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 an imperial guiding hand, the ministers are left to their own devices... with predictably selfish and myopic results.



Time Period Covered:

1550-1567 CE



Major Historical Figures:

Ming Empire:

The Jiajing Emperor (Zhu Houcong) [r. 1521-1567]

Gen. Qiu Ruan [d. 1552]

Grand Secretary Xia Yan [1482-1548]

Grand Secretary Yan Song [1480-1567]

Grand Secretary Xu Jie [1512-1578]



Mongolia:

Altan Khan [1507-1582]

Prince Toghto



Major Works Cited:

Bacon, Francis. “Of empire” in The essays of Francis Bacon (1908).

Geiss, James. “The Chia-ching reign, 1522-1566,” in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 7: the Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644, Part I.

The History of China

#240 - Ming 27: The Solecism of Power

An audio journey through the 5000 year history of one of the world's oldest continuous civilizations.