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1587, a Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline (Chinese: 萬曆十五年; pinyin: Wanli Shiwunian) is Chinese historian Ray Huang's most famous work. First published by Yale University Press in 1981,[1] it examines how a number of seemingly insignificant events in 1587 might have caused the downfall of the Ming empire. The views expressed in the book follow the macro h 1587, a Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline (Chinese: 萬曆十五年; pinyin: Wanli Shiwunian) is Chinese historian Ray Huang's most famous work. First published by Yale University Press in 1981,[1] it examines how a number of seemingly insignificant events in 1587 might have caused the downfall of the Ming empire.

The views expressed in the book follow the macro history perspective. The first subtitle of this book seems like a lie, but it's more likely a joke. Of course this year is significant. Every year is, whether historians say it is or not. The year 1587, The Year of the Pig, 24th in the 60 year cycle and the fifteenth year of the reign of the Wanli Emperor, is a setting for future dramas, but also of more focused internal conflicts. It might be tempting to call it a year of 'no significance', as there are no major battles here, no imperial downfalls, no natural disas The first subtitle of this book seems like a lie, but it's more likely a joke.

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Of course this year is significant. Every year is, whether historians say it is or not. The year 1587, The Year of the Pig, 24th in the 60 year cycle and the fifteenth year of the reign of the Wanli Emperor, is a setting for future dramas, but also of more focused internal conflicts.

It might be tempting to call it a year of 'no significance', as there are no major battles here, no imperial downfalls, no natural disasters. But there are things here which are subtler and take much more to notice. Though it was still decades away from its fall in 1644, the political system was already unstable and unprepared for the problems of just continuing governance, let alone any local crisis. Huang frames his discussion through biographical essays on six important persons in the late-Ming period. These men - they were all men, as the social status of women had fallen far from the relative high point of the Tang Dynasty - are the focal points for Huang's analysis.

From these disconnected points he draws out trends and patterns. Take the emperor himself. He took the throne in 1572 at age 9 and would hold it until his death in 1620. His life is then a part of a system of absolute monarchy. He is the symbol of the nation, the embodiment of its virtue, the target of religious adoration. Huang makes this life out to be a gilded hell. Every morning was spent in hours of elaborate ritual where he could not even cross his legs or cough while the officials recited their effusive praise.

He could seldom get anything done. Huang takes an alternate approach to the emperor's reputation, long since tarnished. His scorn of court ritual, often interpreted as negligence, could also mean his deliberate resignation from the exhausting process of rule. The transcripts in the appendix which date from near 1600 which show his utter exhaustion and how much the officials kowtow. Beneath him, there are the contrasting studies of Zhang Juzheng and Shen Shixing, two major court officials.

Their attempts to manage the government and maintain power read like attempts to capture and tame a wild animal. Zhang Juzheng forced strict austerity measures on the government itself to prevent corruption measures, but he was brought down by his own moral failures. By contrast, Shen Shixing viewed himself as a negotiator and compromiser, but still did not recognize his actions perpetuated the system's abuses. Dheera Malayalam Film Video Songs Free Download.

In contrast to both of these is Hai Rui - the 'honest official', who campaigned against local corruption, criticized a past emperor, and was almost executed because of it. His story represents the failures of the judicial system and its incapability to adapt. Another chapter is devoted to the general Qi Jiguang. He was placed in command of the eastern coastal regions and reformed the army in defense against Japanese and other pirate raids, and he is still held up today as a folk hero.

But his story was an exception to the rule of the Ming military - the decentralization of power - meant to prevent any one interest from getting too powerful, but also prevented any coordination on major issues. The last story is Li Zhi, a philosopher who often enjoyed speaking with the Jesuits about comparative religion. He also criticized the materialist Chengzhu school of Neo-Confucianism. Unfortunately for him, that was the ideology which was officially ordained by those in power, and he was imprisoned for it. He slit his own throat in jail.

His story represents what happens when only one official religious or philosophical ideology is tolerated, although Huang seems to treat him less sympathetically than the others. In fact, Huang does not blame a single individual for the failings of China's government. Rather, it was an adherence to Confucian ideals, vague ethical precepts, and the inability to develop a more consistent legal system which impaired the ability of officials to react to any problem. He places the beginning of the Decline of the Ming Dynasty in this period, and these problems would only worsen, leading to the collapse in less than a century. Though Confucianism's role is still a point of contention among other historians, there still are points for his other points - finance reform, business law, legal reform, use of contemporary technology, and so on.

This is a fine book, and convincingly told - I could recommend it to any casual observer who wishes to know more about the period. The main problem with the book is that it uses the old Wade-Giles transliteration and doesn't have a dictionary of Chinese characters for any of the used terms.

But aside from that, it is a useful and accessible history. In 1987, I went to China and visited, among other places, the tomb of the Wanli Emperor near Beijing.

It was the only royal tomb open to the public in the Ming Tombs complex at that time. Our Chinese guide led us down a ramp into a subterranean, vaulted chamber clad in white marble. Inside there were thrones carved with dragons and phoenixes, also of the same white marble, and huge blue-and-white porcelain urns. The chamber led into other chambers, just as massive and cold. One contained numerou In 1987, I went to China and visited, among other places, the tomb of the Wanli Emperor near Beijing.

It was the only royal tomb open to the public in the Ming Tombs complex at that time. Our Chinese guide led us down a ramp into a subterranean, vaulted chamber clad in white marble. Inside there were thrones carved with dragons and phoenixes, also of the same white marble, and huge blue-and-white porcelain urns. The chamber led into other chambers, just as massive and cold. One contained numerous lacquered boxes of all sizes containing grave-good treasures.

The main chamber held the enormous coffins of the emperor himself and two of his consorts. Our guide stopped in front of the royal coffin and told us that the man whose remains it held was ‘the most venal emperor in Chinese history’ and also that his ‘feudal excesses had bled the Chinese people dry’. No doubt he was parroting the official party line at that time, but he made me curious about the Wanli Emperor. The interesting thing is that he began his almost five-decade reign (one of the longest in Chinese history) as a conscientious young sovereign. Raised by top Mandarins according to strict Confucian principles, the intelligent and sensitive young man was prepared to devote his life to being a model ruler, guided by grand-secretary Chang Chu Cheng.

However, Huang tells us, he gradually grew disillusioned with the hypocritical and impersonal nature of the administration that he was the titular head of. By about halfway through his reign, he stopped attending court functions, letting important posts stay vacant and otherwise engaged in a passive-aggressive war against his own ministers. China’s vast bureaucracy was infinitely more ancient than the emperor and the dynasty that he represented. It was unique in that it was more or less a meritocracy, and that it governed by moral principle. Kirby 64 The Crystal Shards Rom Deutsch Download. The latter, according to Huang, is the very factor that ultimately led to its collapse. On the one hand, Confucian principles expected the mandarins to serve the people selflessly, to live simply on subsistence wages. On the other hand, the wages were so ridiculously low that most officials had to supplement their incomes by taking advantage of their position.

The opportunity for graft and corruption was virtually endless. Huang argues that the most successful officials were not the most honest ones --- who most often than not created more problems because of their overzealousness --- but the ones who could balance the two opposing directions. Shackled to Confucian moral tenets, the judicial system remained ineffective and arbitrary. The army was not organized according to proper military practices and was helpless against Japanese pirates and nomadic marauders. All of these factors eventually led to the collapse of the Ming dynasty in the 17th century.

Wanli was not the cause of it but he was a part of a dysfunctional system that was tottering towards its demise. I wonder if other historians are as lenient to the Wanli Emperor. 'Part of Wan-li's failure was that he was too intelligent and sensitive to occupy the dragon seat. The more he gained an insight into its apparatus the more skeptical he became. He began to realize that he was less the Ruler of All Men than a prisoner of the Forbidden City.'

93 This sums up the tragedy of this book. Huang offers profiles of not only the Wan-li emperor, but several office-holders as well. In each case, he assesses their failures, not necessarily as causes of the fall of the Mi 'Part of Wan-li's failure was that he was too intelligent and sensitive to occupy the dragon seat. The more he gained an insight into its apparatus the more skeptical he became. He began to realize that he was less the Ruler of All Men than a prisoner of the Forbidden City.' 93 This sums up the tragedy of this book. Huang offers profiles of not only the Wan-li emperor, but several office-holders as well.

In each case, he assesses their failures, not necessarily as causes of the fall of the Ming Dynasty, but certainly indicative of it. He criticizes the traditionalism of the literary bureaucracy, particularly in that it was incapable of addressing any real problems facing the empire, too concerned were they with maintaining the facade of moral leadership. He paints this faceless mass he calls the 'officials' as an entity forever spewing petty memoranda and petitions for breaches of decorum. It must be said that his prose is dreadful.

The writing, especially regarding the officials, plods along as if you too are captive right alongside Wan-li. I think it would have done with a touch of the vermilion brush. But that aside, there are some very interesting characters, especially Ch'i Chi-Kuang, the energetic general who helped stave off the pirate invasions that no one else seemed capable of confronting. Also Hai Jui, who was a moralist whipping boy for the rest of the literati because of his 'eccentricity', here defined as refusing to take money on the side and lobbying for reforms protecting peasants. That officials so often said one thing and did another was the frustration of all the profiled figures. The emperor was a miserable man of wasted ability, the general was disdained as part of a military culture that officials would do everything to keep down, even as Mongols, pirates, and bandits held sway over the provinces, and Hai, who reminded me of Cato the Younger, was a truly devout Confucian -- a little TOO devout. There are other figures, though these three stood out by far the most, all of which are touched by the ghost of Chang Chu-Cheng, the morally ambiguous first grand secretary.

Don't read this expecting any glimmers of hope. It felt as Huang himself was very personally invested in the failings of the last great dynasty (he doesn't seem to count the Qing), and as I read it I couldn't help but feel that same bitterness and anger about a system held up only by its own dull inertia. This is a tour de force of concentrated historical writing, and among the most original in any field of history that I can think of. Equivalents of the same vintage (1980s) and comparable method (micro history) that come to mind are Carlo Ginzburg's The Cheese and the Worms, or Robert Darnton's The Great Cat Massacre. Without being monumental in size, 1587 nonetheless achieves a sort of monumental significance, aiming for nothing short of an explanation of the decline of one of China's most sple This is a tour de force of concentrated historical writing, and among the most original in any field of history that I can think of.

Equivalents of the same vintage (1980s) and comparable method (micro history) that come to mind are Carlo Ginzburg's The Cheese and the Worms, or Robert Darnton's The Great Cat Massacre. Without being monumental in size, 1587 nonetheless achieves a sort of monumental significance, aiming for nothing short of an explanation of the decline of one of China's most splendid dynasties in little more than 200 pages. Instead of an abstract, bloodless survey, or a monograph of overwhelming detail, 1587 makes its argument within the framework of six biographical sketches, all intersecting around the pivotal year 1587. That it does this in elegant prose that effortlessly merges individual human experience with abstract historical forces, is all the more impressive.

Huang sets up the lives of six late Ming notables, from the Wan-Li Emperor himself to the emperor's generals, grand secretaries, and renegade literati, in such a way that the frustrations experienced by each in attempting to fulfill their official responsibilities help to illustrate the limitations of the entire Ming social order. And these frustrations, which Huang attributes to the nature of the imperial bureaucracy itself and its inability to adapt to ever more complex social circumstances, point not only to the fall of the Ming, which is Huang's explicit concern, but to the eventual eclipse of China by the western powers. A beautiful, sophisticated book that looks at the way the best human talent can be stymied by the arrangement of inherited institutions, it is also not without relevance to anyone interested in how a society can chose to adapt, or be frustrated in adapting, to radically new challenges.

It's my first time writing Book Review on Internet, and first time writing in English. Well, it worth for me doing so, but forgive my poor English level, as well as many logical mistakes in this comment. After I closing the book eventually, all of contents gather with a sentence emerging in my heart 'the Ming dynasty fell for poor practical laws with little maneuverability, relying on ethics and morality excessively.' Chinese tradition culture usually confuse foreigners as well as Morden Chinese e It's my first time writing Book Review on Internet, and first time writing in English. Well, it worth for me doing so, but forgive my poor English level, as well as many logical mistakes in this comment. After I closing the book eventually, all of contents gather with a sentence emerging in my heart 'the Ming dynasty fell for poor practical laws with little maneuverability, relying on ethics and morality excessively.' Chinese tradition culture usually confuse foreigners as well as Morden Chinese especially people living in western culture because of deep gap in many aspects such as values, economical policy, method of development and so on.

But we can generalize some essential or integral factors that are dominated in generating differences. The book offer us a angle to analyze the invisible reasons resulting in the consequence behind visible events in history in Ming dynasty. The author cited many ancient books to prove his opinions in the book. It can be first step for people who want to research the dynasty of Ming or people who are interested in history of Ming. Furthermore, the book can also help dispel some misunderstanding or confusion for Chinese traditions history. Peter Hessler recommended 1587, A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline at the end of his book River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze. I enjoyed River Town so much I thought 1587 would also be interesting.

The structure of the book 1587 is good enough. Ray Huang selects one year during the Ming Dynasty and tells us its history by describing the lives of several significant players at the time: the young emperor, a general, a bureaucrat, a philosopher etc. The problem is Ray Huang is Peter Hessler recommended 1587, A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline at the end of his book River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze. I enjoyed River Town so much I thought 1587 would also be interesting. The structure of the book 1587 is good enough. Ray Huang selects one year during the Ming Dynasty and tells us its history by describing the lives of several significant players at the time: the young emperor, a general, a bureaucrat, a philosopher etc.

The problem is Ray Huang is not much of a writer and as a result the book just plods along. This book somehow reminds me sections of Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire as both Huang and Gibbon seems to attribute the downfall of their respective empire to the malfunction of the moral system, though in subtly different ways. In this review, I shouldn't be dealing with anything unrelated, so I will stick with Huang's analysis. The entire volume is basically six stories of six people, whose seemingly diverse life patterns all point to the same dead end. An aspiring reformer, This book somehow reminds me sections of Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire as both Huang and Gibbon seems to attribute the downfall of their respective empire to the malfunction of the moral system, though in subtly different ways. In this review, I shouldn't be dealing with anything unrelated, so I will stick with Huang's analysis. The entire volume is basically six stories of six people, whose seemingly diverse life patterns all point to the same dead end.

An aspiring reformer, a conventional minister, a young and energetic Emperor, a high-minded official, a capable general, and an insightful philosopher -- six strings of narratives converging into one result: failure. The book sought to understand why, despite tremendous efforts, all these people end their lives in failure. The reasons were obviously not individual but systematic, the bureaucratic system of Ming Dynasty that was built on a shaky and unrealistic moral base was near a total collapse. Morality itself wasn't the problem, the problem was the overplaying of it. A central argument of the entire book was that the lack of the rule of law and overindulgence of the rule of man in Ming China essentially caused all the subsequent systematic failures. One must admit that it takes a great amount of courage for someone to condemn morality for all the failures in a system -- people often condemn the degradation of morality (for example, Gibbon on the fall of Rome) but seldom morality itself.

But with a calm mind, one has to agree with Huang, for all six people described previously were victims of a malfunctioning moral system. Ray Huang's account of Ming China is a refreshing read with pockets of insights throughout.

It is, for me, very much a parable of the path of decline a complex civilization traces through when its institutions and processes fail to keep up with the increasing complexity & range of possible behaviours of its inhabitants. At times, the anecdotes in this book paint an exaggerated caricature of a society obsessed with style over substance, but that is perhaps only with the benefit of hindsight a Ray Huang's account of Ming China is a refreshing read with pockets of insights throughout. It is, for me, very much a parable of the path of decline a complex civilization traces through when its institutions and processes fail to keep up with the increasing complexity & range of possible behaviours of its inhabitants. At times, the anecdotes in this book paint an exaggerated caricature of a society obsessed with style over substance, but that is perhaps only with the benefit of hindsight and historical context. To the inhabitants of Ming China, especially the scholar and gentry class, such a state of affairs was normal. While not trying to sound trite, this book has driven home the point that effective and principled governance is difficult, even for a widely agrarian society like Ming China.

Perhaps decades of dynastic rule by absolute monarchs have bred complacency such that no effort was made to invest in proper institutions and making them responsive to governance challenges on the ground. Instead, faith was misplaced in the Chinese classics, eschewing pragmatism in favor of tradition and ideology. Although centuries away, this book holds lessons for people interested in politics, economics and governance today.

The gridlocked state of American politics today is no different in substance from Wan Li's boycott of the civil bureaucracy in 1587. For me, the key lesson is that for complex societies, ideology and philosophy are luxuries. These should be left to university departments.

For people who are in the business of governance, being pragmatic and ensuring that institutions are anti-fragile and responsive to change should probably guide most, if not all decision-making. Huang Renyu's text 1587: A Year of No Significance has many points of interest and is clearly well-researched; unfortunately, it is hampered significantly by its overwrought prose, and occasionally by its character-based (rather than linear) structure. It took me more than five chapters to realise the main thesis of the book - that the Ming Dynasty's failure is broadly attributable to its lack of an independent legal system and a Legalist philosophy which would allow it to develop and modernise.

Huang Renyu's text 1587: A Year of No Significance has many points of interest and is clearly well-researched; unfortunately, it is hampered significantly by its overwrought prose, and occasionally by its character-based (rather than linear) structure. It took me more than five chapters to realise the main thesis of the book - that the Ming Dynasty's failure is broadly attributable to its lack of an independent legal system and a Legalist philosophy which would allow it to develop and modernise. The tone of the book is slightly spruced up by his biographies of several important and intriguing figures in the Wanli Emperor's reign: grand secretaries Zhang Juzheng and Shen Shixing, official Hai Rui, general Qi Jiguang and philosopher Li Zhi - who in themselves generate enough interest to move the book forward. Huang is capable of painting with a vivid brush when he feels like it. The inner life of the Wanli Emperor is well-illumined, as we see him grow from a studious, serious and upright young man into a frustrated, cynical and by turns jaded and vindictive emperor. After Zhang Juzheng's death, he justly feeling betrayed by his harsh and effective (but also corrupt and arguably treasonous) grand secretary, who amassed great wealth and material comfort for himself whilst denying it to him and his own family within the Forbidden City.

He was hardly any more grateful to the bureaucracy generally, being frustrated by them at every turn from effectively caring for his beloved imperial consort Zheng and making her son Zhu Changxun his rightful heir. Unfortunately, Huang is given to some remarkably dry, prolix, meandering and seemingly-pointless expositions which, when reading them for the first time, simply seem like fatalistic gripes about bureaucratic inefficiency in the Ming government. At times, he seems unable to delve into the deeper causes or historical reasons for the Ming malaise, though he makes some attempts to do so in his treatment of Wanli's predecessor Zhengde. When at last he does delve into some of the more meaty ideas in the final chapters, though, one certainly gets the sense that he would rather have seen in the later Ming a more dynamic, charismatic and dictatorial emperor who could lay down the sort of firm and Legalistic rule which had been suggested in the lives and figures of Zhang Juzheng and Qi Jiguang. One gets the strong sense that Huang would rather have seen a military freed from civil oversight and under the Emperor's direct control, and a parallel censorial or adjudicating mechanism which could control the bureaucracy and keep it in check. His frustrations with traditional Confucian moralism become devastatingly clear in the final chapter, in which he laments the fate of Li Zhi within a bureaucracy which could not tolerate moral deviance even for the sake of legal expediency or the exigencies of (one presumes) an enlightened despotism.

As a history text, this book is incredibly useful and informative, and shines quite a bit of light on a period of late Imperial Chinese history with which I hadn't previously been that familiar. It is significantly less impressive as a work of prose. And of course as a student of political philosophy I have some significant differences of opinion with Huang's legalistic political commitments. A worthwhile book for anyone particularly interested in Chinese history. The title is a little misleading.

It's not a chronicle of a single year; rather, it's a series of biographical portraits of several people prominent in the Chinese bureaucracy at the time, not all of whom were still active (or even alive) in 1587. But they all played a role in forming the state of the empire in 1587. It's a little disappointing that we don't learn much about everyday life for average Chinese people; the boo A worthwhile book for anyone particularly interested in Chinese history. The title is a little misleading. It's not a chronicle of a single year; rather, it's a series of biographical portraits of several people prominent in the Chinese bureaucracy at the time, not all of whom were still active (or even alive) in 1587.

But they all played a role in forming the state of the empire in 1587. It's a little disappointing that we don't learn much about everyday life for average Chinese people; the book is focused almost exclusively on the top ranks. The most interesting facet of the book is its description of the relationship between the emperor at the time (known as the Wan-li Emperor) and his bureaucracy. In 1587, he turned 24 years old; he'd become Emperor as a child, and would rule for 33 more years. The role of Emperor was not 'whatever I say, goes'; he was, rather, bound by an elaborate system of rules and ceremonies, and any deviation from those rules resulted in heavy criticism from his officials. For him to even leave Beijing was heavily frowned upon, and he only did so once in his reign, when he was still a young man.

Over time he became disgruntled with the bureaucracy; he began to feud with it, and even undermine it. This feud, which was in its early stages in 1587, lasted the rest of his reign; its side effects and aftereffects led to the downfall of the Ming Dynasty. As fascinating as that is, and as good a job as Huang does of conveying the mindset and general principles of the 16th-century Chinese bureaucracy, he reports it all in a dry, dull writing style which makes the book difficult to recommend to general readers. It can be quite tedious to slog through this book. One other oddity: Huang tends to refer to Imperial China as 'our empire'. It's probably insignificant, but it does create some questions about his objectivity.

This book was strongly recommended to me by Hsien-Wen Hsu, a Pulmonologist/Intensivist, whose passion is Chinese History. It is a challenge for me to read history. This is a book only for those that are interested in Chinese History of these period, but it is very unique, and well done. Huang delves into the structure and philosophy behind the Chinese Civil Service Bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty. Each chapter is separate, and could stand alone as an essay or exploration of an idea. In general, e This book was strongly recommended to me by Hsien-Wen Hsu, a Pulmonologist/Intensivist, whose passion is Chinese History. It is a challenge for me to read history.

This is a book only for those that are interested in Chinese History of these period, but it is very unique, and well done. Huang delves into the structure and philosophy behind the Chinese Civil Service Bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty.

Each chapter is separate, and could stand alone as an essay or exploration of an idea. In general, each chapter is about a different man of that time period, and how the man's life was shaped by the ideals of the time. However, as a whole, like most history books, it is frustrating and a bit dry.

I had to read many pages twice, not because it wasn't well-written, but because it is very hard for me to read non-fiction of this type. History is like short-stories--almost invariably, the ending is disappointing and anti-climactic. It is a 4 and a half star book.

I am rounding up because I would wager that there is no other book more accessible and credible that deals with that time period. My favorite Chapter was the one on the Chinese Military, I loved the 'Lonely General', he was awesome. And I really liked the Chapter on the Eccentric Official who probably had Asperger's. This was a very informative examination of some of the key figures and social trends in the late Ming Dynasty. My one complaint has to be with its thesis that the trends described were the inevitable consequence of Ming social history and that they were by 1587 irreversible. I find myself skeptical of claims of inevitability in history, because they are too easy. What if Shih Shih-hsing had have moved decisively against Nurhaci?

What if Wan-li had been more adept at manipulating the bureaucracy This was a very informative examination of some of the key figures and social trends in the late Ming Dynasty. My one complaint has to be with its thesis that the trends described were the inevitable consequence of Ming social history and that they were by 1587 irreversible. I find myself skeptical of claims of inevitability in history, because they are too easy. What if Shih Shih-hsing had have moved decisively against Nurhaci?

What if Wan-li had been more adept at manipulating the bureaucracy instead of sullenly resisting it? Of course the decline of the Ming was inevitable as everything's destruction is inevitable, but I'm still not totally convinced the story of history couldn't have been different.