The Great Ming Dynasty 2

The Great Ming Empire was founded by a man who had herded cattle and lived as a monk. From the very beginning, this seemed to foreshadow the dynasty's dramatic cycles of rise and fall, along with the unusual and bizarre figures and events that marked its history. Zhu Yuanzhang rose from humble beginnings amid rival warlords and a storm-tossed age. By reading the situation and proceeding one careful step at a time, he laid the foundations of the Ming in just fifteen years. By the time of the Chongzhen Emperor, however, the city was engulfed in flames and ruler and ministers had abandoned one another, a lamentable end. Drawing on a vast body of historical documents, this book selects many episodes long overlooked by historians and retells the story of dynastic transitions and changing regimes with a deft touch. Through elegant prose and meticulous historical research, it seeks to present readers with a vivid, realistic panorama of Ming history and reveal the Ming dynasty as it truly was.