The title of this stimulating and thoughtful book suggests a broader focus than is in fact the case. Although the argument ostensibly concerns Eurasia—from Iran to Japan—after the collapse of the Yuan dynasty, its coverage actually focuses on the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang (Hongwu, r. 1368–1398), the founder of the Ming Dynasty, and his preoccupation with his status as a commoner and a rebel in overthrowing the legitimate ruling house. It might have been subtitled “The Imperial Ambitions of Early Ming China,” or suchlike. Notwithstanding the given subtitle, the immediacy of the issue for Zhu gives an important color to the considerable question of the context, which Robinson establishes in impressive detail.
The book maintains that Zhu’s rhetoric about, and fixation with, the Mongols was due to his perception that they continued to pose a real threat, both ideologically and practically: Contrary to his wishful “Chinggisid narrative,” which portrayed the...