Summary: 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 a 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
