Huang-Ming Zuxun


The Huang-Ming Zuxun were admonitions and exhortations left by the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming dynasty, to his descendants. The text was composed in 1373 under the title Record of the Ancestor's Instructions; this was changed to Huang Ming Zu Xun during the publication of the 1395 edition.
The book was divided into thirteen sections:
  1. Preface
  2. Harem
  3. Ritual Observance
  4. Risk management
  5. National Policy
  6. Protocol
  7. Legislation
  8. The Inner Chambers
  9. Eunuch
  10. Administration
  11. Guards
  12. Public Works
  13. Public Funds
The preface, composed by Zhu Yuanzhang himself, admonishes his descendants to exert a strict Legalist government. The work pins the survival of the dynasty principally on personal austerity and watchfulness—both over the practical administration of the empire, the niceties of ritual and etiquette on various occasions, and over various potential traitors, including their relatives, spouses, and officials, both military and civil.

Foreign policy

In the preface of the section the Hongwu Emperor stated a policy that he would not conquer 15 neighbouring countries in order to maintain harmonious tributary relations with these countries and at the same time promote the development of trade between countries.
Accordingly, he created a list of countries not be invaded, listed by locations are compared to Nanjing, then capital of the Ming Dynasty: