

Literature and arts

Literature, painting, poetry, music, and Chinese opera of various types flourished during the Ming dynasty, especially in the economically prosperous lower Yangzi valley. Although short fiction had been popular as far back as the Tang dynasty (618–907), and the works of contemporaneous authors such as Xu Guangqi, Xu Xiake, and Song Yingxing were often technical and encyclopedic, the most striking literary development was the vernacular novel. While the gentry elite were educated enough to fully comprehend the language of Classical Chinese, those with rudimentary education—such as women in educated families, merchants, and shop clerks—became a large potential audience for literature and performing arts that employed Vernacular Chinese. Literati scholars edited or developed major Chinese novels into mature form in this period, such as Water Margin and Journey to the West. Jin Ping Mei, published in 1610, although incorporating earlier material, marks the trend toward independent composition and concern with psychology. In the later years of the dynasty, Feng Menglong and Ling Mengchu innovated with vernacular short fiction. Theater scripts were equally imaginative. The most famous, The Peony Pavilion, was written by Tang Xianzu (1550–1616), with its first performance at the Pavilion of Prince Teng in 1598.

Informal essay and travel writing was another highlight. Xu Xiake (1587–1641), a travel literature author, published his Travel Diaries in 404,000 written characters, with information on everything from local geography to mineralogy. The first reference to the publishing of private newspapers in Beijing was in 1582; by 1638 the Peking Gazette switched from using woodblock print to movable type printing. The new literary field of the moral guide to business ethics was developed during the late Ming period, for the readership of the merchant class.

In contrast to Xu Xiake, who focused on technical aspects in his travel literature, the Chinese poet and official Yuan Hongdao (1568–1610) used travel literature to express his desires for individualism as well as autonomy from and frustration with Confucian court politics. Yuan desired to free himself from the ethical compromises that were inseparable from the career of a scholar-official. This anti-official sentiment in Yuan's travel literature and poetry was actually following in the tradition of the Song dynasty poet and official Su Shi (1037–1101). Yuan Hongdao and his two brothers, Yuan Zongdao (1560–1600) and Yuan Zhongdao (1570–1623), were the founders of the Gong'an School of letters. This highly individualistic school of poetry and prose was criticized by the Confucian establishment for its association with intense sensual lyricism, which was also apparent in Ming vernacular novels such as the Jin Ping Mei. Yet even gentry and scholar-officials were affected by the new popular romantic literature, seeking gejis as soulmates to re-enact the heroic love stories that arranged marriages often could not provide or accommodate. During the Ming, some gentry dated well-educated gejis outside of marriage and the concubine system. Gējì culture reshaped the purely sexual relationship with prostitutes into a cultural relationship, and men could even become friends with like-minded gejis.

Famous painters included Ni Zan and Dong Qichang, as well as the Four Masters of the Ming dynasty, Shen Zhou, Tang Yin, Wen Zhengming, and Qiu Ying. They drew upon the techniques, styles, and complexity in painting achieved by their Song and Yuan predecessors, but added techniques and styles. Well-known Ming artists could make a living simply by painting due to the high prices they demanded for their artworks and the great demand by the highly cultured community to collect precious works of art. The artist Qiu Ying was once paid 2.8 kg (100 oz) of silver to paint a long handscroll for the eightieth birthday celebration of the mother of a wealthy patron. Renowned artists often gathered an entourage of followers, some who were amateurs who painted while pursuing an official career and others who were full-time painters.

The period was also renowned for ceramics and porcelains. The major production center for porcelain was the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi, most famous in the period for blue and white porcelain, but also producing other styles. The Dehua porcelain factories in Fujian catered to European tastes by creating Chinese export porcelain by the late 16th century. Individual potters also became known, such as He Chaozong, who became famous in the early 17th century for his style of white porcelain sculpture. In The Ceramic Trade in Asia, Chuimei Ho estimates that about 16% of late Ming era Chinese ceramic exports were sent to Europe, while the rest were destined for Japan and South East Asia.

Carved designs in lacquerware and designs glazed onto porcelain wares displayed intricate scenes similar in complexity to those in painting. These items could be found in the homes of the wealthy, alongside embroidered silks and wares in jade, ivory, and cloisonné. The houses of the rich were also furnished with rosewood furniture and feathery latticework. The writing materials in a scholar's private study, including elaborately carved brush holders made of stone or wood, were designed and arranged ritually to give an aesthetic appeal.

Connoisseurship in the late Ming period centered on these items of refined artistic taste, which provided work for art dealers and even underground scammers who themselves made imitations and false attributions. The Jesuit Matteo Ricci while staying in Nanjing wrote that Chinese scam artists were ingenious at making forgeries and huge profits. However, there were guides to help the wary new connoisseur; Liu Tong (died 1637) wrote a book printed in 1635 that told his readers how to spot fake and authentic pieces of art. He revealed that a Xuande era (1426–1435) bronze work could be authenticated by judging its sheen; porcelain wares from the Yongle era (1402–1424) could be judged authentic by their thickness.

Religion

The dominant religious beliefs during the Ming dynasty were the various forms of Chinese folk religion and the Three Teachings—Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. The Yuan-supported Tibetan lamas fell from favor, and the early Ming emperors particularly favored Taoism, granting its practitioners many positions in the state's ritual offices. The Hongwu Emperor curtailed the cosmopolitan culture of the Mongol Yuan dynasty, and the prolific Prince of Ning Zhu Quan even composed one encyclopedia attacking Buddhism as a foreign "mourning cult", deleterious to the state, and another encyclopedia that subsequently joined the Taoist canon.

The Yongle Emperor and his successors strongly patronised Tibetan Buddhism by supporting construction, printing of sutras, ceremonies etc., to seek legitimacy among foreign audiences. Yongle tried to portray himself as a Buddhist ideal king, a cakravartin. There is evidence that this portrayal was successful in persuading foreign audiences.

Islam was also well-established throughout China, with a history said to have begun with Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas during the Tang and strong official support during the Yuan. Although the Ming sharply curtailed this support, there were still several prominent Muslim figures early on, including the powerful eunuch Zheng He. The Hongwu Emperor's generals Chang Yuqun, Lan Yu, Ding Dexing, and Mu Ying have also been identified as Muslim by Hui scholars, though this is doubted by non-Muslim sources. Regardless, the presence of Muslims in the armies that drove the Mongols northwards caused a gradual shift in the Chinese perception of Muslims, transitioning from "foreigners" to "familiar strangers". The Hongwu Emperor wrote The Hundred-word Eulogy praising Islam and Muhammad. Ming emperors strongly sponsored the construction of mosques and granted generous liberties for the practice of Islam.

The advent of the Ming was initially devastating to Christianity: in his first year, the Hongwu Emperor declared the eighty-year-old Franciscan missions among the Yuan heterodox and illegal. The centuries-old Church of the East in China also disappeared. During the later Ming, a new wave of Christian missionaries arrived—particularly Jesuits—who employed new western science and technology in their arguments for conversion. They were educated in Chinese language and culture at St. Paul's College, Macau after its founding in 1579. The most influential was Matteo Ricci, whose "Map of the Myriad Countries of the World" upended traditional geography throughout East Asia, and whose work with the convert Xu Guangqi led to the first Chinese translation of Euclid's Elements in 1607. The discovery of the Xi'an Stele in 1625 also facilitated the treatment of Christianity as a long-established faith in China, rather than as a new and dangerous cult. However, there were strong disagreements about the extent to which converts could continue to perform rituals to the emperor, Confucius, or their ancestors: Ricci had been very accommodating and an attempt by his successors to backtrack from this policy led to the Nanjing Incident of 1616, which exiled four Jesuits to Macau and forced the others out of public life for six years. A series of spectacular failures by the Chinese astronomers—including missing an eclipse easily computed by Xu Guangqi and Sabatino de Ursis—and a return by the Jesuits to presenting themselves as educated scholars in the Confucian mold restored their fortunes. However, by the end of the Ming the Dominicans had begun the Chinese Rites controversy in Rome that would eventually lead to a full ban of Christianity under the Qing.

During his mission, Ricci was also contacted in Beijing by one of the approximately 5,000 Kaifeng Jews and introduced them and their long history in China to Europe. However, the 1642 flood caused by Kaifeng's Ming governor devastated the community, which lost five of its twelve families, its synagogue, and most of its Torah.

Philosophy

Wang Yangmings Confucianism

During the Ming dynasty, the Neo-Confucian doctrines of the Song scholar Zhu Xi were embraced by the court and the Chinese literati at large, although the direct line of his school was destroyed by the Yongle Emperor's extermination of the ten degrees of kinship of Fang Xiaoru in 1402. The Ming scholar most influential upon subsequent generations, however, was Wang Yangming (1472–1529), whose teachings were attacked in his own time for their similarity to Chan Buddhism. Building upon Zhu Xi's concept of the "extension of knowledge" (理學 or 格物致知), gaining understanding through careful and rational investigation of things and events, Wang argued that universal concepts would appear in the minds of anyone. Therefore, he claimed that anyone—no matter their pedigree or education—could become as wise as Confucius and Mencius had been and that their writings were not sources of truth but merely guides that might have flaws when carefully examined. A peasant with a great deal of experience and intelligence would then be wiser than an official who had memorized the Classics but not experienced the real world.

Conservative reaction

Other scholar-bureaucrats were wary of Wang's heterodoxy, the increasing number of his disciples while he was still in office, and his overall socially rebellious message. To curb his influence, he was often sent out to deal with military affairs and rebellions far away from the capital. Yet his ideas penetrated mainstream Chinese thought and spurred new interest in Taoism and Buddhism. Furthermore, people began to question the validity of the social hierarchy and the idea that the scholar should be above the farmer. Wang Yangming's disciple and salt-mine worker Wang Gen gave lectures to commoners about pursuing education to improve their lives, while his follower He Xinyin (何心隱) challenged the elevation and emphasis of the family in Chinese society. His contemporary Li Zhi even taught that women were the intellectual equals of men and should be given a better education; both Li and He eventually died in prison, jailed on charges of spreading "dangerous ideas". Yet these "dangerous ideas" of educating women had long been embraced by some mothers and by courtesans who were as literate and skillful in calligraphy, painting, and poetry as their male guests.

The liberal views of Wang Yangming were opposed by the Censorate and by the Donglin Academy, re-established in 1604. These conservatives wanted a revival of orthodox Confucian ethics. Conservatives such as Gu Xiancheng (1550–1612) argued against Wang's idea of innate moral knowledge, stating that this was simply a legitimization for unscrupulous behavior such as greedy pursuits and personal gain. These two strands of Confucian thought, hardened by Chinese scholars' notions of obligation towards their mentors, developed into pervasive factionalism among the ministers of state, who used any opportunity to impeach members of the other faction from court.

Urban and rural life

Wang Gen was able to give philosophical lectures to many commoners from different regions because—following the trend already apparent in the Song dynasty—communities in Ming society were becoming less isolated as the distance between market towns was shrinking. Schools, descent groups, religious associations, and other local voluntary organizations were increasing in number and allowing more contact between educated men and local villagers. Jonathan Spence writes that the distinction between what was town and country was blurred, since suburban areas with farms were located just outside and in some cases within the walls of a city. Not only was the blurring of town and country evident, but also of socioeconomic class in the traditional four occupations, since artisans sometimes worked on farms in peak periods, and farmers often traveled into the city to find work during times of dearth.

A variety of occupations could be chosen or inherited from a father's line of work. These included coffin makers, ironworkers and blacksmiths, tailors, cooks and noodle-makers, retail merchants, tavern, teahouse, or winehouse managers, shoemakers, seal cutters, pawnshop owners, brothel heads, and merchant bankers engaging in a proto-banking system involving notes of exchange. Virtually every town had a brothel where female and male prostitutes could be had. Male catamites fetched a higher price than female concubines since pederasty with a teenage boy was seen as a mark of elite status, regardless of sodomy being repugnant to sexual norms. Public bathing became much more common than in earlier periods. Urban shops and retailers sold a variety of goods such as special paper money to burn at ancestral sacrifices, specialized luxury goods, headgear, fine cloth, teas, and others. Smaller communities and townships too poor or scattered to support shops and artisans obtained their goods from periodic market fairs and traveling peddlers. A small township also provided a place for simple schooling, news and gossip, matchmaking, religious festivals, traveling theater groups, tax collection, and bases of famine relief distribution.

Farming villagers in the north spent their days harvesting crops like wheat and millet, while farmers south of the Huai River engaged in intensive rice cultivation and had lakes and ponds where ducks and fish could be raised. The cultivation of mulberry trees for silkworms and tea bushes could be found mostly south of the Yangtze; even further south sugarcane and citrus were grown as basic crops. Some people in the mountainous southwest made a living by selling lumber from hard bamboo. Besides cutting down trees to sell wood, the poor also made a living by turning wood into charcoal, and by burning oyster shells to make lime and fired pots, and weaving mats and baskets. In the north traveling by horse and carriage was most common, while in the south the myriad of rivers, canals, and lakes provided cheap and easy water transport. Although the south had the characteristic of the wealthy landlord and tenant farmers, there were on average many more owner-cultivators north of the Huai River due to harsher climate, living not far above subsistence level.

Early Ming dynasty saw the strictest sumptuary laws in Chinese history. It was illegal for commoners to wear fine silk or dress in bright red, dark green or yellow colors; nor could they wear boots or guan hats. Women could not use ornaments made from gold, jade, pearl or emerald. Merchants and their families were further banned from using silk. However, these laws were no longer enforced from the mid-Ming period onwards.

Male homosexual marriages were institutionalized in several areas, such as Fujian. Homosexuality was practiced frequently by monks, and spread to Japan with Kukai, a Japanese monk who trained in China.

Science and technology

After the flourishing of science and technology in the Song dynasty, the Ming perhaps saw fewer advancements in science and technology compared to the pace of discovery in the Western world. In fact, key advances in Chinese science in the late Ming were spurred by contact with Europe. In 1626 Johann Adam Schall von Bell wrote the first Chinese treatise on the telescope, the Yuanjingshuo (Far Seeing Optic Glass); in 1634 the Chongzhen Emperor acquired the telescope of the late Johann Schreck (1576–1630). The heliocentric model of the Solar System was rejected by the Catholic missionaries in China, but Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei's ideas slowly trickled into China starting with the Polish Jesuit Michael Boym (1612–1659) in 1627, Adam Schall von Bell's treatise in 1640, and finally Joseph Edkins, Alex Wylie, and John Fryer in the 19th century. Catholic Jesuits in China would promote Copernican theory at court, yet at the same time embrace the Ptolemaic system in their writing; it was not until 1865 that Catholic missionaries in China sponsored the heliocentric model as their Protestant peers did. Although Shen Kuo (1031–1095) and Guo Shoujing (1231–1316) had laid the basis for trigonometry in China, another important work in Chinese trigonometry would not be published again until 1607 with the efforts of Xu Guangqi and Matteo Ricci. Some inventions which had their origins in ancient China were reintroduced to China from Europe during the late Ming; for example, the field mill.

By the 16th century the Chinese calendar was in need of reform. Although the Ming had adopted Guo Shoujing's Shoushi calendar of 1281, which was just as accurate as the Gregorian calendar, the Ming Directorate of Astronomy failed to periodically readjust it; this was perhaps due to their lack of expertise since their offices had become hereditary in the Ming and the Statutes of the Ming prohibited private involvement in astronomy. A sixth-generation descendant of the Hongxi Emperor, the "Prince" Zhu Zaiyu (1536–1611), submitted a proposal to fix the calendar in 1595, but the ultra-conservative astronomical commission rejected it. This was the same Zhu Zaiyu who discovered the system of tuning known as equal temperament, a discovery made simultaneously by Simon Stevin (1548–1620) in Europe. In addition to publishing his works on music, he was able to publish his findings on the calendar in 1597. A year earlier, the memorial of Xing Yunlu suggesting a calendar improvement was rejected by the Supervisor of the Astronomical Bureau due to the law banning private practice of astronomy; Xing would later serve with Xu Guangqi to reform the calendar according to Western standards in 1629.

When the Ming founder Hongwu came upon the mechanical devices housed in the Yuan palace at Khanbaliq—such as fountains with balls dancing on their jets, tiger automata, dragon-headed devices that spouted mists of perfume, and mechanical clocks in the tradition of Yi Xing (683–727) and Su Song (1020–1101)—he associated all of them with the decadence of Mongol rule and had them destroyed. This was described in full length by the Divisional Director of the Ministry of Works, Xiao Xun, who also carefully preserved details on the architecture and layout of the Yuan dynasty palace. Later, European Jesuits such as Matteo Ricci and Nicolas Trigault would briefly mention indigenous Chinese clockworks that featured drive wheels. However, both Ricci and Trigault were quick to point out that 16th-century European clockworks were far more advanced than the common time keeping devices in China, which they listed as water clocks, incense clocks, and "other instruments ... with wheels rotated by sand as if by water" (Chinese: 沙漏). Chinese records—namely the Yuan Shi—describe the 'five-wheeled sand clock', a mechanism pioneered by Zhan Xiyuan (fl. 1360–1380) which featured the scoop wheel of Su Song's earlier astronomical clock and a stationary dial face over which a pointer circulated, similar to European models of the time. This sand-driven wheel clock was improved upon by Zhou Shuxue (fl. 1530–1558) who added a fourth large gear wheel, changed gear ratios, and widened the orifice for collecting sand grains since he criticized the earlier model for clogging up too often.

The Chinese were intrigued with European technology, but so were visiting Europeans of Chinese technology. In 1584, Abraham Ortelius (1527–1598) featured in his atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum the peculiar Chinese innovation of mounting masts and sails onto carriages, just like Chinese ships. Gonzales de Mendoza also mentioned this a year later—noting even the designs of them on Chinese silken robes—while Gerardus Mercator (1512–1594) featured them in his atlas, John Milton (1608–1674) in one of his famous poems, and Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest (1739–1801) in the writings of his travel diary in China.

The encyclopedist Song Yingxing (1587–1666) documented a wide array of technologies, metallurgic and industrial processes in his Tiangong Kaiwu encyclopedia of 1637. This includes mechanical and hydraulic powered devices for agriculture and irrigation, nautical technology such as vessel types and snorkeling gear for pearl divers, the annual processes of sericulture and weaving with the loom, metallurgic processes such as the crucible technique and quenching, manufacturing processes such as for roasting iron pyrite in converting sulphide to oxide in sulfur used in gunpowder compositions—illustrating how ore was piled up with coal briquettes in an earthen furnace with a still-head that sent over sulfur as vapor that would solidify and crystallize—and the use of gunpowder weapons such as a naval mine ignited by use of a rip-cord and steel flint wheel.

Focusing on agriculture in his Nongzheng Quanshu, the agronomist Xu Guangqi (1562–1633) took an interest in irrigation, fertilizers, famine relief, economic and textile crops, and empirical observation of the elements that gave insight into early understandings of chemistry.

There were many advances and new designs in gunpowder weapons during the beginning of the dynasty, but by the mid to late Ming the Chinese began to frequently employ European-style artillery and firearms. The Huolongjing, compiled by Jiao Yu and Liu Bowen sometime before the latter's death on 16 May 1375 (with a preface added by Jiao in 1412), featured many types of cutting-edge gunpowder weaponry for the time. This includes hollow, gunpowder-filled exploding cannonballs, land mines that used a complex trigger mechanism of falling weights, pins, and a steel wheellock to ignite the train of fuses, naval mines, fin-mounted winged rockets for aerodynamic control, multistage rockets propelled by booster rockets before igniting a swarm of smaller rockets issuing forth from the end of the missile (shaped like a dragon's head), and hand cannons that had up to |ten barrels.

Li Shizhen (1518–1593)—one of the most renowned pharmacologists and physicians in Chinese history—belonged to the late Ming period. His Bencao Gangmu is a medical text with 1,892 entries, each entry with its own name called a gang. The mu in the title refers to the synonyms of each name. Inoculation, although it can be traced to earlier Chinese folk medicine, was detailed in Chinese texts by the sixteenth century. Throughout the Ming, around fifty texts were published on the treatment of smallpox. In regards to oral hygiene, the ancient Egyptians had a primitive toothbrush of a twig frayed at the end, but the Chinese were the first to invent the modern bristle toothbrush in 1498, although it used stiff pig hair.

Population

Sinologist historians debate the population figures for each era in the Ming dynasty. The historian Timothy Brook notes that the Ming government census figures are dubious since fiscal obligations prompted many families to underreport the number of people in their households and many county officials to underreport the number of households in their jurisdiction. Children were often underreported, especially female children, as shown by skewed population statistics throughout the Ming. Even adult women were underreported; for example, the Daming Prefecture in North Zhili reported a population of 378,167 males and 226,982 females in 1502. The government attempted to revise the census figures using estimates of the expected average number of people in each household, but this did not solve the widespread problem of tax registration. Some part of the gender imbalance may be attributed to the practice of female infanticide. The practice is well documented in China, going back over two thousand years, and it was described as "rampant" and "practiced by almost every family" by contemporary authors. However, the dramatically skewed sex ratios, which many counties reported exceeding 2:1 by 1586, cannot likely be explained by infanticide alone.

The number of people counted in the 1381 census was 59,873,305; however, this number dropped significantly when the government found that some 3 million people were missing from the tax census of 1391. Even though underreporting figures was made a capital crime in 1381, the need for survival pushed many to abandon the tax registration and wander from their region, where Hongwu had attempted to impose rigid immobility on the populace. The government tried to mitigate this by creating their own conservative estimate of 60,545,812 people in 1393. In his Studies on the Population of China, Ping-ti Ho suggests revising the 1393 census to 65 million people, noting that large areas of North China and frontier areas were not counted in that census. Brook states that the population figures gathered in the official censuses after 1393 ranged between 51 and 62 million, while the population was in fact increasing. Even the Hongzhi Emperor remarked that the daily increase in subjects coincided with the daily dwindling number of registered civilians and soldiers. William Atwell estimates the population of China around 1400 at 90 million people, citing Heijdra and Mote.

Historians are now turning to local gazetteers of Ming China for clues that would show consistent growth in population. Using the gazetteers, Brook estimates that the overall population under the Chenghua Emperor was roughly 75 million, despite mid-Ming census figures hovering around 62 million. While prefectures across the empire in the mid-Ming period were reporting either a drop in or stagnant population size, local gazetteers reported massive amounts of incoming vagrant workers with not enough good cultivated land for them to till, so that many would become drifters, con-men, or wood-cutters that contributed to deforestation. The Hongzhi and Zhengde emperors lessened the penalties against those who had fled their home region, while the Jiajing Emperor finally had officials register migrants wherever they had moved or fled in order to bring in more revenues.

Even with the Jiajing reforms to document migrant workers and merchants, by the late Ming era the government census still did not accurately reflect the enormous growth in population. Gazetteers across the empire noted this and made their own estimations of the overall population in the Ming, some guessing that it had doubled, tripled, or even grown five-fold since 1368. Fairbank estimates a population of 160 million during the late Ming, while Brook estimates 175 million, and Ebrey estimates 200 million. However, a great epidemic that started in Shanxi in 1633, ravaged the densely populated areas along the Grand Canal; a gazetteer in northern Zhejiang noted more than half the population fell ill that year and that 90% of the local populace in one area was dead by 1642.

歷史

明朝的建立

元朝末期，官員貪污，貴族靡爛，朝政腐敗，爆發紅巾軍為主力的民變（元末民變）。朱元璋所部的義軍紀律嚴明，用人唯賢，先後有馮國用兄弟、李善長、陶安、劉基等文士，徐達、常遇春、湯和等將領，勢力日增。元至正十六年（1356年），朱元璋佔領集慶（今江蘇省南京市），繼而向蘇、浙、皖、贛發展，採納謀士朱升「高築牆，廣積糧，緩稱王」的建議，經過幾年努力，其軍事和經濟實力迅速壯大。元至正二十三年（1363年），通過鄱陽湖水戰，陳友諒勢力基本被消滅。元至正二十四年（1364年），朱元璋自稱吳王。至元二十七年（1367年），率軍攻下平江（今江蘇省蘇州市），滅張士誠，同年又消滅割據浙江沿海的方國珍。元至正二十八年正月初四日（1368年1月23日），朱元璋於應天府（今南京）稱帝，即明太祖，定國號「大明」，以當年為洪武元年。同年八月，攻佔元大都（今北京），元廷撤出中原，史稱北元。之後於洪武四年（1371年）消滅位於四川的明玉珍勢力，於洪武十四年（1381年）消滅據守雲南的元朝梁王。最後，明太祖于洪武五年（1372年）、洪武二十一年（1388年）兩度深入漠北進攻北元，對北元造成沉重打擊，天下至此初定。

皇權集中與建文削藩

明太祖即位後一方面減輕農民負擔，恢復社會的經濟生產，改革元朝遺留的吏治，懲治貪官，社會經濟從戰亂中得到恢復和發展，史稱洪武之治。明太祖確立里甲制，配合賦役黃冊戶籍登記簿冊和魚鱗圖冊的施行，落實賦稅勞役的徵收及地方治安的維持。

明太祖為了鞏固皇權，大肆屠戮功臣大將。洪武十三年（1380年），朱元璋以「擅權植黨」之名處死中書丞相胡惟庸，藉此廢除宰相制度，集君權和相權于一身。事隔十年，又以株連李善長、陸仲亨等大批大臣，宣佈他們奸黨，連坐受誅者達三萬餘人（胡惟庸案）。洪武二十六年（1393年），朱元璋又借大將軍藍玉張狂跋扈之名對其誅殺，連坐被族誅的有一萬五千餘人，史稱藍玉案。胡惟庸案、藍玉案、空印案與郭桓案合稱明初四大案，「元功宿將相繼盡矣！」。明太祖通過打擊權臣、特務監視等一系列方式加強皇權，使明初的皇帝專制程度與中國此前歷代相比更高。

明太祖分封諸子為王，以加強邊防，藩屏皇室。諸王之中，以北方諸王勢力較強，又以秦王朱樉、晉王朱棡與燕王朱棣的勢力最大。為防止朝中奸臣不軌，明太祖規定諸王可移文中央捉拿奸臣，必要時得奉天子密詔，領兵「靖難」（意為「平定國難」）。同時為防止諸王尾大不掉，明太祖也允許今後的皇帝在必要時可下令「削藩」。

洪武三十一年（1398年）明太祖駕崩，由於皇太子朱標於七年前因巡視陝西而病薨逝，遺詔由皇太孫朱允炆即位，改年號建文，即明惠帝（亦稱建文帝、明惠宗）。建文帝為鞏固皇權，與親信大臣齊泰、黃子澄等密謀削藩。周王朱橚、代王朱桂、齊王朱榑、湘王朱柏等先後或被廢為庶人，或自殺。同時以邊防為名調離燕王的精兵，準備削除燕王。結果燕王朱棣在姚廣孝的建議下以「清君側，靖內難」的名義起兵，遭到盛庸等忠于建文帝的大臣的痛擊，但最後迂迴南下，佔領京師，是為靖難之變。朱棣即位，即明成祖，年號永樂。建文帝在宮城大火中下落不明。明成祖對支持建文帝的官員大肆誅殺，諸如黃子澄、齊泰等。

永樂盛世與仁宣之治

繼洪武之治，明成祖、明仁宗與明宣宗相繼興起永樂盛世與仁宣之治，這是明朝的盛世。

明成祖時期武功昌盛。在北方，明成祖親自五入漠北攻打北元分裂後的韃靼與瓦剌。明成祖冊封瓦剌三王，使與韃靼對立，等到瓦剌興盛後又助韃靼討伐瓦剌，不使任何一方獨大。在南方，明成祖出擊安南，將安南納入明朝版圖，設立交趾布政司，安南後來在明宣宗年間重新獲得獨立。

在東北，明成祖為安撫東北女真各部，在歸附的海西女真（位於松花江上游）與建州女真（位於松花江、牡丹江之間）設置衛所，並派亦失哈安撫位於黑龍江下游的野人女真。永樂七年（1409年）亦失哈在黑龍江下游東岸奴兒幹地方（元朝征東元帥府舊地）設置奴兒幹都指揮使司，擴大明朝東疆，但因為韃靼幹預，至永樂九年（1411年），明成祖擊敗韃靼後，派遣亦失哈護送此前委任的康旺、王肇州前往奴兒幹都司衙署就任，奴兒幹都司正式建立。在西南，永樂十一年（1413年），明成祖利用貴州土司地方矛盾，進行改土歸流，設立貴州等處承宣布政使司，對貴州進行直接管理，同時加強對雲南的開發。除此之外，明成祖還在西藏地區多封眾建，先後設立三大法王、五大教王，加強對西藏地區的羈縻統治。

明成祖一改明太祖閉關自守的外交策略，自永樂三年（1405年）開始派宦官鄭和下西洋計七次，前六次均在永樂年間由明成祖派遣，鄭和船隊足跡遍佈東南亞與南亞地區，還於滿剌加建有基地。其規模空前，最遠到達東非索馬利亞地區，擴大明朝對南洋、西洋各國的影響力。

國內政治方面，明成祖將大寧都司內遷保定，將寧王朱權內遷南昌，授予兀良哈蒙古的朵顏、泰寧和福余三個衛所自治權，但不允許三衛蒙古人南遷到大寧地區駐牧。明成祖還于永樂四年（1406年）和永樂二十年（1422年）對兀良哈蒙古進行鎮壓，以維持這一地區的穩定。與此同時，明成祖還將鎮守總兵派遣到各地，用以代替藩王鎮守要地，逐漸形成「三司」之上的「三堂」制度。明成祖還在國內疏浚會通河，溝通南北漕運，更在永樂十八年（1420年），遷都北京。另一方面，明成祖時期對建文舊臣進行殘酷鎮壓，非常慘烈，也受到後世詬病。

文化方面，明成祖下令修大型類書永樂大典。在三年時間內即告完成。永樂大典有22877卷，又凡例、目錄60卷，全書分裝為11095冊，引書達七八千種，字數約有三億七千多萬，且未有任何刪節，這是之後的四庫全書無法相提並論的 。根據記載，明朝年間僅有明孝宗和明世宗二帝閱《大典》。此外，明成祖並未將《永樂大典》複寫刊刻，且決定只製作一份抄本，並于永樂八年（1410年）告一段落。

永樂二十二年（1424年），明成祖親征韃靼阿魯台，班師途中于榆木川病故，其長子朱高熾即位，即明仁宗，年號洪熙。明仁宗年齡已經偏高，即位僅一年就駕崩。明仁宗駕崩後長子朱瞻基即位，是為明宣宗，年號宣德。他基本繼承父親的路線，實行德政治國，收縮兵力，放棄安南，並且發起最後一次下西洋。另一方面，明宣宗也延續祖父政策，親自率軍出喜峰口打擊兀良哈三衛，維持了這一部蒙古人在宣德年間的穩定。明宣宗同樣熱愛美術，有畫作傳世。但是，其執政期間也並非毫無弊端。由於明宣宗喜好養蟋蟀，許多官吏因此競相拍馬，被稱為「促織天子」。同時，明宣宗打破明太祖留下的宦官不得幹政的規矩，開始教宦官讀書，並開始任用宦官，為明英宗時期的太監專權埋下隱患。雖然有此問題，但仍不失為明君，他與他父親統治時期被稱為仁宣之治。宣德十年（1435年）明宣宗去世，九歲的朱祁鎮繼位，即明英宗，年號正統。

土木堡之變與奪門之變

明英宗自小寵信服侍左右的宦官王振，自此開始明朝的宦官嚴重專權。正統七年（1442年）限制王振權勢的張太皇太后去世，當時明英宗僅十五歲，王振更加攬權。元老重臣「三楊」死後，王振專橫跋扈，將明太祖留下的禁止宦官幹政的敕命鐵牌撤下，舉朝稱其為「翁父」，明英宗對他信任有加。王振擅權七年，家產計有金銀六十餘庫，其受賄程度可想而知。

正統十四年（1449年），瓦剌首領也先率軍南下伐明。王振聳使明英宗領兵二十萬御駕親征。大軍離燕京後，兵士乏糧勞頓。八月初大軍才至大同。王振得報前線各路潰敗，懼不敢戰，又令返回。回師至土木堡（今日河北省懷來縣），八月十五日，也先假意求和，在王振的命令下全軍撤出原有壕溝，被瓦剌軍追上，士兵死傷過半，隨從大臣有五十餘人陣亡。三大營幾乎全軍覆沒，明英宗突圍不成被俘，王振為將軍樊忠所怒殺，史稱土木堡之變。

土木堡之變的消息來到北京後，朝中混亂。一些大臣要求遷都南京應天府，被兵部侍郎于謙駁斥。同年，大臣擁戴明英宗弟朱祁鈺即位，以求長君，即明景帝（又稱明代宗），年號景泰。于謙升兵部尚書，整頓邊防積極備戰，同時決定堅守北京，隨後京師、南京、河南、山東等地勤王部隊陸續趕到。同年十月，瓦剌軍直逼北京城下，也先安置明英宗於德勝門外土關。于謙率領各路明軍奮勇抗擊，屢次大破瓦剌軍，也先率軍撤退。明朝取得北京保衛戰的勝利，于謙力排眾議，加緊鞏固國防，拒絕求和，並於次年擊退瓦剌多次侵犯。

景泰元年（1450年），也先認為綁架明英宗已無意義，釋放了他。然而明景帝因為皇權問題，不願意接受明英宗，先是不願遣使迎駕，又把明英宗困於南宮（今南池子）軟禁，並廢皇太子朱見深（即後來的明憲宗）為沂王，立自己的獨子朱見濟為太子。不久見濟病死，沒有兒子的景帝也遲遲不肯再立朱見深為太子。景泰八年（1457年），石亨、徐有貞等在景帝重病之際發動兵變，擁戴明英宗復闢，史稱奪門之變。徐有貞率軍攻入紫禁城，石亨等人占領東華門，禁錮了景帝，立明英宗於奉天殿，改元天順。明英宗復闢後，略有新政，廢除自明太祖時殘酷的殉葬制度。之後因為內部政變流放徐有貞，因為曹石之變誅殺石亨、曹吉祥等人，並且以李賢等賢臣掌政。

憲孝中興與武宗荒嬉

天順八年（1464年）明英宗過世，兒子朱見深即位，即明憲宗，年號成化。明憲宗為于謙冤昭雪，恢復景帝的帝號，平反了奪門一案統治上，憲宗前期頗能體諒民情，勵精圖治，儼然為一代明君。琉球、哈密、暹羅、土魯番、撒馬兒罕等國紛紛入貢。憲宗更任用王越成功驅逐了占據河套的蒙古部落，一度收複河套。憲宗北征女真，取得成績。

然而憲宗口吃內向，因此很少廷見大臣後期逐漸庸碌無為，史稱「是時帝怠於政，大臣希得見，萬安同在閣，結中戚貴畹，上下壅隔」。他終日專寵萬貴妃，寵信宦官汪直、梁芳等人，晚年好方術。以至奸佞當權，西廠橫恣，盜竊威柄。明憲宗直接頒詔封官，是為傳奉官。這使得傳奉官氾濫，舞弊成風，直到明孝宗才全被裁撤。他也是皇莊的始置者。該舉措事實上鼓勵豪強門閥兼併土地，危害不淺。宦官汪直受到明憲宗的寵信，透過西廠張狂跋扈。不久後由於民憤四起，西廠被罷，但汪直依然握有大權。直到成化十八年（1482年）汪直因言官彈劾才被貶。

成化二十三年（1487年）明憲宗去世，其子朱祐樘繼位，即明孝宗，年號弘治。其在位期間政治清明，使得自明英宗以來的陋習得以去除，被譽為「中興之令主」，宣德以下僅見。明孝宗先是將明憲宗時期留下的一批奸佞冗官盡數罷去，逮捕治罪。並選賢舉能，任用王恕、馬文升、劉大夏、李東陽等人，將能臣委以重任。孝宗勤於政事，每日兩次視朝，廣開言路，對批評他亦虛心接納。明孝宗對宦官嚴加節制，錦衣衛與東廠也謹慎行事，用刑寬鬆。明孝宗力行節儉，不大興土木，減免稅賦。

弘治十八年（1505年）明孝宗去世，其子朱厚照即位，是為明武宗，年號正德。即位不久，便信任劉瑾、谷大用等宦官（八虎），和他們一起戲玩作樂，不管政事，朝中大事皆由劉瑾自決。朝中雖有大臣上言「八虎」罔上誣下，也被革職。正德五年，劉瑾被武宗處以極刑。但武宗未改其聲色犬馬。他頻頻出巡，正德十四年（1519年）寧王朱宸濠叛亂，明武宗假藉出征江西寧王朱宸濠為由而南下遊玩，至次年七月才到南京，親自俘虜已被王守仁擊敗的寧王。

明武宗的荒游逸樂導致正德年間戰事頻生。正德一朝先後發生韃靼達延汗（明史稱韃靼小王子）進犯、寧夏安化王朱寘鐇謀反、山東劉六劉七起義、江西寧王朱宸濠謀反等重大事件。武宗班師回京途中，於南直隸清江浦（今江蘇淮安）泛舟取樂時落水染病，正德十六年（1521年），明武宗於豹房駕崩。

大禮議與張居正改革

武宗無子，明孝宗之侄興獻王朱祐杬之子朱厚熜入嗣大統，是為明世宗，年號嘉靖。登基前後，因時任內閣首輔楊廷和、禮部尚書毛澄等護禮派引宋濮安事強令明世宗尊親生父母為皇叔父母，引起明世宗的反感，是為大禮議之爭。最終明世宗在張璁等議禮派支持下，得以尊父母為皇帝與皇后、立太廟在明武宗之上。反對者多被罷官或被下詔入獄。

在嘉靖初年，明世宗實行了自己的政治抱負，清除宿弊，史稱「嘉靖中興」。明人霍與瑕曾評論：「嘉靖初政，自洪武、永樂以後，百年僅見」。但即位不久之後，世宗對政事便開始荒怠，他迷信方士，在宮中日夜做法。當時大臣能否進用，都視乎能否寫青詞，夏言、嚴嵩、徐階都以善撰青詞得寵。嘉靖二十一年（1542年）十月，楊金英等十六名宮女趁明世宗熟睡之際企圖將其勒死，但未成功，此即壬寅宮變。此事後，直至明世宗駕崩前一晚，明世宗遷出大內，移居西內，與大臣隔絕，政事依靠首輔處理。明世宗寵信權臣嚴嵩，他任首輔十四年間，排斥異己，結黨營私。其子嚴世蕃協助其父作惡。朝臣雖然不斷有人彈劾嚴嵩結黨營私，但均以失敗告終。嘉靖四十四年（1565年），嚴世蕃被充軍、嚴嵩被勒令致仕。嘉靖一朝，國家外患不斷。北方韃靼趁明朝衰弱而佔據河套，東南沿海則有倭寇，時人有「北虜南倭」之稱。

嘉靖四十五年（1566年），明世宗駕崩，皇太子朱載坖即位，即明穆宗，年號隆慶。明穆宗在任內整肅吏治，施行了一些「安民生，足國用」的措施，史稱隆慶新政。穆宗中後期，他日漸怠於政司，熱衷於玩樂。隆慶六年（1572年），明穆宗因中風突然駕崩，年僅九歲的皇太子朱翊鈞繼位，即明神宗，年號萬曆。

由於明神宗年幼，於是由太后攝政。重臣高拱由於與太后信任的宦官馮保對抗而被罷官；相反的，張居正得到馮保的鼎力支持，推行政治和經濟改革。其任首輔其間，他創立了「考成法」以考核官吏的政績。經濟方面，他注意清理逋欠田賦，清丈全國的田地。萬曆九年，他在全國推行一條鞭法，將賦役以及土貢方物等雜徵合為一項，一律徵銀，並按人丁和田畝分攤，減少了行政手續。另外，他重用名將李成梁、戚繼光等，鎮守北部邊防，「邊境晏然」。

明朝內閣原則上只是協助皇帝的輔政機構，並沒有執政的能力，張居正的改革是依靠掌握吏部和都察院而展開的。在其反對者來說，張居正是在越權。萬曆五年（1577年），按儒家倫理他需要丁憂，但張居正以為改革事業未竟，不願丁憂。他的政敵藉此大做文章，此即為奪情之爭。張居正雖得到神宗的支持，被奪情起復（免於在家守孝），但其品行評價也因此大打折扣。萬曆十年（1582年），張居正病逝，其政治盟友馮保不久後也被清算。朝臣得知神宗的心意，開始彈劾張居正，張居正被抄家。改制漸漸回覆原狀。

萬曆怠政

張居正死後，明神宗親政。他初期尚能勤于政事，但很快對政務不多關心，連輔弼大臣也不願接見。申時行任首輔九年，只被召對三次。他不視朝聽政、不批答奏章，官缺不補，朝廷事實上在癱瘓或半癱瘓的狀態。同時，他為了聚斂財富，派遣宦官開礦榷稅。礦監稅使實際上是向百姓敲詐勒索，同時傷害了地方政府的稅源。在萬曆中後期，發生了三十多起反對礦監稅使的民變，有臨清民變、武昌民變、蘇州民變等。

由於朝政混亂，部分中下階官吏在政治上受到排斥，紛紛要求政治改革，並強調道德標準。萬曆二十一年（1593年）癸巳京察促成東林黨的形成。主持京察的孫鑨、李世達和趙南星，利用京察將不符他們標準和不屬于東林黨的官吏降職解僱。經過多次京察後，引起眾多反對黨如宣黨、崑黨、齊黨、浙黨等興起並與東林黨互相傾軋。自此門戶之禍堅固而不可拔，圖使朝政空轉內耗。

在對外軍事方面，以萬曆三大征最為顯著，分別為平定蒙古哱拜叛變的寧夏之役、抗擊日本豐臣政權入侵朝鮮王朝的朝鮮之役，以及平定苗疆土司楊應龍叛變的播州之役，這三場戰爭幾乎同時發生，其性質均不相同。明朝於三戰皆勝以鞏固明朝邊疆、守護朝鮮王朝，但也消耗大量人力物力，成為國庫空虛、財政拮据的重要原因之一。粗略統計出這八年間國家的軍事開支高達一千一百六十餘萬兩白銀。萬曆四十五年（1617年）後金努爾哈赤以「七大恨」為由反明，兩年後在薩爾滸之戰中大敗明軍，明朝至此對後金改以防禦為主的策略。

神宗有二子，長子朱常洛，由宮女王氏所生；三子朱常洵，由神宗寵愛的鄭貴妃生。明神宗偏愛皇三子朱常洵，不願立皇長子朱常洛為太子，多次拖延。萬曆二十九年（1601年）在皇太后的強迫下，朱常洛才被封為太子，是為「國本之爭」，東林黨和反對東林黨的借「國本」問題互相攻擊，相互逐罷。萬曆四十八年（1620年），朱常洛登基，任一個月後，服李可灼的紅丸而猝死，史稱「紅丸案」。

滅亡

明熹宗朱由校由於幼年喪母，對乳母客氏有特殊感情，近侍魏忠賢則從小就照顧朱由校，故而熹宗即位之後，二人以日漸得勢。天啟早期，熹宗大量啟用東林黨人，然而自天啟四年（1624年）魏忠賢出任東廠提督後，東林黨的勢力日減，閹黨勢力日增。魏忠賢氣焰最為囂張之時，被稱為「九千歲」。魏忠賢大肆打擊和殺害東林黨人，拆毀東林書院，並偽造《東林黨點將錄》上報朝廷。魏忠賢專政後，朝廷財政虧空越加嚴重，九邊邊鎮的拖欠軍餉情況嚴重惡化，例如陝西就積欠軍餉高達二十七個月，其餘各鎮拖延幾個月以至十數個月軍餉的情況比比皆是，地方也廣泛出現「百姓流亡，盜賊充斥」、「旱蝗肆虐，飢饉相望」的情況。天啟七年（1627年）明熹宗去世，其五弟信王朱由檢繼位，年號崇禎。

崇禎帝即位後，剷除了魏忠賢、客氏等人，依附魏忠賢的都被貶黜或處死，並重新提拔了東林黨人。在崇禎元年起，嚴寒、乾旱、饑荒、蝗災、地震、鼠疫等天災頻頻出現。1627年至1641年間，黃河流域出現連續14年的嚴重乾旱，災情蔓延至整個長江以北地區，崇禎十三年（1640年）就有123個縣出現人相食的情況，是近500年以來最嚴重的，當時出現普遍糧食歉收，食物供應縮減，社會的商品交易停止。天災以外，天啟末年以來朝廷在魏忠賢亂政下出現了「兵窮、餉窮、民窮、財窮」的困境，財政虧空也十分巨大，社會危機日益加劇。崇禎帝雖然為人節儉，勵精圖治，然而明朝大勢已傾，積弊難挽，且其性格多疑而躁刻，果於屠戮大臣，信用宦官，不善用人，其統治期間，內閣大學士換了五十人。在崇禎一朝，閹黨和東林黨爭議不斷，東林黨人本身亦走向腐化，放棄了他們的改革主張，「朝廷之上，玄黃互戰，不講固境恢圉之術，而但務於口鋒舌劍」。此外，後金政權也屢屢入境殺掠，並在松錦之戰重挫明軍主力，使得明朝元氣日衰。

自天啟七年（1627年），陝西大饑，王二殺知縣張斗耀，展開了起義（見王二起義、明末民變）。其後，府谷王嘉胤、漢南王大梁、安塞高迎祥相繼起義。崇禎三年（1630年），張獻忠起兵延安，號「八大王」。面對農民軍起義，明政府先是以楊鶴為三邊總督，主要「以撫為主」，後以洪承疇為總督，以「進剿為主」，但都告失敗；期間明廷又陸續設立三餉，使得民心更加背離。崇禎十四年（1641年），李自成攻克洛陽。崇禎十七年（1644年），建立「大順」，改元永昌，三月十九日攻克北京。崇禎帝在煤山自縊，明亡。明朝滅亡後，明宗室先後建立了一些地區式政權，主要勢力有：福王弘光帝朱由崧、魯王監國朱以海、唐王隆武帝朱聿鍵與紹武帝朱聿、桂王永曆帝朱由榔等，史稱南明。永曆十五年十二月初三（1662年1月22日），永曆帝被俘，不久，在昆明被吳三桂殺害，南明滅亡。1683年，在臺灣的延平郡王鄭克塽降清，清軍佔領臺灣島西南部和澎湖群島，寧靖王朱術桂自殺殉國，標誌著明朝最後一個殘存政權的覆滅。

政治

明初的恐怖政治

明初政權的維持是基于血腥屠殺和酷刑暴行的恐怖政治。

明初多酷刑，黥刺剕劓閹割僅算是平常，嚴重者凌遲。《太祖實錄》有言，凡凌遲者，要殺三千三百五十七刀，每十刀一歇一吆喝使被殺之人受盡折磨與痛苦。以致朝官上朝前，與妻子訣別，交代後事，若是活著回家，便相互慶祝以示多活一天。

明朝初年，有御史戴著鐐銬審理案件的，挨了八十大棍而回衙門做官者亦有之。明初四大案被殺之人合計約有十二萬人，「大戮官民不分臧否」。

在鞭笞、剝皮、抽筋、抄家滅族的恐怖氛圍中，凡為官者，無論大小官吏，亦是遠官近臣，均可能遭受不測之災禍。辭官回鄉則犯皇帝之忌諱，被斥責為不想為朝廷辦事，是「奸貪無福小人，故行誹謗，皆說朝廷官難做」，是為大不敬，須殺之。

內閣制度

洪武十三年（1380年），明太祖以丞相胡惟庸謀反伏誅，於是廢去中書省和丞相一職。秦、漢以來實行一千六百餘年的宰相制度自此廢除，六部直接向皇帝負責，相權與君權合而為一，大權獨攬，施行軍權、行政權、監察權三權分立的國家體制。由於國家事務繁多，皇帝無法處理，而明太祖也一度深感疲憊，於是設立四輔制度來輔佐政事。但這項制度效能不彰。洪武十七年（1384年）後被廢。之後朱元璋請來幾位翰林學士幫忙輔佐，這些翰林學士的官職效仿唐宋館閣學士舊制，被命為「某某殿（閣）大學士」，官階只有正五品。明成祖登基後，特派解縉、胡廣、楊榮等入午門值文淵閣，參預機務，由此始設內閣。

內閣最初只是皇帝的諮詢機構，相當於今日秘書或幕僚的職務，奏章的批答為皇帝的專責。到後來成為明朝實際上最高決策機構，首輔地位有時可比丞相，有票擬及封駁之權。明朝內閣由始至終都不是明朝中樞的正式行政機構，所謂內閣只是文淵閣的別稱。內閣大學士一職多以碩德宿儒或朝中重臣擔任，只有有實無名之地位，而沒有法定地位。宣宗時期，由於楊溥、楊士奇、楊榮等三楊入閣，宣宗批准內閣在奏章上以條旨陳述己見，稱為「票擬」制度，又授予宦官機構司禮監「批紅」。票擬之法補救可君主不願面見閣臣之弊，但內閣大臣與皇帝溝通，全賴司禮監（宦官）。由是開啟明朝宦官專政之大門。

六部

胡惟庸案之後，朱元璋廢丞相之職，取消中書省，升六部為正二品部門，直接對皇帝負責。六部以吏、戶、兵三部或因權重，或因事繁，稱為「上三部」，在禮、刑、工部之上。六部各設尚書一人，左右侍郎一人。下有清吏司，所屬清吏司各設郎中一人、員外郎一人，主事一人（事務較繁者增設一人）。各部機構設置及職責分工如下：

• 吏部：負責全國官吏的選授、封勛、考課等政令。下有文選、驗封、稽勛、考功四清吏司。

• 戶部：負責管理全國戶口、田賦，俸餉及一切財政事宜。事務最為繁重。最初只有五個屬部。洪武二十三年（1390年），為了減輕工作負擔，設十二清吏司，和十二布政司相對應。其後隨布政司建立所變更，宣德時定為十三個清吏司。

• 禮部：負責典禮事務與學校科舉之事。下有儀制（掌嘉禮、軍禮及科舉、學校事務）、祠祭（掌祀典及天文、國恤、廟諱）、主客（掌賓禮和外國朝貢事務）、精膳（掌宴饗、品料、酒膳等事務）四個清吏司。

• 兵部：負責全國軍事，掌全國軍衛，武官選授。下有武選（掌軍官和士官選授、升調）、職方（掌輿圖、軍制、城隍、鎮戍、簡練、征討）、車駕（掌鹵簿、儀仗、禁衛、驛傳、廄牧）、武庫（掌兵籍、兵器）四清吏司。

• 刑部：負責管理全國刑罰政令和審核刑名之事。和戶部一樣，清吏司的數目和布政司對應。

• 工部：負責管理全國工程事務。下有營繕（掌經營興作之事）、虞衡（掌山澤採捕和陶冶之事）、都水（掌估銷工程力役、費用之事）、屯田（掌屯種、抽分、薪炭、夫役、陵墓之事）四清吏司，和寶源局、抽分局等機構。

司法制度

明代法規有律、誥、例、令等。明朝的刑律主要是《大明律》30卷。相較《唐律》為簡核，但不如《宋律》寬厚。《大明律》為適應形勢的發展，變通了體例，調整了刑名，肯定了明初人身地位的變化，注重了經濟立法，在體例上表現了各部門法的相對獨立性，並擴大了民法的範圍，結合「禮」和「法」。明太祖留下祖訓，不得更改《大明律》一字，因此後代皇帝都以條例以補不足，主要有弘治朝的《問刑條例》。

皇帝有最高最大的司法權力，其下有三法司。三法司即刑部、都察院、大理寺。刑部負責受理天下上訴案件，審核地方的要案以及中央百官的案件。其下有十三清吏司分治各省案件。大理寺則負責審核案件，都察院則負責監察刑部的審理和大理寺的覆核。假如有重大案件，則由三法司共同審理，由皇帝判斷。各府州有按察司，負責審理各府州的案件。

監察制度

都察院是國家最高監察機關。都察院下面設立監察御史若干人，分巡全國各省，稱為十二道監察御史。每道有監察御史三至五人，範圍大體為一省。但監察御史都駐在京師，有事帶印出巡，事畢回京繳印。到明末，監察御史分為十三道，共有一百一十人。都察院與六科同樣具有諫官的職能和風聞言事的職責，故合稱「科道言官」。

戶口制度

人口普查方面，洪武三年（1370年），明太祖命戶部制訂戶籍、戶帖（登記人口田產的帖子），統計全國人口，這是明朝第一次比較全面的人口普查。洪武十四年（1381年），明太祖「以賦役不均，命戶部編賦役黃冊」。規定每里（110戶）編為一冊，冊前有一總圖，記錄稅糧戶口之類。鰥寡孤獨不服徭役者，則帶管於一百一十戶之外，列於圖後，稱為「畸零」。冊子一式四份，一份送戶部，三份分別保在於司（省）、府、縣。賦役黃冊每十年編造一次。賦役黃冊可以使戶部得知人口的變遷，也使賦役負擔盡可能合理。明中期後，黃冊制度敗壞，只是徒具形式。

在《明實錄》中，戶口統計數字計有136次，但這些人口統計有「有頭無尾、人口減少、變化無常、連年照抄」的問題，缺乏可信度。若據《明實錄》等史料的說法，明朝的戶口是越來越少的，大多都低於洪武一朝的數字，但實際上明朝大體而言沒有出現大規模的戰爭，社會秩序平靜，按理而言是上升的。對於明代人口數字學者有不同的看法。據何炳棣的研究，在十四世紀後期，明朝的人口大約有6,500萬。1600年（萬曆二十八年），約有1.5億人口左右（數字只包括兩京十三省）。明朝中期後，全國範圍內的男女性別比曾一度達到 1.5:1，有些地區甚至到了 3:1 的地步。有明一朝普遍存在男女比例失衡的問題。

地區行政

明朝初期沿元制，地方設行中書省。後因行省權力過大，一分為三，設都、布、按三司。都指揮使司（簡稱都司）掌地區軍事，布政使司（簡稱布政司）掌行政、按察使司（簡稱按察司）掌司法，三人合管一省事務。其下有直隸州、府、縣（見圖）。洪武一朝對於府、州、縣有較大規模調整之後，除永樂年間設置貴州布政司、交阯布政司外，終明一代，變化並不大。至明末崇禎十三年（1640年），明朝一共有162府（含軍民府）、255州（含直隸州、屬州、土州）、1173縣。

都指揮使司，掌軍事事務。都司一級包括了都司、行都司、留守司。洪武十三年，有13個都司，2個行都司；二十六年增至15年都司，3個行都司；正德四年，增至16個都司，5個行都司。

布政使司，掌行政事務。洪武九年，改浙江、江西等十二行省為承宣布政使司，廢行省平章政事等官，改參知政事為布政使。至宣德初年，全國設十三布政使司，為陝西、山西、山東、河南、浙江、江西、湖廣、四川、廣東、福建、廣西、貴州、雲南。較元代行省而言，劃界上較為考慮「山川形便」的原則。

明朝實行一省分置都、布、按三司的制度，原為防止地方權力集中，不過在實際使用中體現出一定的不便。永樂年間，明成祖為了加強對地方的控制，先後設立鎮守總兵、巡撫都御史、鎮守中官，成為三司之上的三堂制度。宣德以後，開始派部（六部）、院（都察院）大臣以總督和巡撫的名義督撫地方行政，景泰朝之後基本成為各省常制，隨著鎮守總兵地位下降，鎮守中官逐步召回，巡撫最終凌駕于「三司」之上成為一省甚至跨省的最高長官。還有同時兼任巡撫與總督的情況，稱督撫。此外，還有以監察御史為巡按，任監察之職。

其中，總督主要署理軍務，分短期與長期兩種。巡撫主理民政，每省皆有，有的一巡撫轄兩布政使地，如正統年間的山西河南巡撫。有的一省一巡撫。有的一省幾巡撫。如北直隸有順天巡撫（駐今遵化市）、保定巡撫（駐真定，今河北省正定縣）、宣府巡撫（駐宣府鎮，今河北宣化，一度兼領山西大同府）三巡撫；南直隸有兩巡撫：應天巡撫（駐蘇州府，今江蘇蘇州）、鳳陽巡撫（駐淮安府，今江蘇淮安楚州）。有的在幾省交界處設置一巡撫，如南贛韶汀巡撫就越江西、廣東、福建三省。

巡撫制度在明朝是約定俗成逐漸發展起來的，至今歷史學界甚至仍有對于其起源和發展等有一些爭議，不過這一制度在之後的清朝被正式保留並大大發展，成為標準建制。

對外關係

明太祖開創了明代對外交往的方針：「海外蠻夷之國，有為患於中國者，不可不討；不為中國患者，不可輒自興兵。古人有言，地廣非久安之計，民勞乃易亂之源……得其地不足以供給，得其民不足以使令，徒慕虛名，自弊中土，載諸史冊，為後世譏。朕以諸蠻夷小國阻山越海，僻在一隅。彼不為中國患者，朕決不伐之。惟西北胡戎，世為中國患，不可不謹備之耳」。

與女真

洪武四年（1371年），元遼陽行中書省劉益降明，置遼東衛。洪武二十年（1385年），納哈出降明，女真各部「悉境歸附」。永樂七年（1409年），設奴兒幹都司以管理東北地區，下設一百八十四個衛，二十多個所，至永樂九年（1411年）正式設立。萬曆十一年（1583年），建州左衛指揮使努爾哈赤的祖父覺昌安，和父親塔克世被明軍誤殺。努爾哈赤以祖父、父親遺甲，統一女真各部。萬曆四十四年（1616年），宣布獨立，建國「後金」。

萬曆四十六年（1618年），努爾哈赤以「七大恨」告天，為祖、父報仇，開始伐明，攻陷撫順。楊鎬率明軍分作數路進攻後金，為努爾哈赤所敗，為薩爾滸之戰。明朝陣亡將士四萬五千有餘，損失馬騾駝二萬，自始明朝對後金不得不由進攻進入防禦。明廷改用熊廷弼守遼東，他「督軍士造戰車，治火器，濬濠繕城，為守御計，令嚴法行，數月守備大固」，後金不敢侵犯。

熹宗即位後不到一個月，即罷免熊廷弼，改任袁應泰。袁應泰為淅黨信賴，為人精敏強毅，但「用兵非所長」。他一改熊廷弼守御的方策，打算進攻後金。次年三月，即天啟元年（1621年），後金攻陷瀋陽，袁應泰自縊，熹宗重新起用熊廷弼。二年（1622年），廣寧失守，孫承宗任遼東督師，法度嚴明，後金一時不敢西進。天啟五年，孫承宗被撤職，改由閹黨高第經略遼東。次年，努爾哈赤再次攻明，高第率兵退回關內。袁崇煥以二萬軍隊抗擊後金五、六萬人，以少勝多，取得寧遠大捷。

祟禎二年（1629年），皇太極繞道蒙古攻明，袁崇煥率兵來援，成功保衛北京。崇禎三年（1630年），經過半年多的審判，袁崇煥被以「通虜謀叛」、「擅主和議」、「專戮大帥」的罪名遭判凌遲，死於北京甘石橋，並流放其妻妾、子女及兄弟等人兩千里，其餘不予究問。崇禎帝中皇太極的反間計，袁崇煥被殺（己巳之變），「自崇煥死，邊事益無人，明亡徵決矣」。不久皇太極在盛京稱帝改國號為大清，並且五次經長城入侵明朝直隸、山東等地區（清兵入塞）。當時直隸連年災荒疫疾，民不聊生。遼西局勢亦日益惡化，清軍多次與明軍作戰，最後於崇禎十五年（1642年）佔領錦州等地，明軍主力洪承疇等人投降，明朝勢力退縮至山海關。自此明軍再無力和清朝對抗。

與西藏

洪武二年（1369年），明朝首次派遣官員「持詔諭吐蕃」。明太祖遣使冊封帕木竹巴王朝僧俗為官，並賜印。洪武三年（1370年）徐達在定西之戰擊敗擴廓帖木兒，明太祖在次年設立朵甘衛指揮使司，開始管理藏區。洪武五年（1372年），明太祖後承認帕木竹巴政權第二位第悉釋迦堅贊「灌頂國師」頭銜，次年，釋迦堅贊遣使朝貢，雙方建立起使節往還制度。洪武六年（1373年）二月，明太祖設立烏思藏、朵甘衛指揮使司，洪武七年（1374年）改為烏思藏、朵甘行都指揮使司，後來烏思藏行都指揮使司再改為烏思藏都指揮使司。中國大陸學者的主張認為，洪武二十一年（1388年）明太祖參與批准了帕木竹巴政權第悉的更替，強化了明朝對藏區的控制。

明成祖即位之後，于永樂四年（1406年）三月冊封帕木竹巴政權第五位第悉扎巴堅贊為「闡化王」，改變了元朝獨尊薩迦的制度，尊崇各派，對於各地藏傳佛教宗教首領都各有封號，陸續冊封噶舉派領袖哈立麻為大寶法王，格魯派釋迦也失為大國師，宣德年間進一步冊封為大慈法王，薩迦派領袖昆澤思巴為大乘法王，加上贊善王、護教王、闡教王、輔教王，最終構成明朝在藏區構建的三大法王、五大教王制度。仁蚌巴崛起後，帕木竹巴時期的僧官徒具虛名，明世宗嘉靖年間這一制度最終解體。

西藏與漢地的經濟交易頻繁，明朝廷先後在秦州（今甘肅天水）、洮州（今甘肅臨潭）等地設茶馬司管理互市貿易。

與東亞國家

與朝鮮

洪武三年（1370年），明太祖遺使持金印封文誥，封王顓為高麗國王，確立兩國宗藩關係。洪武七年（1374年），高麗恭愍王被弒，兩國關係惡化。洪武二十五年（1392年），李成桂接受高麗恭讓王禪讓，建立朝鮮王朝，明太祖雖然根據其意願賜予「朝鮮」為其新國號，但始終不予正式冊封，兩國還發生兩次表箋風波，關係緊張，朝鮮國內甚至出現征伐遼東的思潮。洪武三十一年（1398年），李芳果在其弟李芳遠發動第一次王子之亂後獲得建文帝冊封。其後李芳遠發動第二次王子之亂即位後，仍舊在建文三年（1401年）獲得建文帝冊封。明成祖取得靖難之役勝利後，于永樂元年（1403年）二月重新冊封李芳遠為朝鮮國王，兩國關係由此進入穩定的宗藩關係。

豐臣秀吉統一日本後，意欲佔領朝鮮。萬曆二十年（1592年），日本進攻朝鮮，朝鮮國王逃到義州並派使節向明朝求救。明朝派軍救援，收複平壤，後一度受挫于碧蹄館，漢城收複後，中日進行和談，但隨著兩國封貢失敗，萬曆廿五年（1597年）後，日本再次進攻朝鮮，雙方在朝鮮半島南部多次交戰，戰爭進入殭局狀態。萬曆二十六年，豐臣秀吉逝世，日本軍心動搖，結果撤軍，明、朝聯軍通過露梁海戰最終收複全部國土。此即為萬曆朝鮮之役，朝鮮稱為壬辰衛國戰爭。天啟七年（1627年，天聰元年）皇太極攻打朝鮮，朝鮮政府被迫簽訂「江都和約」，朝鮮同明朝的關係中斷。

與日本

洪武年間，因為沿海多有倭寇，方、張餘部多和倭寇勾結。再加上當時日本分裂為南北二朝，明太祖雖有派人與日本修好，但南朝的懷良親王已自顧不暇，對明廷態度冷淡。至永樂年間，明成祖遺使和幕府足利義滿修好，足利義滿接受明成祖冊封為「日本國王」，兩國使節頻繁來往，兩國展開了勘合貿易（見明日貿易），至永樂九年（1411年）為止。宣德年間，勘合貿易再開。名義上來說，勘合是由幕府支配的，但不久後便落入大內氏、細川氏二個大名之中，他們又交由商人控制。在經濟上，明廷難以得益，只是希望以此維護沿海安定。至嘉靖年間，經濟出現危機，便難以維持勘合貿易。嘉靖二年（日大永三年，1523年），大內氏和細川氏因勘合符效力之辯的問題，發生寧波之亂，朝延便不再發新的勘合，又加上沿海多有倭亂，貿易因此中止。隆慶開關之後，兩國的貿易轉為以民間貿易為主。

與內亞諸鄰國

與蒙古的關係。明前期，退居塞外的北元政權伺機南下擾明，企圖東山再起，成為明朝的心腹之患。在明初武功強盛時，一度將其驅至漠北，蒙古勢力大減，內亂分裂為韃靼、瓦剌等部，明朝稱之為「北虜」。永樂遷都之後，「明朝以北京為中心，以九鎮為重要軍防點，以衛所等為網絡，以長城為屏障和陣地，形成北部的嚴密防綫」。正統年間，瓦剌部崛起，多次進攻明朝（土木堡之變等）。成化六年（1471年）漠南蒙古各部佔據了河套地區。嘉靖二十九年（1550年），俺答舉兵南下，焚掠北京城外八天，史稱庚戌之變。隆慶初年，明朝的邊防有所增強。隆慶五年（1571年），在王祟吉、張居正等力排眾議下，俺答汗被封為順義王，兩地互市，經濟得以往來，史稱「俺答封貢」。其後的三娘子繼承和平的政策。數十年間明蒙之間邊境安寧和平。萬曆年間，俄羅斯使者伊萬·佩特林經過蒙古高原到達明朝，並獲得了萬曆皇帝的「國書」。

與帖木兒帝國的關係。洪武二十年（1387年），帖木兒首次遣使到明朝。在洪武永樂之間，明朝派遣陳誠等人出使西域，兩國發生磨擦。永樂二年（1404年），帖木兒領兵八十萬攻明。次年春，帖木兒中途病死，大軍返回。永樂年間，兩國又重新修好。據《明實錄》等書記載，自洪武年間至萬曆九年（1581年），帖木兒朝貢至明首都達五十餘次；洪武至天順年間，有十一次遣使撒馬兒罕，兩國關係良好。

與東南亞諸國

在明朝初期，琉球、暹羅、占城、爪哇諸國先後遣使入貢。永樂、宣德年間，鄭和七次出使西洋，到訪了多個東南亞國家，最遠到達了非洲的木骨都束（今索馬里摩加迪沙）、卜剌哇（今屬索馬里）、麻林（今肯尼亞馬林迪）等地，並建立了友好關係。鄭和下西洋的同時，許多外國使節也會乘鄭和的船來中國。如永樂十七年第五次下西洋時，便帶回了十七個國家和地區的貢使。此外，滿剌加、蘇祿、渤泥、古麻剌朗的國王也來明訪問。

與越南的關係。明初，朱元璋遺使安南國王，建立了宗藩關係。永樂四年（1406年），成祖命張輔、沐晟出擊安南，將安南納入明朝版圖，設立交趾布政司。宣德二年（1427年）放棄交趾，明朝冊封黎利為安南國王，史稱「後黎朝」。黎朝基本的制度取法明朝，大力提倡理學，專漢文為「聖賢之字」。黎灝一朝，曾侵擾廣西、雲南，但明朝採用姑息政策，只是加強邊備，沒有多加理會。嘉靖六年（1527年），莫登庸建立了莫朝，和黎氏對立。明朝處於中立的態度，「既不拒黎，亦不棄莫」。黎朝戰勝莫朝之後，明廷又授予黎氏安南都統使之銜。

與歐洲國家

與葡萄牙的關係。正德十二年（1517年），安特拉德和皮萊資等率船到達廣州，廣州官員沒有允許他們登岸。正德十六年（1521年），明軍和葡萄牙發生屯門海戰、西草灣之戰，葡萄牙戰敗。嘉靖三十二年（1553年），葡商託言晾曬貨物，請求在澳門定居，並向官員行賄，明朝見有利可圖，便沒有理會。

與荷蘭的關係。萬曆二十九年（1601年），荷蘭船隊到達澳門，請求貿易，未准，萬曆三十二年（1604年），他們在廣東一無所得，便轉向福建，佔領了澎湖約五個月左右，結果被明政府驅逐。

經濟

貨幣

洪武八年（1375年），開始實行鈔法。鈔法規定了「大明寶鈔」的印製、管理機構（寶鈔提舉司），定義了「大明寶鈔」的形態、防偽方式。明朝政府沒有為大明寶鈔設立保證金，發行數量沒有明確限額，發行的依據單純依靠政治力量。「大明寶鈔」主要依靠財政支出流向民間，但同時百姓不能以寶鈔向朝延兌換金銀。雖然明朝鈔法規定「每鈔四貫，易赤金一兩」，但鈔法定立之後很長時間都沒有辦法使用這個比價，寶鈔長期貶值。至成化年間，其價值大約只有原來規定的千分之一。至天順、成化年間，「大明寶鈔」在民間基本上不再使用。

為了推行鈔法，在明朝初期，明政府禁止民間使用金、銀，限制銅錢進行交易，「以鈔法不通，下令禁金銀交易，犯者准奸惡論」，但民間依然多有使用。至明中期，寶鈔貶值，金銀的禁令不能繼續保持，民間大多銀進行交易。此外尚有銅錢，但只是在小額交易時使用。

農業

明朝初期，由於多年的戰爭加上通貨膨脹，且前朝元惠宗為治水加重徭役，經濟近乎在崩潰的邊緣。為了恢復農業，明廷主要有移民墾荒和軍隊開荒兩項措施。移民墾荒大致是從「狹鄉」移入「寬鄉」，主要集中在內地「土曠人稀」的地方。軍隊開荒方面，主要集中在邊陲地區。在洪武初年，每年需要由南方運糧至遼東軍隊；至永樂一朝，已經自給自足而有餘。此兩項政策調整了全國農村人口和耕地布局，並增加了全國人口和耕地面積。

明政府重視水利建設，主要包括常年性的水利工程建設與維修、江南水患的治理和治黃（黃河）工程。在建文四年（1402年）至萬曆四十二年（1614年）間的210年，在《明實錄》記載75項較大的水利工程之中，南直隸地區佔44個，可見明政府對江南水利的重視。治黃主要的目的是為了保障大運河的漕運。在永樂一朝，政治中心北移，而經濟中心卻在南方，因此糧食都需要從南方運過來。成化七年，明廷置河道總督，專管黃、淮等河堤疏浚諸事。

在明朝，特別是明朝中後期，經濟作物的種植得到發展。政府推行了「折色」的稅收方式，可以改徵其他實物或銀錢以代替糧食作賦稅，鼓勵百姓不只裁種糧食作物。棉花在成化、弘治年間「其種已遍布於天下，地無南北皆宜之，人無貧富皆賴之」，農民摸索出種植棉花的新方法，提高了產量，棉花取代了絲、麻成為一般人紡織製衣的原料。其他經濟作物的種植都得到的快速的發展，如藍和紅花等染料作物、花生、胡麻等油料作物、甘蔗、茶樹、果樹、蔬菜、花卉等。煙草在萬曆年間引入中國，很快就推廣至全國栽種。糧食作物方面，慄米和番薯在明中後期傳入了中國，使旱地和山地得到利用，增加了全國糧食產量。

商業

明朝初期，政府的戶役制度、商稅制度、海禁政策等政策限制了商業發展，各地以自然經濟為主。正統至嘉靖年間，市場上的商品種類大增，流通的範圍擴大，出現了很多商業市鎮。據不完全統計，明朝的商稅由弘治時期共46180090貫升至嘉靖時期52068109貫，反映這時期商業的繁榮。嘉靖中期之後，隨絲織業、陶瓷業等手工業發展，商品生產領域擴大，貨品數量大增，農產品亦開始商業化。全國形成了若干個以產品著名的地區，貨品生產呈現分工的傾向，同時商品在各地區之間交流，乃至一些中小城市或者偏遠山區的貨品也相當齊全。如四川建昌衛（今四川西昌）也可以買到蘇州、杭州的絲綢。在此時，一些商人為了擴大資本，成了商幫，控制了某些地區、行業的商業貿易。

交通

明朝首先興建的是兩京與十三布政司之間的大道。為了鞏固北方邊防，以北京為中心，明政府共修建了11條道路。在永樂年間，為了鞏固在東北的管治，修建了以開原為中心的四條驛道和以海西為中心的兩條道路。明朝中期，隨商品經濟的發展，很多富民、商人為了商品流通、方便運輸，大量興修道路橋梁。整體而言，在各級官府和商民的努力下，形成了緊密的交通網。據黃汴《天下水陸路程》等統計，兩京至十三布政司，各布政司至各府，以及各省之間的水陸交通幹線二百有餘。

主要的交通道路有以下五條：

• 京杭大運河。元末明初，運河淤塞而使用海運。永樂九年，宋禮率軍民疏通大運河，歷時二十年而成。河道長1794公里，連通錢塘、長江、淮河、黃河五大水系。

• 江西至廣東的大道，走線為鄱陽湖→贛江→南安府大庾縣橫浦驛→梅關古道→南雄府保昌縣陵江驛→北江→廣州。當中橫浦至驛陵江驛一節為陸路，其他為水路。在明初期，此路只作「遞送官物」之用。至景泰年後，成為南北貨物交流最頻繁的商路。

• 北京至東北地區的大道，走線為北京→山海關→瀋陽→開原。貨品至開原之後，又轉至海西、朝鮮、奴爾幹都司等地。

• 長江水道，是明代最大的內河航行系統，四川的木材、藥材運銷江浙，長三角的絲織、布匹也依靠長江水運至其他地區。

• 由江浙地區出發，經揚州、汴梁、鄭州、洛陽、西安，接絲綢之路至新疆和中東。陝西商幫在這條商路非常活躍，將西域的皮毛、羊毛運至關中，加工後東運至東南沿海，又收購棉布、綢緞等貨品，兩頭賺錢。

社會

天災

明代正值小冰河時期，整體氣溫都較為寒冷。在明初，氣候寒冷，洪武二十七年至正統三年（1394至1438年）間，氣候回復正常，隨後的15年間又轉寒。景泰四年（1453年），山東至江西大帶下大雪，長江下游一帶「凍死人民無算」。寒潮至景泰七年（1456年）結束，其後氣溫較為波動，但整體以寒時較多，至嘉靖十年（1536年）為止，在此之後的三十多年間，明朝的氣溫都較為暖。萬曆五年（1577年），再次出現寒潮，寒冷的氣溫持續至明王朝結束，崇禎二年至十六年（1629至1643年）的氣溫更是史無前例地低。小冰河時期的出現被視為明朝滅亡的因素之一。

明朝一代氣候較為乾燥。在元末明初（1352至1374年）間，進入了乾燥期。在十五世紀的首二十五年間，氣候濕潤，但在1426年（宣德元年）便遭遇大乾旱。接下來的後七十五年，雖偶有濕潤期，但整體來說乾旱不斷。弘治十七年（1504年）至嘉靖二十三年（1544年），降雨量回復常態，但之後的天氣都異常乾燥，尤以嘉靖二十三年至二十五年（1544至1546年），萬曆十三年至十七年（1585至1589年），萬曆四十二至四十七年（1614年至1619年）為嚴重。

明朝發生了兩次較大規模的地震。嘉靖三十四年十二月二日（1556年1月23日），在渭河流域發生了一場大地震（嘉靖大地震），受災範圍達到250公里，震級約在里氏8級左右。萬曆三十二年十一月初九（1604年12月29日），在東南沿海發生了一次大地震（1604年泉州地震），破壞了泉州、漳州這兩個海上貿易中心。在月港，廬舍傾圮殆盡，但死亡人數不多。

明代的瘟疫主要集中在以下這些時期：永樂五年至九年（1407至1411年）、萬曆十五年至十六年（1587至1588年），明代最後的六年（1639至1641年、1643至1644年，明末大鼠疫）。後兩次的瘟疫都應為鼠疫，中國人口史家曹樹基認為，萬曆、崇禎兩次的鼠疫是因為中國農民在遷居蒙古草原的時候，侵犯了可能帶有鼠疫的長爪沙鼠而引致的。

教育

官方教育方面。明朝早中期最重要的教育機構也就是國子監，設有監規，規矩極嚴。在各府、州、縣、則有儒學，以行教化，育人材。學習書籍有《大明律》、《大誥三編》等進入仕途應讀的書籍，以及是《孟子節文》、《四書大全》、《五經大全》等儒學書籍。

民間教育方面，洪武八年（1375年），地方社學始建，屬於半官方的啟蒙學習機構，但成效不是很明顯。洪武十八年（1385年）起，明太祖不再提倡，正統、成化年間尚設，至弘治年間已沒有記載。另外有私塾和家館等，有錢人家延請老師教授子弟，以求出路。

科舉在明朝是正式的選拔官吏制度。科舉考試分為兩級，每三年舉行一次，稱為大比。科舉考試的內容主要是四書五經，考生必須用八股文做答。所謂股，即對偶之意。八股文萌芽於宋朝，形成於明成化以後。由於八股取士的制度，讀書人既不通經史，又不諳實際，嚴重束縛民眾智慧的進步。

宗教

明朝的宗教以佛教和道教為主。在明朝初期（洪武元年（1638年）至宣德十年（1435年）），諸帝雖然相信佛教、道教，制定了保護、提倡佛教、道教的政策，但同時也加以限制、整頓佛道二教。至明中期，當時的皇帝較為平庸，部份的皇帝（如武宗、世宗）過度祟奉宗教，因此明初的限制政策沒有很好執行。至明代後期，當時的統治者雖祟奉宗教，但沒有對佛道二教有過度的放縱，保持對宗教的限制政策。

明朝佛教。朱元璋登基之後，對於佛教多有整頓。他設置了僧司衙門，在京設立僧錄司，「掌天下增教事」，各府、州、縣分設僧綱、僧正、僧會等司，分掌其事。明太祖又將天下的寺院分作禪、講、教三類，要求他們各務本業，不得超越，並建了立度牒制度，限制出家人數。明世宗即位後，因為前代明武宗極度祟信佛教而朝綱弊壞，加上祟信道教，他對於佛教多有焚絕，史稱明世宗滅佛。此外，藏傳佛教、印度密教在漢地也多有傳播。

明朝道教。明太祖、明成祖都相信道教，明太祖甚至親自為《道德經》作注。由洪武至宣德數朝，皇帝都尊祟正一派首領，恩寵有加。至英宗、景泰二朝，開始出現過度祟道的現象。至明世宗一朝，對於道教極度祟奉，在宮中大設道教殿壇，並為自己和父母封道號，對善寫青詞的官員大為有賞。明政府於京師設道篆司，府置道正監，對道教實行監督和管制。

明朝伊斯蘭教。明朝對於伊斯蘭教的政策較為寬容，對於伊斯蘭教多有肯定，如明太祖有《至聖百字贊》，肯定了穆罕默德為「至貴聖人」。明朝政府修建了很多的清真寺，如南京淨覺寺、西安清修寺等，亦任命了很多信奉伊斯蘭教的官員。在明朝，伊斯蘭教向中小城市、鄉鎮發展，至明朝中期，內地絕大部份的一級行政單位，大部分的二級行政單位，約一半的三級行政單位都有穆斯林分佈。明朝中期後，實行海禁政策，伊斯蘭教的傳播基本停止了。

明朝天主教。最初，傳教士主要集中在澳門，並執行葡萄牙化的傳教方針。1562年，澳門天主教會已有教徒600餘人。耶穌會創始人方濟各·沙勿略打算到中國傳教，未得准，在上川島過世。他的過世引起了西方天主教會傳教的熱情，各修會派出了傳教士來華傳教。其後，范禮安指出應該要傳教士中國化，培養中國籍神父。此政策之下，天主教在中國的傳播得以開展。利馬竇在北京得了明神宗的好感，當時的官員多有受洗入教。萬曆四十四年（1616年），發生了南京教案，傳教工作一時受阻。1627年（天啟七年），全國有天主教徒1萬3千人。

此外，明朝尚有白蓮教、羅教、黃天教、聞香教、西大乘教、弘陽教等民間秘密宗教。

文化

哲學

哲學思想上，王陽明繼承陸九淵的「心學」並發揚光大，他的思想強調「致良知」及「知行合一」，並且肯定人的主體性地位，將「人」的主動性放在學說的重心。而王陽明的弟子王艮更進一部的強化此方面的論述，提出「百姓日用即道」，肯定平民百姓日常生活的意義。而李贄則更肯定「人慾」的價值，認為人的道德觀念系源自於對日常生活的需求，表現追求個體價值的思想。而隨著西學的傳入，科學精神與實學風尚也開始流行。明末之際，伴隨著朝代的更替與異族的入主，哲學家開始更多的思考現實問題與政治改良，如王船山、黃梨洲、顧亭林等。

而明代晚期書院的興盛，衝擊官學的地位。許多知識分子利用在書院講學之際藉機批評時政，例如曾講學於東林書院的顧憲成及高攀龍，就常諷刺時政，也使東林書院成為與當權派對抗的中心，進而造成東林黨爭。當時學者也會借用寺廟周邊的空地舉行「講會」，倡導新的思想價值與人生觀。

以顧炎武、黃宗羲、王夫之並為明末清初三大儒。顧炎武提倡「經學即理學」，提出以「實學」代替宋明理學，要學者直接研習六經。提倡「天下興亡，匹夫有責」（《日知錄》），著有《日知錄》、《音學五書》等。黃宗羲有「中國思想啟蒙之父」之譽稱，著有《明儒學案》、《宋元學案》，是中國學術史之祖。他保護陽明學，排斥宋明理學，力主誠意慎獨之說，蔚為浙東學派。王夫之強調實際行動是知識的基礎，認為歷史發展具有規律性，是「理勢相成」。其思想發展成船山學，後人編為《船山遺書》。

以民為天下之主的思想於明末清初亦有所流行，例如生活在明末又經歷清初時期的黃宗羲和顧炎武、王夫之提倡民權，所著的《明夷待訪錄》攻擊君主專制體制，提倡天下為主，君為客的觀點，倍受清末革命黨的推崇。部分學者認為黃宗羲的思想是近代民主主義的思想，有西方學者稱黃宗羲為「中國自由主義的先驅」。

史學

明代前期官修史籍多，後其私纂史籍較多。官修史籍方面，正史類有宋濂主編的《元史》二百十一卷，修纂時間較短，是二十四史最為草率的一部，保留了元代歷史的重要資料，在中國史學上價值巨大。《明實錄》和建文、景泰二帝的附錄雖多有曲諱，但引用了大量奏章、邸報等材料，保留了差不多整個明朝的歷史。會典類有正德《大明會典》和萬曆《大明會典》。

在明中期以後，統治者怠政，管理不嚴，私修史籍在正德時期成為一時風氣，至萬曆形成高潮。明代私撰書籍多集中於本朝史。紀傳體有鄭曉《吾學編》、何喬遠《名山藏》、鄧元錫《皇明書》、李贄《續藏書》和尹守衡《明史竊》等；編年體有薛應旂《憲章錄》、黃光昇《昭代典則》、陳建《皇明從信錄》和《皇明通紀輯要》、談遷《國榷》；紀事本末體有高岱《宏猷錄》；雜史類有王世貞《弇山堂別集》、朱國楨《皇明史概》；典制類有徐學聚《國朝典匯》、孫承澤《春明夢余錄》；筆記類的有葉盛《水東日記》、王錡《寓圃雜記》、何良俊《四友齋叢說》、謝肇淛《五雜俎》、沈德符《萬曆野獲編》等。明代學者對前代史研究也有成就，如張溥對《通鑑紀事本末》的論評，王夫之的《讀通鑑論》，馮琦和陳邦瞻的《宋史紀事本末》，陳邦瞻的《元史紀事本末》等。

明代一共修成各類方志計2892種，為宋、元方志總和之五倍，「天下藩郡州邑莫不有志」。明代方志的類型廣泛，有反映全國面貌的「一統志」，反映各省發展沿革的「總志」、「通志」，各行政區劃的「府志」、「州志」乃至「里志」等等。總志有《寰宇通志》和《大明一統志》，記述了明朝疆域全貌。

地理學方面，羅洪先《廣輿圖》以元朝朱思本《輿地圖》為底本，製成十三布政司圖、九邊圖和漕運圖等。利馬竇在北京編成中國地圖若干和《坤輿萬國全圖》。顧祖禹《讀史方輿紀要》重視在古今用兵戰守攻取之宜，考證翔實。徐弘祖周遊全國，有《徐霞客游記》，詳細記錄了雲、貴、川等十餘省的地理狀況。

文學

明朝詩文。明朝初期，吳中四傑（高啟、楊基、張羽、徐賁）的詩歌都較好，劉基、宋濂都以散文行世。永樂年間，「頌聖德，歌太平」的台閣體成為文學主流，缺乏活力。正統年間，李東陽、前七子文人提倡文學復古，主張「文必秦漢，詩比盛唐」，反對台閣體。嘉靖中年，後七子接過復古大旗，在復古問題上更加講究法度格調。同時，王慎中、歸有光等唐宋派則反對前後七子的主張，認為應該取法唐宋古文八大家的作品，主張文以明道。萬曆時期，公安派的袁宗道等人反對前後七子的仿古蹈襲，主張「獨抒性靈，不拘格套」（性靈說），反對人為約束。公安派後，鍾惺、譚元春為代表的竟陵派主張重「真詩」，重「性靈」。竟陵派可謂是公安派的延續，但竟陵派和公安派不同，竟陵派著重向古人學習。

明朝小說。明代最為著名的小說是《三國志演義》、《水滸傳》、《西遊記》、《金瓶梅》、「三言兩拍」。羅貫中的《三國志演義》是中國第一部長編章回小說，描述了魏蜀吳三國的軍事和政治衝突、塑造了形象鮮明的政治家、軍事家、外交家形象。施耐庵的《水滸傳》以宋元以來宋江三十六人的話本和雜劇為題材，塑造性格各異而「忠義仗義」的人物，對中國英雄傳奇創作起了重大的影響。吳承恩的《西遊記》記述了唐三藏、孫悟空、豬八戒、沙悟淨四人前往西天取經的故事，創造光怪陸離、神異奇幻的世界。蘭陵笑笑生的《金瓶梅》借記述潘金蓮、李瓶兒、龐春梅三人的故事，批判了明神宗的貪淫作樂。書中雖有多艷情描寫，亦無損其文學價值，受國內外的重視。

明朝戲曲。元末明初，雜劇逐漸衰落，南戲混合了北曲聲腔和元雜劇，形成傳奇。在嘉靖後期到萬曆初期出現三部優秀的傳奇作品，即《寶劍記》、《浣紗記》及《鳴鳳記》。明代戲劇的集大成者是湯顯祖。他的代表作是臨川四夢（即《南柯記》、《邯鄲夢》、《紫釵記》及《牡丹亭》）。弘治、嘉靖年間，雜劇創作出現轉機，題材拓寬，思想開始深入，徐渭的雜劇「活潑暢快，汪洋恣肆」，有《四聲猿》、《歌代嘯》等。

藝術

明朝書法。洪武至成化年代，以沈度為代表的台閣體書法家群人數雖多，但書風大多平庸無味。弘治至隆慶一朝，吳門派的祝允明、文徵明等人主張復古，一改前朝惡習，此時的著名刻帖有文徵明《停雲館帖》、華夏《真賞齋帖》等、吳廷《餘清齋帖》等。萬曆崇禎年間，泰州學派和李贄的思想影響了當時的書法，書法自元以來再一次創新。董其昌的書法追求簡淡空靈，獨開門戶，在明末清初成為了正統一派。王鐸的行草恣肆縱橫、粗服亂頭，其風格影響了入明後的明遺民書法家。

明朝繪畫。洪武永樂二朝的繪畫大多沿習元代。宣德至弘治一朝，浙江與福建兩地繼承南宋院風的畫家相繼入宮，此時的宮庭話大多取法南宋院體畫。人物畫有商喜《明宣宗行樂圖》、謝環《權園雅集圖》等、山水畫有李在《琴高乘鯉圖》、王諤《江閣遠眺圖》等。正德年起，蘇州地區出現了以沈周、文徵明的吳門派，以山水畫見長，作品多描寫江南風景和文人生活。吳門派在當時影響巨人，多有人從學。萬曆崇禎二朝，繪畫多有創新。徐渭完善了大寫意花鳥畫畫法。陳洪綬等開創變形人畫法。董其昌重視畫論上主「士氣」，倡「南北宗」之說，創立了松江派，取代了吳門派地位。

明朝建築。明代的建築工藝創下新成就。南京和北京城池都是偉大的建築作品。應天府京城城牆營建於洪武二年，完成於洪武十九年，城牆周長達66里，一般寬10-18米，高12-15米，是世界上最長的城牆。南京城突破方正的格局，而是按照地理形勢修建。皇城位於東部，市肆和居民區位於南部，西北則是軍營。洪武二十三年起，明政府開始修建京師外郭城（即南京外城），周圍120里，開十六門，將雨花台和鍾山都包入其中。而北京城池則較為方正，體現皇權至上的思想。明朝的宮殿建築也十分宏偉，故宮即為例證。明朝各種歷制建築也十分嚴謹工整。天壇、太廟、社稷壇、孔廟都是十分巍峨莊嚴的建築。明代帝陵工程浩大，可謂歷代之最。而在明代被重建的萬里長城（明長城）更是舉世無雙的巨作，保衛明朝的邊疆，至今依然聳立。

明朝賞燈。始于永樂七年（1409），這年正月初十，永樂皇帝下詔，上元節「聽軍民張燈飲酒為樂，五城兵馬馳夜禁，著為令。」（《明太宗實錄》卷87）。始于天順八年（1464）前後的泮村燈會由鄺健齋拜見明大儒陳白沙起，泮村的鄉親父老按照建議于正月十三當天舉行了首屆舞燈，此舉便一直延續至今（《中華人民共和國國家級非物質文化遺產》第二批）。

服飾

元朝在統一中國之後，變更中原的衣冠舊制，髮式上辮髮椎髻，衣服則褲褶窄袖，還有辮綫腰褶。婦女的衣服則為窄袖短衣，下穿裙裳。洪武元年（1368年），朱元璋下令恢復唐朝的衣冠制度，令士紳在頭頂束髮，朝廷官員則頭戴烏紗帽，穿圓領袍，束帶，著黑靴，盡去元朝制度。在其詔令中，他從面料、樣式、尺寸、顏色四個方面，規定了具體的服飾制度，制度中貴、賤的服飾都有別，不得僭越。

在明朝初期，衣冠制度得到嚴格的執行。如英宗朝，有人穿皮靴進入皇宮禁地，英宗遂命錦衣衛「潛捕於路，一日得數百人，皆下獄」，重申禁止平民穿皮靴的禁令。成化、弘治年間，隨社會經濟的發展，紡織技術的改良，加上明政府管理不嚴，明代服飾開始出現變化，服飾式樣出現翻新，面料漸漸奢華，官方的法令沒有人遵守。明朝中後期的服式打破了明初所定立的衣冠制度，如明代品官服飾本無蟒衣，但成化、弘治之後，內外官員都以穿蟒服為榮。蟒理應無角無足，但當時所官員所穿大多為龍形，實為龍衣。明人張瀚指：「今男子服錦綺，女子飾金珠，是皆僭越無涯，逾國家之禁者也」。此外，晚明服飾追求華美，城市服飾樣式經常更換。當時，出現了很多怪異的服裝，時人視為「服妖」，「昨日到城郭，歸來淚滿巾；遍身女衣者，盡是讀書人」。

科技

明朝天文學。朱元璋個人對於天文歷法相當重視，其作位其間興建了多處觀象台，製造了諸多天文儀器，編寫了大量天文和星占書籍（《選擇歷書》、《大明清類天文分野》等）。洪武十七年，他以元統為監正，編修《大統歷法通軌》。《大統歷法通軌》以《授時歷經》為基礎，在交食算法上有提高。至隆慶三年（1569年），周相重印《大明大統歷法》時，大統歷的誤差逐漸擴大。民間學者多有批評，並提出自己的改進方案。《回回歷法》也是明朝官方的歷法，當時學者雖然試圖將兩者整合，編寫更好的曆法，未果。

明朝數學。此時候傳統數學開始沒落，無人通曉宋元時期的數學成果，前代的數學著作亦相繼失傳。在明末《幾何原本》被翻譯之前，有明一代大約有數學著作70多種。珠算在明代開始普及，取代了籌算的地位，著作有吳敬《九章詳注比類算法大全》、王文素《古今算學寶鑑》、徐心魯《盤珠算法》、柯尚遷《數學通軌》等。明末，利馬竇先後譯出《幾何原本》（徐光啟合譯）、《同文算指》（李之藻合譯），影響深遠。

明朝農學。在明代，農業生產工具得到改善，代耕架得到應用。農業思想得到發展，形成「三宜」（因時制宜、因地制宜、因物制宜）原則。施肥、改良土壤技術得到發展。書籍方面，徐光啟《農政全書》論述了屯塈、口利、備荒的方法，總結了過去的農學成果。喻氏兄弟《元亨療馬牛駝經全集》論孰了馬、牛、駝的飼養方式，獸醫學有所發展。

明朝醫學。李時珍的《本草綱目》最為著名，總結了16世紀以前的藥物學，新增藥物374種。吳有性的《瘟疫論》發展了「戾氣說」，在病因、症候、診斷、治療上有突破。人痘接種術在明代得到普遍使用。

君主年表