#229 - Ming 18: The Raven Himself Is Hoarse

The History of China

Chris Stewart

History

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2022

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

After a very rocky start in life, the Chenghua Emperor takes the throne, only to be endlessly shoved around by overbearing mother, manipulative and murderous consorts, and conniving, terrorizing eunuchs. What else would one really expect for a guy with the personality of a west dishrag? Time Period Covered: 1464-1487 CE Major Historical Figures: The Chenghua Emperor (Zhu Jianshen) [r. 1464-1487] The Hongzhi Emperor (Zhu Youcheng) [1470-1505] Noble Consort Wan Zheng'er [1430-1487] Empress Wang Empress Wu Empress Dowager Zhou Empress Dowager Qian Grand Secretary Li Xian Lady Zhi Tangmei Eunuch Zhang Min Spymaster Wang Zhi Notable Works Cited: Mote, Frederick W. “The Ch’eng-hua and Hung-chih Reigns, 1465-1505” in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 7: The Ming Dynasty, Part I. Li Shizhen. Bencao Ganmu (The Compendium of Materia Medica) Tsai, Shi-shan Henry. The Eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast.
0:04.6	Hello and welcome to the history of China.
0:14.5	Episode 229 The Raven himself is horse.
0:23.2	We begin today with the formal enthronement of the Crown Prince Zhu Jian Shan as the eighth
0:27.9	Emperor of Great Ming, or Ninth by some counts, on February 28th, 1464, five days after
0:35.4	the death of his father, the restored Emperor Yingzong.
0:39.2	He took power just two months after his 16th birthday, and would proclaim the official
0:43.3	beginning of his reign era, the Tenghua, or accomplished transformation upon the following
0:48.2	lunar New Year's Day, February 5th, 1465, just after he turned 17.
0:54.2	It would be three years after that, in 1468, that the Great Ming would mark a full century
0:59.6	of it having come to power over both Southern and Northern China, after having driven the
1:03.6	listless Bojgian Khan Emperor's from their bases of power in the North China Plains, and
1:08.0	sent them scattering back across the Gobi to Mongolia.
1:11.8	Having thus reached the Centennial Mark of Power, we can pretty safely say that the Great
1:15.8	Ming isn't a spring chicken anymore, even if its Emperor's will strongly tend to remain
1:20.4	that way.
1:21.8	The reign of the Tenghua Emperor, and yes, for consistency's sake, we're back to naming
1:25.8	our emperors after their reign periods for the rest of the dynasty, given that our
1:29.2	one and only divided reign of Yingzong is now over, so no, we're not going to call Dujian
1:34.2	Shen by the temple name Shenzong, I mean, we could, and there are plenty of sources
1:38.4	that do, but I'm not, because I've got too many Shenzong's floating around in my head
1:42.7	already.
	...

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