Gua Sheng Tongdi: Emperors and Subjects of the Ming Dynasty
About This Novel
In the early years of Hongwu, a pair of Bingdi melons from Jurong County were presented to Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty as an auspicious sign. Such a small incident contains many intriguing details: Zhang Guan, the Jurong melon farmer who planted the pair of "Jiagua", chose to skip the local government and go directly to Beijing to offer melons; and the Ming Taizu himself, Tao Kai, Song Lian and others, important ministers of the court at the time, and even the "Records of the Ming Taizu" and other contemporary documents compiled by Xie Jin and others later had contradictory interpretations of this auspiciousness - what caused this auspiciousness? Who is this praise from God? The author traces the ins and outs of the incident and the different fates of the various figures involved in the incident in detail, showing how the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, court ministers, and local officials stood in different positions and constantly competed for the right to interpret auspiciousness.
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