The History Book

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ousted the despised Yuan dynasty—

founded by Kublai Khan, the

Mongol conqueror of China—the

country’s rulers since 1279. Zhu

reigned as emperor Hongwu

(“Vastly Martial”—a reference to

his military prowess) from 1368

until his death in 1398, by which

time he had firmly established one

of China’s most influential, but also

most authoritarian, dynasties. He

and his successors brought three

centuries of prosperity and stability

to the country, establishing its

government and bureaucracy in a

form that would endure, with slight

modifications, until the demise

of the imperial system in 1911, and

broadening the base of its economy.

Driving out the Mongols

Zhu’s new dynasty arose from

the chaos that accompanied the

decline of the Yuan. In the 1340s

and 50s, factionalism in the Mongol

court, rampant government

corruption, and a series of natural

disasters, including plagues and

epidemics, resulted in wholesale

breakdown in law and order and

administration as peasant groups

rose up against their faltering

HONGWU FOUNDS THE MING DYNASTY

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Ming China

BEFORE

1279 Kublai Khan overthrows

the Song and establishes the

Mongol Yuan dynasty.

1344 In central China, the

Yellow River begins to shift

course, leading to droughts

and a subsequent upsurge in

peasant rebellions.

1351 Outbreak of Red Turban

revolt against the Yuan.

AFTER

1380 Hongwu takes on the

role of chief minister, laying

the basis of an authoritarian

political culture.

1415 Yongle revives and

extends the Grand Canal,

enabling it to carry goods from

southern China to Beijing.

1520 The first Portuguese

trading missions to China.

c.1592 Publication of Journey

to the West, one of the

masterworks of Chinese

classical writing.

1644 Chongzhen commits

suicide, ending the Ming era.

S

urrounded by officials at the

imperial palace in Nanjing,

Zhu Yuzhuang, the son of

poor peasant farmers, offered

sacrifices to Heaven and Earth as

he was proclaimed first emperor of

China’s Ming (“brilliant”) dynasty.

It was the culmination of a

remarkable rise to power by the

monk turned rebel general, who had

Hongwu founds the Ming

dynasty and institutes reforms that

restore stability, and also give the emperor

absolute authority.

Military and economic decline under the late Yuan

dynasty leads to widespread peasant revolts.

Autocratic, highly centralized system provides

centuries of stable rule and economic prosperity.

A series of weak rulers means centralized

system ceases to operate efficiently.

Ming dynasty collapses in the face of

Manchu invasion and peasant uprisings.

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123

The tribulations of Hongwu’s early

life led him to improve the lot of China’s

rural poor, but they also created a cruel

and irrational man who murdered all

those he suspected of disloyalty.

foreign overlords. Zhu himself lost

most of his family in an outbreak

of plague in 1344, and after a few

years spent as a mendicant monk,

begging for food, he joined the Red

Turbans, one of a constellation of

native Han Chinese peasant secret

societies in rebellion against the

Yuan. Determined, ruthless, and

an able general, the young rebel

climbed the ranks to the leadership

of the Red Turbans, and later

overcame his rivals to become the

national leader against the Yuan.

Zhu took control of much of

southern and northern China and

declared himself emperor before

pushing the Mongols out of their

capital at Dadu (Beijing) in 1368.

The rest of the country was then

subdued, although the Mongols

resisted in the far north until the

early 1370s, and the unification of

China was not achieved until the

defeat of the last Mongol forces in

the south in 1382.

Reform and despotism

Zhu’s first priority as emperor

Hongwu was to establish order—

decades of conflict had ravaged

China and impoverished its rural

population. His humble beginnings

may have influenced some of his

early policies: responsibility for tax

assessment was entrusted to rural

communities, sweeping away the

problem of rapacious tax collectors

who had preyed on poorer areas;

slavery was abolished; many large

estates were confiscated; and lands

owned by the state in the under-

populated north of the country were

handed to landless peasants, to

encourage them to settle there.

From 1380, Hongwu instituted

government reforms that gave him

personal control over all matters of

state. After executing his prime

minister, who had been implicated

in a plot to overthrow him, he

abolished the prime ministership

and the central secretariat and

had the heads of the next layer of

government, the six ministeries,

report directly to him, ensuring he

oversaw even minor decisions.

From then on, Hongwu acted

as his own prime minister. His

workload was almost unbearable—

in a single week-long stint, he

had to scrutinize and approve

some 1,600 documents—and as

a result, the state became incapable

of responding swiftly to crises.

Although in time a new ❯❯

See also: The First Emperor unifies China 54–57 ■ Kublai Khan conquers the Song 102–03 ■

Marco Polo reaches Shangdu 104–05 ■ The Revolt of the Three Feudatories 186–87

THE MEDIEVAL WORLD

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