1. China vs. Japan in an age of transition

2. Introductory Question
What about Christianity makes it potentially threatening to a Confucian society?

3. Ming China Ming dynasty (1368-1644)
Return of Confucian examination system
Initially suspicious of scholar-gentry, but accepted necessity
Government posts, imperial academies, regional colleges restored
Hongwu – first Ming Emperor

5. The Ming & court corruption
Hongwu limited influence of scholar-gentry
Centralized power – no Chief Minister
Humiliating and harsh punishments for abuses of power or failure
Imperial wives from humble families
Number of eunuchs limited
Censorship
Later rules let changes lapse

6. Peasants under the Ming
Some policies to improve life of peasants
Infrastructure
New, untaxed lands
Lowered forced labor demands
Handicraft industries
Supplementing household incomes

8. Peasants & Women – the reality
Exploitative landlords
Forced to become tenants or landless laborers
Subordination of women
Draconian laws forced obedience
Upper class women’s status = making male children
Upper class women allowed education but barred from official jobs

9. Retreat from expansion
Missions of Zheng He withdrawn
Policy of isolation after 1390
Navy allowed to decline
Overseas commerce limited

10. Europeans in China Franciscans and Dominicans tried to convert masses
Jesuits aimed at elites
Shared scientific and technical knowledge
Not very successful

11. Ming Decline Late 1500’s – in decline Inferior leadership & corruption
Failure of public works  flooding of Yellow River
Starvation & rebellion
Exploitation by landlords increased malaise
1644 – fall of dynasty to Chinese rebels
Invasion by northern nomads – Manchu – establish Qing dynasty (rule by foreigners)

12. Japan Reunified
16th century Nobunaga uses firearms to depose Ashikaga Shogunate but killed
Hideyoshi continued & became master of Japan 1590, invaded Korea twice (failed)
Tokogawa Ieyasu appointed Shogun 1603, established last Shogunate – Tokogawa
Long period of civil wars ended, unity restored
Emperor still just a figurehead

13. Hideyoshi

14. Battle of Nagasino

15. Fending off the west: Japan
1580’s – official measure to limit western influence
Christian missionaries ordered out
Japanese Christians persecuted
1614 – Christianity officially banned
Merchants limited to few cities
Japanese ships not allowed overseas
Western books banned

16. Japan’s Isolation 18th century – School of National Learning
Rejected neo-Confucianism
Indigenous culture: Shinto