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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Most students of Middle Eastern history in the West will probably recognize the title of this paper as an allusion to Bernard Lewis's well-known article “Ottoman observers of Ottoman decline”. The allusion is meant to be more than a mere play on words, however, for Professor Lewis's discussion of the reactions of Ottoman statesmen to the crises that rocked their society in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries contains much that is relevant to an understanding of Chinese reactions to similar crises in the Ming (1368–1644) empire at about the same time. Indeed, whether or not one accepts the still controversial notion that there was a “general crisis” in seventeenth-century world economic and political history, it has become increasingly clear in recent years that during the period from approximately 1550 to 1680, a revolution in world monetary history, sharp fluctuations in the levels of international and domestic trade, dramatic increases in governmental expenditure, significant changes in the growth rates and geographical distribution of population, deteriorating climatic conditions, and outbreaks of epidemic disease affected many economies, including those of the Ming, Ottoman, and Spanish empires, in ways that rulers, officials, clerics, and political commentators from London to Edo found deeply disturbing.
1 Originally published in Islamic Studies, 1, no. 1 (03 1962): pp. 71–87Google Scholar, this article has been reprinted in Professor Lewis's much more widely-available Islam in History: Ideas, Men, and Events in the Middle East (London, 1973), pp. 199–213. Page references below are to the latter publication. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Timothy Barrett, Michael Cook, Lloyd E. Eastman, Patricia Ebrey, Mark Elvin, C. J. Heywood, D. O. Morgan, Ramon H. Myers, Geoffrey Parker, Evelyn S. Rawski, Thomas G. Rawski, and Ronald P. Toby for their comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this paper. I am of course solely responsible for the errors and shortcomings that remain.
2 Hill, Christopher, “Introduction,” in Aston, Trevor, ed., Crisis in Europe, 1560–1660 (London, 1965), p. 3Google Scholar. See also Carr, E. H., What is History? (Harmondsworth, 1964), pp. 150–152Google Scholar; and McNeill, William H., “Mythistory, or truth, myth, history, and historians,” American Historical Review, 91, 1 (02 1986): p. 7CrossRefGoogle Scholar. As late as the early 1970s, one of the leading European historians in one of the leading graduate schools in the United States was heard to say that as far as he was concerned, the study of history meant the study of Western man.
3 For recent discussions of this subject, see the articles by Curtin, , Sahilliogu, , Walz, , Yamamura, and Kamiki, , Whitmore, Cross, TePaske, and Gaastra in Richards, John F., ed., Precious Metals in the Later Medieval and Early Modern Worlds (Durham, North Carolina, 1983)Google Scholar.
4 On this last point, see Borah, Woodrow, Early Colonial Trade and Navigation between Mexico and Peru (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1954), pp. 117–123Google Scholar. See also Schurz, William L., The Manila Galleon (New York, 1939)Google Scholar; Parry, J. H., “Transport and trade routes,” in Rich, E. H. and Wilson, C. H., eds., The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Volume IV: The Economy of Expanding Europe in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Cambridge 1967), pp. 207–210Google Scholar; and “Economic reasons for suppressing the silk trade of China in Spain and its colonies,” in Blair, E. H. and Robertson, J. A., eds., The Philippine Islands, 55 vols. (Cleveland, Ohio, 1903–1909), 22: pp. 279–286Google Scholar. The last essay appears to have been written by an unknown author in Madrid during the late 1620s.
5 Elliott, J. H., Imperial Spain (Harmondsworth, 1978), p. 285Google Scholar. See also Parker, Geoffrey, The Dutch Revolt (Harmondsworth, 1979), pp. 114–117, 161–162, 225–233Google Scholar.
6 For statistical information on these phenomena, see Wilson, Charles and Parker, Geoffrey, eds., An Introduction to the Sources of European Economic History, 1500–1800 (London, 1977), pp. 37–62Google Scholar.
7 Vilar, Pierre, “The age of Don Quixote,” trans. Morris, Richard, in Earle, Peter, ed., Essays in European Economic History, 1500–1800 (Oxford, 1974), p. 104Google Scholar. For additional information on economic and social conditions in Spain at this time, see Elliott, J. H., “The decline of Spain,” in Aston, , ed., Crisis in Europe, pp. 117–205Google Scholar; Vives, Jaime Vicens, “The decline of Spain in the seventeenth century,” in Cipolla, Carlo M., ed., The Economic Decline of Empires (London, 1970), pp. 121–167Google Scholar; Lynch, John, Spain under the Habsburgs, 2nd. ed., 2 vols. (Oxford, 1981), 2: pp. 1–13, 135–173Google Scholar; Kamen, Henry, “The decline of Spain: a historical myth?” Past and Present, no. 81 (11 1978): pp. 24–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and idem, Spain, 1469–1714: A Society of Conflict (London and New York, 1983), pp. 196–256.
8 See, for example, Lewis, Bernard, “Some reflections on the decline of the Ottoman Empire,” Studia Islamica, Fas. IX (1958): pp. 111–127CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, The Emergence of Modern Turkey (London, 1966), pp. 21–39; Barkan, Ömer Lutfi, “The price revolution of the sixteenth century: a turning point in the economic history of the Near East,” trans. McCarthy, Justin, IntemationalJoumal of Middle Eastern Studies, 6 (1975): pp. 3–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McGowan, Bruce, Economic Life in Ottoman Europe: Taxation, Trade, and the Struggle for Land, 1600–1800 (Cambridge, 1981), pp. 56–79Google Scholar; and Fleischer, Cornell H., Bureaucrat and Intellectual in the Ottoman Empire: The Historian Mustafa Âli (Princeton, 1986), pp. 293–307CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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10 Griswold, William J., The Great Anatolian Rebellion (Berlin, 1983)Google Scholar. I am grateful to M. A. Cook and C. J. Heywood for bringing this work to my attention.
11 Ibid., pp. 238–239, and 253–254, n. 99; and McGowan, , Economic Life, pp. 86–87Google Scholar.
12 Lewis, , “Some reflections,” p. 119Google Scholar. See also Steensgaard, Neils, The Asian Trade Revolution of the Seventeenth Century: The East India Companies and the Decline of the Caravan Trade (Chicago and London, 1974), pp. 154–210Google Scholar.
13 On these imports, see my “International bullion flows and the Chinese economy circa1530— 1650,” Past and Present, no. 95 (05 1982): pp. 68–90Google Scholar. See also Hiromu, Momose, “Mindai no ginsan to gaikoku gin ni tsuite,” Seikyū gakusō, 19 (1935): pp. 90–147Google Scholar; Han-sheng, Ch'üan, Chung-kuo ching-chi shih lun-ts'ung, 2 vols., (Hong Kong, 1974), 1: pp. 417–473Google Scholar.
14 Geiss, James, “Peking under the Ming, 1368–1644” (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Princeton University, 1979), pp. 144–145Google Scholar.
15 The phrase “anonymous world” is J. H. Elliott's in his graphic description of peasant flight from the land in late sixteenth-century Spain. See his Imperial Spain, p. 295; and Lynch, , Spain under the Habsburgs, 2: pp. 153–161Google Scholar. On rural depopulation in other parts of Europe at this time, see de Maddalena, Aldo, “Rural Europe, 1500–1750,” trans. Grindgrod, Muriel, in Cipolla, Carlo M., ed., The Fontana Economic History of Europe, II: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Glasgow, 1974), pp. 282–287Google Scholar. On this phenomenon in the Ottoman empire, see Lewis, , The Emergence, p. 33Google Scholar; Barkan, , “The price revolution,” pp. 27–28Google Scholar; and McGowan, , Economic Life, pp. 85–87Google Scholar. On Russia, see Blum, Jerome, Land and Peasant in Russia (Princeton, 1961), pp. 152–167Google Scholar. On India, see Foster, William, The English Factories in India, 1630–33 (Oxford, 1910), pp. 45, 97, 122,134–35, 146Google Scholar; Moreland, W. H., From Akbar to Aurangzeb (London, 1923), pp. 201–203Google Scholar; and Edwardes, Michael, Asia in the European Age, 1498–1955 (New York, 1961), pp. 27–28Google Scholar. On Japan, see Kōji, Aoki, Hyakushō ikki sōgō nempyō (Tokyo, 1971), pp. 24–31Google Scholar; and Tamotsu, Nagakura, “Kan'ei no kikin to bakufu no taiō,” in kōron, Rekishi, ed., Edo jidai no kikin (Tokyo, 1982), pp. 76–77Google Scholar. On Korea, see Takashi, Hatado, A History of Korea, trans, and ed. Smith, Warren W. Jr, and Hazard, Benjamin (Santa Barbara, 1969), pp. 78–81Google Scholar.
16 Although such depopulation was particularly serious in the poorer northern sections of China during this period, even the comparatively prosperous southeast saw large numbers of people migrate from the countryside to urban areas in search of employment and better living conditions. The resulting demographic imbalance among regions and economic imbalance between agriculture and other occupations were deeply worrying to many observers at the time. See, for example, Kuang-ch'i, Hsü, Hsü Kuang-ch'i chi, 2 vols. (Shanghai, 1963), 1: pp. 227–228Google Scholar; and Tzu-lung, Ch'en, “Fan-li,” in Kuang-ch'i, Hsü, comp., Nung-cheng ch'üan-shu (Ch'ung-chen ed.), 5b–6aGoogle Scholar.
17 In 1618 the Manchu leader Nurhaci (1559–1626) declared war on the Ming state, thereby touching off nearly three decades of almost continuous warfare on China's northeastern frontier. There were problems on other frontiers as well, and by the late 1620s the dynasty also had to contend with widespread domestic unrest, especially in the economically depressed northwest. The military activity which accompanied these developments adversely affected the agricultural sector of the economy in two ways. First, it helped to reduce agricultural production in areas where military operations were carried out. And second, it helped to drive people from the land by forcing the Ming government to raise taxes to unbearable levels in an attempt to pay and equip its troops.
18 For a first-hand account of this corruption and its impact on the “livelihood of the people” (min sheng), see Ch'en Tzu-lung, An-ya-t'ang kao, 3 vols. (reprinted Taipei, 1977), 2: pp. 641–650. See also Ts'ai, Chang, Chih-wei-t'ang wen-ts'un (, K'ang-hsi ed.), 1/7aGoogle Scholar.
19 This subject has been of special interest to scholars in the People's Republic of China. See, for example, Chen-han, Ch'en, “Ming-mo Ch'ing-ch'u Chung-kuo ti nung-yeh lao-tung sheng-ch'an lu, ti-tsu, ho t'u-ti chi-chung,” in ta-hsüeh, Chung-kuo Jen-minshih, Chung-kuo li-shih chiao-yen, ed., Chung-kuo tzu-pen chu-i meng-ya wen-t'i t'ao-lun chi, 3 vols. (Peking, 1957–1960), 1: pp. 272–294Google Scholar. For a discussion of these issues by an eminent Ch'ing dynasty authority, see Chao, I., Nien-erh shih cha-chi (Taipei, 1971), pp. 495–496Google Scholar.
20 On climatic conditions in East Asia at this time, see Ko-chen, Chu, “A preliminary study on the climatic fluctuations during the last 5,000 years in China,” Scientia Sinica, 16, no. 2 (05 1973): pp. 240–245Google Scholar; Lamb, H. H., Climate, History, and the Modern World (London and New York, 1982), pp. 227–230CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Yoshino, M. M., “Regionality of climatic change in monsoon Asia,” in Takahashi, K. and Yoshino, M. M., eds., Climatic Change and Food Production (Tokyo, 1978), pp. 332–335Google Scholar; and the relevant maps in yüan, Chung-yang ch'i-hsiang chü Ch'i-hsiang k'o-hsüeh yen-chiu, ed., Chung-kuo chin wu-pai nien han-lao fen-pu t'u-chi (Peking, 1981)Google Scholar. See also my “Some observations on the ‘Seventeenth-Century Crisis’ in China and Japan,” Journal of Asian Studies, 45, 2 (02 1986): pp. 224–227Google Scholar.
21 Elliott, J. H., “Self-perception and decline in early seventeenth-century Spain,” Past and Present, no. 74 (02 1977): p. 41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
22 For recent studies of Olivares’ life and career, see Elliott, J. H., Richelieu and Olivares (Cambridge, 1984)Google Scholar; and idem, The Count-Duke of Olivares (New Haven and London, 1986).
23 Useful information on the arbitristas can be found in Elliott, “Self-perception”; idem, Imperial Spain, pp. 300–328; idem, The Count-Duke, pp. 89–94; Vives, , “The decline,” pp. 162–165Google Scholar; Vilar, , “The age of Don Quixote,” pp. 106–107Google Scholar; idem, A History of Gold and Money, 1450–1920, trans. Judith White (London, 1976), pp. 155–158; Kamen, “The decline;” and idem, Spain, 1469–1714, pp. 230–235.
24 See, for example, Vilar, , A History of Gold and Money, pp. 181–185Google Scholar; Rabb, Theodore K., The Struggle for Stability in Early Modern Europe (New York, 1975), pp. 53–59Google Scholar; Ladurie, Emmanuel Le Roy, Carnival in Romans, trans. Feeney, Mary (Harmondsworth, 1981), pp. 311–339Google Scholar; Lewis, “Ottoman observers;” G. L. Lewis, “Introduction,” in Chelebi, Katib, The Balance of Truth, trans. Lewis, , (London, 1957), pp. 7–14Google Scholar; Inalcik, H., “Suleiman the Lawgiver and Ottoman law,” Archivum Ottomanicum (1969): pp. 105–106Google Scholar; Itzkowitz, Norman, Ottoman Empire and Islamic Tradition (New York, 1972), pp. 87–103Google Scholar; Parry, V. J., “The successors of Sulaiman, 1566–1617,” in Cook, M. A., ed., A History of the Ottoman Empire to 1730 (Cambridge, 1976), pp. 106–107Google Scholar; Fleischer, , Bureaucrat and Intellectual, pp. 95–108Google Scholar; idem, “Royal authority, dynastic cyclism, and ‘Ibn Khaldunism’ in sixteenth-century Ottoman letters,” Journal of Asian and African History, 18, 3–4 (1983): pp. 198–220; Fodor, Pal, “State and society, crisis and reform in 15th–17th century Ottoman Mirrors for Princes,” Acta Orientalia Hung., 40 (1986): pp. 217–240Google Scholar; and Cook, M. A., “The Ottoman memorialists,” London, 1975Google Scholar (typewritten). I am grateful to Professor Cook for allowing me to read this last, very informative paper.
25 Quoted in Lewis, , “Ottoman observers,” p. 203Google Scholar.
26 The term ching-shih is a shortened form of the phrase ching-shih chi-min, which might be translated as “managing the affairs of the world and benefitting the people”. The longer phrase, along with another of its shortened forms, ching-chi, had been used in earlier periods of Chinese history but became particularly popular in the reform writings of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. See, for example, Hsün, Huang, comp., Huang Ming ming-ch'en ching-chi lu (1551 ed.)Google Scholar; Piao, Wan, comp., Huang Ming ching-chi wen-lu (1554 ed.)Google Scholar; Tzu-chuang, Ch'en, comp., Chao-tai ching-chi yen (1626 ed.)Google Scholar; Ch'i-su, Ch'en, comp., Huang Ming ching-chi wen-chi (1627 ed.,)Google Scholar; and Tzu-lung, Ch'en, Fu-yüan, Hsü, and Cheng-pi, Sung, comp., Huang Ming ching-shih wen-pien (1639 ed.)Google Scholar.
27 Some of the most important work on Chinese “statecraft” in recent years has been done by John D. Langlois, Jr. For example, see his “Political thought in Chin-hua under Mongol rule,” in Langlois, , ed., China under Mongol Rule (Princeton, 1981), pp. 137–185Google Scholar; and idem, “Law, statecraft, and the Spring and Autumn Annals in Yüan political thought,” in Hok-lam Chan and Wm. Theodore de Bary, eds., Yüan Thought: Chinese Thought and Religion under the Mongols (New York, 1982), pp. 89–152. See also Peterson, Willard J., Bitter Gourd: Fang I-chih and the Impetus for Intellectual Change (New Haven and London, 1979), pp. 101–119Google Scholar; Dennerline, Jerry, The Chia-ting Loyalists: Confucian Leadership and Social Change in Seventeenth-Century China (New Haven and London, 1981), pp. 151–179CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Handlin, Joanna F., Action in Late Ming Thought: The Reorientation of Lü K'un and Other Scholar-Officials (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1983)Google Scholar; and de Bary, Wm. Theodore, “Introduction,” in de Bary, and Bloom, Irene, eds., Principle and Practicality: Essays in Neo-Confucianism and Practicality (New York, 1979), pp. 1–33Google Scholar.
28 Many of the most important of these proposals can be found in Ch'en, et al, Huang Ming ching-shih wen-pien.
29 Elliott, , “Self-perception,” p. 46Google Scholar.
30 Quoted in Lewy, Guenter, Constitutionalism and Statecraft during the Golden Age of Spain: A Study of the Political Philosophy of Juan de Mariana, S. J. (Geneva, 1960), p. 102Google Scholar.
31 Quoted in ibid., p. 104. See also Laures, John, The Political Economy of Juan de Mariana (New York, 1928), pp. 103–111Google Scholar; and Elliott, , The Count-Duke, pp. 90–91, 96Google Scholar.
32 Lewy, p. 101; and Laures, pp. 105–111.
33 For relevant Islamic comments on divine retribution at about this time, see Tietze, Andreas, trans., Mustafā Alī's Counsel for Sultans of 1581, I (Vienna, 1979), p. 22Google Scholar; Lewis, , “Ottoman observers,” pp. 202–203Google Scholar; Fleischer, , Bureaucrat and Intellectual, p. 161Google Scholar; and Fodor, , “State and society,” p. 227Google Scholar.
34 It is interesting to speculate what most Confucian-educated Chinese would have made of the following passage by Ricci: “In ancient time the people of [Sodom] gave themselves up to depraved sensuality, and the Lord of Heaven turned away from them. Among them lived one pure man named [Lot], so the Lord of Heaven sent his angels to get [Lot] to leave the city and go to the mountains. Then down from heaven rained a great tire of consuming flame, men and animals and insects were all burned up and nothing was left, even the trees and rocks were turned to ash and sank into the ground. From the mire was formed a lake that brought forth stinking waters and still today serves as testimony to how greatly the emperor of heaven hates unnatural sensuality and perverse lusts.” Quoted in Spence, Jonathan D., The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci (London, 1985), p. 203Google Scholar.
35 The classic statement of this link is found in the opening sections of the Ta hsüeh or Great Learning. See Yüan, Juan, ed., Shih-san ching chu-shu, 7 vols. (Taipei, 1971), 4: p. 3629Google Scholar; and James Legge, The Chinese Classics, 5 vols. in 4 (reprinted Taipei, 1971), 1 and 2: p. 357. See also Hsiao, Kung-chuan, A History of Chinese Political Thought, Volume 1: From the Beginnings to the Sixth Century A.D., trans. Mote, F. W. (Princeton, 1979), pp. 110–112Google Scholar.
36 See, for example, the comments by Tung-lin leader Tsou Yüan-piao (1551–1624) to the Wan-li emperor following a serious palace fire in 1584 in T'ing-yü, Chang, ed., Ming-shih, 28 vols. (Peking, 1974), 21: p. 6303Google Scholar. See also Hsieh, Hsia, Ming t'ung-chien, 4 vols. (Peking, 1959), 3: p. 2651Google Scholar; and Handlin, , Action in Late Ming Thought, pp. 85, 110Google Scholar.
37 Lien, Yang, Yang Ta-kung hsien-sheng wen-chi (Ts'ung-shu chi-ch'eng ed., 1936), 1/7Google Scholar.
38 Ming-shih, 22: p. 6660.
39 Balazs, Etienne, Political Theory and Administrative Reality in Traditional China (London, 1965), pp. 63–64Google Scholar. See also Hsiao, , A History of Chinese Political Thought, pp. 208–213Google Scholar.
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53 Hsü, , Hsü Kuang-ch'i chi, 1: pp. 66–68Google Scholar. See also Chang P'u, “Hsü,” in Hsü, comp., Nungcheng ch'üan-shu, 1a; and Ch'en Tzu-lung, “Fan-li,” in ibid., 3a. Important Chinese works on water control were produced during this period as well. See, for example, Kuo-wei, Chang, Wu chung shui-li ch'üan-shu (1637)Google Scholar; and Hsia Yün-i, Yü-kung ku-chin ho-chu (Ch'ung-chen ed.). Chang Kuo-wei, it might be noted, helped to secure public funds for the publication of the first edition of the Nung-cheng ch'üan-shu. As a committed Christian, Hsü Kuang-ch'i also hoped that “practical” works such as the Tai-hsi shui-fa would lead Chinese scholars to study the religious teachings of the Jesuits as well. See Peterson, Willard J., “Why did they become Christians? — Hsü Kuang-ch'i, Li Chih-tsao, and Yang T'ing-yün,” Princeton, 1982 (typewritten), pp. 29–30Google Scholar. I am grateful to Professor Peterson for allowing me to read this as yet unpublished manuscript.
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69 It is of some interest that just when eunuch influence was increasing in late Ming China, the same thing was happening in the Ottoman Empire. In Istanbul, for example, the chief of the harem, who was always a eunuch, was becoming deeply involved in the affairs of state, a fact which might help to explain the rise in Ottoman palace expenditures discussed earlier. See Kurat, A. N., “The reign of Mehmed V,” in Cook, , ed., A History of the Ottoman Empire, p. 159Google Scholar.
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74 Lewis, , “Ottoman observers,” p. 205Google Scholar. See also Fodor, , “State and society,” pp. 229, 234Google Scholar.
75 Ibid., pp. 209–211. See also Itzkowitz, , Ottoman Empire, pp. 89–92Google Scholar. For some European parallels, see Parker, , Europe in Crisis, pp. 73–75Google Scholar; and Laures, , The Political Economy of Juan de Mariana, pp. 109–111Google Scholar.
76 Hsü, , Hsü Kuang-ch'i chi, 1: p. 122Google Scholar.
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78 Ch'en, et al. , Huang Ming ching-shih wen-pien, 30: p. 515Google Scholar; P'u, Chang, Ch'i-lu lun-lüeh (photoduplication of , Ch'ung-chen ed.), 2/48a-bGoogle Scholar; and Tzu-lung, Ch'en, An-ya-t'ang kao, 2: pp. 650–652, 763–771Google Scholar. See also Tsung-hsi, Huang, Ming-i tai-fang lu, pp. 33–36Google Scholar. Huang's comments, it should be remembered, were written after the Ming dynasty had fallen. For an Ottoman parallel, see the comments by Kinalizade Ali Celebi quoted in Fleischer, , “Royal authority,” p. 201Google Scholar.
79 Quoted in Parker, , Crisis in Europe, p. 73Google Scholar. See also Lewis, , “Some reflections on the decline of the Ottoman Empire,” pp. 120–121Google Scholar.
80 For a useful discussion of this subject with some statistics, see Huang, , Taxation and Governmental Finance, pp. 266–294Google Scholar. For some Ottoman parallels, see Barkan, , “The price revolution,” pp. 17–21Google Scholar.
81 This phrase, which comes from the Book of History or Shang Shu, continues: “When the root is firm, the country is tranquil.” See Yüan, Juan, ed., Shih-san ching chu-shu, 1: p. 330Google Scholar; and Legge, , The Chinese Classics, 3: p. 158Google Scholar. See also Hsiao, , A History of Chinese Political Thought, pp. 152–153Google Scholar.
82 On this subject, see Watt, John, The District Magistrate in Late Imperial China (New York, 1972), pp. 119–138Google Scholar.
83 See, for example, Ts'ai, Chang, Chih-wei-t'ang wen-ts'un, 11/6a–9bGoogle Scholar; Liu-ch'i, Chi, Ming-chi pei-lüeh, 4 vols. (Taipei, 1969), 2: pp. 179–181Google Scholar; Fu-yüan, Hsü et al. , Chi Shejen-shen ho-kao (1632 ed.) 7/27a–28bGoogle Scholar; Tzu-lung, Ch'enChien Chung-yü nien-p'u, in Yün, Wang, ed., Ch'en Chung-yu ch'üan-chi (1803 ed.), 1/33b–34aGoogle Scholar; and Chan, , “The decline and fall of the Ming Dynasty,” pp. 177–178Google Scholar.
84 Quoted in Yen-wu, Ku, comp., Tien-hsia chün-kuo li ping shu (Ssu-pu ts'ung k'an ed.), 9/76aGoogle Scholar. This translation follows that of Peterson, Willard in his Bitter Gourd, p. 70Google Scholar. See also Chen-han, Ch'en, “Ming-mo Ch'ing-ch'u,” pp. 272–283Google Scholar; and the comments by Ricci, Matteo quoted in Harris, , “The mission of Matteo Ricci,” p. 75Google Scholar.
85 Lu Chen-fei quoted in Lu Shih-i, Fu She chi-lüeh, in Ying-chi, Wu et al. , Tung-lin shih-mo (Taipei, 1966), pp. 217–218Google Scholar. Less than two months before Peking fell to Li Tzu-ch'eng in April 1644, a supervising secretary in the Ministry of War, Tseng Ying-lin, wrote the following to the Ch'ung-chen emperor: “The gentry and the wealthy clothe themselves with rent and feed themselves with taxes, sitting at their leisure while they suck the bone marrow of the population . . . . Indeed, the rich grow richer, invariably fleecing the people; and the poor grow poorer, until they are unable to survive at all.” Quoted in Wakeman, Frederic Jr, “The Shun interregnum of 1644,” in Spence, Jonathan D. and Wills, John E. Jr, eds., From Ming to Ch'ing: Conquest, Region, and Continuity in Seventeenth-Century China (New Haven and London, 1979), p. 45Google Scholar.
86 Laures, , The Political Economy of Juan de Mariana, p. 84Google Scholar.
87 Quoted in Kamen, , Spain 1469–1714, p. 234Google Scholar. For a Chinese parallel, see the comments by Lung-cheng, Ch'en quoted in Smith, Handlin, “Benevolent societies,” pp. 324–325Google Scholar.
88 Quoted in Lynch, , Spain under the Habsburgs, 2: p. 153Google Scholar.
89 Tietze, , Counsel for Sultans, p. 48Google Scholar; Fleischer, , Bureaucrat and Intellectual, pp. 176–177Google Scholar; and idem, “Royal authority,” p. 207.
90 Barkan, , “The price revolution,” p. 27Google Scholar. See also Lewis, , “Some reflections on the decline of the Ottoman Empire,” pp. 123–124Google Scholar.
91 See, for example, P'u, Chang, Ch'i-lu lun-lüeh, 1/47a–48bGoogle Scholar; Ts'ai, Changs, Chih-wei-fang wents'un, 5/15a–16aGoogle Scholar; Tzu-lung, Ch'en, An-ya-t'ang kao, 1: pp. 293–296Google Scholar; Peterson, , Bitter Gourd, pp. 44–63Google Scholar; and Handlin, , Action in Late Ming Thought, pp. 209–212Google Scholar.
92 Elliott, , “Self-perception and decline,” p. 49Google Scholar. For a lengthy discussion of “statecraft as a science” in seventeenth-century Spain, see Fernández-Santamaría, J. A., Reason of State and Statecraft in Spanish Political Thought, 1595–1640 (Lanham, Maryland, 1983), pp. 189–293Google Scholar.
93 See, for example, the various prefaces to the Huang Ming ching-shih wen-pien and Chang P'u's preface to the Nung-cheng ch'iian-shu. See also Ch'iu-yüan, Hu, Fu She chi ch'i jen-wu (Taipei, 1968), pp. 25–26Google Scholar.
94 Both of these phrases are from the Mencius. See Yüan, Jüan, Shin-san ching chu shu, 7: pp. 5948, 6010Google Scholar; and Legge, , The Chinese Classics, 1 and 2: pp. 359, 453Google Scholar. For a well-known allusion to the phrases by the late Ming statecraft writer Chang P'u, see Shih-i, Lu, Fu She chi-lüeh, p. 181Google Scholar. See also P'u, Chang, Ch'i-lu lun-lüeh, 2/62a–64aGoogle Scholar.
95 Sung-chiangfuchih (1817 ed.), 42/36a–37a; Ming-shih, 21: p. 6504, and Tzu-lung, Ch'en, Anya-t'ang kao, 2: pp. 413–418Google Scholar. For discussions of other “model officials” at this time, see Yin hsien chih (1788 ed.), 11/26b; Su-chou fu chih (1824 ed.), 72/20b–21b; Jen-kuei chih kao (1881 ed.), 1/13a–b; and P'ing-yang hsien chih(K'ang-hsi ed.), 6/6a–b.
96 Tietze, , Counsel for Sultans, p. 48Google Scholar. See also Lewis, , “Ottoman observers,” p. 327, n. 20Google Scholar. For a Chinese parallel, see K'un's, Lü comments in Huang Ming ching-shih wen-pien, 25: p. 480Google Scholar.
97 Tietze, , Counsel for Sultans, p. 48Google Scholar. See also Lewy, , Constitutionalism and Statecraft, p. 105Google Scholar, where Juan de Mariana is quoted as follows: “Never does the earth produce so badly of crops and necessities that there would not be enough for all, if the heaps of grain and money, gathered together by the more powerful, are put to common use and used for feeding the poor.”
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99 Quoted in Elliott, , “Self-perception,” p. 51Google Scholar. See also the comments of Juan de Santamaria quoted in idem, The Count-Duke, pp. 90–91. For an Ottoman parallel, see Fleischer, , “Royal authority,” pp. 215–216Google Scholar.
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101 For the latter's views on this point, see Lewis, , “Ottoman observers,” p. 210Google Scholar. It should be noted here that even Chinese reformers were appalled by the extent to which late Ming civil officials were ignorant of the military arts. During the last few decades of Ming rule, for example, Hsü Kuang-ch'i, Tso Kuang-tou, Huang Tao-chou, Chang P'u, Ch'en Tzu-lung, and many others argued that in earlier dynasties civil officials had been fully aware of the importance of military affairs and were learned in military history and strategy. Because the Ming civil service examinations did not require such knowledge, however, most scholars had come to regard the study of military matters as beneath their dignity. The prestige of military service had thus declined and the military examinations were taken only by men of questionable ability who knew that they had no chance of passing the civil examinations.
Among the suggestions for remedying this situation was Ch'en Tzu-lung's advocacy of a new examination that would test candidates' knowledge of both civil and military affairs. Such an examination, Ch'en believed, would enable the dynasty to attract “heroic scholars” (chün-chieh chih shih) rather than the “mediocre men” (chung-yung chih jen) who had been produced by the separate civil and military examinations. In a manner not entirely unlike those of some arbitristas and Ottoman memorialists, then Ch'en and the other Chinese scholars mentioned above were hoping to recapture a long-lost and selfless “martial spirit” that would help the state to regain its equilibrium militarily, politically, and, because of the resources to be saved both in the short and the long term, even economically. See Tzu-lung, Ch'en, An-ya-t'ang kao, 2: pp. 660, 767Google Scholar; Huang Ming ching-shih wen-pien, 30: pp. 77, 454, 503, 515; P'u, Chang, Ch'i-lu lun-lüeh, 1/55a–59a, 2/48a–53aGoogle Scholar; and Chan, , “The decline and fall of the Ming Dynasty,” pp. 109–110, 137Google Scholar. For some striking European parallels, see Elliott, , Richelieu and Olivares, p. 133Google Scholar.
102 See, for example, the works listed in Wei-jen, Chang, Chung-kuofa-chih shih shu-mu, 3 vols. (Taipei, 1976), 2: pp. 660–708Google Scholar.
103 For the translation of the character fu as “restoration” or “revival” here, see Tengch'un, Tu, She shih shih-mo, in Chao-tai ts'ung-shu (Tao-kuang ed.), 4bGoogle Scholar.
104 Fu She oath quoted in Shih-i, Lu, Fu She chi-lüeh, p. 181Google Scholar. For additional information on the Fu She in English, see my “From education to politics: the Fu She,” in de Bary, Wm. Theodore, ed., The Unfolding of Neo-Confucianism (New York, 1975), pp. 333–365Google Scholar; Dennerline, The Chiating Loyalists, passim; and Wakeman, The Great Enterprise, passim.
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106 On these men, see Hsiao, , A History of Chinese Political Thought, pp. 143–213, 319–367, 469–483Google Scholar; Ch'i-ch'ao, Liang, Chung-kuo liu ta cheng-chih chia (Taipei, 1970)Google Scholar, non-consecutive pagination; and Twitchett, Denis, “Lu Chih: imperial adviser and court official,” in Wright, Arthur F. and Twitchett, Denis, eds., Confucian Personalities (Stanford, 1962), pp. 84–122Google Scholar.
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111 Quoted in Elliott, , Richelieu and Olivares, p. 27Google Scholar.
112 Hezārfenn, quoted in Heyd, U., Studies in Old Ottoman Criminal Law (Oxford, 1973), p. 171Google Scholar. See also Cook, , “The Ottoman memorialists,” p. 3Google Scholar.
113 See, for example, Wen, Li, Liao-chai chi (photoduplication of an edition with a preface dated 1657), 33/20b–22aGoogle Scholar; and Ts'ai, Chang, Chih-wei-t'ang wen-ts'un, 8/7b–8aGoogle Scholar.
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116 Elliott, , “Self-perception,” p. 56Google Scholar. The medical and biological imagery contained in this passage appears to have been a common feature of political discourse throughout the seventeenth-century world. For examples, see Ladurie, , Carnival in Romans, pp. 320–321Google Scholar; Elliott, , Richelieu and Olivares, pp. 76, 167Google Scholar; idem, the Count-Duke, p. 85; Lewis, , “Ottoman observers,” pp. 208–210Google Scholar; Cook, , “The Ottoman memorialists,” pp. 3–4Google Scholar; Itzkowitz, , Ottoman Empire, pp. 101–103Google Scholar; Hsia, , Ming t'ung-chien, 4: p. 2953Google Scholar; Handlin, , Action in Late Ming Thought, pp. 140–142Google Scholar; Fodor, , “State and authority,” p. 234Google Scholar; Fleischer, , “Royal authority,” pp. 199, 213Google Scholar; and Fernández-Santamaría, , Reason of State, pp. 145–149Google Scholar.
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