Explore the full history of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644)—from its founding by Zhu Yuanzhang to its fall. Key emperors, policies, wars, and original records from the era.
On May 17, 1392, the crown prince of the Ming dynasty died. Zhu Biao was thirty-six years old. The impact of the death reached into the next twenty-eight years of Ming history: the founding emperor killed the generals he had been keeping for his son, a grandson lost the throne to his own uncle, and…
In the intercalary ninth month of 1376, after an unusual movement in the heavens, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict inviting frank advice. Zhu Yuanzhang’s personality traits show up more clearly in what came back than in anything he wrote about himself. Ye Boju, a scholar from Ninghai who had been given the post of instructor…
A young woman hid a cake straight off the stove in her robe and carried it to the place where her husband was being held. By the time she took it out, the skin on her chest had burned. The History of the Ming tells the whole thing in one line: "She stole a cake,…
In the eleventh month of 1370, in Nanjing, the army that had driven the Mongols out of the north came home. Zhu Yuanzhang had already reported the completion of the campaign at the suburban altars. On this day he enfeoffed the Ming dynasty founding generals in a single ceremony. Li Shanchang became Duke of Han,…
In 1382 a man named Zheng Shili wrote a memorial to the throne. He held no office, and he had no part in the case he wanted to argue. His point was narrow. Every year, clerks from the provincial administrations traveled to the Ministry of Revenue to reconcile grain and military supply accounts. The road…
In March 1393 the Hongwu Emperor recalled four senior commanders from the northern frontier. The emperor behind this decision was Zhu Yuanzhang, founder of the Ming Dynasty. Eight days later, on 22 March, Lan Yu, Duke of Liang, was executed for treason. The Lan Yu rebellion case also took the Marquis of Heqing, the Marquis…
The Zheng He voyage map starts at a shipyard. The Treasure Shipyard in Nanjing is where the Ming built their oceangoing ships, the Yangtze, reaching open sea only after Longjiang, the river gate. For what that yard actually built, see our guide to Ming treasure ships. A Ming hand began the chart at that shipyard,…
In the first month of 1380, Tu Jie, a vice censor-in-chief, sent up a memorial accusing the sitting left grand chancellor, Hu Weiyong, of plotting rebellion. The Hu Weiyong case, Ming dynasty officials would find, swallowed far more than the grand chancellor. The accusation went to a joint tribunal of court officials, and the verdict…
In Nanjing during the Hongwu era, a heartbreaking morning ritual was whispered among officials. According to Ming-era notes, ministers would bid farewell to their wives and children before heading to court each dawn; if they returned home safely at dusk, the entire family would raise a toast, celebrating that they had survived another day. This…
Zhu Yuanzhang rose to power by combining military leadership, political patience, and administrative skill. He began as a poor orphan and Buddhist novice, joined the Red Turban Rebellion in 1352, captured Jiqing—modern-day Nanjing—in 1356, and built a powerful base in the lower Yangtze. He then defeated Chen Youliang and Zhang Shicheng, launched a northern expedition…
Picture this. It’s 1363. You’re standing on the shores of Lake Poyang in central China. In front of you, stretching across the water, is something that shouldn’t exist in the 14th century. Chen Youliang’s fleet. Hundreds of tower ships, each three stories high, painted blood-red, so massive that horses can gallop across their decks. They’re…
In 1344, a young man without even a proper name—Zhu Chongba, meaning "Double Eight," a number—knelt before the bodies of his parents. He couldn’t afford coffins. Twenty-four years later, he was the Hongwu Emperor, ruler of a quarter of the world’s population. The improbable springboard for this staggering ascent was a peasant uprising steeped in…