Recovery---Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)

"The invaders must go!" a resounding and angry voice roared along the Yangtze Valley. The voice came from a strongly built young man. He was the man who was brave enough to send the Mongols packing, Zhu Yuanzhang.

From an orphaned beggar to an emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang experienced dramatic changes in his life. He was born to very poor parents, who died from famine. At age 16, Zhu Yuanzhang became a Buddhist monk, later left the monastery and lived a wandering life of a beggar. In 1352, he joined the rebel movement against the Mongols and quickly rose to a successful warlord. In 1368, he expelled the Mongols from China and declared a new regime in Jiankang (present Nanjing), which he named Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty restored Chinese prestige and gave the Chinese people a long era of peace and prosperity. The Chinese enjoyed a higher standard of living than any other people on earth throughout most of the Ming Dynasty. From 1400-1600, China's population doubled, from 80 million to about 160 million. Some industries grew rapidly, Jingdezhen and Hangzhou became the porcelain and silk production centers of the country respectively. Literature flourished, with three out of the Big Four Famous Novels in Chinese literature produced in the Ming Dynasty. They were " Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Journey to the West" and "Water Margin". "Dreams of the Red Chamber" was written later in the Qing Dynasty.

The third emperor Yongle , ZhuYuanzhang's son, moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, where he built the huge and splendid palace known as the Forbidden City. In order to extend the prestige of the Central Kingdom, Yongle dispatched the eunuch admiral Zheng He on seven maritime expeditions, from 1405 to 1433, to areas throughout South and Southeast Asia, India and as far as eastern coast of Africa. A recent controversial theory indicated that Zheng He circled the entire globe and discovered America in the 1400s before Christopher Columbus. Gavin Menzies, a former submarine commander and a full time amateur historian, showed the proof of this startling theory in his newly published book, " 1421: The Year China Discovered America".

By 1600, the Ming regime started to go down hill. Reigned by weak emperors, Ming China was then threatened both internally and externally. The governmental power fell into the hands of poorly educated and self-indulgent eunuchs. The abuse of power resulted in increasing official corruption, large neglect of public works and subsequent massive famine. Peasant rebellions spread all over the country. Meanwhile, in the remote northeastern frontier, a tribal people called Manchu, the descendants of the Jurchens, waited in the wings.

In 1644, a peasant rebel named Li Zicheng captured the Ming capital Beijing. The last Ming emperor hanged himself on Mount Mei behind the Forbidden City. The Ming Dynasty appeared to have come full circle-it was started by a peasant and ended by a peasant.

Will this peasant hero put on the yellow dragon robe and take the throne for a new era? Please wait and see!