Different textbooks may treat the same material in different ways, placing greater emphasis on one aspect of the issues raised, using different authorities as the source, or choosing one interpretation over others as the one to be preferred. There are also differences in terms of when the textbooks were written and used, indicating different views of the importance of China and so in the need for students to know about Chinese history. The treatment of China from the Ming Dynasty to the Mid-Manchu Dynasty is given different treatments in different textbooks, and the text by McKay will serve as the base for a comparison to other textbooks on the issues raised and the treatment afforded this era in history.
McKay refers to the general period from 1400 to 1800 as a period of dynamic growth and change in East Asia. He sets forth at the beginning of the section explicit statements of what he intends to explore in the pages that follow, relating changes in China to changes in Japan at the same time. In terms of China as such, he says that he will explore how the Chinese thinkers interpreted and explained the shift form the Ming to the Manchus. He refers to the Mongol repression under the Yuan Dynasty and other problems such as rapid inflation of currency, disputes over succession, and the growth of peasant secret societies at the beginning of the era, which specifically begins when Hong Wu in 1368 pushes the Mongols out of China and founds the Ming Dynasty, one of only two major dynasties founded by peasants:
Under the Ming, China experienced dynamic change. Agricultural development and commercial reconstruction followed a long period of chaos and disorder. Hong Wu introduced far-reaching social and political institutions. By the middle of the fifteenth century, however, his administrative framework had begun to decay.
This is the overview of the era as McKay explores it.
In McKay's book, the author tries to cover all ...