1840: The Fall and Turn of an Autocracy
Following the Renaissance and Religious Reforms, through the power inspired by the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution, Europe advanced rapidly towards modernity.
Meanwhile, in distant China, a grain of hope for modern civilization shone through with the rapid end to the bloodshed in the later years of the Ming Dynasty. Under the oppression of the Qing Dynasty, China began to slip into a dark abyss of isolation.
In 1840, the Opium War and the unequal treaties of sovereign insults finally brought an end to the autocracy of China. At this pivotal moment, Rong Hong, Zheng Guanying, Tang Tingshu and Xu Run would lead a civilization forward.
ON THE 19TH DAY of the third lunar month in 1644, Li Zicheng captured the Forbidden City, and Emperor Zhu Youjian hanged himself on Coal Hill. Just over a month later, Li Zicheng was defeated by the Manchu army, and fled for refuge in Beijing. Aware of the hopelessness of the situation, Li Zicheng still accepted the throne on the 18th day of the fourth lunar month.After a short honeymoon time of satisfying his imperial cravings, he fled Beijing in panic that night. Once again, the throne would be seized by force. The Qing army conquered China, atop a pool of Han blood establishing a brutal empire of 268 years.
This complex series of events would leave behind two mysteries for generations to come: were the seeds of capitalism planted in the late Ming, and was there a premature death to an age of enlightenment?
A once mainstream view states that Ming artisan industry, in particular textiles and ceramics, established the necessary production sites and knowledge to cause a rapid increase in productivity and urban population. This industrial development marked the transition from an agricultural economy of autarky to an urban capitalist market.
The Ming Dynasty's Minister of Personnel Zhang Han recorded his ancestors' journey from rags to riches in his Dreaming Beyond the Pines. Of the same era, calligrapher Wang Shimao avidly described the ceramics industry of Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province as one of prosperity: "Porcelain at every corner, blazes light up the sky. Not one day of rest, a town that never sleeps." These words later became scholarly evidence of the Ming industrial boom.
However, prominent historian Huang Renyu and other skeptics believe that the evidence is not conclusive. "Capitalism is a communal enterprise…The more private capital that is at disposal, the greater its power of influence becomes…China's traditional political system does not facilitate this enterprise, should private power challenge that of the imperial palace." He also questions the credibility of Zhang Han, and has doubts about his malicious intentions to deceive the world.
Capitalism and Enlightenment come hand in hand. Thus, the "seeds of capitalism" school of thought believes that the Ming must have also had a short-lived period of Enlightenment. Another historian, Xu Zhuoyun supports this view. "Beginning in 1500, China experienced 300 years of economic prosperity, a feat that no other nation can claim. This solid economic foundation was the stimulus for a liberation of the mind." [10]
This "liberation of the mind" can be seen in the literature, arts and religion of the Ming. Classical literature was rigid and neat, but with a significant change in tone. Informal prose, essays and great novels including The Journey to the West and The Plum in the Golden Vase appeared. Artistic works of the beginning and end of the Ming were of completely different classes, some works even drawing near to the abstractions of reality and liberal artworks of today. And spiritually, Buddhism and Daoism attracted unprecedented amounts of followers, their social influence becoming greater and greater…
The importance of The Journey to the West and The Plum in the Golden Vase in Chinese literature is undeniable. But calling these works part of a "liberation of the mind" or an Enlightenment may be a misunderstanding of history. The characters, stories and ideas contained within were still far from matching those of Europe's Renaissance literature two or even three hundred years ago. The works of Boccaccio, Petrarch and Chaucer were celebrations of the beauty of humanity, capturing an absolute liberation of both the physical and spiritual. Their works were based on the value of "being human," and when complete, became a celebration of life. The fundamental and core principle at the center of The Journey to the West and The Plum in the Golden Vase is karma, the trademark of all-encompassing Buddhism. Eastern art and spirituality were still far from a "liberation of the mind."
