The Fiftieth Year of Zhengde

This was a prosperous Ming dynasty that had gone astray, plagued by internal strife and external threats, stumbling along on unsteady feet. In the sixteenth year of Zhengde, the emperor fell into the water but survived. Even so, he never changed his playful ways. The Eight Tigers ran rampant at court. Ma Yongcheng controlled the Directorate of Ceremonial, and everyone called him the Standing Emperor. Cao Bin commanded the Embroidered Uniform Guard, whose mounted officers rode out in every direction, striking terror throughout the realm... It was now the fiftieth year of the reign of the Great Ming Emperor Zhengde. The emperor was growing frail with age. Yang Shen, Grand Secretary of the Cabinet and Chief Grand Secretary, wielded power at court, working diligently and never daring to slack off for a single day. Yet the empire faced crises both within and without: natural disasters and man-made calamities, widespread popular unrest, and princes battling for the throne at home; a unified Japan and the Angkor dynasty of Southeast Asia beyond its borders; and the Three Surnames Jurchens, on the outskirts of the Nurgan Regional Military Commission in the northeast, watching like tigers poised to pounce. Far away on the South Asian subcontinent, the mighty Mughal Empire, led by its Emperor Akbar, was baring its gleaming fangs! That year, a visitor in blue robes arrived at the home of a poor family in Jiangmi Alley, Xuannan Ward, in the Ming capital...