Ming/Qing China and Tokugawa Japan in Parity with Italian Renaissance — Zheng He 1405-1433 + Macartney 1793 + Sakoku 1633 + Edo as World's Largest City

Display MG-21 + MG-22 + Forbidden City photograph. Ask: 'What do these formations look like 1450-1750? Are they isolated?' Bridge to Ming/Qing/Tokugawa as global early-modern formations.

• Display MG-21 + MG-22 + Forbidden City
• Ask are-they-isolated question
• Refuse 'Chinese isolationism' + 'Japanese isolation' Eurocentric framings

Ming + Qing China + Tokugawa Japan as global early-modern formations parallel to Italian Renaissance. MING 1368 (Hongwu) → Yongle r.1402-1424 → Zheng He's SEVEN voyages 1405-1433 — treasure ships 400-450 feet vs. Santa María 62 feet; reached Hormuz + Mecca + East Africa Malindi + Mogadishu; carried thousands of envoys + scholars + soldiers + animals (giraffe Beijing 1414); refusal of 'Ming isolationism' — 1433 withdrawal was strategic Confucian-bureaucratic decision NOT incapacity (Dreyer 2007 + Brook 2010); resources redirected to Mongol-frontier + Grand Canal. Yongle moved capital Beijing 1421; Forbidden City built 1406-1420. MING PRINT CULTURE — woodblock printing of Confucian classics + novels (Journey to the West + Water Margin + Dream of Red Chamber + Plum in the Golden Vase) + private libraries + commercial publishers; Brook 1998 'Confusions of Pleasure' parallel to Gutenberg. MANILA GALLEON 1565-1815 — Ming integrated into Pacific economy via silver-flow (Lesson 18). 1644 MANCHU QING CONQUEST — Manchu people northeast Manchuria + Eight Banners + Manchu-Han bilingual administration; KANGXI r.1661-1722 (61 years) + QIANLONG r.1735-1796 (60 years) — last great absolute monarchs of early-modern world; territorial peak ~14.7M km². 1793 LORD MACARTNEY MISSION — British embassy to Qianlong; 700-strong delegation; mechanical clocks + telescopes + scientific instruments; Qianlong's edict to George III declined trade: 'I have perused your memorial... We possess all things. I set no value on objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country's manufactures.' Recent scholarship (Spence 1990 + Wills 2012) frames as evidence of 18th-c. Chinese self-confidence NOT 'isolationist arrogance.' TOKUGAWA — Nobunaga 1534-1582 + Hideyoshi 1537-1598 (Korea invasions 1592-1598) + Tokugawa Ieyasu 1543-1616; Sekigahara 1600 → Tokugawa shogunate 1603. SAKOKU 'closed country' 1633-1639 — Christianity banned (1597 26 Martyrs of Nagasaki + 1637-1638 Shimabara Rebellion); Portuguese expelled 1639; Dutch + Chinese + Korean traders through DEJIMA Nagasaki 1641-1854 + Tsushima (Korean) + Satsuma (Ryukyu). Jansen 2000 + Toby 1984 + Berry 2006 refuse 'total isolation' — selective controlled exchange. shi-no-ko-sho (samurai-farmer-artisan-merchant) Confucian ideal. SANKIN-KOTAI alternate attendance system. EDO 1700 population ~1M LARGEST city in world (vs. London ~575K + Paris ~500K); literacy ~40% adult males by 1850. EDO CULTURAL — Matsuo Bashō 1644-1694 Oku no Hosomichi 1689 + Saikaku 1642-1693 + Chikamatsu 1653-1725 + Hokusai 1760-1849 (Great Wave 1831).

• Refuse 'inevitable decline' framing.

  model NOT 'incapacity' or 'isolationism' (Eurocentric). Per Brook 2010 + Dreyer 2007: STRATEGIC CONFUCIAN-BUREAUCRATIC DECISION. Confucian scholar-officials argued voyages were costly tribute-system display NOT necessary; resources should be redirected to Mongol-frontier defense (Mongols still threat 1410s-1430s) + Grand Canal infrastructure; eunuch admiral Zheng He's political faction lost court power. Voyage records partly destroyed by later Confucian officials. Ming continued maritime trade through Manila Galleon — Ming did NOT 'cut itself off.' MG-7 Q7: Zheng He voyages were GOLDEN AGE that ended by political choice, not historical inevitability.

  prompt Why did Ming withdraw from oceanic voyages 1433?
• MG-13 Decolonial Toolkit: refuse single-modernity narrative framing non-European choices as 'closures'.

  model NO — sakoku was SELECTIVE foreign-exchange policy NOT total isolation per Jansen 2000 + Toby 1984 + Berry 2006. Maintained: (a) Dutch trade through Dejima Nagasaki 1641-1854 (~120m x 75m artificial island built 1634; ~20 Dutch + ~150 Japanese resident; annual ship rotation); (b) Chinese trade through Nagasaki (more ships than Dutch); (c) Korean diplomatic-trade through Tsushima; (d) Ryukyu trade through Satsuma. Christianity banned; mass European migration prevented; Portuguese expelled. But selective exchange continued. Edo period also saw flourishing literacy + commerce + urban culture.

  prompt Was Tokugawa Japan really 'closed' 1633-1854?

• Name Zheng He's voyages dates and 2 destinations.
• Why did Ming withdraw 1433?
• Was Tokugawa Japan really 'closed'?

M-7-S-CUL-20-A Map

Combined display: MG-21 Zheng He's SEVEN voyages 1405-1433 with treasure-ship vs. Santa María scale + Sri Lanka trilingual inscription Galle 1411 + Mecca/Malindi destinations; AND MG-22 Tokugawa Japan 1603-1868 with Edo 1700 city plan + Dejima Nagasaki diagram + sankin-kotai routes + Edo 1M vs. London 575K + Paris 500K population bars.

MG-21 Map

ZHENG HE VOYAGES MAP 1405-1433 — 24x36 inch wall poster showing all SEVEN voyages routes: 1st 1405-1407 to Calicut; 2nd 1407-1409 to Calicut; 3rd 1409-1411 to Sri Lanka; 4th 1413-1415 to Hormuz; 5th 1417-1419 to Africa east coast Malindi; 6th 1421-1422 to East Africa; 7th 1431-1433 to Hormuz + Mecca + Africa. Treasure ship 400-450 feet shown to SCALE next to Santa María 62 feet — visual scale contrast. Annotated with: Ming Yongle Emperor decree text + Zheng He stone tablet at Liujia Harbor + Sri Lanka trilingual inscription (Chinese-Tamil-Persian) Galle 1411. Refusal frame: 'Zheng He's voyages PRECEDE Columbus by 87 years.'

MG-22 Map

TOKUGAWA JAPAN 1603-1868 map — 18x24 inch laminated showing major castle towns (Edo + Osaka + Kyoto + Nagoya + Kanazawa + Sendai + Hiroshima + Kumamoto) + Dejima island Nagasaki diagram inset (artificial fan-shaped island c.120m x 75m built 1634 for Portuguese 1636-1639 then Dutch 1641-1854 — only foreign-trade contact during sakoku) + sankin-kotai daimyo-route arrows from major domains to Edo + Kabuki theaters of Edo + the 1700 Edo population ~1 million annotated as 'world's largest city' against London ~575,000 + Paris ~500,000 comparison bars.

M-7-S-CUL-20-B Photograph

Combined photograph + document: Forbidden City Beijing (Ming 1406-1420, Qing 1644+) + Qianlong's 1793 edict to George III (Macartney Mission) full text + English translation; primary source refusing 'isolationist arrogance' framing.

• Pairs: on MG-21 + MG-22, trace Zheng He's 7 voyages + label Tokugawa structure + Edo 1700 vs. London + Paris population.

  scaffold Pre-labeled MG-21 + MG-22.
• Source-card practice: apply MG-7 Q1 + Q7 + Q8 to Qianlong's 1793 edict to George III.

  scaffold MG-7 sentence frames + edict translation.

M-7-S-CUL-20-C Illustration

High-resolution reproduction of Hokusai 'The Great Wave off Kanagawa' from Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji 1831 — ukiyo-e print; major Edo-period cultural icon; refuses 'stagnant feudal Japan' framing.

• When were Zheng He's voyages?
• What is sakoku and why is 'isolation' wrong?
• Sticky to MG-23 about Ming/Qing or Tokugawa.

• Recite FIVE PROMISES
• Add stickies
• Preview Lesson 21 — Reformation deepening + Capstone setup

• Find one image of Ming/Qing or Tokugawa cultural achievement; name + date + context.