Ovi History

The 1461 Coup That Almost Toppled the Ming. A microhistory of palace intrigue, military ambition, and the cost of failure in 15th-century Beijing. At dawn on 7 August 1461, the Forbidden City woke to the smell of smoke and the clatter of crossbow bolts against lacquered pillars. Cao Qin, a decorated general of Mongol-border campaigns, had launched what remains the most audacious and most nearly successful, palace coup in Ming dynasty history.