The Ming dynasty began with one of the most improbable rises in Chinese history: Zhu Yuanzhang went from a desperately poor boy and Buddhist novice to rebel commander, conqueror, and founder of a new imperial dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty: A History of China, Part One follows that transformation through the collapse of the Yuan dynasty and the violent struggle for control of China. Zhu Yuanzhang faces Red Turban rivals, Chen Youliang, Zhang Shicheng, the Northern Yuan, and powerful generals whose loyalty could be as dangerous as their opposition. His victories create a new problem: how does a founder secure the state he has just won?

The story then moves into the politics of the early Ming court?the Jinyiwei, the Hu Weiyong and Lan Yu affairs, Zhu Yunwen's troubled succession, Zhu Di and the Jingnan Campaign, and the extraordinary reign that followed. Zheng He sails across the Indian Ocean, Beijing rises as an imperial capital, Mongol armies remain a threat along the northern frontier, and conflicts within the Zhu family continue into the reign of Zhu Zhanji.

Military campaigns, court politics, political institutions, maritime expeditions, strange anecdotes, and difficult personalities are explained in clear, conversational narrative history.

This is early Ming China as a human story: ambitious rulers, gifted generals, dangerous relatives, clever advisers, improbable decisions?and an empire being built while everyone involved is still trying to decide who will control it.