Hongwu Emperor, which in Chinese reads as 洪武帝. Wade–Giles: Hung-wu Ti; 21 October 1328 – 24 June 1398), known variably by his given name Zhu Yuanzhang. In standard Chinese reads as: 朱元璋; Wade–Giles: Chu Yuan-chang) and by his temple name Taizu of Ming (Chinese: 明太祖; literally "Great Ancestor of Ming"), was the founder and first emperor of the Ming Dynasty of China. His era name, Hongwu, means "vastly martial."
In the middle of the 14th century, with famine, plagues and peasant revolts sweeping across China, Zhu became a leader of an army that conquered China, ending the government of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, and forcing the Mongols to retreat to the Mongolian Gobi. With his seizure of the Yuan capital (present-day Beijing), he claimed the Mandate of Heaven and established the Ming Dynasty in 1368. Ming dynasty's mission was to drive away the Mongols and to restore Han Chinese rules in China.
Under Hongwu's rule, the Mongol bureaucrats who dominated the government in the Yuan Dynasty's time were replaced by Han Chinese officials. Hongwu revamped the traditional Confucian examination system. Mongol-related things, including garments and names, were discontinued from use and boycotted. There were also attacks on palaces and administrative buildings previously used by the Yuan rulers.
A New Brand of Power
Portrait of the Yongle Emperor (r. 1402–24)Hongwu's grandson Zhu Yunwen (Wade–Giles: Chu Yunwen) assumed the throne as the Jianwen Emperor (1398–1402) after Hongwu's death in 1398. In a prelude to a three-year-long civil war beginning in 1399, Jianwen became engaged in a political showdown with his uncle Zhu Di (Wade–Giles: Chu Ti, Traditional Chinese: 朱棣; Simplified Chinese: 朱棣), the Prince of Yan, later the Yongle Emperor (Traditional Chinese: 永樂; Simplified Chinese: 永乐; pinyin: Yǒnglè; Wade-Giles: Yung-lo; IPA: [jʊ̀ŋlɤ̂]). Jianwen was aware of the ambitions of his princely uncles, establishing measures to limit their authority. The militant Zhu Di, given charge over the area encompassing Beijing to watch the Mongols on the frontier, was the most feared of these princes. After Jianwen arrested many of Zhu Di's associates, Zhu Di plotted a rebellion. Under the guise of rescuing the young Jianwen from corrupting officials, Zhu Di personally led forces in the revolt; the palace in Nanjing was burned to the ground, along with Zhu Di's nephew Jianwen, his wife, mother, and courtiers. Zhu Di assumed the throne as the Yongle Emperor (1402–1424); his reign is universally viewed by scholars as a "second founding" of the Ming Dynasty since he reversed many of his father's policies.
After the coronation, Yongle decided to move China's capital from Nanjing (literally Southern Capital) to Beijing (literally Northern Capital). According to a popular legend, the capital was moved when the emperor's advisers brought the emperor to the hills surrounding Nanjing and pointed out the emperor's palace showing the vulnerability of the palace to artillery attack.
Yongle also ordered to build a massive network of structures in new capital Beijing in which government offices, officials, and the imperial family itself resided. After a painfully long construction time, the Forbidden City was finally completed and became the political capital of China for the next 500 years.
