The Ming restored Han Chinese rule after the Mongol Yuan, built the current Great Wall, sent Zheng He's treasure fleets across the Indian Ocean, and erected the Forbidden City — ruling for nearly three centuries before falling to internal rebellion and Manchu invasion.
The Ming dynasty ended in 1644 CE when the rebel Li Zicheng captured Beijing and the last Ming emperor Chongzhen hanged himself; the Manchu Qing dynasty then entered China and proclaimed rule over all of China.
Mote's Ming section is the most thorough English-language synthesis of the dynasty's politics, culture, and eventual decline.
Covers Zheng He's voyages and Ming China's complex relationship with global trade in accessible narrative form.
Published during the Ming and one of its defining literary works, though its story is nominally set in the earlier Tang dynasty (a well-known nuance for this novel).
A landmark Ming novel of manners and social realism; nominally set in the Song dynasty but widely read as a portrait of Ming-contemporary urban life and commerce.