Hongwu Emperor
The Hongwu Emperor, personal name Zhu Yuanzhang, was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1368 to 1398.
In the mid-14th century, China suffered from epidemics, famines, and widespread uprisings under the Mongol Yuan dynasty. During this turmoil, the orphaned Zhu Yuanzhang briefly lived as a novice monk, begging for alms and gaining insight into common people's hardships, while developing a dislike for book-dependent scholars. In 1352, he joined a rebel force, soon proving his ability and rising to command his own army. He captured Nanjing in 1356 and made it his capital, creating a government of generals and Confucian scholars and rejecting Mongol rule. He adopted Yuan administrative practices and applied them to his territory as it expanded. After defeating rival rebels, most notably in his decisive victory over Chen Youliang at Lake Poyang in 1363, he declared himself King of Wu in 1364. Nevertheless, in 1367 he formally recognized Han Lin'er, the Red Turban leader who claimed Song legitimacy.
In early 1368, after successfully dominating southern and central China, Zhu chose to rename his state. He decided on the name Da Ming, which translates to "Great Radiance", for his empire, and designated Hongwu, meaning "Vastly Martial", as the name of the era and the motto of his reign. In the following four-year war, he drove out the Mongol armies loyal to the Yuan dynasty and unified the country, but his attempt to conquer Mongolia ended in failure. During the Hongwu Emperor's thirty-year reign, Ming China experienced significant growth and recovered from the effects of prolonged wars. The Emperor had a strong understanding of the structure of society and believed in implementing reforms to improve institutions. This approach differed from the Confucian belief that the ruler's moral example was the most important factor. The Hongwu Emperor also prioritized the safety of his people and the loyalty of his subordinates, demonstrating pragmatism and caution in military affairs. He maintained a disciplined army and made efforts to minimize the impact of war on civilians.
Although the peak of his political system crumbled in a civil war shortly after his death, other results of the Hongwu Emperor's reforms, such as local and regional institutions for Ming state administration and self-government, as well as the financial and examination systems, proved to be resilient. The census, land registration and tax system, and the Weisuo military system all endured until the end of the dynasty. His descendants continued to rule over all of China until 1644, and the southern region for an additional seventeen years.
Youth
Zhu Yuanzhang, the future Hongwu Emperor, was born in 1328 in Zhongli village, in Haozhou, then under the rule of the Mongol Yuan dynasty. He was the youngest of four sons in a poor peasant family. He was given the name Zhu Chongba at birth, but used the name Zhu Xingzong in adulthood. Later, as a rebel fighter against the Yuan dynasty, he used the name Zhu Yuanzhang, with the courtesy name Guorui. Zhu's father, Zhu Wusi, lived in Nanjing but fled to the countryside to avoid tax collectors. His paternal grandfather was a gold miner, and his maternal grandfather was a fortune-teller and seer. In 1344, during a plague epidemic, Zhu Xingzong's parents and two of his brothers died.Zhu then entered a local Buddhist monastery. For the next three years, he wandered as a mendicant monk, becoming familiar with the landscape and people of eastern Henan and northern Anhui. He returned to the monastery in 1348 and stayed for four years, during which he learned to read, write, and study the basics of Buddhism.
As rebel
The harsh taxation policies, famine, and catastrophic flooding in the Yellow River basin, caused by inadequate flood control measures, led to widespread opposition to the rule of the Yuan dynasty. The presence of Taoist and Buddhist secret societies and sects further fueled this discontent, with the most prominent being the White Lotus society. In 1351, the Red Turban Rebellion erupted and quickly spread throughout northern China.The initially disorganized Mongol troops were able to launch a counteroffensive and advance along the Grand Canal. In October 1352, the Mongols captured Xuzhou, causing the rebel commanders Peng Da and Zhao Yunyong to flee south to Haozhou, where the Yuan dynasty's power was declining. In Haozhou, Guo Zixing, Sun Deya, and three other leaders, with the support of the local elite, organized the army and took control in order to establish order in the surrounding area. Guo submitted to Peng, while his four colleagues submitted to Zhao.
File:孝慈高皇后1.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|alt=A formal, half-length portrait painting of Empress Ma. She wears a yellow imperial robe embroidered with golden dragon emblems over a red undergarment, topped by a phoenix crown adorned with gold, blue, and white jewels and long pearl tassels.|Portrait of Lady Ma, Zhu Yuanzhang's wife, as empress. National Palace Museum, Taipei
In 1352, when the Yuan army burned down Zhu's monastery after suspecting the monks of links to the White Lotus society, Zhu joined the rebels. On 15 April of the same year, he arrived in Haozhou. While Zhu was considered physically unattractive and he began as a rank-and-file fighter, his exceptional leadership, decisiveness, martial skill, and intelligence quickly earned him significant authority. He became the leader among 24 of his acquaintances who had already joined the rebels. These acquaintances would eventually become generals in the Ming army. By the spring of 1353, Zhu was leading a 700-man squad, and he became Guo's most trusted subordinate. Skilled in both military tactics and political maneuvering, he even married Guo's adopted daughter, surnamed Ma. Unlike other leaders of his time, Zhu had a small number of relatives who were appointed to important positions, at a time when family ties were crucial for ensuring loyalty and reliability.
The rivalry between Peng and Zhao escalated into a full-blown conflict. Guo was initially captured, but his sons and Zhu freed him. This increased Guo's reliance on Zhu. After Peng's death in 1353, Zhao emerged as the dominant leader in the region. He sent Guo to the east and Zhu with a small detachment to the south, hoping to divide and destroy them. However, Zhu successfully occupied several counties and bolstered his army to 20,000 soldiers, and Guo moved with Zhao's 10,000 men to join him.
Regional ruler
Establishment in Nanjing (1355–1360)
At the beginning of 1355, Zhu, Guo, and the eastern rebel Zhang Shicheng decided to leave the devastated northern territories and cross the Yangtze River into the still-prosperous south. Guo and Zhu entered into a dispute over Hezhou, a city situated on the banks of the Yangtze, leading Zhu to ally with Guo's old enemy Sun Deya; however, Guo died before the conflict escalated. Han Lin'er, the Red Turban leader who claimed the title of Song emperor, then appointed Guo's eldest son, Guo Tianxu, as his successor, with Zhang Tianyu, Guo's brother-in-law, as first deputy and Zhu as second deputy. In July 1355, the Hezhou rebels obtained a fleet from rebels arriving from Chao Lake, allowing them to cross the Yangtze that same month. Zhu defeated the local Yuan commander Chen Yexian, who surrendered to him, but Chen betrayed Guo Tianxu during an attack on Jiqing in September 1355. Chen, Guo Tianxu, and Zhang Tianyu all died in the subsequent fighting.In March 1356, Zhu once again marched on Jiqing. Chen Yexian's nephew Chen Zhaoxian had succeeded his uncle as the Mongol commander. He and 36,000 men surrendered to Zhu. In April 1356, Zhu successfully entered Jiqing, which he renamed Yingtian. In May 1356, Han appointed Zhu as the head of Jiangnan Province, one of the five provinces of the Song state. Zhu soon had Guo's younger son executed, citing a breach of military discipline. This allowed Zhu to establish clear leadership and he immediately began to build his administration, but he faced instances of betrayal and defection to the enemy until the victory at Lake Poyang in 1363.
Zhu was now in command of an army of 100,000 soldiers, which was divided into divisions or wings. In Nanjing itself, there were eight divisions and one division per prefecture. From 1355 to 1357, he launched attacks against Zhang Shicheng in the direction of Suzhou and successfully occupied southern Jiangxi; after this, the border with Zhang's state was fortified on both sides and remained stable until 1366. In Zhejiang, from 1358 to 1359, Zhu controlled four impoverished inland prefectures, while Zhang held control over four prosperous northern coastal prefectures, and Fang Guozhen occupied the eastern coast of the province.
In the summer of 1359, the Mongol warlord Chaghan Temur drove Han Lin'er from Kaifeng. With only a few hundred soldiers left, Han survived in Anfeng, a prefectural city in the west of Anhui, while Chaghan Temur turned to Shandong. After this retreat, Song authority collapsed rapidly; aside from Zhu's effectively autonomous Jiangnan, no Song province remained after 1362. In 1361, Han appointed Zhu as Duke of Wu and acknowledged his control over conquered territories. Fearing a Yuan advance toward Nanjing, Zhu initially sought cooperation with Chaghan Temur, but after the latter was assassinated in 1362, the Yuan ceased to be a threat and Zhu rejected their offer to make him governor of Jiangxi.
Zhu did not embrace Red Turban ideology; instead of building a new elite based on White Lotus Manichean-Buddhist beliefs, he aligned himself with Confucian scholars. This shift transformed him from a sectarian rebel into a political leader seeking traditional legitimacy, though he still relied on officers devoted to White Lotus teachings.
Zhu's political base strengthened through his collaboration with Li Shanchang, a landowner from Dingyuan who managed civil administration as Zhu expanded. In 1360, after repeated requests, leading scholars such as Song Lian and Liu Ji joined him. Known as the Jinhua school, they envisioned a unified state with a small but efficient bureaucracy, opposed the corruption of late Yuan rule, and believed that state institutions could improve public morals. Though their motives differed from Zhu's, they shared his commitment to reform through a strong state and active monarchy.
As an independent ruler, Zhu promoted moderate taxation, unlike other rebel leaders and generals who frequently seized peasants' grain for military needs. He emphasized orderly governance and peaceful life for the population, working with local elites and understanding villagers' needs due to his own peasant background. Zhu's principles strengthened the economy of his territories: he began minting coins in 1361, created monopolies on salt and tea, and resumed collecting customs duties in 1362. These policies increased tax revenues and helped finance his military campaigns.