#240 - Ming 27: The Solecism of Power

<p>The Jiajing Emperor rounds out the back-half of his interminably long reign by hiding away in his personal palace, and only occasionally coming out to tell everyone what a terrible job they're all doing. The Mongols seize on Ming weakness to basically do whatever they want, and the Ming respond by turtling even harder and building more walls. Without a imperial guiding hand, the ministers are left to their own devices... with predictably selfish and myopic results.</p><br><p>Time Period Covered:</p><p>1550-1567 CE</p><br><p>Major Historical Figures:</p><p>Ming Empire:</p><p>The Jiajing Emperor (Zhu Houcong) [r. 1521-1567]</p><p>Gen. Qiu Ruan [d. 1552]</p><p>Grand Secretary Xia Yan [1482-1548]</p><p>Grand Secretary Yan Song [1480-1567]</p><p>Grand Secretary Xu Jie [1512-1578]</p><br><p>Mongolia:</p><p>Altan Khan [1507-1582]</p><p>Prince Toghto</p><br><p>Major Works Cited:</p><p>Bacon, Francis. “Of empire” in <em>The essays of Francis Bacon</em> (1908).</p><p>Geiss, James. “The Chia-ching reign, 1522-1566,” in <em>The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 7: the Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644, Part I.</em></p><p><br></p><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>