[Yun]

Nationalist Chinese historians and novelists have celebrated Zhu Yuanzhang as a national hero who overthrew the Mongols and restored Han Chinese rule in China. More liberal commentators have condemned him as a paranoid tyrant who founded one of the worst dynasties in Chinese history. He seems to have been a highly intelligent but deeply insecure man, who would execute people simply for using the characters "pig" or "monk" because he thought they were mocking his pig-like features or his past as a Buddhist monk. And although he emerged supreme among all the rebel leaders who arose at the end of the Yuan dynasty, it has been argued that this was because he concentrated on fighting other rebel leaders rather than fighting the Mongols.

Here are the facts about the rise of Zhu Yuanzhang:

He was born in 1328 in a village in Haozhou (now in Anhui), the youngest of six sons of Zhu Wusi ("Five Four" Zhu), a tenant farmer and tofu seller. Zhu Wusi had supposedly fled to Anhui from Jiangsu to evade taxes; there, he had married the daughter of a sorcerer or Daoist priest. Yuanzhang herded cows in his youth, until at the age of 16 (the spring of 1344) a plague broke out in the Huai River valley, killing his father, mother and elder brother one after another. In order to survive, Yuanzhang became a monk in the Huangjue Monastery, and later spent three or four years wandering around and living on alms.

In 1344, the dykes on the Yellow River had also collapsed after heavy rain, flooding huge areas and causing great famines. Large numbers of peasants were assembled to repair the dykes over the next five years, creating greater hardship and discontent. The White Lotus sect, whose leader Han Shantong claimed to be the incarnation of the Maitreya Buddha (Mi'le Fo), recruited many members among these peasants, and rose in rebellion with 3,000 men at Yingzhou in 1351. Han Shantong further claimed to be a descendant of Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song, while his disciple Liu Futong claimed to be a descendant of the great Song general Liu Guangshi. They declared their aim to be reviving the Song, and said that reinforcements were arriving soon from Japan. The Yuan quickly moved in, arrested Han Shantong and executed him, but his son Han Lin'er escaped. Liu Futong then regrouped the White Lotus and captured Yingzhou and several other prefectures. In 1355, he proclaimed Han Lin'er as the "Junior King of Brilliance" (Xiao Ming Wang) with the name of the regime as Song. An imperial court was set up, with Liu Futong rising to the post of Prime Minister. The White Lotus army grew to 100,000 - they tied red scarves on their heads, and thus were referred to as the Red Turban troops.

Rebels rose up all over the empire at the news of Liu Futong's success, and many pledged allegiance to the Song regime and the Red Turbans. One of these rebel leaders, Guo Zixing, had taken Haozhou in 1352, and Zhu Yuanzhang joined his army (it is not certain whether he was still a monk at this time). Zhu rose steadily in the ranks, distinguishing himself as a leader despite tensions with some other rebel commanders. By the time Guo Zixing's forces came under the control of the Song regime, Zixing had just passed away and was succeeded by his son Tianxu. Zhu was promoted by the Song regime to be one of the two deputy commanders of the Haozhou troops, the other being Guo Zixing's brother-in-law Zhang Tianyou.

Zhu Yuanzhang continued campaigning in the Anhui region, taking cities and fighting Yuan troops and pro-Yuan loyalist militias. In the autumn of 1355, Guo Tianxu and Zhang Tianyou attacked Nanjing, but were betrayed by a turncoat, captured and executed. Zhu gathered the remaining Haozhou troops and launched another attack on Nanjing, capturing the city in 1356. The Song regime recognised his authority in Nanjing, promoting him to provincial governor. But other rebel leaders including Zhang Shicheng and Xu Shouhui soon converged on the Nanjing area from their respective spheres of influence, and Zhu Yuanzhang had to fight them all.

In 1360, Chen Youliang murdered Xu Shouhui and took over his troops, founding the Han regime. Zhu Yuanzhang fought Chen Youliang from 1360 to 1363, finally defeating him in the famous naval battle of Lake Poyang in which Chen was killed by a stray arrow. In 1364, Zhu took over all of Chen's lands in Jiangxi and Hubei.

While Zhu Yuanzhang was busy fighting other warlords in the south, the Song regime was trying to drive the Mongols out of north China. In 1357, Liu Futong sent three armies on three routes against the Mongols - one into Shaanxi as far as Gansu, one into Shanxi and up to Beijing, and one into Shandong and as far as north Korea. All three armies, after enjoying initial success, were defeated by 1362. Liu Futong himself had led an army to take Kaifeng, the old Song dynasty capital, and established it as the new capital of the Song regime. But the Yuan counter-attacked in 1359, driving the Song regime out of Kaifeng and to Anfeng (the former Shouyang) in Anhui. Zhang Shicheng, the rebel warlord of Jiangsu, then besieged Anfeng in 1363. The Red Turbans in the city were brought to the level of eating rotting corpses and frying pellets of mud in human fat, until Zhu Yuanzhang finally led an army personally to rescue Han Lin'er and Liu Futong.

At this point, we have one of the greatest mysteries of Ming history. Zhu Yuanzhang built a palace for Han Lin'er and Liu Futong in Chuzhou, Anhui, instead of bringing them to Nanjing. It is said that he did so on the advice of one of his Confucian scholar counsellors. In all the territories captured by Zhu, he had recruited famous Confucian scholars to be his advisors. One of them, Zhu Shen, gave Zhu this famous piece of advice in 1357: "Build your walls tall, stock up your rations, and don't be in a hurry to call yourself a king" - in other words, lie low and remain obedient to the Song regime while building up your strength. On the Chinese New Year in 1364, Zhu Yuanzhang finally called himself a king - he took the title of King of Wu. In early 1367, he sent his general Liao Yongzhong with a fleet to ferry Han Lin'er and Liu Futong across the Yangzi and bring them to Nanjing. When Liao reached Guabu (just across the Yangzi from Nanjing), he sank the ship carrying Han and Liu, drowning them both.

Had Zhu Yuanzhang decided at last to turn against his former ruler, now that Han Lin'er was helpless in his hands? The evidence is inconclusive, because it is also recorded that Zhu "was disgusted by Yongzhong's treacherous behaviour, and later ordered him to commit suicide". A classic example of the political charade? Or genuine outrage by a loyal subject?

Whatever the case, Zhu Yuanzhang was steadily eliminating all his rivals in the south. Zhang Shicheng was defeated and captured at Suzhou in 1367, followed a few months later by the surrender of Fang Guozhen in Zhejiang and the capture of Chen Youding in Fujian. Liao Yongzhong took part in the campaign against Fang Guozhen in the autumn of 1367, and then set off by sea to take Guangdong and Guangxi from the Yuan in 1368-69. In 1371, he was in Sichuan defeating the warlord Ming Shen, suggesting that Zhu Yuanzhang really took a long time to get angry with him for assassinating Han Lin'er.

It was only in 1367, ten years after the Red Turban northern expeditions, that Zhu Yuanzhang sent troops against the much-weakened Mongols in the north. The great general Xu Da set out with 250,000 men, along with a fervent proclamation by Zhu Yuanzhang of his intention to "drive out the barbarians and restore China". By autumn 1368, Xu Da had entered Beijing, and he went on to take Shanxi and Shaanxi. In 1369-1370, the Mongols were driven all the way back to Outer Mongolia.

In the spring of 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang also proclaimed himself emperor of the Da Ming ("Great Brilliance") - if he drew any inspiration for this from the "Junior King of Brilliance" Han Lin'er, he chose not to acknowledge it. He soon banned the White Lotus sect, and suppressed records of his early career in its ranks.

[Yun]

This is how Zhu Yuanzhang liked to be depicted after he became emperor:





This is what some people think he really looked like:

[Yun]

Zhu Yuanzhang in his old age (?)

[General_Zhaoyun]

I read that Zhu Yuanzhang was quite a ugly person, but the court artist painted him much more handsome, so as to avoid making Zhu Yuanzhang angry.

[Yun]

Haha yeah, there has to be a reason why GZ chose that portrait of him to put on the CHF header :P

[Sephodwyrm]

I noticed it too...
Personally, Zhu Yuan Zhang is not good looking, but neither is he that bad-looking. One must have a certain charisma to be able to become an emperor from a peasant background.

History recorded that Zhu Yuan Zhang cared a lot for the common peasants. However, it was pretty disappointing that he oppressed the freedom of thought and was most quick to kill off those who thought might be against him. At first, his empress Ma served as a counter to his quick temper, but when she died (and his son through her as well) he became increasingly irrational and shut off from the rest of the world.

[Yun]

You can read more about Zhu Yuanzhang's famous victory against Chen Youliang at Lake Poyang in this thread: http://www.chinahist...wtopic=489&st=0

In my opinion, Zhu Yuanzhang was no military genius - just a shrewd and exceptionally ruthless opportunist who knew how to use his men and then eliminate them before they became a threat to him. In the Battle of Lake Poyang, his ship was beached and he was almost killed by Chen Youliang's fearsome general Zhang Dingbian. But Zhu's generals Chang Yuchun and Liao Yongzhong raced to save him, shooting arrows at Zhang until he had been struck by more than a hundred arrows.

In spite of Liao Yongzhong's having saved his life, as well as Liao's numerous military accomplishments, Zhu Yuanzhang never enfeoffed him as a duke like the other senior generals. One supposed reason was that Liao had assassinated Han Lin'er in 1367, allegedly against Zhu's orders. Another reason was given by Zhu to his other generals: "Liao Yongzhong fought bravely with no regard for his life at Lake Poyang, and he can indeed be called a hero and a great man. But he attempted to manipulate me by asking my Confucian scholar advisors to sound out my intentions, hoping to receive a higher fief from me. Because of this, I will never give him the title of Duke, but only enfeoff him as Marquis of Deqing."

In 1375, Liao Yongzhong was ordered to commit suicide for having used objects with the imperial motif of the dragon and phoenix - a treasonable act. He was 53 years old. Many of Zhu Yuanzhang's good generals suffered a similar fate - Zhu Liangzu, Hu Mei, Lan Yu, Fu Youde, Feng Sheng, even Zhu's brilliant advisor Liu Ji. The great warrior Chang Yuchun was fortunate to die early in 1369, while Xu Da, Zhu Yuanzhang's Han Xin, actually managed to die in his bed in 1385. But Xu died from a subcutaneous ulcer on his back, and it is said that Zhu Yuanzhang rewarded him for his services by sending him a bowl of goose meat - the very dish that was lethal for such ulcers. Xu Da was forced to eat the goose meat with tears streaming down his face, and soon died.

[tattoo]

I just read from a book written by a writer named 王雷. He mentioned that the Yuan government forbade any unmemployed ordinary citizen to have a name, and many poor citizens used numbers as name. Zhu Yuanzhang's name was "double eight" (重八) . His father was name "five four" (五四). I do not know how accurate this is. Is this true?

But where does "Zhu" come from? According to many sources, Zhu Yuanzhang disliked people the word 'pig' because of the sound being the same as 'Zhu'. If he does not have a surname, then how did he become a Zhu? It is a surname that he hated.

[General_Zhaoyun]

Zhu Yuanzang was formerly a buddhist monk..anyone know which monastery he was formerly from?

[RollingWave]

I don't like him, he led (or continued) a road to disastor for China, he vastly increased central power decision making and reduced the status of his officals by a huge degree....

He continued many horrible policies of the Yuan while throwing out some of the actural good things they brought in (such as a more open international attitude)..
there are good reasons why most more liberal historians believe the Ming to be the most horrible major dynasty of Chinese history...... and as a practice most major dynasty follow to some extend certain rules that their founder sets up (such as Song's anti military stance is a good example)

[wuTao]

I certainly think Zhu Yuanzhang gets a worse reputation than he deserves. He was actually a pretty good emperor in my opinion.

Not only did he free China from Mongol rule, he was also devoted to helping out ordinary folks as well at the same time. He never allowed his armies to plunder and pillage the peasantry, and actively tried to relieve the suffering of the peasants by reducing taxes and quickly issuing relief grain during emergencies.

He was also an intelligent and able administrator; it was he that re-started the civil service examinations that were abolished by the Yuan. He promulgated the Yellow Registers, and transferred the collection of taxes to the lijia system.

In addition, knowing that many dynasties in the past were torn apart by successional struggles, he tried to delineate a clear line of succession and curb the power of various princedoms and fiefdoms in the empire. His manual, the "Ancestor's Instructions", spelled out who the next in line in succession was to be picked and limited the power of feudatories in the land.

[General_Zhaoyun]

For what I know, the 'qualities" of the Ming emperors were the lowest the whole of chinese history. After Yongle emperor, all Ming emperors were virtually incapable of ruling the empire.. and many of them were 'sleeping' emperors.

Zhu Yuanzhang no doubt was a powerful ruler, he was responsible for the autocracy and consolidate all powers to himself.

[Borjigin Ayurbarwada]

"He continued many horrible policies of the Yuan while throwing out some of the actural good things they brought in (such as a more open international attitude).."

The open international attitude is anything but positive and that was one of the reason why Zhu shut off the trade. These international trade was unbalanced and only drained the wealth of the central plains abroad, this made the general peasant poorer and poorer.


"He was also an intelligent and able administrator; it was he that re-started the civil service examinations that were abolished by the Yuan. He promulgated the Yellow Registers, and transferred the collection of taxes to the lijia system."

the civil service was reinstituted during the later Yuan so it did not completely diappear during the Yuan.

[General_Zhaoyun]

Quote

The open international attitude is anything but positive and that was one of the reason why Zhu shut off the trade. These international trade was unbalanced and only drained the wealth of the central plains abroad, this made the general peasant poorer and poorer.

Hey, I think, the shutting off of trade from outside world is during late Ming period, wasn't it?

[Yun]

Nope, it was during the early Ming under Zhu Yuanzhang. Even during the Zheng He voyages, the ban on private maritime trade was in place, and was only lifted in 1567 (in the late Ming). I'll elaborate on this and clear up any misconceptions in a separate thread in which I will post my recent essay on Ming maritime history.