Zhu Yuanzhang was born on October 21, 1328, collapsed on June 24, 1398, originally named Zhu Zhongba, joined the peasant rebellion led by Guo Zixing at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, changed his name to Zhu Yuanzhang in the army, the character Guorui, established the Ming Dynasty in 1268, in 1398 (Hongwu thirty-one years), Zhu Yuanzhang died of illness in Yingtian, at the age of 71, the temple number Taizu, the title of the Kaitian Dao Zhaoji Li Great Saint Ren Wen Yi Wu Junde Successful Emperor Gao.
Portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang's court
Second, some things in Zhu Yuanzhang's period:
1. The characteristics of the names taken by the people at the end of the Yuan And the beginning of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Yuanzhang's original name was Zhu Zhongba, which means eight eight, and such a name was not because the Zhu family was engaged in mathematics, but because in the Yuan Dynasty, ordinary people had no names if they could not go to school and become officials, and could only be named after the age of their parents or the date of birth. Let's introduce the names of the Zhu Zhongba family, each of which has characteristics and is also very easy to remember.
Zhu Zhongba Gaozu name: Zhu Bailiu;
Zhu Zhongba's great-grandfather's name: Zhu Sijiu;
Zhu Zhongba's grandfather's name: Zhu Chuyi;
Zhu Zhongba's father's name: Zhu Wusi.
2. The young Zhu Yuanzhang went to the rebels and was almost killed.
Zhu Yuanzhang, who worked as a monk in the temple, received a letter from his childhood playmate Tang He, inviting Zhu Yuanzhang to join the rebel army. In the twelfth year of Zhengzheng (1352 AD), Zhu Yuanzhang arrived at Haozhou City, which had been besieged by the Yuan army for a long time, so it could not be held out for long. As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang was arrested by the sergeant as a traitor, through the sergeant's report, Guo Zi became interested, rode a horse to find Zhu Yuanzhang, and when he arrived at the city gate, he saw a strange-looking person: the appearance was earth wrapped in the sky, the chin was prominent, and more peculiarly, his forehead was also protruding forward, and the specific shape was probably similar to the single-door weapon crescent shovel, up and down, and concave in the middle (see the portrait of Comrade Zhu Yuanzhang).
Portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang in the collection of the National Museum of China
After interrogation, Guo Zixing did not dare to underestimate this person, and when Zhu Yuanzhang said that it was Qianhu Changtang and introduced him, Guo Zixing understood that this person really came to join the army. So zhu Yuanzhang was arranged to Tang He's barracks and became a general.
3. Zhu Yuanzhang, who is good at scheming
After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang established his own imperial court according to the official structure of the Yuan Dynasty, and at that time, there was a partisan dispute led by Liu Ji and Hu Weiyong, and Zhu Yuanzhang first used Hu Weiyong to get rid of Liu Ji. Zhu Yuanzhang then used the case of Hu Weiyong's son as an introduction, conveying to Hu Weiyong that he could not tolerate Hu Weiyong's ideas, and at the same time began to eliminate Hu Weiyong's cronies with the diplomatic events of the Champa State. In the end, not only did hu Weiyong get rid of him, but he also used Hu Weiyong to save his henchmen and tongyuan (Northern Yuan), and killed more than 30,000 people before and after, then known as "Hu Prison", which is also known as the "Hu Weiyong Case"
III. Zhu Yuanzhang's Historical Contributions:
1. Gently shake taxes, build water conservancy, and immigration policies.
Zhu Yuanzhang encouraged the reclamation of wasteland, starting in 1370: in the northern counties and counties to implement a tax-free policy, encourage farmers to open up land, for the reclamation, the government to provide cattle, agricultural tools and seeds; and stipulate that the reclaimed land belongs to the reclamation. These measures have greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of peasants to reclaim the land.
In addition to encouraging the people to open up wasteland, at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, military tuns were also stipulated. The government provided cattle and farming tools. The proportion of Ming soldiers defending the city was as follows: the frontier army defended the city by three points and the tuntian by seven points; the inland army defended the city by two points and the tuntian by eight points. Military food is largely self-sufficient.
While encouraging peasants to open up land, Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to building water conservancy projects and relieving disasters and famines. At the beginning of his reign, he ordered that whenever the people made suggestions on water conservancy, the local officials must promptly report them, otherwise they would be punished. By 1395, there were about 40,987 pond weirs in the country and about 4,162 rivers.
In order to solve the problem of sparse population in the Central Plains, in the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang moved the population from Shanxi to Henan, Hebei, Shandong and other places on a large scale, involving millions of people, effectively supporting the development of the Central Plains.
2. Pay close attention to education and vigorously promote the examination system.
After Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, he built schools, selected student officials, and insisted on taking "education work" as an important indicator to measure local political performance.
At the same time, the national examination system adopts the examination system to admit personnel, but the examination is too rigid, and the questions can only be written in the four books and five classics, and the examination style is generally eight strands of text, and the virtual content is heavy in form.
Eight strands of text
3. Centralized power and emphasis on diplomacy.
After Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, he abolished the Zhongshu Province of the Yuan Dynasty, set up the left and right ministers, and centralized power in the central government.
After Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, he established good diplomatic relations with neighboring countries, and Korea, with the Ming Dynasty as its suzerainty, met with the Chinese Tianzi every three years and paid tribute. Even in a coup d'état in Korea, the new king still had the Ming Dynasty as his suzerainty.
In 1377, Zhu Yuanzhang crowned King Ayutthaya as the "King of Siam" (King of Thailand). During the Ming Dynasty, Ayutthaya sent envoys to China 112 times, and China also sent envoys to visit Ayutthaya 19 times.