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 ...

The middle decades of the fourteenth century provide a curious spectacle inthe history of later imperial China's scholarly and social elite. To some it wasa period of hope, largely unfulfilled, that time-honored Chinese ways mightat last prevail over the alien conquerors' disruptive impact. After completinghis conquest of central and south ...

The Yuan military garrisons were poorly administered. One scholar haswritten that even by the end of the thirteenth century, mismanagementwas causing breakdowns of the military system, and by the 1340s it hadbeen repeatedly demonstrated to be incapable of repressing local rebellionsand banditry. Even the imperial guards based at the capital, ...

  Factionalism is endemic to politics and was present throughout the Yuandynasty; it became a crippling factor in government early in the four-teenth century. After Khubilai's long reign (1260-94), cliques of cour-tiers representing conflicting interests of his grandsons and their heirsoften engaged in murderous intrigues to control the throne. Some scholarssee ...

The character of the Yuan dynasty, through which the Mongol conquerorsfrom Khubilai Khan onward ruled China, has been interpreted in manyways and at present is still much at issue among scholars.1 Nonetheless,one fact about it is unambiguous. Its ability to govern —to maintain orderin society, to administer provincial and local government, ...

Han people resumed their rule during the Ming dynasty. Onedistinction is the overseas expeditions during the period 1405–1433led by Zheng He, a eunuch and confidante of the emperor of theMing dynasty. According to Gavin (2003), on March 8, 1421Zheng He sailed the largest fleet the world had ever seen from ...