Ming Dynasty
Ruled China from 1368 to 1644 CE, replacing the Mongol Yuan dynasty which had been in place since the 13th century CE.
Despite challenges from abroad and within, the dynasty would oversee an unprecedented growth in China’s population and general economic prosperity.
Notable achievements included the construction of the Forbidden City - the imperial residence in Beijing, a blossoming of literature and the arts, the far-flung explorations of Zheng He, and the production of the timeless blue-and-white Ming porcelains.
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) was the last Chinese dynasty, and the longest dynasty ruled by foreigners (the Manchus from Manchuria, northeast of the Great Wall).
The Qing Dynasty had the most overseas contact, though it was mostly resisted. China glories in the prosperity of the Qing Golden Age, but remembers with shame the forced trade and unequal treaties later in the Qing era.
The Qing capital was Beijing, where emperors continued to rule from the Forbidden City. In the age of exploration/colonialization, China remained isolated and expanded its borders and population. In the age of industrialization, China remained traditional and undeveloped.
The dynasty prospered initially, but became increasingly fraught with disasters and attacks toward the end. It lasted 268 years, the fifth longest imperial dynasty, despite many uprisings against the Manchu rulers.
Japan
Shoguns (12th - 116th Century)
Tokugawa Dynasty (1600 -1867)
The Edo Period
Ruling from the largest city in the world, Edo (later renamed Tokyo in the Meiji period), the shogun demanded allegiance from the approximately 250-300 daimyō, to whom the shogun had offered lands throughout Japan. The system which had emerged in the 17th century became known as the bakuhan seido, or the system of rule between the central authority, bakufu, and the many domains, han, which the shogun had configured.
The Tokugawa family assumed this authority after defeating a formidable army of opposing clans at the battle of Sekigahara in 1600. The bakufu government thus formed and led by a Tokugawa shogun maintained legitimacy through his appointment to office by the weakened emperor who remained in Kyoto. The most powerful leader of each domain was called a daimyō, and he held that role through appointment by the shogun.
During the first century of shogun rule, political, economic, and social rules emerged which provided for the primacy of the bakufu over the han. This was ensured by the military superiority of the central authority at the Edo; by its large land holdings, heavily concentrated around Edo, but also spread throughout the rest of Honshu and Kyushu and Shikoku; and by the political and social rules issued in its name which favored the shogun's power. Thus, for about one hundred years, the Tokugawa shoguns maintained tight control over the han. Japan's economy at this time was based on rice, and Tokugawa had by far the greatest area under rice cultivation. It also maintained the largest number of samurai, the military component of the system, and demanded and received allegiance from the 270 or so daimyō, and their samurai vassals, who lived in the established han. Through the mid-nineteenth century this system, though faltering significantly, continued to guarantee peace.
In its ideal form, the bakuhan system provided for central authority with power over the lives and livelihood of everyone residing in each han and the daimyō who was in charge. At the same time the daimyō had considerable power within his own lands as long as he did not break any of the rules sent down from Edo. In actuality, however, by 1840, this system had become only a shell of its former self, and much which remained on paper and was plastered on placards and declared in proclamations was no longer working in fact.
The bakuhan system, 17th century
When Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated his enemies in 1600 and began the dynasty which was to last for over 250 years, he claimed large land holdings for himself and his household, gave land holdings with prescribed borders called han to those daimyō who had fought for him. Daimyō who fought against him in the battle were given a han in more remote, provincial, and less strategic areas of Japan. In this way he began the system which was designed to ensure Tokugawa power as well as peace in the land. As time went on his successors added laws to this system, further guaranteeing their own authority.
Helen M. Hopper, University of Pittsburgh