Treachery opened the
gates to him, and the emperor having fled in the disguise of a monk,
the victorious prince became emperor and took the title of Yung-lo
(1403). At home Yung-lo devoted himself to the encouragement of
literature and the fine arts, and, possibly from a knowledge that
Kien-wen was among the Buddhist priests, he renewed the law
prohibiting Buddhism. Abroad he swept Cochin-China and Tongking within
the folds of his empire and carried his arms into Tatary, where he
made new conquests of waste regions, and erected a monument of his
victories. He died in 1425, and was succeeded by his son Hung-hi.

Hung-hi's reign was short and uneventful. He strove to promote only
such mandarins as had proved themselves to be able and honest, and to
further the welfare of the people. During the reign of his successor,
Sueen-te (1426-1436), the empire suffered the first loss of territory
since the commencement of the dynasty. Cochin-China rebelled and
gained her independence. The next emperor, Cheng-t'ung (1436), was
taken prisoner by a Tatar chieftain, a descendant of the Yueen family
named Yi-sien, who had invaded the northern Erovinces. Having been
completely defeated by a Chinese force from Liao-tung, Yi-sien
liberated his captive, who reoccupied the throne, which during his
imprisonment (1450-1457) had been held by his brother King-ti. The two
following reigns, those of Cheng-hwa (1465-1488) and of Hung-chi
(1488-1506), were quiet and peaceful.

Struggle with Japan for Korea.

The most notable event in the reign of the next monarch, Cheng-te
(1506-1522), was the arrival of the Portuguese at Canton (1517). From
this time dates modern European intercourse with China. Cheng-te
suppressed a formidable insurrection headed by the prince of Ning, but
disorder caused by this civil war encouraged the foreign enemies of
China. From the north came a Tatar army under Yen-ta in 1542, during
the reign of Kia-tsing, which laid waste the province of Shen-si, and
even threatened the capital, and a little later a Japanese fleet
ravaged the littoral provinces. Ill-blood had arisen between the two
peoples before this, and a Japanese colony had been driven out of
Ningpo by force and not without bloodshed a few years previously.
Kia-tsing (d. 1567) was not equal to such emergencies, and his son
Lung-king (1567-1573)sought to placate the Tatar Yen-ta by making him