The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 217 Ethnic Issues in the Ming Dynasty

Zhu Jianxuan briefly asked for the opinions of the officials and determined the direction and principles for the integration of the Wu State and the central court institutions.

Assign specific tasks in each area to corresponding departments, and let the cabinet and various departments get back to work.

Zhu Jianxuan then changed the subject and began to discuss the consolidation and management of local institutions:
"Let us now discuss the local situation.

“In principle, local institutions outside the core of the Ming Dynasty should still be integrated into the Ming Dynasty’s inherent traditional system.

“First, it is the area directly controlled by our Wu court.

"The Australian Province, Asian Province, African Province, and European Province were established, and each province had a provincial government commissioner, a military commissioner, and a criminal commissioner.

"The Australian province's jurisdiction includes the Australian mainland, the islands surrounding the Australian mainland, the Baiyun Islands, the Yingzhou Islands and other islands in the Pacific Ocean that are not assigned to other provinces.

“The province of Asia includes India and Ceylon, both sides of the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Peninsula, both sides of the Red Sea, Egypt, and the eastern coast of the Mediterranean.

“The province of Africa includes the east coast of Africa, the Falkland Islands, and the colonies in southern Africa.

“The European province includes Tunisia and Tripoli in North Africa, Crete in the Mediterranean, and Taranto, Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Haadron in Europe.

“The Australian mainland is regarded as a native province, and its administration is mainly under the jurisdiction of the Governor’s Office.

“At least one Wudu Prefecture will be set up to manage the capital of Wu and the surrounding core areas of the former Wu Kingdom. Prefectures and counties will be set up in other areas according to the situation.

"The three provinces of Asia, Africa and Europe are regarded as overseas provinces, and their management is mainly carried out by the Dusi, supplemented by the Buzhengshisi.

"Set up prefectures, counties or guard posts according to the local population, commerce and controllability.

“The more troublesome situation is in Morocco, the Netherlands, the United States and other places.

“How can these places be integrated into the management system of the Ming court without causing political and ritual conflicts and without directly changing the actual situation on the ground?
"Do you have any good suggestions?"

Just as Zhu Jianxuan had thought, the areas directly under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty and the areas directly managed by the Wu Kingdom were easy to adjust and could be reorganized directly.

But when it comes to Europeans, things become slow.

Zhu Jianxuan has the titles of King of the Netherlands, King of the United States, and is also the overlord of Morocco and the Southern Netherlands, but the ways in which these four titles were obtained are different.

Coercion, inducement, compromise, negotiation, force, cooperation and transaction...

Because the title was obtained in different ways, Zhu Jianxuan's power and status in each place were also different.

Like other European monarchs, if he wanted to change the local status quo, especially the administrative method, there might be a rebellion.

Most of the territories of European monarchs were like this, so much so that most monarchs simply gave up and left them alone.

People like Louis XIV who integrated the country were all super-talented people.

For Zhu Jianxuan, the laziest way is to just give up and continue to maintain the status quo.

Anyway, people from the United States and the Netherlands rarely deal with the Ming Dynasty.

But Zhu Jianxuan is the crown prince now, and will become the emperor of the Ming Dynasty in the future. People from the Netherlands, the United States, and Morocco will definitely come to attend the ceremony.

How should these people be positioned? How should they be ranked relative to the officials of the Ming Dynasty?

If the Netherlands were listed as a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, there would be the issue of envoys from the Dutch King Zhu Jianxuan coming to pay a visit to the Ming Emperor Zhu Jianxuan.

It is not a problem in Europe, but it is a problem in Ming Dynasty.

The Netherlands can still be regarded as a vassal state. The current United States is independent in name only and is not a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty in nature.

The ministers at the scene pondered for a while, and Duan Yucai, who was about to go on a diplomatic mission to Europe, spoke first:

“Your Highness, I believe that the Southern Netherlands and Morocco can be directly listed as vassal states of the Ming Dynasty. There should be no etiquette issues, and it will not affect the local status quo.

“The Northern Netherlands, or the Kingdom of the Netherlands, can be established as the Netherlands Province, which is nominally directly governed by the imperial court, but without any actual institutions.

“Appoint William the Constable as the Governor of the Netherlands, and the titles of William the Constable and his son will also be directly transferred to the titles of the Ming Dynasty.

“As for the United States, I think it can be incorporated into the Ming mainland in name only, and a new US capital garrison can be established based on the former Nanjing garrison.

"All of your Highness's ministers in the United States will be assigned to the U.S. Capital Regency Office to manage the United States in accordance with your Highness's will. The Ming court will not actually directly interfere in American affairs.

“All the noble titles of American ministers will be transferred to the noble titles of the Ming Dynasty.

"The provinces and territories directly under the king of the United States will be transferred to the provinces of the Ming Dynasty, and the dominions and free states will be transferred to vassal states."

Zhu Jianxuan did not comment directly after listening to Duan Yucai's suggestion, because when he was considering Duan Yucai's suggestion, he suddenly thought of another question:
“Mr. Duan’s idea should be able to solve the etiquette problem, but it may cause new problems.

"Mr. Duan and everyone, do you understand the European concept of citizenship?
"In other words, should we consider Europeans in the United States and the Netherlands as Ming people?
"If they want to live in our Ming territory, how should the Ming court manage them?

"According to what Mr. Duan said, if we set the Netherlands as a province of Ming Dynasty, then the Dutch should naturally be Ming people?
"Confucius once said: 'I have heard that those who have a country or a family do not worry about scarcity but about inequality, and do not worry about poverty but about insecurity. Because there is no poverty when there is equality, no scarcity when there is harmony, and no instability when there is instability. If it is like this, then if people from afar are not convinced, then we should cultivate culture and virtue to attract them. Once they come, then we should make them feel at ease.

"In our traditional culture of Shenzhou, it is logically correct that people from afar are not convinced and do not want to come.

“At the same time, the Shenzhou court tacitly hopes that people from afar can come, and once they come, they must settle down.

“But now the question is, how far can this distant person go?
“Can…Does it need to include Europeans?
“If people from afar clearly want to come, are very willing to come, or even come in droves, how should we respond?
“If adventurers, vagrants, and pirates from Europe and even Africa all run to the Ming mainland.

"The key is that if they are willing to learn to speak Chinese, wear Chinese clothes, use Chinese names, and are willing to accept the jurisdiction of the court, how should the court respond? Should it accept them directly?
"There are hundreds of millions of people in Europe and Africa, and their appearance is very different from that of us Ming people..."

In Zhu Jianxuan's view, the state of the Ming Dynasty will soon reach a critical point, and the convenience of communication around the world will also reach a critical point.

Now and in the past, even if an ordinary person yearns for a distant country, it is difficult to actually go to that country.

But the situation will change after steam sailing ships are widely used and the Suez Canal is built.

It only takes more than a month to travel from Daming to Europe, and the routes will become safer and safer. The key is that the time and location nodes of the itinerary are becoming more and more controllable, so there is basically no need to worry about getting lost.

Then, will the smart people and even ordinary people in Europe start to flee to the Ming mainland in large numbers?
Europeans have had the concept of citizenship since Roman times. To put it bluntly, it means who can be considered as one's own people and who cannot be considered as one's own people.

Although the Shenzhou Empire also had the debate between Chinese and barbarians, its operation was very different from that of the Europeans.

The debate between Hua and Yi basically only occurred when the "Hua Xia" court was weak and the courts of other ethnic groups became strong or even took control of the Central Plains.

The purpose of the debate was to find an excuse for one's own weakness and to find a reason for the foreign court to rule the Central Plains.

When the Chinese court was powerful, such issues would not be discussed.

To put it bluntly, the purpose of this debate was not really to distinguish who were one of their own people, so naturally Roman citizenship did not have the function of distinguishing who were one of their own people.

Having just conquered eastern and northern Africa and completed the great feat of the Northern Expedition to destroy the Qing Dynasty, the Ming court was now unprecedentedly proud.

Nowadays, there is no discussion about the debate between Chinese and barbarians in the court or among the people.

The imperial court of the Shenzhou Empire likes "people from afar".

Although the Han people had driven the Miao people to expand their business in the past, the main reason was that the Miao people did not want to be subject to the jurisdiction of the imperial court.

As long as the Miao people were willing to accept management, the imperial court would not drive them away but would absorb them.

The imperial court was very happy to reform the natives and register the common people.

The Ming Dynasty court in particular had more motivation to do these things than any previous court.

The Han Dynasty accepted the Southern Xiongnu who migrated inland, but actually still treated them differently. They were still regarded as barbarians and were still not allowed to directly become Han people.

However, the purpose of the founding of the Ming Dynasty was to expel the Tartars, restore China, and recover lost territories. After recovering the lost territories, Chinese names, Chinese language, and Chinese clothing had to be restored.

During this process, foreigners who remained in the Central Plains were forced to use Chinese names, speak Chinese, and wear Chinese clothes in an effort to assimilate them.

Zhu Yuanzhang required that before marrying a foreigner, he should first ask the surrounding Han people whether they were willing to marry. Only after all the surrounding Han people refused, could they marry within their own tribe. This actually formed a complete and feasible process for absorbing foreigners.

In the past, the Ming Dynasty was unable to register all the people in the northern grasslands, the northeastern snowfields and other areas due to the limited capabilities of the imperial court.

A small number of so-called barbarians who fled from Mongolia and the Northeast to the inland would soon be assimilated and absorbed by the local people as long as they were willing to join the Ming Dynasty court system.

There were a large number of de facto Mongols in both Zhu Yuanzhang's army and Zhu Di's army.

A large number of Mongolian generals died in the Battle of Tumu. These Mongolians were completely indistinguishable from the Han people at that time.

They don't think that the person on the other side is the same kind as them.

However, whether it is the Mongols, the Jurchens in the eastern snowfields, the Miao people in the southwest, or the Tibetans in the west, their numbers are too small compared to the people of the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, the difference in their images is very small, so if they want to blend in, they can really do so completely, or they can just disappear.

But Europeans... there are hundreds of millions of them...

Perhaps in the next ten or twenty years, or at most fifty years, as long as the Ming Dynasty itself does not collapse, there will be a situation where Europeans smuggle into the Ming Dynasty.

Europe was already experiencing a craze for Ming culture, and the Ming Empire was now indeed becoming powerful.

If the Ming Dynasty was really willing to accept foreigners, just like the United States was completely open to immigrants, then why were they unwilling to come?
Zhu Jianxuan thinks this is a very big problem.

After listening to Zhu Jianxuan's words, Duan Yucai subconsciously said:
"Your Highness means that... our Ming Dynasty... cannot accept these Europeans?"

Zhu Jianxuan nodded slightly.

Yao Nai responded quickly:
“I think we cannot easily accept these people.

"They are truly and thoroughly barbarians, completely different from the Mongols, Jurchens, Koreans, and Japanese around the Ming Dynasty.

“If the people of the Ming Dynasty marry them, their children will have traces of the barbarians.

"The key is that most people will have a smelly beard...

"Does Mr. Duan want to serve in the same court as someone with body odor?"

Duan Yucai was a little slow to react:

"But this goes against the teachings of the sages. There are also many barbarians around us with smelly beards, and the generals who lead troops in battle often sweat all over themselves..."

Zhu Jianxuan smiled bitterly and said:
"Confucius has never seen European barbarians or African blacks...

“No, we cannot call Europeans barbarians, we should call them white people.

“The Mongols, Jurchens, and Koreans around our land are barbarians, and at most we can count as Austronesians and Americans.

“Although barbarians, white people and black people all stink, the barbarians around you may just stink, while European white people and African black people basically all stink.

“Generals, soldiers, and laborers do stink, but that’s the smell of sweat, the smell of dirt, and it’s completely different from the smell of white people and black people, which is like the smell of wild animals.

“Everyone has seen Australian Aboriginals, right?
"Have you ever seen children of the Ming people and the Australian aborigines? Would you like your children to become like that?
"These kids are a nuisance, right?"

Although the Wu Kingdom prohibited Ming immigrants from marrying indigenous people, it also castrated the male indigenous slaves who worked there.

However, for female indigenous slaves, the cleansing operation was very troublesome and most of them were not done.

Coupled with the increasing number of immigrants and indigenous slaves, some people could not control their lower bodies and produced some colorful mixed-race children.

According to the rules of the Wu State, such male children would be castrated directly, but female children were still difficult to deal with.

The officials on the scene felt a little annoyed when they thought about these things.

Duan Yucai pondered for a few seconds:
“The Saint… The Saint has definitely not been to Africa and Europe, otherwise he would have limited the scope of the distant people.

"So, Your Highness, should we refer to the European concept of citizenship to establish the citizenship of our Ming people?"

Zhu Jianxuan thought for a moment and said:
“It’s too simple to simply distinguish between those who have citizenship and those who don’t, and we in the Ming Dynasty do have similar plans.

“Let’s adjust the household registration system a little bit and add an ethnicity rating program.

“All people under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty were divided into five basic ethnic groups: first-level Ming people, second-level barbarians, third-level Hu people, fourth-level whites, and fifth-level blacks.

"A Ming person is one whose parents are both Han Chinese. This includes all Han Chinese whose household registration can be checked in the Ming mainland, vassal states, and overseas provinces.

"They can engage in any legal profession, can pass the imperial examinations to become officials, and can migrate throughout the Ming Dynasty.

"The barbarians are all the people from the Ming Dynasty who have no obvious differences in appearance from the Ming people.

"They can work in any occupation in their registered place, including politics, and can move within their registered area.

“For example, the Jurchens could migrate in the Liaodong region, and the Mongols could migrate across the Mongolian steppes, but they only needed to register with the government offices at their departure and destination.

“After submitting a specific application for relocation and obtaining permission from the local government, people can relocate to other areas.

"If you use a Chinese name, wear Chinese clothes, speak Chinese, and pass the examination organized by the prefecture and county government offices under the Ministry of Revenue, you can change your household registration to a Ming citizen.

"The Hu people, including those whose appearance is slightly different from that of the Ming people but who are neither black nor white, are used to manage the people of the Western Regions, Persians, Indians, Arabs, and Egyptians.

"They can work in most occupations in their registered place of residence, and after passing the examination they can become local government officials, but they cannot leave the region where they are registered.

“White people are Europeans and can only live in the provincial administrative region where their household registration is located and cannot hold management positions.

“White people can take up management positions after passing the Chinese language test.

“Black people include Africans south of the Sahara, Australian aborigines, and the pygmy Negroes on some islands in the South Pacific.

“They could not leave the county-level administrative area where they were registered, unless they followed their masters as slaves and were castrated, and under no circumstances could they hold any management position.

“Two additional types of household registration will be established in the United States: New Americans and Old Americans. Both are considered four levels, but their rights are specially agreed upon.

“The dividing line between the old and new Americans is based on the signing of the armistice of the North American War.

“That is, European immigrants before the independence of the United States and their descendants are called Old Americans, and new European immigrants after independence are collectively called New Americans.

“Old Americans can engage in any profession in the dominions and free states of the United States and can serve as any local official.

“You can move freely within the former United States, the Australian continent, and the European provinces of the Ming Dynasty, and you can engage in any profession in these places, but you cannot engage in politics or serve as an official.

“New Americans only enjoy the rights of old Americans within the United States and cannot go to the former Wu Kingdom.

"Since the American Free State does not have a unified household registration system, when white Americans leave the Free State, they need to provide documents proving their existence in the United States, including house deeds, land deeds, tax payment records, etc., in order to obtain household registration documents issued by the US Department of Residence.

“Old Americans are required to provide additional documentation proving they lived in the U.S. before independence.

"The descendants of the Ming people and the Yi people, if they are settled in a Ming family, their household registration is that of the Ming people, and if they are settled in a Yi family, their household registration is that of the Yi people.

"The descendants of the Ming people and the Hu people, if they are settled in a Ming family, their household registration is Yi people, and if they are settled in a Hu family, their household registration is Hu people.

"The descendants of Ming people and white people, if they are settled in a Ming family, their household registration is Hu people, and if they are settled in a white family, their household registration is white people.

"Offspring of marriages between other ethnic groups will be promoted one level if they are placed in a high-household registration family, but will not exceed the level of the high-household group itself.

“Those who settle in a family of lower ethnicity will retain the rank of the lower household registration party.

“The Americans are between the Hu people and the white people.

"Please note that any offspring of any ethnicity and black people are considered black."

(End of this chapter)