Great Ming: From the Start, Face-to-Face with Zhu Yuanzhang

Zhu Yuanzhang referred to himself as "I" (or "we"). Also, in the Ming Dynasty, people used terms like "Your Majesty" or "Your Majesty," while in the Qing Dynasty, it was the emperor. Zhu Yuanzhang would never have referred to himself as "I" (or "me").

In chaotic times, they don't even know to use harsh punishments, yet they try to reason with disaster victims. And they think they can be emperor? Go to sleep! They'll dream about it.

The Ming Dynasty banned maritime trade because Emperor Zhu (Zhu Yuanzhang) was worried about population flight overseas in the early years of the dynasty. What the hell were you thinking, opening the seas during the Hongwu reign? Don't you know that opening the seas during the Yongle reign was considered fast? The Ming Dynasty failed to open the seas in its later years because the benefits were taken by the ministers. Are you saying that opening the seas now means Emperor Hongwu's sword wasn't fast enough? And if it were really that easy to conquer small territories with just tens of thousands of people, they would have been wiped out long ago.

The writing style is seriously distracting. For example, in the line "Mother, good afternoon," there's virtually no character development or characterization. It feels like the writing style is similar to what my deskmate wrote in junior high.

The author overlooks a crucial point: why were ancient dynasties so sparsely populated at their founding? Ancient dynasties lasted two to three hundred years, not because of anything else, but because population growth exceeded the land's carrying capacity. Everything else is superficial; this is the key. A war wiped out a large portion of the population, resolving the land-population conflict, and a new dynasty's golden age arrived. In other words, what massive numbers of refugees suffered during the Hongwu era? How many people were there in the entire country? When Liu Bang founded his dynasty, he couldn't even gather enough white horses to pull his chariot—it's the same principle.

You portrayed the class divide in ancient society as too egalitarian. You're a prince, a nobleman, yet you still have to go through so much trouble explaining and considering things with others.

Seeing Lin Lang's actions was a major blunder. Harming the imperial grandson was suicidal; to make matters worse, he even took poison. It's ridiculous! Did he think killing his subordinates would make it impossible to trace them? Did his subordinates just appear out of thin air? Every person leaves a trace.

Well, this book is really just so-so. The combination of historical fiction and a system isn't necessarily good or bad, but it's certainly off-putting. Also, the first few chapters are too bland and lack any interesting points. And shouldn't historical fiction at least have some "common sense"? The protagonist, Zhu Yunwen, went to Zhu Yuanzhang's court less than three months after Zhu Biao's death, saying he wanted to go and serve as a vassal. That's quite a nasty detail.

Chapter 107 was a bit irrational; all it did was kill, without considering how the slaves could be used for construction, road building, or mining. Firstly, it lowers resistance; after all, if there's a way to survive, the timid will cherish their lives. If everyone is killed, there's no way to survive, so they'll fight desperately—where would the protagonist get so many people to fill the void? Secondly, it also helps to silence some of the pedantic and pedantic pronouncements from the civil officials.

This is too simplistic. Good historical fiction should at least have self-consistent logic and not be too intellectually simplistic. The plot should also be politically relevant, not just about ordinary people with clear-cut morals. The opening scene with Lan Yu poisoned some people, and his enfeoffment involved immediate executions and the sending away of others. Having just been enfeoffed, he had no real power or loyal followers; his act of presenting potatoes was like a child holding gold. He'll likely be under intense scrutiny from now on. Furthermore, the author seems completely oblivious to the implications of high-yield content in a feudal dynasty, making the story unpleasant to read.