Customer Reviews

Perpetual Happiness: The Ming Emperor Yongle

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Shih Shan Henry Tsai has done something that Jonathan Spence has not been able to do: write a book that people can read and understand. No offense to Spence, I know he is considered the man for Chinese history, but maybe he is a better speaker than writer, because I can't get through any of his books and I have a strong background in Chinese History.

Professor Tsai has taken primary and secondary sources about the second Ming Emperor or third depending on how you look at it and turned it into a interesting, well written, little book. The book is only about 200 pages and it is a quick read, but at the same time highly informative.

I did not know much about the Ming Dynasty or Emperor Yongle before reading this book, but now I do. To me a good history book is one where you learn things you did not know before, and this book did that.

I recommend this book highly to anyone who enjoys Chinese history. And if you want to read a more modern history of China look at Mandate of Heaven by Orville Schell.

I am a historian specializing Chinese history. I am very disappointed by the author's work. Comparing to Jonathan Spence's books and Ray Huang's book on Ming history, this book is very boring and lack of deepness. The author has made a great effort to gather a lot of details but they are so fragmental. The author fails to contextualize Yongle and his time, making Yongle so isolated in the Ming history. Those long citations easily put readers into sleep. As an academic book, it lacks a special perspective and has no argument. As a text book, it's hard to attract students because there is no story.