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.