Those Stories of Ming. Volume I (en Inglés)
Reseña del libro "Those Stories of Ming. Volume I (en Inglés)"
He was hungry, but he still had to exert enough in his meager remaining strength to get his parents buried. In just a few days, his parents and most of his siblings had died of hunger. Yet being poor peasants, his family owned not an inch of land. He couldn't even find a place to bury his parents. He no longer had a family but he still had to feed himself. He went to a Buddhist temple and became a monk. The miseries that befell on him and his family, however, were not unique. People everywhere were suffering and they rose up. After some hesitation, he joined the rebellion. He was an uneducated peasant but he was smart. He quickly rose in ranks in the rebel army. In a few years, he became a regional warlord with his own forces.
He was Zhu Yuan Zhang, the founding emperor of Ming. In the next decades, he defeated all of his rivals and became the only challenger to the Yuan Dynasty. Then he overthrew Yuan and declared himself the emperor. He chose Ming, which means brilliant and wise, as the title of his new empire. As all the other founders of the previous dynasties, he envisioned an empire that would last forever. But his unique birth and childhood experiences made him feel insecure of mostly two things, food and rule.
As the new Son of Heaven, he wanted to ensure that his descendants won't suffer hunger again. In addition to making all of his sons princes, he also dictated that all of his descendants would forever not need to work to earn food. To secure his rule, he made his sons guardian princes and hoped they would protect his successor, who was his grandson of his eldest son, who died before he died. But ironically, immediately after his death, the person who overthrew his grandson was no other but one of his sons.
As one of the only two founding emperors who were peasants by birth, his feeling of insecurity about his rule and his empire made him one of the most brutal rulers of all the major Chinese dynasties. He was always suspicious of his quondam comrades in arms who helped him to found the empire and made him the emperor. In his almost thirty years of rule, he killed tens of thousands of his military and civilian officials, scholars, and even commoners.
This is the first volume of a seven-volume series, which cover the entire history of more than three hundred years of Ming, from its founding to its collapse. This first volume describes the early years of Zhu Yuan Zhang, his struggles against his rivals, his defeat of Yuan, and the founding of Ming. It also describes the bureaucratic system of Ming and ancient China. Chapters on the imperial exam system, the culture, and ancient politics are informative, in addition to the usual palace intrigues that is common in all dynasties. Chapters on Zhu Yuan Zhang's brutality in the persecution of his advisors and generals can make readers hair stand on end.
This book is historical fiction. Although most of the stories told are based on history records, details are mostly fictional. The author, in expressing his own opinions, has also made extensive comments throughout the book. Some of the comments made by the author, being someone limited by his experience, education, and nationality, may raise eyebrows among some readers. But overall, for interested readers, reading this book should be an entertaining way of learning more about China and its past and maybe even present.
