The Cambridge Illustrated History of China

The Ming dynasty (1368–1644), founded by a poor peasant who joined the rebellions against Mongol rule, was an era of great changes in society, political dynamics, ethnic composition, foreign relations, and culture. The founder's armies managed to secure all of China proper and even to attract some Mongol nobles as allies and supporters. The early Ming emperors continued some of the institutions the Mongols had used, such as hereditary military households, but also returned to long-standing traditions of governance, such as careful census and registration of the population and land. Although the early emperors used terror to keep officials in line, competition to join officialdom quickly reached and exceeded Song levels. Literati culture was especially vibrant in the Lower Yangzi region, where urbanization reached high levels and the publishing industry grew rapidly. One reason for the prosperity of this region was a burgeoning of trade, including international maritime trade. Piracy became a major problem until the government relaxed its prohibitions on private trade. In the early seventeenth century, global cooling added to farmers’ hardships and the government's problems.

Ming Taizu and his successors

Seldom has the course of Chinese history been as influenced by a single personality as it was by the founder of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang (1328–1398), better known by his imperial temple name, Taizu, and the name of his reign period, Hongwu. The first commoner to become emperor in 1,500 years, Taizu proved shrewd, hardworking, and ruthless. He knew poverty firsthand. His destitute parents frequently had to move to look for work or escape rent collectors; they even had to give away several of their children because they could not afford to rear them. When Zhu Yuanzhang was sixteen years old, a shift in the route of the Yellow River brought floods, famine, and disease to his region and took the lives of both his parents. Taizu, unable even to buy coffins in which to bury them, presented himself to a Buddhist monastery; but the monastery, hard-pressed itself, soon sent out the novices to beg. After several years wandering across east-central China, Taizu returned to the monastery for three or four years until it was burned to the ground by the Yuan militia attempting to suppress local rebellions.