8 The Ming Dynasty
Zhu Yuanzhang ( 1328 – 98 ), the man who founded the Ming Dynasty,
began his life in abject poverty and spent much of his youth as a
Buddhist disciple. He began his rise to power as a rebel leader, joining a
Buddhist-inspired group known as the Red Turbans. He eventually gained
control over a part of this group and built a military and political force able
to conquer China as the Yuan Dynasty broke down. This connection to
Buddhism did nothing to mitigate the violence necessary to defeat the other
contenders for power in the fourteenth century, and Zhu would prove to
be one of the most violent, paranoid, and murderous rulers in Chinese
history. He did not learn his martial arts in the temple to which he was
apprenticed (he did learn to read and write there) but in the chaotic and
highly militarized world of mid-fourteenth-century China. As Yuan
authority crumbled, groups rose all over Chinafighting for local power,
with some going on to struggle for regional and eventually empire-wide
control.
These struggles also took place within military and political groups, as
individual warriors and advisors sought to improve their own fortunes at
the expense of their putative comrades. The challenge was to reach the top
of a winning group without undermining its success through infighting.
Successful warriors were highly valued in this environment; those who
could also lead and possessed organizational and strategic ability could
aspire to reach the highest ranks of power. Zhu Yuanzhang, like all
founding emperors, was a successful warrior and general, and he attracted
and surrounded himself with other successful warriors and generals. At the
same time, he needed bureaucrats and advisors who were neitherfighters
nor generals to build and run the institutional structures of his
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