Perpetual Happiness: The Ming Emperor
Yongle
by Shih-Shan Henry Tsai Reviewed by James D. Rosenthal
Emperor Yongle, who reigned from 1402 to 1424, was
either the second or the third ruler of the Ming Dynasty, depending
on who did the counting. He was the oldest surviving son of the dynasty's
founder Emperor Hongwu, but he did not inherit his throne directly.
He took it by force from his nephew, whom his father had named but
whom Yongle never considered the legitimate successor.
As far as his legitimate place in China's history
is concerned, however, Yongle need not have worried. He went on to
become the most renowned of the Ming emperors, consolidating and
strengthening the dynasty, which was to last in an unbroken line
for another 220 years after his death. He set up a strong, highly
centralized government that administered the country effectively,
bringing relative peace and prosperity to his people for most of
the time he ruled. He re-established Beijing as the imperial capital,
shifting the country's political center of gravity from the south
to the north, and built the Forbidden City that still remains as
the prime symbol of China's magnificence.
Professor Tsai deftly chronicles all this and much
more in Perpetual Happiness—The Ming Emperor Yongle,
a compact and highly readable history of Yongle and his reign. Tsai
sets the stage by taking us through a typical day in the life of
Yongle's court. We see a hard-working emperor engaged in the "hands-on" management
of his vast and varied empire, using the huge pervasive bureaucratic
system of eunuchs, officials, and scholars that he himself essentially
created. The system was to endure for the next five centuries, though
not always with the same degree of skill or effectiveness.
Tsai then flashes back to the formative years leading
up to Yongle's successional struggle, years which saw his childhood
upbringing in the original Ming capital of Nanjing, his early adulthood
on military campaigns and as prince of the Beijing region, and his
festering disappointment at being bypassed as successor. His father's
decision was a rather quixotic and ultimately disastrous one, which
led to a long and bloody civil war and then an extended and brutal
purge by the victorious Yongle once he gained the throne. Tsai is
particularly good at sorting out these events clearly and describing
their lasting effect on Yongle's subsequent reign.
Yongle not only re-established Beijing as the "center
of the world" but also completed the Great Canal linking North and
South China and massively expanded other inland waterways and flood
control projects. He increased security and settlement in frontier
areas and substantially extended China's borders on the north, west,
and southwest. He created and dispatched huge naval fleets to Southeast
Asia, the Indian Ocean, and Africa. His army of scholars produced
some of China's most important and lasting literary works, including
the Grand Encyclopedia that bears his name.
Yongle was not without his faults and failures, as
Tsai does not hesitate to point out. He could be arbitrary, vindictive,
and brutal. Many of his closest advisers and high officials (and
their families) ultimately suffered disgrace, exile, and even execution
after losing his favor for one reason or another. His costly re-imposition
of Chinese rule in Vietnam eventually failed. He reduced the overall
Mongol threat on his northwest frontier, but not all his military
campaigns there were successful, and in fact he died on the way back
from one of them.
But Yongle's accomplishments far outweighed his shortcomings,
and Professor Tsai gives us a finely crafted and eminently readable
history of the man and his era. The book may not quite induce "perpetual
happiness" among its readers, but it will certainly give them a great
deal of enjoyment.
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