Emperor Zhu Di Ascending to Power in the Ming Empire

Political history of China and concretely of Ming dynasty has attracted considerable interest of scholars. History of Ming dynasty was explored only by one Russian historian Bokschanyn, though he did not translate Chinese source «Mingshi» (history of Ming dynasty) into Russian language and did not analyze all political events described in the source, the only work made in this field is translating opinions and facts presented my modern Chinese books and manuals. The purpose of the current study is to translate the fifth chapter of «Mingshi» and to reveal what events happened during the reign of Zhu Di emperor, who supported him and how he ascended to power. The methods of the current study include translation, classification of described events according to actors and types of actions, making graphs of political dynamics. One of the outcomes that we have already received is that the source describes the stage of struggle for power and there is a slight possibility that described events can be considered as a civil war between two clans.