For the History Channel, I wrote about uncovering lesser-known facets of the Ming Dynasty’s profound legacy.
Born Zhu Yuanzhang in 1328 and orphaned at age 16, the man who would found the Ming dynasty survived by begging before becoming a novice at a Buddhist monastery. When his monastery was burned down a few years later during a conflict between Yuan dynasty soldiers and rebels from a Buddhist sect known as the “Red Turbans,” Zhu joined the rebels, quickly rising through the ranks and even marrying the daughter of one of his commanders. By the time his men overthrew the Yuan dynasty capital of Nanjing, the 40-year-old Zhu had distanced himself from the rebels’ more esoteric teachings, although the name he gave his dynasty, Ming, means “bright,” in a possible reference to the god of light revered by his former comrades.
In the early 15th century the Hongwu Emperor’s son, the Yongle Emperor, supervised the transfer of the imperial capital from Nanjing to a new city in Beijing, 550 miles to the northwest. Adjacent to the old Yuan dynasty capital of Dadu, which had been built by Kublai Khan beginning in 1264, the new Ming capital was surrounded by a wall 15 miles long and 40 feet high. In addition to an administrative hub with offices for government officials, the center of the complex contained the imperial palace, whose nearly 10,000 rooms could only be entered with the emperor’s permission. Known in modern English as the Forbidden City, the Chinese term for it, “Zijin Cheng,” means “Purple Forbidden City,” a colorful reference not to the city’s walls but to the night sky—particularly the purplish constellation with the North Start at its center, which the emperor hoped to emulate, with his new capital as the earthly version of this navigational star.