395 years ago, in 1627, Su Yudhian became the 17th and what would turn out to be the last

Emperor of the Ming Dynasty in China. For over 1000 years, Emperor's reigns adopted

ear remains, and Yudhian was called Chongzhong, meaning honourable and auspicious,

so you were often him referred to as Emperor Chongzhong. The Ming Dynasty into which Emperor Chongzhong

was born had ruled China since 1368, if we're using the Western calendar. The Chinese used the

Datong calendar, a loony solar calendar which identifies years, months and days according to astronomical

phenomena. Chongzhong's empire covered some 6 and a half million square kilometres, to give a

sense of its scale, a few divided modern day China in half north to south, he ruled almost everything

to the east of that line and some to the west. In today's podcast, we will learn about Emperor Chongzhong's

life and his startling death. We will learn about the nature of Chongzhong's power and how a dynasty

that ruled for over 250 years collapsed. It is a remarkable story. My guest today is Timothy Brook,

emeritus professor of the University of British Columbia. Tim is a historian of China whose work

has focused on the Ming Dynasty, but extends to issues that span the period from the Mongol

occupation of China in the 13th century to the Japanese occupation of China in the 20th.

In addition to serving as the general editor of Harvard University Presses' history of Imperial China,

he has published extensively on China and the world. And his most recent book, Great State, China

and the world was published in 2019 and awarded the Grand Prix des Zerrandes Vidalistes duis.

Professor Brook, welcome to Not Just the Tudors. Thank you so much for making the time to tell me

about something that I really don't know enough about. Well, I'm delighted that you're interested

enough in the opposite side of the world to want to include it in the podcast, so it's my pleasure

to be here. So we're going to be talking about Chong-Jen and the end of the Ming Dynasty,

but perhaps it would help us if we start by thinking about the nature of the Imperial system

...