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Ming Succession Dispute
The Ming succession dispute from 1586 to 1614 was a conflict between the Wanli Emperor, the emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, and a significant group of Ming officials. The disagreement centered around the appointment of the crown prince. While officials argued for the legal principle of primogeniture and the appointment of the emperor's eldest son, Zhu Changluo, as crown prince, the emperor seemed to favor his favorite concubine Lady Zheng's son, Zhu Changxun, as his successor. Despite pressure from officials, the emperor delayed making a decision until 1601, when he finally named Zhu Changluo as his successor and Zhu Changxun as the prince. However, the emperor kept Zhu Changxun in Beijing until 1614, when he was supposed to be sent to his regional seat after turning eighteen in 1604. This decision raised suspicions about the emperor's intentions and sparked further protests from opposition officials. In 1615, disputes over the succession resurfaced in relation to the infam ...
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Wanli Emperor
The Wanli Emperor (4 September 1563 – 18 August 1620), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shenzong of Ming, personal name Zhu Yijun, art name Yuzhai, was the 14th List of emperors of the Ming dynasty, emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1572 to 1620. He succeeded his father, the Longqing Emperor. His reign of 48 years was the longest among all the Ming dynasty emperors. The Wanli Emperor ascended the throne at the age of nine. During the first ten years of his reign, the young emperor was assisted and effectively led by Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng, a skilled administrator. With the support of the emperor's mother, Empress Dowager Xiaoding, Lady Li, and the imperial eunuchs led by Feng Bao, the country experienced economic and military prosperity, reaching a level of power not seen since the early 15th century. The emperor held great respect and appreciation for Zhang Juzheng. However, as time passed, various factions within the government openly opposed Zhang, ...
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Shen Shixing
Shen Shixing (; 1535 – 1614) was a Ming dynasty Chinese politician, academic, and First Grand Secretary under the Wanli Emperor from 1583 to 1591. He was born in Changzhou County, South Zhili (present-day Suzhou). With the help of First Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng, he was appointed as Minister of Rites and then Minister of Personnel. He later became Grand Secretary of the . After the death of Zhang and the fall of his successor amid great controversy, Shen became the First Grand Secretary (), the ''de facto'' Grand Chancellor of the Ming empire, a position he held for eight-and-a-half years. In this role, Shen served as the primary channel of communication between the Emperor and the civil service, while also serving as the emperor's personal tutor in public study sessions. During his tenure as First Grand Secretary, Shen was the personally closest civil servant or academic to the Wanli Emperor, having lectured before the emperor more often than any other academic, among oth ...
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Ming Dynasty Politics
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, the majority ethnic group in China. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng (who established the short-lived Shun dynasty), numerous rump state, rump regimes ruled by remnants of the House of Zhu, Ming imperial family, collectively called the Southern Ming, survived until 1662. The Ming dynasty's founder, the Hongwu Emperor (1368–1398), attempted to create a society of self-sufficient rural communities ordered in a rigid, immobile system that would guarantee and support a permanent class of soldiers for his dynasty: the empire's standing army exceeded one million troops and the naval history of China, navy's dockyards in Nanjing were the largest in the world. H ...
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Guanyin
Guanyin () is a common Chinese name of the bodhisattva associated with Karuṇā, compassion known as Avalokiteśvara (). Guanyin is short for Guanshiyin, which means "[The One Who] Perceives the Sounds of the World". Originally regarded as male in Indian Buddhism, Guanyin has been more commonly depicted as female in China and most of East Asia since about the 12th century. Due to sociogeographical factors, Guanyin can also be historically depicted as genderless or adorning an androgynous apprentice. On the 19th day of the sixth lunar month, Guanyin's attainment of Buddhahood is celebrated. Guanyin has been incorporated in other religions, including Taoism and Chinese folk religion. Some Buddhists believe that when one of their adherents departs from this world, they are placed by Guanyin in the heart of a sacred lotus in religious art, lotus and then sent to the western pure land of Sukhāvatī. Guanyin is often referred to as the "most widely beloved Buddhist Divinity" with ...
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Mount Tai
Mount Tai () is a mountain of historical and cultural significance located north of the city of Tai'an. It is the highest point in Shandong province, China. The tallest peak is the ''Jade Emperor Peak'' (), which is commonly reported as being tall. Mount Tai is known as the eastern mountain of the Sacred Mountains of China. It is associated with sunrise, birth, and renewal, and is often regarded the foremost of the five. Mount Tai has been a place of worship for at least 3,000 years and served as one of the most important ceremonial centers of China during large portions of this period. Because of its sacred importance and dramatic landscape, it was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. It meets 7 of the 10 evaluation standards for World Heritage sites, and is listed as a World Heritage site that meets the most of the standards, along with the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area in Australia. An earthquake or thunderstorm occurred around Mount Tai in 1831 BC or 1652 ...
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Beijing Dongyue Temple
The Temple of the Eastern Peak in Beijing () is a Taoist temple in the Chaowai area, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China. The temple is dedicated to the Great Deity of the Eastern Peak (). "Eastern Peak" is the cosmological name of Mount Tai, the easternmost and holiest of the Five Sacred Mountains of China. Founded during the Yuan dynasty, the Eastern Peak Temple is the largest temple of Zhengyi Taoism in Beijing and protected as a national cultural spot. The temple also hosts the Beijing Folk Customs Museum. History The Eastern Peak Temple was founded in 1319. Zhang Liusun (1248–1321), a Yuan dynasty official and descendant of the Daoist Zhang Daoling, raised money and acquired the land for the temple, but died shortly afterwards. His disciple, the Daoist master Wu Quanjie (1269–1346) continued the construction. In 1322, the main halls and the main gate were completed. The temple was repaired and given its present name in 1447 during the reign of the Zhengtong Emperor i ...
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Empress Dowager Xiaoding
Empress Dowager Xiaoding (1545 – 18 March 1614), of the Li clan, was a Chinese empress dowager of the Ming dynasty. She was one of the concubines of the Longqing Emperor and the mother of his successor, the Wanli Emperor. After the Longqing Emperor's death, she became the de facto ruler in place of the underage Wanli Emperor. She oversaw the emperor's education while Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng and the highest-ranking eunuch of the imperial palace, Feng Bao, managed the state administration. Although she did not typically involve herself in politics, she did intervene in the dispute over the appointment of the heir to the throne, where she supported the rights of the emperor's eldest son. Instead of focusing on politics, she devoted herself to religion. She was a devout Buddhist and surrounded herself with leading Buddhist monks of the time. She also used her influence and financial resources to extensively support Buddhist monasteries, particularly in the 1570s and 1580s, and ...
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Wang Xijue
Wang Xijue (, 1534–1614) was a Ming dynasty court official in China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after .... In a 1593 report to the emperor, he wrote: "The venerable elders of my home district explain that the reason grain is cheap despite poor harvests in recent years is due entirely to the scarcity of silver coin. The national government requires silver for taxes but disburses little silver in its expenditures. As the price of grain falls, tillers of the soil receive lower returns on their labors, and thus less land is put into cultivation." References *The College Board, 2006 AP World History Free Response Questions {{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Xijue 1534 births 1614 deaths Politicians from Suzhou Senior grand secretaries of the Ming dynasty 16th-century Chinese sch ...
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Henan
Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Luoyang, Anyang, Kaifeng and Zhengzhou, are in Henan. While the province's name means 'south of the river', approximately a quarter of the province lies north of the Yellow River. With an area of , Henan covers a large part of the fertile and densely populated North China Plain. Its neighboring provinces are Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Anhui, and Hubei. Henan is China's third-most populous province and the most populous among inland provinces, with a population of over 99 million as of 2020. It is also the world's seventh-most populous administrative division; if it were a country by itself, Henan would be the 17th-most populous in the world, behind Egypt and Vietnam. People from Henan often suffer from regional discrimination ...
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Ming Dynasty
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, the majority ethnic group in China. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng (who established the short-lived Shun dynasty), numerous rump state, rump regimes ruled by remnants of the House of Zhu, Ming imperial family, collectively called the Southern Ming, survived until 1662. The Ming dynasty's founder, the Hongwu Emperor (1368–1398), attempted to create a society of self-sufficient rural communities ordered in a rigid, immobile system that would guarantee and support a permanent class of soldiers for his dynasty: the empire's standing army exceeded one million troops and the naval history of China, navy's dockyards in Nanjing were the largest in the world. H ...
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Empress Dowager Wang (Taichang)
Empress Dowager Xiaojing (27 February 1565 – 18 October 1611), of the Wang clan, was a Ming dynasty concubine of the Wanli Emperor and the biological mother of the Taichang Emperor. Biography Lady Wang was born in 1565 and began working as a maid () in the household of Empress Dowager Li, mother of the Wanli Emperor, in 1578. In late 1581, the emperor became attracted to the young maid during one of his visits to her mother, and she soon became pregnant by him. Although the Wanli Emperor initially wanted nothing to do with the child, his mother convinced him to acknowledge paternity through records of his visits and arranged for Lady Wang to be promoted to the emperor's concubine with the title of Consort Gong (). In August 1582, Lady Wang gave birth to a son, Zhu Changluo, who was the emperor's first child. Two years later, in 1584, the Wanli Emperor's interest in Lady Wang diminished as he became more enamored with another concubine, Lady Zheng, who also gave birth to a son, ...
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Wang Xijie
Empress Xiaoduanxian (; 7 November 1564 – 7 May 1620), personal name Wang Xijie (), was empress consort of the Wanli Emperor. She was the longest serving empress consort in Chinese history. Early life Wang was born in Beijing to Wang Wei (王偉) of Yuyao, Zhejiang. In the first month of 1577, Empress Dowager Rensheng and Empress Dowager Xiaoding held a selection event to choose an empress for the Wanli Emperor. The 12-year old Wang Xijie entered the selection process and was successfully chosen to be the empress. In the first month of 1578, she was formally married to the Wanli Emperor at the age of 13. The grand secretary Zhang Juzheng wrote to both empress dowagers, arguing that Wang Xijie and the Wanli Emperor were too young. Initially, Wang's father was made a member of the Jinyiwei with authority over 1,000 households as a result of his daughter's success. In 1579, the Wanli Emperor also conferred the rank of Count (伯) of Yongnian on him. Since the time of the Jia ...
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