The Wanli era was the period in Chinese history corresponding to the reign of the Wanli Emperor of the Ming dynasty, spanning from 1573 to 1620. It was preceded by the Longqing era and was succeeded by the Taichang era, upon the accession of the Taichang Emperor.
The Wanli era saw a significant boom in industry, particularly in the production of silk, cotton, and porcelain, and agriculture and trade also experienced growth. Increased trade had the strongest impact in Jiangnan, where cities such as Suzhou, Songjiang, Jiaxing, and Nanjing flourished. Despite the economic growth of the empire, state finances remained in a dire state, and while wealthy merchants and the gentry enjoyed lavish lifestyles, the majority of peasants and day laborers lived in poverty.
Culturally, the period is regarded as one of great flourishing. The color woodblock prints and porcelain produced at the time were celebrated for their high artistic quality. Several of the most influential works of Chinese literature were composed during these years, including Water Margin (1573), Journey to the West (1590), and Jin Ping Mei (1610). The painter Xu Wei achieved particular success at this time. His expressive and highly emotional artistic style attracted a wide circle of admirers.
Background The Longqing Emperor, the 13th emperor of China's Ming dynasty, died in July 1572. His nine-year-old son Zhu Yijun ascended the throne, adopted Wanli as his era name, and became known as the Wanli Emperor. The 48-year Wanli era officially began the following year and was the longest of the Ming. In August 1620, the Wanli Emperor died and was succeeded by his son Zhu Changluo, who announced that the Taichang era would replace the Wanli era with the beginning of the next lunar year on 22 January 1621. The new emperor, however, died in September after a reign of only one month. His son, the Tianqi Emperor, then acceded to the throne and, at the recommendation of court officials, designated the Taichang era as covering the period from the late emperor's accession on 28 August 1620 to the end of the current lunar year on 21 January 1621.
Climate and natural disasters The years 1570–1620 were relatively warm, especially in winter, with an average temperature one degree higher in centigrade than the previous half century. The weather was also drier, leading to occasional flooding. This trend was particularly evident in the years 1585–1589 and 1614–1619, which experienced severe droughts. On the other hand, cold winters were recorded in 1595–1598 and 1616–1620, resulting in an increase in snowy landscapes depicted in Chinese paintings. China faced other natural disasters during the Wanli era. In 1586, extensive flooding occurred, while locust raids destroyed crops in 1587, 1609, and 1615–1619, following periods of drought. Deforestation in the northwest also caused sandstorms, which covered Beijing in clouds of dust in 1618 and 1619. The most significant natural disaster during the Wanli era was the earthquake that struck China in December 1604. Its epicenter was located 30 km off the coast of Fujian, resulting in the destruction of the port cities of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, as well as damage to buildings in Moon Port. The effects of the earthquake were felt as far as Shanghai and inland areas such as Huguang and Guangxi. The worst individual disasters were the floods in the north in 1585 followed by a major epidemic the following year; a severe drought across the country in 1589; droughts in Fujian and the north in the second decade of the 17th century; and finally, widespread floods in 1613.
Overall, the most difficult years of the Wanli era were the periods 1586–88 and 1615–17. The drought-induced famine of 1587–88 was the first major famine since the mid-1540s, followed by an epidemic. According to the historian of demography Zhao Shuqi, half of the people in northern China died during this time, causing the population of Shanxi, Zhili, and Henan provinces to decrease from 25.6 million in 1580 to 12.8 million in 1588. These disasters also affected the Yangtze Valley. The disasters in the years 1586–88 shocked the government, but the reserves accumulated by Senior Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng helped overcome the difficulties. The authorities learned from this crisis and were able to intervene when the Henan famine broke out six years later, preventing it from spreading.
The second series of natural disasters began in 1615, preceded by two years of flooding in northern China. This combination of floods and drought greatly impacted agriculture, leading to regions across the country requesting assistance starting in the autumn of 1615. The situation was particularly dire in Shandong, where 900,000 people were starving and the civil administration was beginning to fall apart due to food shortages. The famine spread from northern China to the Yangtze River basin by the end of the year, and the following year it affected Guangdong. By the following year, the northwest and southwest regions of the Ming dynasty were also affected. The drought and floods continued until 1620.
Local authorities did not rely on state reserve granaries, which had mostly disappeared, but instead called on the wealthy to purchase and import grain. Officials only intervened by setting maximum prices. This meant that the state did not have to maintain a stockpile of grain when it could be purchased on the market. Even in fertile years, regions such as Jiangnan still struggled due to their dependence on rice imports.
New crops from America In the early 16th century, Europeans brought new agricultural crops from America to China, including maize and groundnuts. These crops were documented to have been cultivated in China during the mid-16th century. Sweet potatoes arrived in China by the early 1590s, possibly even earlier. Chinese merchants brought them from the Philippines to Fujian and Guangdong, and may have also imported them from Đại Việt. After a famine in Fujian in 1594, the local governor encouraged and promoted the cultivation of sweet potatoes. These crops quickly took hold in Fujian and Guangdong, and later spread to other regions of China in the second half of the 17th century. The cultivation of maize, sweet potatoes, and groundnuts during the Wanli era significantly increased food production, contributing to a population of over 100 million—approximately twice that of the early Ming period.
Tobacco was commercially grown in Fujian and exported to the Philippines in the early 17th century, and cultivation began in Guangdong. Initially, tobacco was popular among the poor in Jiangnan, but eventually became a habit among the elite. By the beginning of the Qing period, it was reported that "every official, soldier, and eight out of ten peasants" in the region smoked. It was not until the 1630s that Beijing officials began to mention tobacco.
Economy
During the Wanli era, there was a significant boom in industry, particularly in the production of silk, cotton, and porcelain. The textile industry in Shaanxi employed a large number of people, while Guangdong saw the emergence of large ironworks with thousands of workers. This period also saw the development of specialization in agricultural production and a significant increase in interregional trade. The impact of this development was most strongly felt in Jiangnan, where cities such as Suzhou, Songjiang, Jiaxing, and Nanjing flourished. Suzhou, known for its silk and financial industries, saw its population grow to over half a million by the end of the 16th century, while Songjiang became a center for cotton cultivation.
Between 1560 and 1640, the Spanish colonies in the Americas shipped 10,000 tons of silver across the Pacific, with 9000 tons ending up in China. During this same time period, Japan sent 6–7 times more silver to China. This influx of foreign silver coincided with the commercialization of the economy, which led to growth in industries such as cotton and silk, as well as the growth of cities and trade, but this commercialization did not result in prosperity for all. Land and rice prices remained stagnant, and even fell in the 1570s and 1580s, before experiencing a sudden increase in 1587–89 due to famines in southern China. Wages and labor productivity in the Jiangnan cotton industry also declined. Contemporary commentators observed that while the market economy was thriving, state finances remained poor. Despite the luxurious lifestyle of urban elites, the majority of peasants and day laborers continued to live in poverty. These economic changes also brought about changes in values, particularly in regards to official Confucian doctrines.
During the 16th century, the Ming state gradually shifted towards the policy of zhaoshang maiban (; 'the government purchases from private merchants'). For example, during the Jiajing era, the government began purchasing clothes for silver instead of relying on state textile factories in Suzhou and Hangzhou, which had since disappeared and been replaced by private factories. This marked the emergence of a market economy, where traders were no longer mere extensions of the state apparatus and were able to negotiate prices and contract volumes. State contracts also encouraged the growth of private enterprises, while the quality of production in state factories declined. For instance, in 1575, the army had to return 5,000 unusable shields. By the late 16th century, army officers were refusing to use goods produced by state workshops and instead demanded silver from the government to purchase equipment on the market. The government obtained the necessary silver by converting compulsory services into payments in the single whip reform. The aim of the reform was to eliminate levies in kind, services, and compulsory work in the lijia system and replace them with a surcharge to the land tax paid in silver. Transfers of various duties to silver payments had been taking place in various counties since the 1520s, with the most intense changes occurring in the 1570s to the 1590s. County authorities throughout the country implemented the reform. The changes proceeded from the more developed south of the country to the north, where the introduction of procedures common in the south caused a wave of resistance. Controversy centered primarily on the repeal of progressive household taxation: advocates of the reform argued that wealthy households usually received tax exemptions, making progressive taxation only fictitious. By the end of the 16th century, land tax surcharges had already replaced almost all benefits and labor performed in the lijia system.
In an effort to streamline the collection of land tax in 1581, Senior Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng advocated for the creation of a new cadastre. Over the course of 1581–1582, fields were measured, boundaries were marked, sizes were calculated, and owners and tenants were recorded. Cadastral maps were also compiled during this time. Due to Zhang's untimely death, there was no final summary of data for the entire country, but at the local level, the work served its purpose. Zhang's cadastre served as the foundation for later Ming and Qing cadastres.
As early as 1581, the Ministry of Revenue had compiled the Wanli kuai ji lu (; 'Record of the accounting procedures of the Wanli reign'), which provided an overview of taxes and fees throughout the empire. This document highlighted the complexity, diversity, and dependence on local conditions of these taxes, making unification a challenging task. After incorporating some compulsory works, the land tax amounted to 5–10% of the harvest, but in the four most heavily taxed prefectures of South Zhili, it reached 14–20%. In the 1570s–1590s, approximately 21 million liangs of silver were collected for the land tax, mostly in the form of grain.
Trade