Ming China and Its Allies

About this book

"This book analyzes the exercise of imperial rulership during the first six decades of the fifteenth century, when the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) governed China. Like emperors of other dynasties, Ming rulers regularly highlighted their status as patron and sovereign to a wide variety of populations, both at home and abroad, but my particular focus is early Ming emperors' relations with what contemporaries sometimes called 'men from afar,' that is, leaders who usually hailed from beyond dynastic and cultural borders. In both celebrating mastery and cultivating allies, the emperor played the role of lord of lords. I examine one subset of lords or men from afar, Mongol nobles, who were heirs to the military and political legacy of Genghis Khan -- here spelled Chinggis Khan (1163-1227)"--