1 00:00:07,400 --> 00:00:10,280 In all countries, the first duty of the state 2 00:00:10,280 --> 00:00:12,880 is to protect the people - 3 00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:15,920 from anarchy, invasion and insurrection. 4 00:00:17,240 --> 00:00:21,120 But sometimes in history, the rebels become the rulers. 5 00:00:25,080 --> 00:00:29,080 In the Story of China, we've reached the 14th century 6 00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:32,520 and the beginning of China's most dazzling age. 7 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:38,800 Here in Nanjing, is the tomb of the founder of that age - 8 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:41,000 one of the greatest Chinese emperors. 9 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:45,760 And yet the man who built this... 10 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:46,840 was a rebel. 11 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:54,160 The story of the man who rose to this splendour is... 12 00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:56,120 well, literally, incredible. 13 00:00:56,120 --> 00:00:58,400 He came from the poorest peasant family. 14 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:01,320 His mother and father had given him away when he was a child. 15 00:01:01,320 --> 00:01:04,760 He'd spent years as a wandering beggar, 16 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:06,680 as a penniless Buddhist monk. 17 00:01:06,680 --> 00:01:10,560 He'd risen through the ranks of the secret peasant societies 18 00:01:10,560 --> 00:01:12,080 fighting against the government 19 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:14,480 and won a series of staggering victories, 20 00:01:14,480 --> 00:01:17,960 both against the government and against his peasant rivals. 21 00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:23,640 When he became emperor, he gave himself the title Hongwu - 22 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:28,240 literally "above all mighty in war." 23 00:01:28,240 --> 00:01:29,520 The Terminator. 24 00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:36,040 He was suspicious, coarse, brutal, utterly ruthless, 25 00:01:37,320 --> 00:01:39,320 but a creative genius. 26 00:01:39,320 --> 00:01:44,240 And he founded one of the greatest eras of stability in government 27 00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:46,640 and in society and high civilisation 28 00:01:46,640 --> 00:01:48,440 in the history of the world. 29 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:55,240 The new dynasty was to be called "the bringer of light..." 30 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:56,280 Ming. 31 00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:36,840 China has been a great power for most of its history 32 00:02:36,840 --> 00:02:41,560 and yet repeatedly invaded and subjugated by foreigners. 33 00:02:42,640 --> 00:02:45,160 When the future emperor Hongwu was young, 34 00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:47,520 China was under the rule of the Mongols, 35 00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:50,280 whose empire stretched to the gates of Europe. 36 00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:57,400 But in the 1350s, the Mongol empire began to crumble. 37 00:02:57,400 --> 00:03:01,320 In China, resistance armies rose against them in different regions. 38 00:03:01,320 --> 00:03:04,160 SCREAMING 39 00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:06,360 But then the land was torn apart 40 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:08,840 as warlords fought each other in civil war. 41 00:03:10,920 --> 00:03:12,360 Chaos ruled, 42 00:03:12,360 --> 00:03:16,960 but opportunity beckoned for the peasant general Zhu Yuanzhang. 43 00:03:24,040 --> 00:03:27,640 Here in Nanjing, Zhu made his stronghold. 44 00:03:27,640 --> 00:03:31,200 With his reputation for justice and good governance, 45 00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:34,480 vast numbers of refugees flowed into the city - 46 00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:36,600 a safe haven in time of war. 47 00:03:46,040 --> 00:03:49,760 And now the people called on Zhu to declare himself emperor. 48 00:03:51,880 --> 00:03:54,720 But he was a peasant and unwilling to take power. 49 00:03:54,720 --> 00:03:56,280 So, he asked for a sign - 50 00:03:56,280 --> 00:03:59,360 a tale told by the traditional storytellers. 51 00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:17,160 That same year - 1368 - now the Hongwu Emperor, 52 00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:19,360 he drove the Mongols out of North China 53 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:22,680 and made Nanjing capital of his new dynasty. 54 00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:31,720 And now he sets out to rebuild the Chinese state, 55 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:34,480 not with Confucian ideas of virtue 56 00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:36,960 which had inspired the Song Golden Age, 57 00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:38,720 but by force and fear. 58 00:05:41,480 --> 00:05:44,360 He surrounded his capital with giant walls 59 00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:47,240 to show the might and legitimacy of Ming rule. 60 00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:51,360 It's just epic, isn't it? 61 00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:54,400 This isn't a castle, it's a gate! 62 00:05:54,400 --> 00:05:58,360 Three great courtyards leading to the main gate. 63 00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:00,760 From the moat, you've got to cover about a kilometre 64 00:06:00,760 --> 00:06:03,200 to get through it into the city. 65 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:07,680 Believing himself to be guided by heaven, 66 00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:10,360 Hongwu reshaped the layout of Nanjing 67 00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:15,320 as a cosmic city based on ancient Daoist mystical beliefs. 68 00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:19,240 The capital that the emperor had created was 69 00:06:19,240 --> 00:06:21,800 the greatest city on Earth and it still has 70 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:25,840 the greatest set of city walls on Earth, 33km of them. 71 00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:32,760 "Like a crouched tiger and a coiled dragon," it was said, 72 00:06:32,760 --> 00:06:35,800 "snaking over hills and round the rivers and lakes." 73 00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:38,920 It was thought to represent 74 00:06:38,920 --> 00:06:41,160 the constellation of Ursa Major, 75 00:06:41,160 --> 00:06:43,400 the Big Dipper along with Ursa Minor 76 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:46,080 and the 13 city gates matched 77 00:06:46,080 --> 00:06:48,800 the 13 great stars. 78 00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:55,000 The centre of power would replicate the harmonious order of heaven 79 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:58,080 whose mandate had now passed to the ruler of the Ming. 80 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:08,200 Hongwu now set out to put an all-powerful state 81 00:07:08,200 --> 00:07:10,880 at the centre of people's lives. 82 00:07:10,880 --> 00:07:14,160 His thirst for control is even stamped on the bricks 83 00:07:14,160 --> 00:07:16,280 in the city wall. 84 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:17,640 Now, look at this. 85 00:07:17,640 --> 00:07:22,040 This is a wonderful insight into Ming power. 86 00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:28,560 Late 1300s, they got a census, they registered households, 87 00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:31,760 the country was thousands of what I suppose what we'd call 88 00:07:31,760 --> 00:07:34,520 tithings - groups of communities. 89 00:07:34,520 --> 00:07:40,280 And 152 of these areas contributed to making 90 00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:43,560 the bricks for this vast enterprise here. 91 00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:45,160 And all the bricks are stamped... 92 00:07:45,160 --> 00:07:46,920 Just look at that! 93 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:51,280 ..with who made it and where it was made. 94 00:07:51,280 --> 00:07:53,880 So, if you made a bad brick they knew who you were 95 00:07:53,880 --> 00:07:55,000 and where to find you. 96 00:08:14,720 --> 00:08:17,640 But for the real story of Hongwu's revolution, 97 00:08:17,640 --> 00:08:21,640 you have to leave the city and go out into the countryside, 98 00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:26,240 for here he thought was the true soul of China. 99 00:08:33,840 --> 00:08:37,800 Born a peasant, Hongwu identified with the peasants. 100 00:08:37,800 --> 00:08:40,600 He registered all land to make taxes fairer, 101 00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:42,480 he had irrigation systems built 102 00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:44,960 and reduced the demands for forced labour. 103 00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:50,800 For him, the village was the basis of society. 104 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:54,360 Villages like this one - Tangyue in Anhui. 105 00:08:57,760 --> 00:09:01,000 Here, the Bao family were head of their tithing 106 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:04,120 and they soon rose in the Ming state. 107 00:09:04,120 --> 00:09:06,240 Let's just have a look at where we are. 108 00:09:07,400 --> 00:09:11,560 I've got you're your lovely map here. 109 00:09:11,560 --> 00:09:15,440 - Yes. - This location is the - east side of this village 110 00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:19,720 and also a main entrance from the Shexian county. 111 00:09:19,720 --> 00:09:24,880 So, here is the main ritual centre in the Ming dynasty. 112 00:09:24,880 --> 00:09:31,720 So, we've got a street, we've got an academy for education and a temple. 113 00:09:31,720 --> 00:09:34,720 - Yeah. - So, the village is making... - People are making money now. 114 00:09:34,720 --> 00:09:35,960 Yes. 115 00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:43,360 And the family used their money to build ancestral halls 116 00:09:43,360 --> 00:09:46,440 for their men and their women, 117 00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:50,560 who did their duty as loyal wives and mothers under the new order. 118 00:09:53,320 --> 00:09:55,960 'The Bao story is told in the old printed edition 119 00:09:55,960 --> 00:09:58,200 'of their family history, 120 00:09:58,200 --> 00:10:00,400 'first put together in the Ming.' 121 00:10:00,400 --> 00:10:03,160 So, how many copies of something like this would be produced? 122 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:48,960 Hongwu had been an outlaw in these hills 123 00:10:48,960 --> 00:10:52,640 and his bitter experience of the time of anarchy drove him 124 00:10:52,640 --> 00:10:56,760 to compile an all-embracing set of laws and punishments - 125 00:10:56,760 --> 00:10:58,600 the Great Ming Code. 126 00:11:00,200 --> 00:11:02,680 It drew on a thousand years of Chinese law, 127 00:11:02,680 --> 00:11:05,360 but its severity has never been forgotten. 128 00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:14,160 Here, one local story has been turned into a play 129 00:11:14,160 --> 00:11:16,520 showing Ming law at work. 130 00:11:16,520 --> 00:11:20,920 An innocent woman is condemned for the murder of her new husband. 131 00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:24,240 Accused of infidelity, she's tortured and executed 132 00:11:24,240 --> 00:11:25,880 by a harsh magistrate. 133 00:11:25,880 --> 00:11:28,480 SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE 134 00:11:53,640 --> 00:11:56,760 But the body on the dam wasn't her husband. 135 00:11:56,760 --> 00:11:58,680 He turns up, but too late. 136 00:11:58,680 --> 00:12:01,760 Hongwu's strict law had taken its course. 137 00:12:03,280 --> 00:12:06,400 But as the tale is remembered by the people of this town, 138 00:12:06,400 --> 00:12:10,120 the letter of Ming law was not always justice. 139 00:12:35,920 --> 00:12:38,040 So, like other autocrats in history, 140 00:12:38,040 --> 00:12:41,120 Hongwu wanted to force people to be good. 141 00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:52,760 In a country so vast and so diverse, 142 00:12:52,760 --> 00:12:56,200 the state had to be seen to be strong. 143 00:12:56,200 --> 00:12:59,360 "If I'm lenient," he said, "how am I a good ruler? 144 00:12:59,360 --> 00:13:02,120 "How will the people live peaceful lives?" 145 00:13:07,600 --> 00:13:11,720 Hongwu's rule rested on the hard realities of power. 146 00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:14,720 But his grandfather had been a village diviner 147 00:13:14,720 --> 00:13:18,200 and the emperor also believed implicitly in divination. 148 00:13:19,440 --> 00:13:22,000 "I rest neither night nor day," he said, 149 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:24,760 "to restore the ancient customs of the people." 150 00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:28,960 By returning to the roots of Chinese culture, 151 00:13:28,960 --> 00:13:31,720 he thought he could find the Dao - 152 00:13:31,720 --> 00:13:32,760 the true way... 153 00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:35,360 the right direction. 154 00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:41,960 The Wu family firm have been making these divinations compasses 155 00:13:41,960 --> 00:13:43,120 since the Ming. 156 00:14:13,680 --> 00:14:18,320 The Ming dynasty itself would last for nearly 300 years. 157 00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:21,760 But Hongwu's reign would be a turning point in Chinese history. 158 00:14:21,760 --> 00:14:25,200 He concentrated power in the person of the emperor himself. 159 00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:29,520 It would prove a dangerous legacy. 160 00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:34,000 In 1398 he died 161 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:36,000 and China was plunged into crisis. 162 00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:45,400 If a person of such authority, 163 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:48,680 of such stature, dies... 164 00:14:48,680 --> 00:14:49,920 Who takes over? 165 00:14:51,960 --> 00:14:56,760 And is the next person in line as able with the same kind of vision? 166 00:14:56,760 --> 00:14:58,840 Could he do the job? 167 00:15:01,800 --> 00:15:05,520 As his successor, Hongwu had named his grandson. 168 00:15:05,520 --> 00:15:07,640 But the boy's uncle rose against him. 169 00:15:08,840 --> 00:15:14,120 He took the excuse of weeding out disloyal ministers, 170 00:15:14,120 --> 00:15:17,720 and staged an uprising. 171 00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:21,200 And then after three years of civil war 172 00:15:21,200 --> 00:15:24,200 he took the throne and became the Yongle Emperor. 173 00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:29,240 Yongle - it means perpetual happiness. 174 00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:32,800 And when a tyrant calls himself that you have to watch out. 175 00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:39,040 Having done away with his nephew, he ruthlessly purged his enemies. 176 00:15:39,040 --> 00:15:43,520 Of course people knew he was a usurper, but there were rumours also 177 00:15:43,520 --> 00:15:45,280 that he was illegitimate - 178 00:15:45,280 --> 00:15:48,960 that he hadn't been the son of the first emperor, Hongwu. 179 00:15:48,960 --> 00:15:52,280 So he ordered all the ministers of the previous ruler 180 00:15:52,280 --> 00:15:55,440 to swear allegiance to him or die. 181 00:15:55,440 --> 00:15:59,080 And among them was the chief minister, Fang Xiaoru. 182 00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:03,760 Loyal, severe, honest. 183 00:16:03,760 --> 00:16:05,720 He was ordered to write the edict 184 00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:08,040 proclaiming the legitimacy of the new emperor. 185 00:16:08,040 --> 00:16:12,600 He threw his brush down. "I would rather die," he said. 186 00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:15,440 "You are not the true emperor. 187 00:16:15,440 --> 00:16:17,640 "Where is your nephew?" 188 00:16:17,640 --> 00:16:20,360 The emperor ordered his death, but with the most cruel sentence 189 00:16:20,360 --> 00:16:23,160 that was possible under Chinese law - 190 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:25,600 death by nine degrees. 191 00:16:25,600 --> 00:16:28,520 That meant that not only you died, but your parents and 192 00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:30,240 your grandparents and your children 193 00:16:30,240 --> 00:16:32,120 and your grandchildren and your brothers 194 00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:34,280 and your cousins and your nephews, 195 00:16:34,280 --> 00:16:36,440 to nine degrees of relationship. 196 00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:39,240 And the emperor paused and said, 197 00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:41,240 "But make it ten." 198 00:16:46,040 --> 00:16:49,160 And now Yongle took a momentous decision. 199 00:16:49,160 --> 00:16:52,520 In 1403 he ordered the building of a new capital 200 00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:55,680 at his own power base 700 miles to the north. 201 00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:04,160 There, on top of the old Mongol capital, he built a vast new city - 202 00:17:04,160 --> 00:17:05,920 Beijing. 203 00:17:07,520 --> 00:17:10,720 This is Tiananmen Square in the heart of today's Beijing, 204 00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:14,160 and it's a great place to get a sense of the majestic scale 205 00:17:14,160 --> 00:17:16,960 of the Ming Dynasty city. 206 00:17:19,960 --> 00:17:22,480 Over there Tian'anmen Gate - 207 00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:24,800 the gate of heavenly peace. 208 00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:27,760 With the famous portrait of Chairman Mao above it. 209 00:17:27,760 --> 00:17:31,160 You go through the gate and you're into the imperial city 210 00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:34,000 and the forbidden city in its very heart. 211 00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:43,360 The construction of Beijing took a million men 20 years. 212 00:17:43,360 --> 00:17:47,000 Like other autocrats in history, Yongle wanted to create 213 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:50,080 an architecture of absolute power. 214 00:17:57,040 --> 00:18:01,720 But Ming Beijing was more than an imperial capital, 215 00:18:01,720 --> 00:18:05,120 it was also a vast ritual space 216 00:18:05,120 --> 00:18:09,080 where the emperor petitioned the powers of heaven 217 00:18:09,080 --> 00:18:12,000 to ensure that fertility of the Earth 218 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:14,840 and the stability of the social order. 219 00:18:20,080 --> 00:18:23,600 Well, this is the end point of that great way 220 00:18:23,600 --> 00:18:26,480 that we traced all the way from Tiananmen Square. 221 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:28,680 It's the altar of heaven. 222 00:18:28,680 --> 00:18:32,840 This is the site of the most sacred rituals in the Ming Dynasty state. 223 00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:37,920 I find this an incredibly moving place, 224 00:18:37,920 --> 00:18:41,800 even when you're surrounded with all the business of tourism. 225 00:18:41,800 --> 00:18:46,000 This altar symbolizes that Chinese surge to find 226 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:51,800 harmony between the three layers of the cosmos, symbolized in this - 227 00:18:51,800 --> 00:18:55,240 the Earth, humanity and the heavens. 228 00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:06,160 Reaping the benefits of stability, 229 00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:11,080 in the early 1400s small market towns sprang up everywhere, 230 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:15,480 and China's economy began to grow and diversify. 231 00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:23,520 In a gigantic engineering project, the Grand Canal 232 00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:28,680 was refurbished for 1,000 miles between Beijing and the south, 233 00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:33,800 ferrying raw materials, timber and rice up to the new capital. 234 00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:37,400 It's still a mainstay of the Chinese economy today. 235 00:19:39,640 --> 00:19:43,240 So this is a nice way of life Mr Hu. I like the calmness of it. 236 00:19:43,240 --> 00:19:45,680 WOMAN TRANSLATES 237 00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:04,640 How much of the year do you spend on the boat? 238 00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:15,080 Helped by the Grand Canal, in the 15th century China's economy 239 00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:18,200 became once more the largest in the world. 240 00:20:18,200 --> 00:20:21,480 Although the renovation was an imperial project, 241 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:25,880 there's thousands of small operators - individual boat owners, 242 00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:30,400 like Mr Hu here, who conduct their own business. 243 00:20:30,400 --> 00:20:32,960 A person wrote at the time, "Travel up and down the canal 244 00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:35,320 "and everybody is doing business." 245 00:20:40,040 --> 00:20:44,800 So the Ming saw the spread of a mercantile mentality across China - 246 00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:47,040 making money out of trade. 247 00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:54,520 The population rose to between 150 and 200 million. 248 00:20:54,520 --> 00:20:58,120 Incredibly, in the 15th century, when less that three million 249 00:20:58,120 --> 00:21:00,280 lived in Tudor England, 250 00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:05,200 a third of the people of the world lived under Ming rule. 251 00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:15,200 So after the shock of the Mongol occupation China was restored, 252 00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:18,360 and in Chinese eyes the borders of the Ming were again 253 00:21:18,360 --> 00:21:21,040 those of civilisation itself. 254 00:21:25,720 --> 00:21:30,320 And now, rather like today, China went out to the world. 255 00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:35,800 In the early 1400s, decades before Columbus and Vasco da Gama, 256 00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:40,240 they sent seven great voyages westwards, under Admiral Zheng He. 257 00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:52,720 One of the fleet assembly places was the bay of Quanzhou 258 00:21:52,720 --> 00:21:54,960 on the coast of Fujian. 259 00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:59,880 Here in this great natural lagoon is what the Chinese in 260 00:21:59,880 --> 00:22:03,160 the Ming Dynasty called the gathering place of the ships. 261 00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:09,240 This is where those huge expeditions 262 00:22:09,240 --> 00:22:11,840 waited at anchor for the monsoon winds. 263 00:22:14,840 --> 00:22:18,360 Huge fleets - 63 ocean-going vessels - 264 00:22:18,360 --> 00:22:22,360 the biggest of them with 28,000 crew, 265 00:22:22,360 --> 00:22:24,240 just imagine it, 266 00:22:24,240 --> 00:22:27,760 heading out to the barbarian countries of the west. 267 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:33,600 Zheng He was a high-ranking Muslim courtier - a eunuch. 268 00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:37,800 He wasn't sent to explore or trade, let alone to conquer, 269 00:22:37,800 --> 00:22:44,600 but to receive tribute and show off the glory of the Yongle Emperor. 270 00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:47,000 As for the ships themselves, 271 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:49,160 little was known till the modern excavation 272 00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:51,600 of the Ming dockyards in Nanjing. 273 00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:56,120 What they found suggests the largest boats 274 00:22:56,120 --> 00:22:59,600 could have reached 240 feet long - 275 00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:02,200 the biggest wooden ships yet made. 276 00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:07,280 And they're building a replica now in Nanjing. 277 00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:13,040 Mike, if you look at this assembly shop for a boat, 278 00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:14,760 it's pretty sizeable, isn't it? 279 00:23:14,760 --> 00:23:18,240 It's sensational. It's absolutely amazing. 280 00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:21,440 This is not complete yet, it's only half the size. 281 00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:28,840 'It has six main decks, with watertight compartments 282 00:23:28,840 --> 00:23:34,480 'and a great decorated stern towering 60 feet above the keel.' 283 00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:37,080 - All these planks, they're naturally curved. - Yeah. 284 00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:42,800 'Incredibly, it's said Zheng He had 60 of these large vessels. 285 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:46,160 'What they called the treasure ships.' 286 00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:50,920 It's just an absolutely fantastic, isn't it? 287 00:23:50,920 --> 00:23:53,680 From the inside it looks much bigger than outside. 288 00:23:53,680 --> 00:23:56,280 It's amazing, amazing. 289 00:23:56,280 --> 00:24:00,160 And how many masts would a big ship like this have had? 290 00:24:00,160 --> 00:24:03,200 There are six masts, all together, 291 00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:06,400 with the two main masts in the middle. 292 00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:09,240 The tallest one is 38 meters. 293 00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:13,000 - That's huge. It's big mast. - That's huge. 294 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:18,160 Because only that kind of size of sail and mast can drive this boat. 295 00:24:19,520 --> 00:24:22,920 You remember Zheng He's inscription says, 296 00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:27,440 - "And our sails, billowing like clouds." - Yes! 297 00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:29,520 "Pushed us on day and night" 298 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:32,840 - Exactly! That's the exact description! - Fantastic. 299 00:24:32,840 --> 00:24:37,960 When we have all these sails in full wind it'll look like that. 300 00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:50,000 There's nothing approaching the treasure ships still afloat today. 301 00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:52,320 But an ocean-going junk sails out of Hong Kong 302 00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:55,880 for a children's charity, and I hitched a ride. 303 00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:24,320 And today, as China reaches out again to the west, 304 00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:27,000 Zheng He has become a national hero. 305 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,560 A symbol for the new self-confident world 306 00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:34,200 of Chinese expansionism and naval might. 307 00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:56,240 The great Ming voyages were made possibly by Chinese inventions - 308 00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:59,200 the stern rudder, watertight compartments 309 00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:01,440 and the magnetic compass, 310 00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:04,960 which they already had in the Tang Dynasty. 311 00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:06,920 So how did they navigate? 312 00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:11,320 Well, didn't have charts like modern charts, but Chinese merchants 313 00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:14,240 had sailed to the Persian Gulf before and east Africa 314 00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:16,880 as far back as the Tang Dynasty. 315 00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:20,360 And this is one of the portolans that they used. 316 00:26:20,360 --> 00:26:24,360 Very schematic maps of direction of travel. 317 00:26:24,360 --> 00:26:27,840 A bit like a London Tube map, almost. 318 00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:31,440 Top of the page is actually India. North is that way, 319 00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:33,480 you sail this way from China, 320 00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:36,280 and the main landmarks are all actually 321 00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:38,480 written down in little boxes. 322 00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:40,600 The area of Mumbai there. 323 00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:43,200 Further on, the area of the Gulf of Cambay, 324 00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:44,640 and then towards Pakistan, 325 00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:47,520 the Makran Coast and Iran. 326 00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:50,280 And there's an associated handbook which gives you 327 00:26:50,280 --> 00:26:54,640 the distances between the different ports and the star directions, too. 328 00:26:57,120 --> 00:27:01,160 The seven voyages between 1405 and 1433 went across the 329 00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:05,360 Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, 330 00:27:05,360 --> 00:27:08,560 and down the coast of east Africa. 331 00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:11,680 They brought back new knowledge, rare foods and plants 332 00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:13,640 and exotic animals. 333 00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:18,200 Even a giraffe, which the Chinese identified 334 00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:20,400 with the mythical unicorn - 335 00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:23,320 an auspicious sign for the Yongle Emperor. 336 00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:27,640 But after the sixth voyage, Yongle died. 337 00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:38,960 And after one more expedition the new emperor, Xuande, called a halt. 338 00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:44,360 So why did they stop? 339 00:27:44,360 --> 00:27:47,680 Ming Dynasty at that point was the greatest power on Earth, - 340 00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:50,440 maybe 200 million people. 341 00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:53,520 They'd been the great scientific innovators. 342 00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:56,840 They'd made the great inventions with which the West would 343 00:27:56,840 --> 00:27:58,360 later dominate the world. 344 00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:05,320 For some western commentators it shows that Chinese lacked 345 00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:09,400 the will to pursue the boundaries of knowledge. 346 00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:14,880 It would be like stopping Moon exploration at Apollo 8. 347 00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:17,040 But maybe there's something else. 348 00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:20,200 Maybe it's about how you use technology. 349 00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:23,480 And perhaps the Ming scholar-bureaucrats in the end 350 00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:27,280 realised that their interests were better served pursuing 351 00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:31,440 the traditional goals of Chinese civilisation - 352 00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:35,160 of achieving harmony between human kind and the cosmos 353 00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:37,520 within the borders of China. 354 00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:58,600 The truth is, dominating the wider world was not on the Chinese agenda. 355 00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:03,120 For the Ming, after all, China was the world. 356 00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:08,200 But there may have been a more pressing practical 357 00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:10,880 reason for giving up on sea power - 358 00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:13,640 the threat from their old enemies, the Mongols. 359 00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:19,480 Out to the north, Ming armies made almost annual expeditions 360 00:29:19,480 --> 00:29:24,840 beyond the mountains into the vast steppe lands of Mongolia. 361 00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:29,120 And then in 1449 the Zhengtong Emperor was defeated 362 00:29:29,120 --> 00:29:31,120 and captured by the Mongols - 363 00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:35,000 the greatest military fiasco in the Ming period. 364 00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:39,760 And that led to a massive rebuilding of the Great Wall 365 00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:43,360 and a new mood of defensiveness. 366 00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:54,800 This is the Juyongguan Pass - 367 00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:57,720 one of the most famous passes in Chinese history. 368 00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:00,360 As important in Chinese history as the Khyber is 369 00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:01,880 in the history of India. 370 00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:11,480 What you're looking at now, mainly the creation of the Ming Dynasty. 371 00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:15,800 You can see the Great Wall snaking down from the mountains 372 00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:20,400 all around us, coming down to this point, and down there, too. 373 00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:24,000 And it's coming down here to a great fortress. 374 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:27,640 The Chinese emperors called it the First Fortress of the World. 375 00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:31,680 See the series of gates where the road originally ran out to Mongolia. 376 00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:36,920 The garrison town rooftops over there, and up there 377 00:30:36,920 --> 00:30:42,000 the Buddhist and Daoist temples that served the people who lived here. 378 00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:44,840 Bristling with weaponry, 379 00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:49,560 armoured bowmen on the walls and the watchtowers, 380 00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:52,680 beacons to alert the defences, 381 00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:59,760 as the Ming Emperors start to define China as a Han civilisation again, 382 00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:03,200 against what lay in the world beyond. 383 00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:17,480 But at home, China was changing. 384 00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:20,680 Especially in the rich cities of the south like Suzhou. 385 00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:26,000 Ming China had begun as an agricultural state with 386 00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:30,000 a stifling command economy, but now the growth of the market 387 00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:33,880 gave birth to a new urban moneyed class, 388 00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:38,000 who would begin to loosen the grip of Ming autocracy. 389 00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:43,320 Suzhou, they said, was heaven on Earth. 390 00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:46,480 Like Renaissance Florence, with its high culture 391 00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:48,600 and its palaces and mansions. 392 00:31:48,600 --> 00:31:51,440 These days you can even stay in them. 393 00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:02,600 This was the house of the Fang family. 394 00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:08,920 They were only middling merchants, but as you can see, 395 00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:10,840 they lived the good life. 396 00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:17,160 And in your Ming Dynasty guest room 397 00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:20,720 there's fine furniture, as you can see, 398 00:32:20,720 --> 00:32:24,640 a wooden bath that the servants would fill for you in the evening, 399 00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:28,280 and a lovely four-poster bed hung with muslin mosquito nets - 400 00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:32,560 very necessary here in Suzhou. 401 00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:42,720 30 rooms, ancestral hall and a shrine room 402 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:44,200 and a little family school. 403 00:32:44,200 --> 00:32:47,240 All belonging to the one extended family. 404 00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:58,840 The Fang family had joined a new world of conspicuous consumption, 405 00:32:58,840 --> 00:33:01,760 of private wealth and taste. 406 00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:09,240 On their table the finest blue-glaze porcelain bought by the 407 00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:12,480 new rich from their local art dealers, 408 00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:17,560 and made by thousands of indentured workers in the state pottery kilns. 409 00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:28,360 To meet the consumer demand old arts reached new heights under the Ming. 410 00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:31,560 Among them lacquer making. 411 00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:37,240 It's a craft that demands incredible attention to detail. 412 00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:41,040 The best work was so coveted that Ming collectors travelled 413 00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:44,560 hundreds of miles to buy the top brand names 414 00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:47,040 from the most famous houses. 415 00:33:49,600 --> 00:33:53,160 Now the Gan family are reviving the old techniques. 416 00:34:13,280 --> 00:34:17,080 These gorgeous things would soon become all the rage in Europe, too. 417 00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:21,440 Exported by Ming merchants, paid for by New World silver, 418 00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:25,160 as China connected with the growing world economy. 419 00:34:30,160 --> 00:34:35,640 And wealth brought leisure. Time to read for both men and women. 420 00:34:35,640 --> 00:34:38,840 This was the golden age of Chinese fiction, 421 00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:41,920 with novels like the Plum in the Golden Vase, 422 00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:44,680 where middle class morals were now the subject 423 00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:47,320 of Sex and the City satire. 424 00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:23,520 Such confusions of pleasure were a long way 425 00:35:23,520 --> 00:35:26,720 from the austere world of the first Ming Emperor. 426 00:35:26,720 --> 00:35:32,000 Even fashion was now no longer the preserve of the ruling class. 427 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:34,640 And as regards designer labels, well, 428 00:35:34,640 --> 00:35:36,680 Suzhou was all the rage. 429 00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:38,280 If it wasn't made in Suzhou, 430 00:35:38,280 --> 00:35:42,640 people said, people just didn't want to wear it. 431 00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:45,000 The hems go up the hems go down, 432 00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:48,120 and the fuddy duddys complained these new people, 433 00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:51,000 with their newfangled fashions, 434 00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:53,400 are erasing the class differences 435 00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:57,600 which were implicit in the old, traditional styles of costume. 436 00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:05,520 In the cotton and silk industries demand skyrocketed. 437 00:36:05,520 --> 00:36:08,360 And Suzhou silk was the best. 438 00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:17,800 In every village around Suzhou, they said, the people devoted 439 00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:20,600 all their energies to earning a living from silk. 440 00:36:22,080 --> 00:36:25,880 A proletariat of textile workers was emerging, 441 00:36:25,880 --> 00:36:30,640 but critics now asked was all this pursuit of wealth 442 00:36:30,640 --> 00:36:32,640 making a better world? 443 00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:38,080 - Hello, how are you? - Hello, fine. 444 00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:40,440 I'm just looking at your beautiful silk. 445 00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:43,680 Yes, this a very traditional material. 446 00:36:43,680 --> 00:36:45,920 - May we have a look? - Which one do you like? 447 00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:48,520 Yeah, the one... It looks Chinese imperial gown, doesn't it? 448 00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:51,320 Maybe this one. OK. 449 00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:58,040 - This is the kind of thing the Mandarins used to wear. - Yes. 450 00:36:58,040 --> 00:37:03,120 This is like gold colour. In the pattern is long life. 451 00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:05,640 The meaning is very good - the long life. 452 00:37:05,640 --> 00:37:08,840 And here is five bats. 453 00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:09,960 - Beautiful. - Yes. 454 00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:13,400 And people buy this to make dresses or clothes or what? 455 00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:16,720 For making wedding dress. For Chinese wedding dress. 456 00:37:16,720 --> 00:37:21,680 Maybe Chinese man, the jacket is nice. 457 00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:23,960 - For men too? Really? - Yes. 458 00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:25,680 Like this one, maybe. 459 00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:27,680 I show you. 460 00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:29,880 - Oh, that is beautiful. - This is nice. 461 00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:32,280 You know here is a dragon. 462 00:37:32,280 --> 00:37:36,120 The dragon, for a man, it's a perfect pattern. 463 00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:38,760 Oh, right. So it's strength? 464 00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:40,680 The dragon is strong and brave? 465 00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:42,400 And good luck as well? 466 00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:44,480 Yes, it's like a king! 467 00:37:44,480 --> 00:37:47,600 - Like a king. The symbol of the king. Yes, of course! - Yes! 468 00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:49,920 - Yeah, the emperor wears dragons! - Yes. 469 00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:05,400 So to paraphrase Dr Johnson, if you were tired of Ming Suzhou, 470 00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:07,960 you were tired of life. 471 00:38:07,960 --> 00:38:11,120 And when you'd made your money and retired, you came home 472 00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:13,480 and left your mark with a lovely garden. 473 00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:55,920 This was one of 90 gardens in Suzhou. 474 00:38:55,920 --> 00:38:59,600 Adorned with playful poems and inscriptions, 475 00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:02,720 it was a feast for the senses. 476 00:39:02,720 --> 00:39:05,600 A far cry from Hongwu's day, 477 00:39:05,600 --> 00:39:11,640 when the land was simply there to be ploughed by the peasants. 478 00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:16,720 These private gardens in the Ming Dynasty were rich men's passions. 479 00:39:16,720 --> 00:39:19,720 Passion being the operative word. 480 00:39:19,720 --> 00:39:23,000 They travelled hundreds of miles to bring back 481 00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:26,240 weirdly-shaped stones to place in the garden. 482 00:39:26,240 --> 00:39:29,240 They dug artificial hills, like this one, 483 00:39:29,240 --> 00:39:31,960 on which they placed gazebos where you could 484 00:39:31,960 --> 00:39:34,800 take in the different view points - 485 00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:38,680 the Distant Fragrance Hall where the lotuses were planted, 486 00:39:38,680 --> 00:39:41,920 the Magnolia Hall, and even better, 487 00:39:41,920 --> 00:39:46,920 the Scent of Snow and Rosy Clouds Hall. 488 00:39:46,920 --> 00:39:49,280 The pleasures of the Ming... 489 00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:50,560 for some. 490 00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:56,240 The gardens were nature in miniature. 491 00:39:56,240 --> 00:39:58,480 And as for nature at large, 492 00:39:58,480 --> 00:40:01,560 Ming thinkers had a lot to say about that, too, 493 00:40:01,560 --> 00:40:05,960 in a time that saw the rise of tourism and guidebooks. 494 00:40:05,960 --> 00:40:10,560 Especially in the remote highlands down to Yunnan and Vietnam. 495 00:40:13,960 --> 00:40:16,280 Here the Ming had opened up new territories 496 00:40:16,280 --> 00:40:19,640 with exotic tribes and peoples. 497 00:40:19,640 --> 00:40:24,800 And intrepid travel writers now describe their landscapes and geology. 498 00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:28,560 The most famous Ming travel writer was Xu Xiake. 499 00:40:59,320 --> 00:41:04,680 Xu wrote about nature and feeling like the European Romantics. 500 00:41:04,680 --> 00:41:08,800 In his records he sounds like a 19th-century natural scientist. 501 00:41:11,280 --> 00:41:15,760 But in all his wanderings, from the heartland to the edge of Ming China, 502 00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:20,080 what we never sense is the existence of a world beyond. 503 00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:27,600 And the world beyond was getting closer. 504 00:41:33,360 --> 00:41:38,840 In August 1582 a visitor arrived in the tiny Portuguese trading post 505 00:41:38,840 --> 00:41:43,000 of Macau on the South China Sea. 506 00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:50,200 It was an event of no apparent significance 507 00:41:50,200 --> 00:41:52,520 in the greater scheme of things. 508 00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:56,080 But its repercussions would be world-shaking. 509 00:41:57,640 --> 00:42:01,560 The visitor was an Italian Jesuit called Matteo Ricci, 510 00:42:01,560 --> 00:42:06,920 and his mission, unbelievably, was to convert China to Christianity. 511 00:42:13,800 --> 00:42:15,840 The founding of Macau had been part 512 00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:19,840 of the extraordinary expansion of European powers 513 00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:23,720 in the few decades since Columbus discovered the New World. 514 00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:28,280 Small maritime states on the Atlantic seaboard, 515 00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:31,960 they were nothing compared with the greatness and antiquity of China. 516 00:42:31,960 --> 00:42:36,640 But with their new knowledge, and propelled by Chinese inventions, 517 00:42:36,640 --> 00:42:39,560 it was the Europeans, not the Chinese, 518 00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:41,520 who would seize the time. 519 00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:46,560 And it all began with a simple trading deal. 520 00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:51,480 This is the old fortress on the top of Macau. 521 00:42:51,480 --> 00:42:54,720 Portuguese had made their earliest explorations 522 00:42:54,720 --> 00:42:58,400 of the Chinese coast in 1513-14. 523 00:42:58,400 --> 00:43:02,800 And then in 1557 the Ming government allowed them 524 00:43:02,800 --> 00:43:07,520 to actually settle on this peninsula and to live here. 525 00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:09,280 Not a formal treaty, 526 00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:12,120 and the Ming government looked after them very carefully. 527 00:43:12,120 --> 00:43:16,760 They had a landward wall with garrisons to make sure 528 00:43:16,760 --> 00:43:20,800 that they didn't come out of here, except at the allotted times - 529 00:43:20,800 --> 00:43:24,600 twice a year, when they could sail up to Canton to trade. 530 00:43:28,280 --> 00:43:31,120 It was the Europeans' first foothold. 531 00:43:32,440 --> 00:43:35,200 Here in the south, Ricci worked for 15 years 532 00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:37,680 learning to speak Chinese like a native. 533 00:43:40,160 --> 00:43:44,800 And then, in 1598, he set off overland to Beijing. 534 00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:49,200 The China he travelled through, he wrote, was the 535 00:43:49,200 --> 00:43:50,960 best-governed state on Earth, 536 00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:54,240 and a deeply moral civilisation. 537 00:43:54,240 --> 00:43:58,800 But Christianity, he thought, would be the completion of their faith. 538 00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:05,880 To achieve that, his idea was to go to the very top to find 539 00:44:05,880 --> 00:44:08,920 a Chinese emperor like Constantine, 540 00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:12,480 who'd converted the Roman Empire to Christianity. 541 00:44:12,480 --> 00:44:16,440 - He's an honorary Chinese person? - Yeah, and a great person. 542 00:44:16,440 --> 00:44:18,760 'He didn't succeed in that, 543 00:44:18,760 --> 00:44:23,200 'but astonishingly there are 70 million Chinese Christians today. 544 00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:27,080 'And in a sense you could say their story begins with Ricci.' 545 00:44:28,560 --> 00:44:33,760 When he was in Chaozhou he wrote two important books. 546 00:44:33,760 --> 00:44:36,920 One is a true doctrine of the Lord of Heaven - 547 00:44:36,920 --> 00:44:39,640 that's Catholic doctrine. 548 00:44:39,640 --> 00:44:43,720 And another one is Euclid's elements. 549 00:44:43,720 --> 00:44:45,200 Euclid's elements? 550 00:44:45,200 --> 00:44:50,760 That's very important, you know, mathematical books. 551 00:44:50,760 --> 00:44:54,960 Even after Matteo's death, people at that time, 552 00:44:54,960 --> 00:44:58,200 they say, "Oh, we have never had a foreigner 553 00:44:58,200 --> 00:45:01,000 "to be buried in the capital." 554 00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:04,800 And one important official at that time said, 555 00:45:04,800 --> 00:45:11,600 "One worthy only for the Euclid's elements can be buried here. 556 00:45:11,600 --> 00:45:13,840 "That's enough!" 557 00:45:13,840 --> 00:45:18,000 So you can see how important the works he has done. 558 00:45:19,880 --> 00:45:23,480 Most Chinese scholars were more interested in that 559 00:45:23,480 --> 00:45:25,760 new knowledge than what one described as 560 00:45:25,760 --> 00:45:27,920 "the Christian's strange theology." 561 00:45:30,120 --> 00:45:33,360 Ricci prepared for the emperor a map of the world, 562 00:45:33,360 --> 00:45:35,720 on which the Chinese learned of new continents, 563 00:45:35,720 --> 00:45:38,400 and saw that the world was far bigger 564 00:45:38,400 --> 00:45:40,840 than they'd ever imagined. 565 00:45:42,520 --> 00:45:45,960 And in Ricci's western science, the Mandarins found 566 00:45:45,960 --> 00:45:48,800 even more astonishing revelations. 567 00:45:51,520 --> 00:45:54,520 "These Westerners are passionate about astronomy," 568 00:45:54,520 --> 00:45:57,040 said one of the Chinese scholars. 569 00:45:58,800 --> 00:46:01,680 "And they've brought instruments with them 570 00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:03,560 "connected with that science." 571 00:46:04,680 --> 00:46:08,560 "And they believe that the Earth hangs in the firmament, 572 00:46:08,560 --> 00:46:13,120 "and that it's a globe. And that if you go all the way round westwards, 573 00:46:13,120 --> 00:46:15,520 "you end up going eastwards." 574 00:46:15,520 --> 00:46:18,240 "And if you go all the way up northwards, you go over 575 00:46:18,240 --> 00:46:20,560 "the top of the world, and then you travel southwards 576 00:46:20,560 --> 00:46:23,000 "and come back to where to you started." 577 00:46:25,720 --> 00:46:30,280 As you can see, it's an astrolabe. Oh, but what an astrolabe. 578 00:46:32,880 --> 00:46:38,080 Of course it enables you to take very accurate sun measurements and time measurements. 579 00:46:39,160 --> 00:46:42,000 The Chinese had used a lunar calendar 580 00:46:42,000 --> 00:46:45,440 prior to the arrival of the Jesuits, and Matteo Ricci, 581 00:46:45,440 --> 00:46:50,320 and now they're, with imperial patronage, 582 00:46:50,320 --> 00:46:53,360 have switched their science to a solar calendar, 583 00:46:53,360 --> 00:46:55,640 which is much more accurate, of course. 584 00:47:01,200 --> 00:47:03,880 But the implications of the new Western science 585 00:47:03,880 --> 00:47:06,320 were about far more than cosmology. 586 00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:11,480 They were a challenge to the entire system of thought 587 00:47:11,480 --> 00:47:14,600 developed by the Chinese over so many millennia. 588 00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:19,920 With Western ideas and Spanish silver from the Americas, 589 00:47:19,920 --> 00:47:24,440 Ming China was being drawn into the wider world. 590 00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:27,560 'The question was, how would it respond?' 591 00:47:28,720 --> 00:47:30,040 Hello. 592 00:47:31,200 --> 00:47:34,880 'Ricci himself died in China in 1610. 593 00:47:34,880 --> 00:47:40,280 'In the end, China had converted him, not the other way round. 594 00:47:40,280 --> 00:47:43,440 'He'd come to love and admire the Chinese 595 00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:46,960 'and what he called their 4,000-year-old tradition.' 596 00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:52,040 Ricci's Chinese diary was published after his death, 597 00:47:52,040 --> 00:47:54,920 and in it he makes some thought-provoking 598 00:47:54,920 --> 00:47:59,720 comparisons between the Europeans and the Chinese. 599 00:47:59,720 --> 00:48:01,840 "Though they have a well-equipped army and navy 600 00:48:01,840 --> 00:48:05,240 "that could easily conquer the neighbouring nations, 601 00:48:05,240 --> 00:48:07,320 "neither the king nor his people 602 00:48:07,320 --> 00:48:10,000 "ever think of waging wars of aggression. 603 00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:12,760 "In this respect it seems to me," says Ricci, "that they are 604 00:48:12,760 --> 00:48:15,120 "very different from the peoples of Europe 605 00:48:15,120 --> 00:48:18,320 "who are forever disturbing their neighbours, 606 00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:23,600 "and entirely consumed with the idea of supreme domination." 607 00:48:25,520 --> 00:48:30,800 But Ricci also saw a fatal insularity in the Chinese worldview. 608 00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:36,560 "The extent of the Chinese kingdom is so vast, 609 00:48:36,560 --> 00:48:40,360 "and its borders are so distant, 610 00:48:40,360 --> 00:48:44,800 "and yet their lack of knowledge about the world beyond the oceans 611 00:48:44,800 --> 00:48:50,120 "is so complete that they think their kingdom 612 00:48:50,120 --> 00:48:52,800 "includes the whole world." 613 00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:02,680 By the early 1600s, as the world was changing around them, 614 00:49:02,680 --> 00:49:05,960 the emperors were losing touch with the people - 615 00:49:05,960 --> 00:49:08,440 shutting themselves up in the Forbidden City, 616 00:49:08,440 --> 00:49:13,280 shunning the hard work and moral purpose needed to run the state. 617 00:49:13,280 --> 00:49:17,480 We've an insight into those times from the writer Zhang Dai, 618 00:49:17,480 --> 00:49:22,680 who came from a rich land-owning family here in Shaoxing. 619 00:49:22,680 --> 00:49:26,880 You can still make out the shape of the Ming Dynasty city - 620 00:49:26,880 --> 00:49:30,920 a great rectangle framed by tree-lined canals. 621 00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:37,760 This was a great cultural and economic centre. 622 00:49:37,760 --> 00:49:41,800 And this is where the Zhang family had set up in their beautiful estate, 623 00:49:41,800 --> 00:49:46,440 in what Grandad Zhang called the Happiness Garden. 624 00:49:48,400 --> 00:49:51,680 Across the country the gap between rich and poor was widening, 625 00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:56,280 while Zhang wrote about the life of the rich, like a Chinese Proust. 626 00:50:21,720 --> 00:50:23,840 But the prosperity of the Ming had been 627 00:50:23,840 --> 00:50:25,960 bought on the backs of the poor, 628 00:50:25,960 --> 00:50:27,880 while the rich still lived the good life, 629 00:50:27,880 --> 00:50:32,160 like the Edwardian aristocracy on the eve of the First World War. 630 00:50:32,160 --> 00:50:33,960 This is a very beautiful hotel. 631 00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:37,160 'This is Zhang's house. It's now a hotel.' 632 00:50:37,160 --> 00:50:41,160 Hello. Yes, it's very nice to be here. 633 00:50:41,160 --> 00:50:44,280 'Zhang was typical of his class in the late Ming. 634 00:50:44,280 --> 00:50:47,880 'He had leisure and no responsibilities. 635 00:50:47,880 --> 00:50:52,480 'A career writer in a proudly literary city.' 636 00:50:52,480 --> 00:50:55,480 ..2,500 years old. 637 00:50:55,480 --> 00:50:59,280 - 2,500 years old? - Yeah, yeah. 638 00:50:59,280 --> 00:51:02,360 I don't think we've got towns as old as that in England! 639 00:51:08,920 --> 00:51:13,120 Looking back, Zhang saw that society was corrupt and unjust. 640 00:51:14,880 --> 00:51:17,560 "I had it all in my youth," he wrote. 641 00:51:17,560 --> 00:51:21,480 "I was a silk stocking dandy addicted to luxury. 642 00:51:21,480 --> 00:51:23,440 "But it was all an illusion." 643 00:51:28,240 --> 00:51:31,680 Social critics were now asking whether the pursuit of wealth 644 00:51:31,680 --> 00:51:35,200 had eroded the idea of service to the state. 645 00:51:36,360 --> 00:51:39,600 Some blamed the imperial system itself. 646 00:51:39,600 --> 00:51:43,680 "Let's throw the scoundrels out," they wrote. 647 00:51:43,680 --> 00:51:45,800 And died for it. 648 00:51:55,560 --> 00:51:57,560 In the 1630s the crisis came. 649 00:51:57,560 --> 00:52:00,080 Beyond the lantern-lit pavilions, 650 00:52:00,080 --> 00:52:02,840 gangs of unemployed roamed the countryside, 651 00:52:02,840 --> 00:52:05,160 the silk workers went on strike, 652 00:52:05,160 --> 00:52:08,320 peasant rebellions raised their flags. 653 00:52:08,320 --> 00:52:11,560 And then even nature seemed to turn against them. 654 00:52:22,320 --> 00:52:25,640 The Yellow River broke its banks, overwhelming the dykes 655 00:52:25,640 --> 00:52:30,360 so carefully restored by Ming engineers a century before. 656 00:52:30,360 --> 00:52:33,160 Whole cities and towns were wiped out. 657 00:52:33,160 --> 00:52:36,240 Epidemics and famines killed millions. 658 00:52:39,040 --> 00:52:43,040 The old cycles of Chinese history had returned to haunt them. 659 00:52:43,040 --> 00:52:44,800 And for the first time, 660 00:52:44,800 --> 00:52:49,880 China's rulers had discovered the limits of autocracy. 661 00:52:49,880 --> 00:52:54,040 Along the coasts, the government could no longer give protection 662 00:52:54,040 --> 00:52:58,400 to communities against bandits, outlaws and pirates. 663 00:53:01,640 --> 00:53:05,040 More and more, the people were left to their own devices. 664 00:53:08,280 --> 00:53:12,240 'Here, in one village in Fujian, a public-spirited local, 665 00:53:12,240 --> 00:53:16,800 'a retired civil servant, came back home to help out.' 666 00:53:16,800 --> 00:53:18,000 Hello. 667 00:53:19,600 --> 00:53:21,880 'Here he set up charities. 668 00:53:21,880 --> 00:53:25,000 'And in 1604 paid for walls to protect the village 669 00:53:25,000 --> 00:53:28,560 'when the local government had run out of cash. 670 00:53:28,560 --> 00:53:31,080 'His family, the Zhaos, are still here.' 671 00:53:32,800 --> 00:53:34,920 It's like a mini-fortress, isn't it? 672 00:53:37,520 --> 00:53:42,400 'In the centre of the village he built a great fortified tower house. 673 00:53:42,400 --> 00:53:46,240 'A refuge for the whole village in time of crisis.' 674 00:53:46,240 --> 00:53:48,440 That's absolutely wonderful, isn't it? 675 00:53:49,600 --> 00:53:53,080 Because the soldiers have to watch the outside, 676 00:53:53,080 --> 00:53:57,400 and there's only windows for the outside on the top floor. 677 00:53:57,400 --> 00:54:00,560 You can see the landscape all around from the top floor. 678 00:54:04,480 --> 00:54:06,600 HE LAUGHS 679 00:54:06,600 --> 00:54:08,640 - Hi. Thank you. - Please sit down. 680 00:54:08,640 --> 00:54:12,600 So, Mr Zhao? Very nice to meet you. Hi. 681 00:54:13,920 --> 00:54:16,880 'And as in so many places in China, 682 00:54:16,880 --> 00:54:20,600 'the Zhao family still know their ancestors story.' 683 00:54:59,400 --> 00:55:04,640 At that time there were many pirates, pirates on the sea. 684 00:55:04,640 --> 00:55:07,320 And pirates attacked at them. 685 00:55:07,320 --> 00:55:11,160 So Zhao Wen came back to build this, 686 00:55:11,160 --> 00:55:13,720 Zhao's family's castle. 687 00:55:22,200 --> 00:55:25,520 The harsh justice of the first Ming Emperor, 688 00:55:25,520 --> 00:55:28,960 a guarantee of order was another world now. 689 00:55:31,840 --> 00:55:35,280 As Mr Zhao's son observed in 1619, 690 00:55:35,280 --> 00:55:38,760 "The days of peace seem a long time ago." 691 00:55:46,240 --> 00:55:50,000 And in 1644, the end came. 692 00:55:55,520 --> 00:55:58,760 HE SHOUTS ORDERS 693 00:56:00,240 --> 00:56:01,880 In the north, in Manchuria, 694 00:56:01,880 --> 00:56:05,680 the Manchus had created a powerful new state. 695 00:56:05,680 --> 00:56:10,840 And sensing China's weakness, their armies surged down onto Beijing. 696 00:56:15,800 --> 00:56:19,520 To avoid capture, the Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself 697 00:56:19,520 --> 00:56:23,960 from a tree on Coal Hill, overlooking the Forbidden City. 698 00:56:23,960 --> 00:56:27,320 The tree is still there, with his memorial. 699 00:56:29,600 --> 00:56:32,560 Next year the Manchu armies swept across the Yangtze. 700 00:56:32,560 --> 00:56:36,160 If they resisted, the rich cities of the south were devastated. 701 00:56:45,880 --> 00:56:50,880 In Shaoxing, Grandad Zhang's Happiness Garden was wrecked, 702 00:56:50,880 --> 00:56:53,320 along with the family mansion. 703 00:56:53,320 --> 00:56:56,400 And the Chinese Proust, Zhang Dai, 704 00:56:56,400 --> 00:56:59,720 fled to become a penniless Buddhist monk. 705 00:57:01,760 --> 00:57:04,880 "As I think about the things that I did in the past," he said, 706 00:57:04,880 --> 00:57:06,520 "I write them all down. 707 00:57:08,720 --> 00:57:10,000 "To beg forgiveness. 708 00:57:12,320 --> 00:57:14,760 "In life, everything has a payback. 709 00:57:14,760 --> 00:57:17,240 "The rags I'm wearing now are payback 710 00:57:17,240 --> 00:57:20,720 "for the fine furs and silks that I once had. 711 00:57:20,720 --> 00:57:25,120 "The straw that I sleep on is a payback for the soft beds. 712 00:57:25,120 --> 00:57:29,040 "The smoke in my eyes and the dung in my nostrils 713 00:57:29,040 --> 00:57:33,920 "payback for the voluptuous fragrances of the past. 714 00:57:35,520 --> 00:57:40,520 "This sack on my shoulder, a payback to all those who used to carry me. 715 00:57:41,800 --> 00:57:46,000 "For every kind of sin, there is a kind of retribution." 716 00:57:53,640 --> 00:57:58,080 "I was nearly 50 years old that year of 1645," Zhang wrote. 717 00:58:00,480 --> 00:58:04,280 "My country was shattered and I had lost everything. 718 00:58:07,000 --> 00:58:11,880 "Looking back, it was as if my life under the Ming had been a dream." 719 00:58:21,640 --> 00:58:26,440 Next time: China's last empire, the glory of the Qing, 720 00:58:26,440 --> 00:58:29,440 and the fateful coming of the British.