Emperor Hongwu

The founder of the Ming Dynasty Emperor
Emperor Hongwu (Hanzi: 洪武, born in Fengyang, Anhui Province, 21 September 1328 - died June 24, 1398 at age 69 years), whose real name Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋), is the founder and first emperor of the Ming Dynasty in China. He became emperor and established his dynasty after successfully overthrew the Yuan Dynasty (Mongol). In the history of China, Zhu Yuanzhang is one of the two emperors who came from among the common people (the other is Liu Bang / Gaozu Emperor Han, founder of the Han Dynasty). He was a controversial emperor, on the one hand he is concerned the welfare of their people and strive to improve their lives, but he was also a tyrant who castrated freedom and kill the people who helped him rise to the suspicion of potential power grab his throne.


Zhu was born in Fengyang, Anhui Province of poor farm families with the name Zhu Chongba (朱 重 八). In his youth worked as cattle herders. Because exposure bake and eat an animal that, his master fired him. An outbreak of disease when it attacked his village and killed the parents and siblings. Later he became a monk at the Temple Huangjue just to make a living in the midst of the famine at the time. In the monastery that he began learning to read and write, but soon the monastery was closed due to lack of funds so that he should live again Ramanujan are displaced as a beggar. In the midst of a wave of anti-Mongol who was then emerging in China, Zhu joined the Red Turbans Uprising, a rebellion group-based anti-Yuan blend religious teachings such as Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and other religions.


He worked under the command of Guo Zixing. Thanks to his skill, in a short time he has gained an important position in the group. Since then he changed his name to Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu married the adopted daughter of Guo, Ma Xiuying (later became the first consort of Ming). He is often associated with Confucian scholars and landlords, of whom he received lessons on ways to manage the country, while from the Red Turbans he learned a lot about the military. Zhu began to abandon Buddhism and switch Reference Biography: on neo-Confucianism and Confucius. Poor children who had become monks, beggars, and thieves that have now been transformed into anti-Yuan rebel leader whose reputation was renowned throughout the country.


His charisma attracted talented people from all over the country to work for him. The year 1356 he made Yingtian (now Nanjing) as a base. His first step was to conquer his fellow leaders of the anti-Yuan Chinese rivals and unite the south, then the Mongol face. Year 1363, he defeated Chen Youliang, its biggest rival in China to unite, in the Battle of Lake Poyang. Then followed years of 1367 to defeat Zhang Shicheng in Suzhou. With the slogan "expelled the Mongols and restore the glory of the Chinese" he won the support of the Han people who really hate the Mongols who had invaded them for about a century. January 23, 1368, Zhu himself as emperor by the name of Emperor Hongwu, the dynasty named Ming (which means bright) and Nanjing was the capital of his kingdom.


In July the same year, he sent Xu Da, the right hand as well as his friend, to invade the capital of Yuan, Dadu (now Beijing) and succeeded in forcing the last Yuan emperor, Emperor Shun of the Yuan, fled to the north. China again ruled by the Han under the banner of the Ming Dynasty. Hongwu's first empress, Empress Ma was a lot of influence in his life, a wise woman. Once upon a time Hongwu catch some people are making a puzzle that offensive bemaksud Empress Ma and sentenced them to death, but the empress so pardon them freed Hongwu. There are theories that say the death of Empress Ma Hongwu years of 1382 affect the character to be hard and easy uncontrolled people to death with trivial reasons. In addition to the Empress Ma, Hongwu also has a number of concubines, some of whom are Korean women, who sent to him by King Taejo of Joseon (Yi Seonggye) to mark the partnership between China and Korea are also new break away from the influence of the Mongols. From the results of his marriage he was blessed with dozens of boys and girls. When it died in 1398, he was succeeded by his grandson because his eldest son Zhu Yunwen (Zhu Biao) who should ascend the throne died young in 1392. Hongwu had some fake graves in order to prevent destruction by his political opponents and theft by tomb raiders. The original tomb was discovered in the Qing Dynasty in Zijin Mountain, Nanjing.