Chapter 1: The Wan-Li Emperor, begins by explaining the major premise of the work: The concept of looking at a single year in the history of the leadership of China and evaluating the implications for understanding other aspects of history, including the decline of the Ming Dynasty. In this initial chapter, Huang provides an anecdotal history of some of the events that occurred, and includes within it a discussion of the set up of t

In Chapter 4: The Living Ancestry, Huang outlined the rituals and religious and political perspectives that came side by side with the human transformations, and the link between politics and humanity comes to light briefly in a discussion about the expected nature of death and its inherent and practical outcomes. Though the rituals were designed to maintain a level of support for the structure of the body politic, it was necessary to recognize that the nature of the design of political process and its link to ancestry were the perspectives that led to the creation of the emperors mausoleum (125). The mausoleum project also inherently led to additional perspectives of the division based on wealth, and Wan-li’s compassionate response in an attempt to alleviate some of the suffering of the poor had apparently limited application, suggesting that the declining popular perspectives were underscored by specific social (and perhaps political) forces.

In Chapter 5: Hai Jui, the Eccentric Model Official, Huang outlines the constructs of government, including the application of systems of bureaucracy, through the perspective of Hai Jui, and demonstrates the complexity of evaluating public perception, public expenditures, and the progression of the government model. In this chapter, the ground-work is set for understanding the economic scenario during this period, especially as it was reflected in governmental process. Huang considers the factors based on these elements that were lending themselves to the systematic decline of the dynasty. Huang writes: “...in the long run the dynasty had permanently restricted its own ability to make fiscal readjustments” (144). Many of the normative governmental processes, including the agrarian exploitation of the poor, had been applied to such a widespread manner and through generations, that there were no systematic measures that could be taken to reduce the economic and bureaucratic problems that had emerged.

Huang outlines to reconstruction of the court under Wan-li came into power at the death of his father and the seemingly

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