In the long history of China, the Ming Dynasty was the last dynasty ruled by the Han people. When the Qing army entered the customs, the people of the Central Plains ushered in a thorough regime change. It has been nearly 300 years since the Qing Dynasty. Although it once brought prosperity and strength to China, at the end of Qing Dynasty, this country, once confident and standing among nations, gradually became ignorant and cowardly, and even became the sick man of East Asia, being trampled and ridiculed at will. Moreover, who had a larger territory in the Ming and Qing dynasties has been arguing so far.

Ming great wall

There has always been a folk saying that if the Qing Dynasty had not entered the customs at that time and continued the rule of the Ming Dynasty, China would only have more than 3 million square meters now. Is that really the case? In fact, this view is absurd. The formation of a country's territory is not inherited according to jurisprudence. And every few hundred years, a new dynasty is born, and the country in their hands is not inherited from the last one, but laid by their own strength. Just like at the end of the Qing Dynasty, if they had not ceded land for compensation, there would not be the current territorial copyright dispute. Aside from this absurd statement, let's see how big the real territory of the Ming Dynasty is.

Ming dynasty territory

As mentioned above, the territory of the Ming Dynasty was only over 3 million square kilometers. If we only talk about the municipalities directly under the central government of the Ming Dynasty, this is indeed the case. However, if we look through the historical records of the Ming Dynasty, we will find that the real territory of the Ming Dynasty far exceeds the territory of past dynasties, even exceeds the land area of modern China, and even is unprecedented in the long history. Especially during the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, the territory of the Ming Dynasty reached the largest.

Zhu Yuanzhang

How big was the territory of the Ming Dynasty in this period? Is it recorded in Ming History? It starts from Korea in the east, Tubo in the west, Annan in the south, Dabai in the north, 11,750 miles from east to west and 10,940 miles from north to south. ? With such a string of specific figures, you can feel the vastness of the territory in the early Ming Dynasty. In addition, in fact, comparing the territory of the Tang Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, we can feel the size of the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

Ming dynasty territory

Because in the Tang Dynasty, Liaodong, Yunnan, Guizhou and even Qinghai and Gansu were not directly under the jurisdiction of the Tang Dynasty. Many ethnic minorities lived here, and even Lingnan and Jiangnan at that time were hard places.

By the Ming Dynasty, these places gradually had the conditions for people to cultivate and settle down, and the population of China began to spread to the surrounding areas. Especially in the early Ming Dynasty, the country's military strength was strong, and it led troops to the north many times, extending a large number of controllable areas to the north, and even set up health clinics in Mongolia and other places. The control of these areas has long exceeded the scope of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty.

Ming dynasty territory

In addition, Japan, Vietnam and other countries have bowed to the Ming court, so the most prosperous territory of the Ming Dynasty is actually far better than that of the Qing Dynasty. Because during the period of Zhu Yuanzhang, the area of Ming Dynasty was more than 9 million square kilometers. According to historical records, the largest area at that time reached 9.97 million square kilometers, with more than 4 million directly under its jurisdiction, including 13 provinces in Nanjing, Beiping and China at that time, and some areas north of the Great Wall.

Most notably, during the Ming Dynasty, the control and transformation of many wild places were strengthened unprecedentedly, which greatly expanded the frontier territory of China. The territory of the Ming Dynasty changed in different periods. At its peak, the territory was as big as that of the Qing Dynasty.