China under the Song, Yuan and Ming

When the Song dynasty (960–1279) came to power, China’s long fragmentation and wars ended and the economy grew. From the 10th century, water-lifting wheels widened the area under crops and water mills came into wide use. In the developed Middle Ages state lands shrank and the private estates of landlords grew: at the start of the 11th century half the arable land was in the hands of large owners, worked mostly by tenant farmers. Free peasants paid tax twice a year. Kaifeng, Chengdu and Wuchang were great centres of trade and crafts; porcelain and pottery flourished, the art of woven silk tapestry flourished, and in the 13th–14th centuries cotton cloth-making spread widely. Craftsmen were organised in guilds. Under Kublai Khan China was fully subdued in 1279 and the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1279–1368) was set up; many payments ruined peasants, craftsmen and even merchants, and extra paper money led to inflation and higher prices. The Venetian Marco Polo is said to have held a high post at Kublai’s court (historians dispute this). A peasant uprising that began in Henan and Shandong in 1351 swept the country, and one of its leaders was the former monk Zhu Yuanzhang; in 1368 the Ming dynasty he founded took power and the Mongols were driven out. Irrigation works and canals were restored, and farmland and population grew. A naval fleet led by Zheng He made seven voyages in the Indian Ocean in 1405–1433: his ships sailed to India, Sri Lanka, the Strait of Hormuz and the coast of East Africa, expanding foreign trade. From the mid-15th century an economic crisis began.