Mao Peiqi - Yongle Emperor Zhu Di

Author: Mao Peiqi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-11-01
Features: The Yongle Emperor Zhu Di was a controversial figure. He achieved remarkable accomplishments: he organized the compilation of the massive and comprehensive Yongle Dadian, pioneering the tradition of encyclopedia compilation in world cultural history; he built the most powerful navy in the history of world culture at that time, making seven voyages to the Western Oceans, bringing the Maritime Silk Road to its peak; he personally led five expeditions to the northern deserts, maintaining national unity, and died on the campaign. However, the Yongle Emperor was also infamous for his cruelty: he was a man of violence and cold-bloodedness, especially when it came to the extreme torture he inflicted on the surviving officials of the Jianwen regime, a brutality unmatched in history. He ordered the ears and noses of Tie Xuan to be cut off, boiled, and forced into his mouth; he imposed the unprecedented "killing of ten clans" on the renowned scholar Fang Xiangru, executing not only Fang's students and friends to make up the supposed "ten clans."
Was the Yongle Emperor a ruthless and bloodthirsty tyrant or a meritorious and accomplished ruler? Professor Mao Peiqi, based on years of research, presents an objective and comprehensive portrayal of the Yongle Emperor in this book and reveals many unresolved historical mysteries.