1324

My hotel room number was 1324 in Singapore.

Inspired by Wang Jiawei (王家衛) and Ray Huang, I was intrigued and tried to look up what happened in the year 1324 - I vaguely remembered it was sometime in the Yuan (元) Dynasty but had very little idea otherwise.

Alas, I was essentially right. This year had even less significance than 1587, which had none - if it was at all possible. It was the second year under the reign of Yesün Temür Khan (元晋宗), who seized the crown after Shidebala Gegeen Khan (元英宗) was assassinated in 1323; most historians believed that the conspiracy was the plot of the major beneficiary.

But there remained turbulence under the calm surface of this uneventful year. The Yuan empire was running an astronomical financial deficit, largely because nearly all Mongolians in the kingdom did not need to work and were living on a very comfortable pension, and there were continual wars along every border of the empire.

Doesn't it sound like America ?

PS. By coincidence, Marco Polo died in 1324 - nearly thirty years after he returned to Europe.