The Ming maritime prohibition policy (1371-1568) reversed the maritime policies of the preceeding Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties. It was maintained for two centuries at considerable costs, but in 1568 was eventually abolished. There has not yet been a satisfactory analysis of this policy, which addresses the issues of why it was introduced, why it was maintained for so long, and why, eventually, it was overturned. This thesis takes a new approach to understanding these issues. Instead of focusing solely on external factors, such as the need for defence against Japanese piracy, it focuses on the internal situation of Ming society, and instead of focusing on the policy as an epiphenomenon it considers the social foundation for Ming foreign trade policy.
In this thesis, the maritime policy is treated as a product of the social, economic and political configurations of Ming China. It argues that the establishment of the policy, its maintenance and abolition reflect two different socio-economic structures, hence two different political bases. The suppression of commerce during the early Ming reflected the interests of the political elite that came to power with the establishment of the new dynasty. The abolition of the maritime prohibition reflected the way the commercialisation of the socio-economic landscape brought a new political eĢlite to power, in which many more officials with merchant-family backgrounds participated in the policymaking process. Commercialisation drove the social re-configuration and reshaped the political landscape, and this resulted in the late Ming years in an overturn of many of the policies that had been introduced at the beginning of the dynasty. Such a structural approach allows us to gain a richer understanding of the maritime prohibition policy.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/217779 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Li, Kangying, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Otago. Department of History |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://policy01.otago.ac.nz/policies/FMPro?-db=policies.fm&-format=viewpolicy.html&-lay=viewpolicy&-sortfield=Title&Type=Academic&-recid=33025&-find), Copyright Kangying Li |
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