The History of China

We're back with Part 2 of my conversation with Caroline Vahrenkamp of The Wonders of the World Podcast, this tie all about the little city that Yongle built mostly to show his dead dad up - Beijing, and at its heart, the city-within-the-city, the Imperial Purple Palace - The Forbidden City! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Part 1 of my interview with Caroline Vahrenkamp of "The Wonders of the World Podcast" all about Beijing and it's meteoric rise as (the once and future) capital of China in the early Ming Dynasty! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Yongle Emperor decides to build a new capital. It goes well! He also decides to invade both Mongolia and Vietnam. It goes not so well. Time Period: 1402-1424 CE Major Historical Figures: Ming: The Yongle Emperor (Zhu Di) [r. 1402-1424] General Zhang Fu [1375-1449] Gen. Mu Sheng [1368-1439] Mongol Khanates: Bunyashiri of the Eastern Tribes [d. 1412] Mahmud of the Oirat [d. 1416] Arughtai of the Oirat [d. 1434] Dai Viet: Ho Qui Ly [1336- ca. 1407] Tran Thien-binh [d. 1406] Tran Nguy [?-?] Tran Qui-khoang (Trung Quang Emperor) [d. 1414] Le Loi [1384-1433] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A great conversation with Alex & Peter of "History's Most" about the worst civil war many have *still* never heard of - the Taiping Rebellion! Check out their great show at: https://historysmost.libsyn.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Yongle Emperor has taken command... and we're in for a really, really, really great time.... Time Period Covered: 1402-1424 CE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The civil war between the Jianwen Emperor and his uncle, the Prince of Yan, rages on across the realm. Both sides will feel the terror and pain of the fearsome realities combat... but in the end, only one will be left standing. Time Period Covered: 1399-1402 CE Major Historical Figures: The Jianwen Emperor (Zhu Yunwen) [r. 1398-1402] Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan [1360-1424] Minister Huang Zicheng [1350-1402] Minister Qi Tai [d. 1402] Minister Fang Xiaoru [1357-1402] General Geng Bingwen [1334-1403] General Li Jinglong [1369-1424] Major Works Cited: Andrade, Tonio. “How Yongle learned to stop worrying and love the gun” in The Ming World. Chan, Hok-lam. “The Chien-wen, Yung-lo, Hung-hsi, and Hsüan-te Reigns, 1399-1435” in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 7: The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1633, Part I. Ditmanson, Peter. “Venerating the Martyrs of the 1402 Usurpation: History and Memory in the Mid and late Ming Dynasty” in T’oung Pao, Second Series, Vol. 93. Ditmanson, Peter. “Fang Xiaoru: Moralistic Politics in the Early Ming” in The Human Tradition in Premodern China. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the wake of the Hongwu Emperor's death, his grandson - Zhu Yunwen - will assume command. He's been brought up and trained in the highest of Confucian ethics and morals, and will seek to curb the excesses of his dear grandfather's... more bloodthirsty policies. But not everyone is thrilled at the new leaf being turned in the book of the regime... especially those who stand to lose much more than they could possibly gain. Time Period Covered: 1398-1399 CE Major Historical Figures: The Jianwen Emperor (Zhu Yunwen) [r. 1398-1402] Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan [1360-1424] Minister Huang Zicheng [1350-1402] Minister Qi Tai [d. 1402] Minister Fang Xiaoru [1357-1402] General Geng Bingwen [1334-1403] General Li Jinglong [1369-1424] Major Works Cited: Andrade, Tonio. “How Yongle learned to stop worrying and love the gun” in The Ming World. Chan, Hok-lam. “The Chien-wen, Yung-lo, Hung-hsi, and Hsüan-te Reigns, 1399-1435” in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 7: The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1633, Part I. Ditmanson, Peter. “Venerating the Martyrs of the 1402 Usurpation: History and Memory in the Mid and late Ming Dynasty” in T’oung Pao, Second Series, Vol. 93. Ditmanson, Peter. “Fang Xiaoru: Moralistic Politics in the Early Ming” in The Human Tradition in Premodern China. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Hongwu Emperor enters the twilight of his life. But before he's ready to ride off into that long sunset, he's going to take a hell of a lot more people with him... Time Period: 1387-1398 CE Major Historical FIgures: The Hongwu Emperor (Zhu Yuanzhang) [r. 1368-1398] Crown Prince Zhu Biao [1355-1392] Crown Prince Zhu Yunwen (The Jianwen Emperor) [1377-1402] Zhu Shuang, the Prince of Qin [1356-1395] Zhu Gang, the Prince of Jin [1358-1398] Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan [1360-1424] Zhu Su, the Prince of Zhou [1361-1425] General Fu Youde [1327-1394] General Feng Sheng [d. 1395] Major Sources: Langlois, John D., Jr. “The Hung-Wu-Reign” in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 7: The Ming Dynasty, 13698-1644m Part I. Robinson, David M. In the Shadow of the Mongol Empire: Ming China and Eurasia. Sun, Bing. “The burial system of imperial concubines in the Ming Dynasty and the ‘ancestral system’ of the Ming Dynasty.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

(NOTE: This is Pt. 1 or 2. The Full Episode & all other bonus content is available via Patreon.com/thehistoryofchina) Mongke has ascended as the Great Khan of the Mongols and set loose his younger brother, Hulegu Ilkhan to bring the Islamic world to heel. The Caliph of the Abbasid Dynasty, al-Mustasim, sits ensconced in his citadel city of Baghdad - the jewel of Islam - and believes that Allah above and his loyal subjects beneath will be more than a match for barbarian hordes. He's about to learn a lesson neither he - nor the world - will ever forget... Time Period Covered: 1258-1259 CE Major Historical Figures: Mongol Empire: Hülegü Ilkhan [ca. 1215-1265] General Kitbukha [d. 1260] General Baiju [1201-1260] Abbasid Caliphate: al-Musta’sim-Billah Abu-Ahmad Abdullah bin al-Mustansir  Billah, 37th Caliph [1213-1258] Governor Shahab al Din Sulaiman shah [d. 1258] Vizier Ibn al Alkami [1197-1258] Major Sources Cited: Al-Din, Rashid. Jami al Tararikh (Compendium of Histories). Al-Din, Rashid (tr. John Andrew Boyle). The Successors of Genghis Khan. Chugtai, Mizra Azeem Baig. “The Fall of Baghdad” in The Annal of Urdu Studies. Daftary, Farhad. The Isma’ilis: Their History and Doctrines. Hillenbrand, Robert. “Propaganda in the Mongol ‘World History’” in British Academy Review, issue 17 (March 2011). Hodgson, M. G. S. “The Isma’ili State” in The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 5: The Saljuq and Mongol Periods. Jamal, Nadia Eboo. Surviving the Mongols: Nizari Quhistani and the Continuity of Ismaili Tradition in Persia. Marozzi, Justin. Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood. Paris, Matthew of (tr. John Allen Giles). Chronica Majora (Matthew Paris’s English History From the Year 1235 to 1273, Volume 1). Saunders, J.J. The History of the Mongol Conquests. van Ruysbroeck, Willem (tr. W. W. Rockhill & Peter Jackson). The journey of William of Rubruck to the eastern parts of the world, 1253-55, as narrated by himself, with two accounts of the earlier journey of John of Pian del Carpine. Wiet, Gaston. Baghdad: Metropolis of the Abbasid Caliphate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To both the north and south, the armies of Great Ming continue to achieve order from chaos and stability across the realm, in the imperial palace at Nanjing, the Hongwu Emperor sits the Dragon Throne - as mercurial and temperamental as its very namesake... and woe betide anyone who stokes the dragon's wrath. Still, in the name of greater peace (and fewer mass slaughters), many a brave (and often fatally foolish)scholar will tempt fate by trying to tell Hongwu what he's doing wrong. Time Period Covered: 1379-1389 CE Major Historical Figures: Ming: The Hongwu Emperor (Zhu Yuanzhang) [r.1368-1398] Duke Li Wenzhong [d. 1384] General Fu Youde [d. 1394] General Feng Sheng [?] General Lan Yu [d. 1393] General Mu Ying [d. 1392] Scholar Chen Wenhui [d. 1381] Scholar Li Shilu [d. 1381] Scholar Xie Jin [1369-1415] Yuan/Yunnanese: Toghus Temür Khan [d. 1388] Basalawarmi, the Prince of Liang [d. 1382] General Naghachu [d. 1388] Si Lunfa, Chieftain of Shan [d. 1386?] Major Works Cited: Crossley, Pamela Kyle, et al. Empire at the Margins: Culture, Ethnicity and Frontier in Early Modern China. Dillon, Michael. China’s Muslim Hui Community: Migration, Settlements and Sects. Langlois, John D., Jr. “The Hung-Wu-Reign” in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 7: The Ming Dynasty, 13698-1644m Part I. Tsai, Shi-shan Henry. The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty.g. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices