Hongwu Emperor: Encyclopedia - Hongwu Emperor

Hongwu Emperor

義武俊德成功高皇帝

The Hongwu Emperor (September 21, 1328 – June 24, 1398), personal name Zhu Yuanzhang, was the founder of the Ming Dynasty of China, and the first emperor of this dynasty from 1368 to 1398. His era name Hongwu means "Immensely Martial."

Among the Chinese populace there were strong feelings against the rule of "the foreigners" under the Mongol Yuan Dynasty which finally led to a peasant revolution, led by Hongwu, that pushed the Yuan dynasty back to the Mongolian steppes and established the Ming Dynasty in 1368. Hongwu, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, was one of the only two dynasty founders who emerged from the peasant class. The other one was Han Gao Zu of Han Dynasty. Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping are the two other peasant revolutionaries to have ruled the world's most populous nation.

Hongwu Emperor - Early life

Orphaned as a teenager, he entered a Buddhist monastery to avoid starvation. This is where he became literate, and at age 25 joined a rebel band, where his native ability soon brought him on top. Later, as a strongwilled rebel leader, he came in contact with the well-educated Confucian scholar gentry from whom he received an education in state affairs. He acquired training in the Red Turban Movement, which was a dissident religious sect combining cultural and religious traditions of Buddhism, Daoism, and others. No longer a Buddhist, he positioned himself as defender of Confucianism and neo-Confucian conventions and not as a popular rebel. Despite his humble origins, he emerged as a national leader against the collapsing Yuan Dynasty.

Hongwu Emperor - Emperor of China

Defeating rival national leaders, he proclaimed himself emperor in 1368, establishing his capital at Nanjing and adopting Hongwu as his reign title.

Under Hongwu, the Mongol bureaucrats who had dominated the government for nearly a century under the Yuan dynasty were replaced by the Chinese. The traditional Confucian examination system that selected state bureaucrats or civil servants on the basis of merit and knowledge of literature and philosophy was revamped. Candidates for posts in the civil service or the officer corps of the 80,000-man army, once again, had to pass the traditional competitive examinations in the Classics. The Confucian scholar gentry, marginalized under the Yuan for nearly a century once again assumed their predominant role in the Chinese state.

Historians consider Hong Wu as one the greatest Emperors of China. From the first, great care was taken by the Hong Wu emperor to distribute land to small farmers. It seems to have been his policy to favor the poor, whom he tried to help to support themselves and their families. For instance, in 1370 an order was given that some land in Hunan and Anhui should be distributed to young farmers who had reached manhood; to preclude the absorption of this land by unscrupulous landlords it was announced that the title to it was not transferable. About the middle of his reign an edict was published to the effect that those who brought waste land under cultivation might keep it as their property without it ever being taxed. The response of the people was enthusiastic. In 1393, cultivated land rose to 8,804,623 ching and 68 mou; no other dynasties have achieved that success.

Having himself come from a peasant family, the Hong Wu emperor knew only too well how much the farmers had to suffer from the gentry and the wealthy. Many of the latter, relying on their influence with the magistrates, not only encroached without scruple on the land of farmers, but even contrived, by bribing sub-officials, to transfer the burden of taxation to the small farmers they had wronged. To prevent such abuses the Hong Wu Emperor instituted two very important systems, "Yellow Records" and "Fish Scale Records", which served to guarantee both the government's income from land taxes and the people's enjoyment of their property.

In 1372, the Hong Wu emperor ordered general release of all innocent people who had been enslaved during the anxious days towards the end of the Mongol regime. Fourteen years later the same emperor ordered his officials to buy back children in Huinan province who had been sold as slaves by their parents because of famine in the locality.

Having fought off the calamities of the Mongol invasion, and given the real threat to China still posed by the Mongols, Hongwu reassessed the orthodox Confucian view regarding the military as an inferior class to be subordinated by the scholar bureaucracy. Simply put, maintaining a strong military was essential since the Mongols were still a threat. Hong Wu kept a powerful army organized on a military system known as the Wei-so system, which was similar to the Fu-ping system of the Tang dynasty. According to Ming Shih Gao, the political intention of the founder of the Ming dynasty in establishing the wei-so system was to maintain a strong army while avoiding bonds between commanding officers and the soldiers. The soldiers ordinarily were trained in their military districts. In time of war, troops were mobilized from all over the Empire on the orders of a Board of war and commanders were chosen from Wu chin tu-tu fu to lead them. As soon as the war was over, all the troops returned to their respective districts and the commanders lost their military commands. This system largely obviated troubles of the kind which had so often been caused under the Tang and Song dynasties by military commanders who had great numbers of soldiers directly under their personal control. The Wei-so system was a great success in early Ming because of the tun-tien system. Hong Wu well aware of the difficulties of supplying such a number of men, adopted this method of military settlements. Thus the empire was assured a strong force, without burdening the people heavily for its support.

Hongwu noted the destructive role of court eunuchs under the previous dynaties; he drastically reducing their numbers, forbidding them to handle documents, insisting that they remained illiterate, and liquidating those who commented on state affairs. Hongwu had a strong aversion to the imperial eunuchs (a castrated court of servants for the emperor), epitomized by a tablet in his palace stipulating: "Eunuchs must have nothing to do with the administration". Under his successor, however, they began regaining their old influence. Hong Wu never consented to any of his imperial relatives becoming court officials. This policy was fairly well maintained by later emperors, and no serious trouble was caused by the empresses or their relatives.

The legal code drawn up in the time of the Hong Wu emperor was considered one of the great achievements of the era. The Ming shih mentions that, as early as 1364, the monarch had started to draft a code of laws. This code was known as Ta-Ming Lu. The emperor took great care over the whole project and in his instruction to the ministers told them that the code of laws should be comprehensive and intelligible, so as not to leave any loophole for sub-officials to misinterpret the law by playing on the words. The Ming code laid great emphasis on family relations. The code of the Ming dynasty was a great improvement on that of the Tang dynasty as regards the treatment of slaves. Under Tang code, slaves were treated as a species of domestic animal. If they were killed by a free citizen the law imposed no sanction on the killer. Under the Ming dynasty, however, this was not so. The law assumed the protection of slaves as well as free citizens.

Hongwu attempted to, and largely succeeded in, consolidating control over all aspects of government so that no other group could gain enough power to overthrow him, and also buttressed the country's defenses against the Mongols. As emperor, Hongwu increasingly concentrated power in his own hands and abolished the prime minister post, which had been the main central administrative body under past dynasties, after suppressing a plot for which he had blamed his chief minister. Many argue that the Hong Wu emperor, wishing to concentrate absolute authority in his own hands, abolished the office of prime minister and so removed the only insurance against incompetent emperors. However the statement is misleading because a new post was created called "Grand secretary" to take the place of the abolished prime minister. Ray Huang, Professor from Sate University college argues that Grand-secretaries, outwardly powerless, could exercise considerable positive influence from behind the throne. Because of their prestige and the public trust which they enjoyed, they could act as intermediaries between the emperor and the ministerial officals, and thus provide a stabilizing force in the court.

With little understanding of economic processes of markets, Hongwu, backed by the Confucian scholar gentry, just accepted the Confucian viewpoint offhand that merchants were solely parasitic. In a typically Confucian viewpoint, Hongwu felt that agriculture should be the country's source of wealth and that trade was ignoble and parasitic. Perhaps this view was accentuated because of his background as a peasant. As a result, the Ming economic system emphasized agriculture, unlike that of the Song Dynasty, which had preceded the Mongols and relied on traders and merchant for revenues. With an aversion to trade, he also supported the creation of self-supporting agricultural communities.

However, Hong Wu's prejudice against the merchant did not diminish the numbers of traders. On the contrary, commerce was on a much greater scale than in previous centuries and was ever on the increase, for the growing industries naturally needed the cooperation of the merchants and poor soil in some provinces and overpopulation forced many to leave their home and seek their fortune in trade. A book called "Tu pien hsin shu" written in the Ming dynasty gives a very detailed description about the activities of merchants at that time. So, the ban caused no decline of trade.

Although Hongwu's rule saw the introduction of paper currency, capitalist development would be stifled from the beginning. Not understanding inflation, Hongwu gave out so much paper money as rewards that by 1425 the state was forced to reintroduce copper coins because the currency was worth 1/70 of its original value.

During Hongwu's reign, however, the early Ming Dynasty was characterized by rapid and dramatic population growth, largely due to the increased food supply and Hongwu's agricultural reforms. Population probably rose by at least 50 percent by the end of the Ming Dynasty, stimulated by major improvements in agricultural technology promoted by the pro-agrarian state, which came to power in the midst of a pro-Confucian peasant's rebellion. Under his tutelage, living standards greatly improved.

The Hongwu Emperor increasingly feared rebellions and coups. He even made it a capital offence for any of his advisors to criticize him. A story goes that a Confucian scholar who was fed up with Hongwu's policies decided to go to the capital and berate the emperor. When he gained an audience with him, he brought his own coffin. After delivering his speech, he climbed into the coffin, expecting the emperor to execute him. Instead, the Emperor was so impressed by his bravery he spared his life.

Hongwu died after a reign of 30 years.

He had 24 sons, all of whom became princes. They include:

• Zhu Biao (1355-1392), Hongwu's first child, and the father of his successor Jianwen
• Zhu Di (1360-1424), Hongwu's fourth son, and third emperor after usurpation of the throne from Jianwen
• Zhu Quan (1391-1448), 17th son

Hongwu Emperor - Names

Hongwu is also known as Hung-Wu. That name is also applied to the period of years from 1368 to 1398 when Chu Yuan-chang ruled. Other names for him include , his temple name Ming Tàizǔ (明太祖) "Great Ancestor of the Ming", and the "Beggar King," in allusion to his early poverty.

In the West, he is now sometimes called "the Chinese Napoleon".

See also

• Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, in Nanjing

Categories: Wikipedia articles needing copy edit | History of China | 1328 births | 1398 deaths | Ming Dynasty emperors | The Heavenly Sword and the Dragon Saber

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