Hongwu Emperor

Epic card · No. 8120

The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328 – 24 June 1398), personal name Zhu Yuanzhang, was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1368 to 1398. Born in 1328 into a peasant family in Anhui, Zhu Yuanzhang grew up during a period of epidemics, famines, and widespread uprisings in China under the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. When he was 16, his parents and brother died in an epidemic. The orphaned Zhu briefly lived as a novice monk, begging for alms and gaining insight into the hardships of the common people. He also developed a dislike for book-dependent scholars. In 1352, he joined the Red Turban rebels, a movement that sought to overthrow Yuan rule, and quickly rose to command his own army. He captured Nanjing in 1356 and built a powerful regional regime in southern China. He adopted Yuan administrative practices and applied them to his expanding territory. Although he nominally acknowledged the authority of the Red Turban figurehead Han Lin'er, Zhu increasingly acted independently...

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