Vain for Effective Ming

Tonight, I taught my daughters the first half of the Ming.  The indignity of foreign rule that had lasted seventy-nine years, was washed clean by the bright and shining Ming.  Yuan rule is probably the shortest reigning dynasty that afforded top billing. The Sui unify the nation and set things up for the Tang glory, but after two emperors and a mere thirty-six years, they are swept aside. 

A trot through, Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing, all other’s involve centuries of unification with the exception of the Qin, which was such a seminal event that it’s the exception to the rule with only fifteen years of governance and one major emperor and his ill-fated son. 

It’s all worth considering me-thinks, as the CCP is only now just entering into its seventy-first year of rule.  The Guomindang only ruled the country for a modest twenty-two years.  Numerologically attuned, as Chinese necessarily are, there are almost certainly internal memos mentioning unspoken significance of eclipsing Yuan longevity.  I wonder if it will be part of the atmosphere in 2028 when the mile marker is lapped.  What is the next shortest dynasty to follow?  If we penalize the Song, when they lost the north, they would presumably be the next target.  A quick check suggests as much:  the Northern Song “only” made it for one-hundred-and-sixty-seven years, the Ming for two-hundred-and-seventy-six, the Tang for two-hundred-and-eighty-nine years. 

How long do the CCP assume they’ll rule for?  Outwardly facing every ruling body can only but project that it will lead forever.  Inwardly one assumes that this sort of discussion must take place.  To be granted an august and proper remembrance one must certainly outpace the Yuan Dynasty.  And then, at some time which cannot be known until it is too late, the mandate of heaven will pass, as it always does and that which is together, must break apart. 

And I tell my girls about Zhu Yuanzhang, the Hongwu Emperor, Ming Taizu who rose from poverty, one of the few emperors who knew anything about impoverishment.  Taizu had trust issues.  Whereas the founder of the Song, Zhao Kuangyin was famous for having said that “no one should fear being put to death for disagreeing with me,” Ming Taizu was quite content to punish people in the morning and punish them some more in the afternoon, because no one ruled in the fashion that he required.  No one was especially interested in telling him, or the usurper successor Yong Le anything the least contrarian and those that did were removed.  As a result, one searches in vain for effective Ming emperors to match Kangxi or Qianlong in the dynasty that follows. 

Thursday, 7/02/20