Introduction

The Ming Dynasty started in 1368 and ended in 1644, it was one of the longest running dynasty's in China. It was also the most celebrated dynasty of all time, because 1. heaps of China's best inventions were invented during the Ming dynasty 2. 2 China's most important structures were built 3. some previous inventions that had been lost were rediscovered. Read on.

Money

Money in the Ming dynasty was a problem at first, because Hongwu (the first emperor) gave out to much money in notes form - notes were worth only 1/70 of there original value, this made Hongwu have to think of a new form of currency. Instead of a new form he brought back the use of a copper coin. That also spawned another problem - these coins did not reach every village in China, so some villages had to make there own coins, which meant people from small villages could not buy things from bigger villages and city's because it was different to there own money.  

Novels

One of the Ming Dynasty's biggest inventions was the novel. They were not like modern day novels though, they were more like pieces of paper than books some well known Chinese novels today originated from the Ming dynasty. They were used by buskers the busker would read out aloud and take breaks in between to gather money. They also had dictionary's and encyclopedias, but they were mostly used by emperors.

The Great Wall

Although the great wall of china was built before the Ming Dynasty in the Qin Dynasty, most of it was built in the Ming Dynasty. It was used as defence against the invading Mongolian tribes and other threats. The full length stretches up to 8,851.8 km! It was also upgraded with watchtowers, cannons and harder stone to toughen it up.

Emporer Hongwu

The founder of the Ming Dynasty was called Zhu Yuanzhang also known as the Hongwu Emperor. Hongwu translates to "Great military power". He was a peasant before he became emperor, he was one of the three peasants ever to become an emperor in China. He was a good ruler, he always made sure there was no homeless and prevented that no one starved by making sure everybody had a job. Hongwu wanted to control all aspects of the government so he had the whole government executed - which left him massive amounts of work and responsibility. He normally had bodyguards when he was walking because assassination was not uncommon and he liked to feel safe rather than be sorry. He was not one of the countries most famous leaders because he would normally favour violence.

Printing

The Ming dynasty is the most praised dynasty for printing in China. The following types of printing were invented, wood printing, metal printing and stamp printing. Paper printing also reached new and better standards.

The Forbidden City

The Ming dynasty is well known for the creation of the Forbidden City, a gigantic city that was used for emperors when they where having there holidays. It took 15 years to make and required over one million workers.  It is over 2,000 miles long - it could reach from San Diego to New York! It burnt down in in the early fourteen hundreds because of a lightning storm, and was rebuilt in later years.