Ability and Difference in Early Modern China

A Mongol Family at the Ming Court

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In 1405, a family left their home in the Mongolian steppe and moved to China. This daring decision, taken at a time of dramatic change in eastern Eurasia, paved the way for 250 years of unlikely success at the Ming court. Winning recognition for military skill and loyalty, the family later known as the Wu gained a coveted title of nobility and became members of the capital elite until the dynasty's collapse in 1644. By tracing the individual fortunes of a single family, David Robinson offers a fresh and accessible perspective on the inner workings of Ming bureaucracy. He explores how the early-modern world's most developed state sought to balance the often contradictory demands of securing ability and addressing difference, a challenge common to nearly all polities.

• Demonstrates how the Ming state organized its military forces
• Makes a distant place and time accessible by tracing the fortunes of an individual family
• Explores how an exceptionally powerful state recruited ability while dealing with differences of ethnicity, gender, and profession