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A FEW GOOD MEN: THE LI FAMILY AND CHINA'S NORTHERN FRONTIER IN THE LATE MING

2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 2004; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1179/014703704788762907

1759-7595

Kenneth M. Swope,

China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance

The Ming has traditionally been portrayed as a static, insular state, preoccupied with only its own affairs and content to hide behind walls and fortresses while nomadic raiders and pirates plundered the frontiers and coastlines almost unchallenged. Accordingly, the Ming has long been seen as a nadir of Chinese military power, a dynasty when, with the notable exceptions of the Emperors Hongwu (r. 1368–1398), and Yongle (r. 1403–1424), the pen really was mightier than the sword. In these standard treatments, military officials in the Ming were not just overshadowed by their civil counterparts, they were completely dominated, and the power of the military was stultified. As one noted scholar of Ming history relates, “Partly because of its hereditary character, but mostly because even the highest ranking officers were characteristically illiterate and untutored in Confucian proprieties, the military service enjoyed far less prestige than the civil service.“ Even more sympathetic portrayals of the Ming military have tended to contrast a supposedly static, defensive Ming state with the more vigorously expansive Qing. One of the most persistent arguments, and one which certainly has its merits, is that the Qing were more successful in dealing with frontier threats because the Manchus originated in the steppe and were more familiar with the vagaries of steppe politics. Therefore, while Qing scholars have devoted much attention to military affairs, especially in the last few years, studies of the Ming, mirroring trends in other eras of Chinese history, especially in the West, have understandably tended to focus either on literary and cultural matters or on the factionalized politics of civil officialdom, marginalizing the achievements of military officials. While there is comparatively more in the way of recent Chinese scholarship on the Ming military, it has tended to focus on institutional history.