ABSTRACT
The splendor of the Peking court attracted foreign embassies from Korea, Japan, Annam, and Malaya, confirming to the Chinese the emperor's role of holding the Mandate of Heaven for mankind. Chinese officials had at the beginning treated the Portuguese like Arab or other foreign traders. As long as the Chinese dynasty was militarily strong, Peking's proximity to the northern border made it easier to organize defenses against the invaders from the steppe and to control the steppe region beyond the Great Wail than could have been done from the far away South. The city of Peking, a creation of the Ming, was built according to a plan that had been traditionally followed by previous dynasties in the building of their capitals at Ch'ang-an, K'ai-feng, and Hangchow. The novels were officially ignored but avidly read at the time and were in retrospect a part of the development of middle-class life and interests that began to transform Chinese society in Ming time.
