Ming

__Ming Dynasty Script __

Cast:
 * **Jacob R **—Warrior 3,
 * Denilsson C ** — Warrior 2,
 * Miguel A **-- Warrior 1,Peasant || **Mohamad D **.—Zhu Yuan Zhang
 * Franci A **-- Narrator 1
 * Megan P **—Narrator 2 ||

[**Choreographed combat]**


 * [Warrior 1 dies **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">]


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">Narr 1 **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">: Zhu Yuan Zhang was a Chinese Commoner who took advantage of the chaos of late Yuan rule to reunite China. He took control of the Yangzi River basin and led a huge peasant <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">army <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;"> across the <range type="comment" id="17207">‍‍yellow river ‍‍ to capture <range type="comment" id="448535">‍‍Dadu ‍‍,


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">[warriors marching behind Zhu Yuan Zhang] **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">Zhu: **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">I will bring stability to the land and rebuild it's bridges, religious buildings, roads, canals, and many walls.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">From now on, I am Emperor Hong Wu. I shall call this Dynasty the "Ming", which means brilliant, as it will be a brilliant Dynasty that rules China forever! To ensure the Ming dynasty's strength, I will take a more active role in the government than emperors of the past.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">Narr 2: **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;"> This desire for control by the emperor may have been a result of excessive suspicion of a takeover or foreign invasion. By taking full charge of his own projects, he thought he might eliminate such risks. He only had a few advisers that he trusted. He personally made sure they were castrated so they could not father children, a move he thought would stop them from any desire to move higher up in government. Hong Wu had some of these eunuchs, form a secret police; **[Show people looking secretive]** that found and killed people suspected of being traitors.

= =
 * Zhu: Bring forth thousands of laborers to create a Forbidden City in Peking. The Forbidden palace will forever be a symbol of my rule!**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">Narrator 1: **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;"> 40-foot walls were built from the center of Peking, which was also protected by the Great Wall of China. The emperor himself lived in the center of the city, protected by high red walls. Only the emperor's family and trusted eunuchs were admitted within these protected boundaries.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">Narrator 2: **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">While traditional Chinese society was being re-developed, Hong Wu included more Confucianism in his way of ruling, although practicing all three ways of Chinese thinking, Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, were accepted. Emperor Wu himself had been a Buddhist monk long before the Ming Dynasty was started.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">Narrator 1: **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">Sometime after the death of Emperor Wu, Emperor Yong Le came into power, and he supported many sea voyages. His name meant “Perpetual happiness” and he started the period of overseas exploration. He had no clear goal for these ancient voyages, but 50 heads of state were forced to pay tribute to the emperor to pay for them.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">**Narrator 1:** The overseas explorations stopped around 1433, which started the Imperially mandated isolation from the rest of the world. There wasn't much impact on the commoners at first, but after awhile, foreign trade was banned, and so the people stopped getting certain goods that they were used to. Also, because of the ban on foreign trade, the Chinese traders and peasants that created the goods became poorer.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">Narrator 2: **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">An amazing voyage made by Zhung He was a pilgrimage to Mecca. During this one, the sailors traveled to the East African coast, where they collected new animals - and later introduced them to China. They used the magnetic compass, invented during the<range type="comment" id="764997">‍‍ Tang or Song ‍‍ dynasty, to navigate.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">**Emperor:** I want six- thousand people at my party, tonight!

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">**Emperor**: I will raise taxes on the people, to support these things!

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 24px;">**Narrator 1:**This forced peasants into debt to the government. Many were forced to sell their land and businesses and became laborers. Peasant revolts led to civil wars, which weakened the country. The very last Ming Emperor killed himself as Peking was burned. The Ming Dynasty had collapsed.

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