Zhu Yuanzhang

Also known as Mingtai Zu · Zi Guorui

Zhu Yuanzhang, originally named Chongba, courtesy name Guorui, came from a tenant-farming family in Zhongli, Haozhou (Fengyang, Anhui). Famine and plague killed his parents and elder brother in 1344, and he became a novice at the Huangjue monastery before joining Guo Zixing's Red Turban forces in 1352. He took Jiqing in 1356 and renamed it Yingtian (modern Nanjing), defeated his rivals Chen Youliang and Zhang Shicheng, and in 1368 proclaimed the Great Ming at Yingtian under the reign title Hongwu, sending Xu Da to take the Yuan capital that year. In 1380 he used the Hu Weiyong case to abolish the Central Secretariat and the office of chancellor; he also had household and land registers compiled, issued the Great Ming Code and purged meritorious officials in the Hu and Lan Yu cases. He died in 1398 with the temple name Taizu and the posthumous title Emperor Gao, and was buried at Xiaoling in Nanjing, where the Kangxi Emperor later left an inscription ranking his rule above Tang and Song.