Chapter 3, The Prisoner and the Prince Summary and Analysis

Khubilai Khan lost half his army to malaria during an invasion of Burma. His weakened forces were defeated by the Chinese in 1368. In 1382, the Chinese took the provincial seat at Kunming with an army of three-hundred thousand. The Ming army butchered sixty-thousand tribesmen during the battle. As was the custom, young sons—even those of nine or ten years of age—were brutally castrated. Many died of infection but those who survived served as eunuchs in the imperial court.

The rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang distinguished himself by not plundering and not killing civilians. He attributed the success of his rebellion to his spiritual connection to nature. He was the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Yuanzhang had dozens of concubines and consorts and fathered 26 sons and 16 daughters. Zhu Di...