Asian Studies 365: Rise of the Middle Kingdom

In 1419 as you might well know, China was ruled by an evil alien entity, this you might feel inclined to disbelieve, but it is clearly true, mr. Long Trong Gong's excellent book Alien Invasions in the ÿuan, Ming and Early Qing dynasties clearly puts forth proof that not only was China (like many other states of the day) ruled by aliens, but that these particular aliens were malignant and evil.

Very few pictures of these brutal creatures survive to this day, the one shown below is one of the few we have, and it is believed it was painted by a frightened chinese painter who possibly exaggerated the frightening aspects of this undeniably terrifying creature.


The alien overlords of China

These evil aliens were however overthrown by a coup, the Dai Vetians declared their independence and in the chaos that followed it appeared that the aliens had disappeared, no trace can be found of them after 1421.

The chinese at the same time had sent their greatest admiral, Zheng He, to explore the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, explore he did, indeed by 1429 he had traversed the entire ocean and established diplomatic relations with one of the empires on Yongla (named after emperor Yongle, who sponsored Zheng He's expidition) The Yonglas proved to be peaceful and primitive peoples, albeit in possession of vasts amounts of gold, explaining to them, in perfect mandarin, that they should now rejoice, having being reconnected with their rightful overlords, the Divine Emperor of the Middle Kingdom, they could now rejoice having once again been brought into contact with the Light of Civilization. The Yonglans were so happy with this that they threw a huge party, sacrificing no less than 40,000 of their citizens alive. Zheng He was greatly impressed by this.


Zheng He.

Other matters however preoccupied emperor Yongle and his successor Xuande, the Koreans called for aid against raiding Manchu tribesmen and japanese pirates, not wanting to let the koreans, so long denied the protection of their emperor, be squashed by the two invading armies the chinese intervened, after smashing the manchu hosts at the battle of Mukden the koreans brokered a peace, that, to the everlasting joy of their unselfish chinese allies, made the manchu cede the city of Tongliao and all surrounding lands to the Emperor.

Amidst all this a great enterprise was debated: Moving the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, great arguments and much blood was shed over this, although historians agree that the Emperor at last made the decision to let the capital stay in Nanjing and clear up the intrigues rather than surrender and move to Beijing.

Zheng He also made a second voyage, however, he died tragically in a storm on the Pacific Ocean in 1433, his death was greatly mourned by all of China, including emperor Xuande.

Welcome back fellow students!

The chinese empire continued where we left it, thriving and flourishing, sometime in the 1430's the chinese decided to do away with old ideas: Outwards expansion was the watchword of the day for those who grew up in what historians have called the "Yonglian Revolution", having already visited and studied the Yonglan civilizations young chinese noblemen (and a few notable noblewomen) Urged the chinese to turn outwards: There were new things to see and explore, new goods to acquire and new songs to be sung.

The first outburst of chinese expansionism targeted the Manchu in the north, despite continual rebellions from conservative elements the chinese army managed to not only crush the manchu (taking several cities in the bargain) but also suppress the revolts.

We should look closer upon the Yonglian Revolution, it is a fantastic event really, involved in the change were several wonderful men (I advise you to read Ping Pong's excellent book The Yonglian Revolution: The men and women who gave us an empire. if you want to know more) but they will only be mentioned briefly in this lecture, which is, after all, about societal changes and not individuals!

For starters the emperor issued a decree erasing the debts of all peasants, "A fresh start" as he called it, this made it possible for millions of peasants to buy their own land back, returning the power to the peasantry and stripping the aristocracy of these rights.

The second immensely important decree was the Naval Reform Act, this diverted large sums of money from the conservative Imperial Army to the much more progressive Imperial Navy: Plans were put forth about colonizing the various islands of South East Asia, some even asked themselves if not the Yonglian continent would have space for a few chinese...

The most important effect of the Yonglian revolution however, was the incredible intellectual freedom the chinese were given: Research grants were readily given, scholars and scientists were given licence to research as they saw fit, and a great number of universities and schools were open, this would have immense consequences for China, and the world.

Anyone wishing to ask questions of the professor (not the Professor) may do so.

Plans: At thsi point in time it was believed the Chinese did not have any far-reaching plans, with the exception perhaps of a few visionaries, having recently settled down from the Troubles of the Yonglian Revolution they were still a bit shaky, some few theorized that China had a "manifest Destiny" to untie all confucian countries under the banner of the Son of Heaven, the haphazard chinese attacks upon the Manchu suggests such a plan, certainly.

It is estimated that around 1450 or so China was conquered by a new alien race, flying huge green spaceships, like these:



These aliens had a much more martial bent than the native chinese (although scientists speculate that these aliens had already influenced chinese politics from behind the scene for quite some time, some going so far as to make them responsible for the Yonglian Revolution, this is most likely untrue)

The chinese were shakened first by the abduction of Emperor Zhengtong (it was later revealed he had been kidnapped by aliens) then by a declaration of war from the Manchu, the chinese however quickly recovered and managed to conquer all of the Manchu Realm save the capital itself, the campaign is a masterpiece of chinese warfare, utilizing numerical superiority and attrition to their fullest advantage, at that time Emperor Zhengtong returned, claiming to have been the guest of friendly creatures from another world, he showed the great green ship he had been on, which immediately made the chinese stockmarkets go through the roof, creating a virtual monopoly in both Kansai and Shanghai.

The war kept on going however, after a political crisis compounded by nobles allying with the Manchu Emperor the Koreans declared war on the Manchu, easily taking Jilin and annexing the formerly deadly mongol state.

That left the japanese however, preparing an invasion the nobles demanded their right to appear with men and horses, to aid in the invasion of Japan, their former rights thus recovered they set sail and landed in Shikoku in the year 1469.

Matsuyama was captured swiftly by chinese engineers, and despite overwhelming numerical inferiority the chinese managed to route the japanese Imperial Army, sending more than 100,000 samurai fleeing for their lives from Kansai, the chinese army at this point, according to sources, numbered less than 30,000.

With the fall of Kyoto and the capture of the Japanese Emperor the war was over, the japanese were forced to cede Shikoku to the chinese and pay subsantial war indemnities to the Koreans.


China, Korea and Japan after the War of Manchu Annexation

stnylan said:

It must be that wall. It just draws in the space-faring sort

Click to expand...

Stnylan: Oh the wall crumbled...

After this burst of Expansion the chinese sat down for some time, improved their infrastructure, constructed four different refineries (two of these were quite unexpected inventions to the emperor) and proceeded to incorporate the Koreans into their empire.

Time and time again war broke out with Japan, the first war, declared by the Koreans before they were assimilated, led to the capture of Ezochi and Kyushu from the japanese, the second, and much more violent, war on the other hand led to the death of almost 200,000 chinese and an uncounted number of japanese troops (the widespread recruiting drive caused a major revolt in Jilin, that was put down) but the chinese prevailed, taking Tohoku from the japanese and also in the same war making them a vassal in fact as well as in name of the Chinese Empire.

Gjerg Kastrioti said:

Arilou, re your annexation of the Manchu.

Hold! What you are doing is wrong! Why do you do this thing?

:grin:

Click to expand...

Ah... The words, the words the words, you have spoken them well and you have spoken them correctly.

But I didn't annex the Manchu, Korea did

China will grow larger.
Or at least it won't fall apart like a house of cards made of butter in the sunlight.

China incorporated Japan into the Empire in 1515, a few years after that they spent improving the rather outdated military: They did so with gusto, making China the most advanced military power in the world, they then turned this army upon the Khanates of Central Asia, forcing the Chagatai, Uzbekh, Nogai and Khazak hordes to acknowledge China as their overlord.

The Chinese continued their warmongering ways, after a terrible insult from the Dalai Lama chinese troops invaded the Mountain Country and their allies in Assam, both were made vassals of China.

The same fate befell the Pegu-Vientiane-Dai-Vetian alliance that dared defy China, vassalized by force was also Myanmar, meaning that most of South-East asia was dependant upon the chinese.

As china contiuously improved her trade and infrastructure (and cast glances in the direction of the states of Bengal and Orissa, looking to add them as vassals) some miffos in the government asked if they were allowed to close China to all outsiders. "No" said the emperor.

Now, the chinese spend the 16th century improving their economy, restructuring their internal policies (chinese councillors advised that the army should be offensive and it's quality high, that naval expansion should be paramount, innovation encouraged, the aristocracy empowered, centralization increased, and the trade as free as the citizens)

They also spent their time making war, the first war, against the Mughal-Assamite-Bengal Alliance dragged on for many years, although the Assamites and Bengalis were quickly routed by superior chinese technology the Mughals and their monarch Akbar proved a much tougher nut to crack, finally however they too were defeated and forced to the negotiating table, all of these three states were forced to acknowledge chinese superiority.

The second important war (prompted by the chinese hidden alien advisors) led to Atjeh being forced to acknowledge chinese superiority.



At this time also the Great Improvements began, at least 10 refineries had een built, many of them due to unexpected inventions, the entire country (more or less) had also been improved in other ways, legal counsels and governors were nowadays present in all chinese provinces.



A side effect of the chinese advantage in technology was the rise of the moslem nations in power and influence, with greater proximity to china they profited greatly from their gigantic neighbour, making nations such as Gujarat and the Mamluks leader in technology before such laggards as France and Austria.



Of course, this did not preclude China from expanding their Manchurian colonies, to great expense the colonies north of Manchuria were expanded to the status of cities.

Some time during the second decade of the 17th century the Chinese made yet another brave expidition, this time to the Yonglian continent, at first they had planned to annex the vast Aztec Empire, but someone commented that since no missionaries were present they would have to share their time with Heathens, disappointed the Son of Heaven decided to simply convert the top-layer of aztec society to the Confucian philosophy.

In 1617 a manchu chieftain by the name of Nurachi attemtped to rebel against the Emperor of China, the emperor of course refused to leave his manchu citizens to the depredations of Nurhachi and ordered the army to restore order, great unrest was caused by this all over the country.

Even greater unrest was caused by the deadly Cult of the White Lotus, the emperor however, dispatched his troops to crush this insurgency as well.

At the same time as the White Lotus rebellion new colonies were founded on the Yonglian continent, also, the aztecs were brought under chinese vassaldom.

Despite the continous activity of the White Lotus cult the Empire's finances remained sound, thus the Emperor declared that no new taxes would be raised in 1640, the decision was hailed with great glee all across the Empire.

All hell broke loose in 1644, when the madman Li Cheng took the capital, the emperor committed suicide, something that plunged the Empire into total chaos, war and destruction ravaged the lands, and in the turmoil the Manchu declared their independence. Woe was upon the chinese indeed!