Campaigners › Commanders
Mu Ying
Adopted son of Zhu Yuanzhang who helped conquer Yunnan in 1381 and stayed on to govern it, founding a line of hereditary commanders that held the province until the end of the Ming
At dusk on a hilltop, a large tent stands open with a table holding a map marked with small stones inside, a saddled horse tethered outside, and fire stands burning; campfires dot the river plain below, and one tiny sentry stands on the slope.
Also known as Zi Wenying
Mu Ying, courtesy name Wenying, came from Dingyuan in Haozhou; he lost his father as a small child, fled the fighting with his mother, and when she too died he was taken in by Zhu Yuanzhang and his wife. In 1377 he served as Deng Yu's deputy against the Tibetan tribes and was made Marquis of Xiping, and the next year he commanded the campaign that pacified Taozhou. In 1381 he went with Lan Yu under Fu Youde to conquer Yunnan; the Yuan Prince of Liang killed himself, Mu took Dali from the Duan family, and he remained to govern the province, setting up military farms and garrisons. In the sixth month of 1392 the news of the death of the crown prince, Zhu Biao, brought on an illness from which he died at his post at forty-seven; he was named Prince of Qianning and given a place in the imperial ancestral temple. His descendants held Yunnan as hereditary Dukes of Qian until the fall of the Ming.
Life and times
Dates 1345 CE–1392 CE