Chinese History

The founding of the Ming dynasty was the end product of the anti-Yuanpeasant rebellions of the 1350s. The rebellions themselves were the finalstage of a long history of Chinese resentment against Mongol rule, ex-pressed at the elite level by reluctance to serve in the government and atthe popular level by ...

On 10 April 1356, after repeated engagements, Chu Yuan-chang at lastovercame Nanking and immediately made it his new capital, quicklyrenamed Ying-t'ien (In Response to Heaven). In that same week ChangShih-ch'eng moved across the Yangtze to proclaim Soochow his capital.Earlier that year Ni Wen-chun established Hsu Shou-hui as emperor ofthe southern ...

The vast Red Turban rebellion that, so far as we know, first appeared inKiangsi and Hunan in the 1330s spread within a dozen years throughouthalf of China. It was not like the equally vast T'ai-p'ing rebellion of thenineteenth century; the T'ai-p'ing movement was created in one place,produced one unified corps ...

On 10 April 1356, after repeated engagements, Chu Yuan-chang at lastovercame Nanking and immediately made it his new capital, quicklyrenamed Ying-t'ien (In Response to Heaven). In that same week ChangShih-ch'eng moved across the Yangtze to proclaim Soochow his capital.Earlier that year Ni Wen-chun established Hsu Shou-hui as emperor ofthe southern ...

That Chu Yuan-chang is the only founder of an imperial Chinese dynastyborn into a household of destitute farmers, thus coming from the bottomlayer of Chinese society, is one of the best known facts of Chinese history.Born on 21 October 1328 at Chung-li village in Hao-chou district (modernFeng-yang district of central ...

The vast Red Turban rebellion that, so far as we know, first appeared inKiangsi and Hunan in the 1330s spread within a dozen years throughouthalf of China. It was not like the equally vast T'ai-p'ing rebellion of thenineteenth century; the T'ai-p'ing movement was created in one place,produced one unified corps ...

The vast Red Turban rebellion that, so far as we know, first appeared inKiangsi and Hunan in the 1330s spread within a dozen years throughouthalf of China. It was not like the equally vast T'ai-p'ing rebellion of thenineteenth century; the T'ai-p'ing movement was created in one place,produced one unified corps ...

In traditional Chinese historical materials, the words translated bandit (Jseifei, k'ou, and so on) were applied to any person who defied legitimateauthority, from petty thieves and robbers to leaders and followers of mas-sive rebellions, even to future founders of dynasties before they succeeded.Here, however, "bandit" is used in the more ...

Accompanying the weakening of the Yuan government throughout theearly fourteenth century, and stemming from problems lying deep in theYuan pattern of rule, one can observe a gradual loss of normative controlsand consequently a drift to more direct reliance on force. As the govern-ment's ability to apply coercive sanctions waned, it ...

The most interesting, and in the history of the Ming dynasty's emergencecertainly the most important, of the regional leaders serving the Yuan wasKoko Temiir (ca. i33O?-75). His story begins with the career of  his stepfather, Chaghan Temiir (d. 1362). Chaghan was the fourth-generationhead of a leading Naiman Turkic clan that had ...