Wu zhu biography

Born to a family of poor peasant farmers and orphaned at the age of 14, Zhu eventually became leader of a rebel army, and began to make plans for the overthrow of the Mongol Yuan dynasty.

Wu zhu joy of life season 2

Zhu and the rebel forces advanced on Peking , forced the flight of the Mongol emperor, and proclaimed the Ming Dynasty in Though he came from a peasant background, Zhu surrounded himself with Confucian scholars and advisors who helped him to organize an effective administration. He drafted a code of laws known as Ta-Ming Lu which laid much emphasis on family relations.

Especially sympathetic to the plight of peasant farmers, Zhu initiated policies that promoted agriculture as the economic foundation of the Ming dynasty. During his reign, the Hongwu emperor established a despotic tradition for the Ming dynasty, instituting administrative, educational and military reforms that gave the emperor personal control over all matters of state.

Hongwu kept a powerful army organized on the military system known as Wei-so, which prevented military leaders from acquiring too much influence. As a consequence of the Hongwu agricultural reforms, more land was under cultivation in China during the Ming dynasty than at any other time in history, and the population increased by 50 percent.

It was during this era that Zhu Yuanzhang led a peasant revolution that was instrumental in expelling the Yuan Dynasty and forcing the Mongols to retreat to the Mongolian steppes. In Chinese political theory, the concept of "Mandate of Heaven" made it possible for dynasties to be founded by non-noble families, such as the Han Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, or by non-ethnic Han peoples such as the Mongols' Yuan Dynasty and the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

The theory was that the Chinese emperor acted as the "Son of Heaven" and had a valid claim to rule as long as he served the people well. If the ruler became immoral, rebellion was justified and heaven would take away the mandate and give it to another. According to legend, he worked as a cowhand in his youth until he was fired for roasting and eating one of his master's livestock and joined a Buddhist monastery.

At the monastery he learned to read, but his studies were interrupted when the monastery ran out of money. He left the monastery for the country at large and spent a period of time as a wandering mendicant, begging for food in the areas surrounding Ho-fei about 80 miles west of Nanking , where no official authority existed. All of Central and Northern China was suffering from drought and famine at that time, and millions were starving.