Sara's Autistic History Report

POWER

3

Has anyone heard of King Mansa Musa? He was a Muslim black guy from West Africa and was considered the wealthiest man in all of history. He was the black Jeff Bezos of today, except with more money. He reigned over the Mali Empire in the 1300's. I just mention him because I think it is an interesting piece of history. He seemed like a reasonable nice guy for somebody so rich. He did not try to take over the whole world. He was content with an empire that spanned about 2,000 miles. He built schools, turned Timbuktu into a thriving city, gave away a ton of shit, and he built mosques, that still exist today. The only real dirt I read on him was that he made a pilgrimage to Mecca and he made all his slaves walk the whole way carrying his stuff. He definitely could afford anything he wanted. He was able to successfully rule without many complications. I think one could say it was good to be King Mansa Musa.

When we think of the kings during the Renaissance, most people think of King Henry the VIII and the reign of the Tudors; but, before we talk about that, I decided to turn the globe a little bit and talk about what was going on in China. When talking about power, it is hard not to talk about China first. In England we talk about Kings and Queens but in China we talk about Emperors! The Chinese had their Renaissance during the Song Dynasty (960-1279), way before the Renaissance in Europe. They had already invented gunpowder, the compass, and moveable-type printing while the rest of the world lagged behind.

The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644, started with Taizu, also called Zhu and some other names. This guy went from a poor peasant farmer to the Emperor of a Dynasty. You don't see that shit very often. His parents had 7 kids. They were like the Chinese Brady bunch except extremely poor. There came a time when the parents had to give away a couple of kids because there was not enough food to feed them. I wonder if they had to draw straws or the parents just kept their favorite kids. When Zhu was 16 there was a drought that ruined the harvest; as a result, the rest of the family, except his one brother, died of disease or starvation. Zhu had nothing left so he went and took shelter with the Buddhist monks. He stayed with the monks for a short time before he just started roaming the countryside, begging for food to stay alive. These were tuff times for everyone. Nearly 7 million people died as a result of the drought and many more were left destitute. I imagine it was not so easy to beg when so many have nothing. He wandered around begging for about 3 years before he returned to the monks, where he stayed until he turned 24. There, the monks taught him how to read and write.

I am 13 years old right now. I have my own bed, I have air conditioning when it is hot and heat when it is cold. I have a refrigerador that is always full of food. Sometimes we have to throw away more food than we can eat. I am part of a generation that has too much shit. Simply put, my generation is soft. My generations idea of hardship is getting their IPhone grounded for a day; preventing them from sending dick pics and ass shots on snap chat. Nobody I know could survive more than a couple of weeks if they had to live the life of Zhu. Not only did he survive, but he became a straight up Chinese fucking Rambo. He joined rebel groups, fought in battles, and worked his way up the chain of command. He was leading his own rebel army before the age of 30. Eventually, he had the chance to attack the Yuan empire and, after 13 years of fighting, kicked their asses out of China. The Yuan was the name of a Mongol empire that ruled China for over a century. In other words, Zhu's victory was a big fucking deal. The Mongols and other nomadic tribes have been a gigantic pain in China's ass for a long time until Zhu, the Chinese Rambo, put China back in the driver's seat, sending the Mongol hordes fleeing. He called his dynasty Ming, meaning brilliant.

It is hard to even make up a story that is as impressive as the real life Zhu, but I did it. There was this kid named Julio. He came to the United States illegally with his parents and his sister. They had to swim across the mighty Rio grande and then bribe a border patrol agent to come into the United States. Julio was living in a one bedroom with his parents, sister, 8 cousins, and a 3 legged dog named Peso. By the way, the fucking dog did not get pedicures and eat cut up chicken for dinner. The entire family worked 15 hours a day for a rich farmer. They made just enough to survive. One day, the farmer decided not pay Julio's family for two weeks of work. When they complained, the farmer called the police and they were all deported, except Julio who was hiding behind some watermelons at the time of the ICE raid.