#244 - Ming 30: A Last Luminous Gloaming
The History of China
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Zhang Joo Zhang's Mistakes in the Ming Imperial Court
Zhang Joo Zhang died in early July of 1582, of unspecified but presumably natural causes. He had essentially stuffed the boy king into a box and done everything in his power to keep him contained within while he actually ran the show. Under the Ming system, he had no publicly acknowledged authority to make policy or to govern. With Zhang's strictly speaking illicit improvisations, the Hongwoo Emperor's model of government was made workable. But the entire enterprise ceased to exist as soon as his coordinator, the Grand Secretary, left office.
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