Z
hu Yuanzhang, the Ming dynasty founder, was born into a
desperately poor peasant family. He was such a sickly baby that
his parents once offered him to the Buddha if his life could be
spared. When he was sixteen, during the fl oods of 1344, his parents
and two brothers died during an epidemic, leaving him and one brother
alone with no means of support. Finding refuge at a Buddhist temple,
he joined in begging on the streets for food and learned basic literacy
from some of the monks. In 1352, the Buddhist temple was attacked
and burned by the Yuan military because it was seen as part of the Red
Turban movement—troops of the White Lotus Society, which had just
risen in rebellion against the Yuan government.
With his temple burned to the ground, Zhu Yuanzhang, at age twenty-
four, joined a Red Turban army. Physically imposing, very intelligent,
and fearless in battle, Zhu quickly impressed his commander, who made
him a top assistant and then gave him command of his own troops. Zhu
soon married the commander’s adopted daughter, and when his com-
mander was killed in battle in 1355, Zhu took his place. In 1356, his
troops occupied the important regional city of Nanjing, which had been
the seat of several southern kingdoms. He had gained the allegiance of
a number of capable men of some learning and experience, and rather
than simply loot and plunder, he and his forces began to administer the
territory surrounding Nanjing and to impose peace and order in areas
that had been in chaos for over a decade.
As Zhu Yuanzhang’s ambitions grew with his success, he came to
see the limitations of the Red Turbans, whose forces were splintered
and poorly disciplined. He formally broke with the Red Turbans in
1366, and within two years he had eliminated his rivals among the
chapter 6