Not many have heard of the Jianwen Emperor. The grandson and successor to Hongwu, he continued his grandfather's systematic purging of military men and eunuchs when he ascended the throne in 1398. The future Yongle Emperor, his uncle, was one of them who escaped assassination and toppled him in 1402. Furthermore, Jianwen was supported heavily by the Mandarins, the Confucian scholar-bureaucrats who supported progressive policies like new inventions, raising the standards of living among peasants, etc. (correct me if I'm wrong) When Zhu Di the Yongle Emperor took power so did the eunuchs, and under their selfish policies China would stagnate behind Europe. So what if Zhu Di failed to escape assassination in his stronghold of Beijing, and thus China did not stagnate?