What caused the demise of the Ming Dynasty?

In my opinion, the reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty was that its ruling class did not intensively utilize land internally, develop it into industry and commerce, expand employment, meet the people's demand for goods, and cultivate new blood. Externally, it ignored the border and overseas situations and failed to seize high-quality overseas resources in a timely manner, which ultimately led to the expansion of border forces and pushed back against the Central Plains.

It cannot be said that the existing reasons for the demise of the Ming Dynasty are wrong, but the perspective is often too static and does not think from the perspective of "solving problems and finding a way out", so the "experience and lessons" of its reflection are very limited. It is difficult to directly guide a country on how to change.

Ptolemaic system

It is like the "Ptolemaic system" in astronomy. This system cannot be said to be completely wrong, but it is only a description of reality and fails to delve into the motivation and essence behind it. So it's also a static perspective. People have been studying the Ptolemaic system for a thousand years, but there has been no major breakthrough in astronomy.

The cultivation of self-cultivation in the early Ming Dynasty

In order to restore the mess left by the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Zhu Yuanzhang initially chose the policy of self-cultivation and self-cultivation, which was the right direction. But later generations stopped there, causing chaos in the Ming Dynasty's tax and financial systems.

What was needed for the reforms of the Ming Dynasty

An outward-looking strategy

And rebuilding the tax system is not a purely domestic matter. It needs to be coordinated with an outward-looking strategy and with new and emerging promotion groups. During the same period, Western Europe's tax system and parliamentary system were inseparable from the catalysis and gestation of war. Behind this was the collision of expansionary strategies of various countries and the repeated games of domestic groups.

Promoting reform from the margins

Domestic reform itself is a very complicated matter. It needs prestige, piloting, and exploration. The traditional central area is too complex to promote reform, so it needs to be promoted at the edges. As for marginal promotion, it is bound to establish a solid base in the border areas that can be continuously extrapolated.

Experience of the Southern and Northern Dynasties

The typical reform process of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, including the important reforms of the military system, was also in the Guanlong area, that is, close to Tuyuhun, Tujue, Rouran and Liangchen Intersection areas are explored and built upon. For the Ming Dynasty, base areas could actually be established in Northeast, Southeast Asia, and Southwest. But the Ming Dynasty failed to do any of this, which resulted in a situation where the border areas were out of control and the country was unable to reform.

The impact of border shrinkage

A key signal is that Anda penetrated the Hetao during the Jiajing period and began to recruit Han farmers to farm. This incident itself revealed that the Ming Dynasty's jurisdiction over Hetao and the northwest region began to lose control. After the death of Zhang Juzheng and Qi Jiguang, it became more difficult for the Ming Dynasty court to manage the northwest, let alone take into account the situation in the northwest, northeast and the economy of Jiangnan.

Therefore, the seeds of Li Zicheng's uprising were sown as early as 100 years ago when the Ming Dynasty withdrew from Hetao. The rise of the Jurchens coincided with the contraction of the Ming Dynasty from Liaodong.

It is worth mentioning that this process was also synchronized with the British development of North America and the Spanish occupation of the Philippines.

The trajectory and wheels of history have already passed in the early 16th century. The changes after a hundred years have laid the deepest foreshadowing