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Hongwu Emperor

founding emperor of China's Ming dynasty; ruled 1368–1398

34 dated entries naming Hongwu Emperor, drawn from 26 separate years between 1328 CE and 1398 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

Also written as Zhu Yuanzhang in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

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14th century

  • 1328October 21 – Hongwu Emperor of China (died 1398)source
  • 1352After years of begging and being a Buddhist monk, the penniless Chinese peasant Zhu Yuanzhang joins the Red Turban Rebellions against the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China; he will later become the first emperor of the Ming dynasty.source
  • 1355May – Red Turban Rebellions: Guo Zixing dies, leaving his forces to the command of his son-in-law, Zhu Yuanzhang. Guo's successors are later killed in battle while trying to capture Nanjing.source
  • 1355October 10 – Zhu Biao, eldest son of the Hongwu Emperor and crown prince of the Ming dynasty (died 1392)source
  • 1356Zhu Yuanzhang, one of the leaders in the Red Turban Rebellion, captures the city of Nanjing from the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty in China; from then on it becomes his base of power, and the capital of a new dynasty he would establish in 1368, the Ming dynasty.source
  • 1360Red Turban Rebellions: Chen Youliang murders Xu Shouhui and proclaims himself the emperor of Han in Wuchang before unsuccessfully attempting to capture Nanjing from Zhu Yuanzhang.source
  • 1362Red Turban Rebellions: Hu Dahai, aide to Zhu Yuanzhang, is killed by Miao chieftains in Yanzhou (part of modern-day Jinhua and Hangzhou). Chaghan Temur is killed and succeeded by his nephew Köke Temür.source
  • 1363August 30–October 4 – Battle of Lake Poyang: The Dahan rebel forces of Chen Youliang are defeated by the Red Turban Rebel forces of Zhu Yuanzhang, during the final decade of Yuan dynasty control over China. Zhu's naval forces of 200,000 are pitted against Chen's naval forces of 650,000 troops, in what is not only the largest naval battle of the medieval age, but also one of the largest naval battles in history.source
  • 1366Zhu Yuanzhang, leader of the Red Turban Rebellion that will overthrow the Yuan dynasty and establish the Ming dynasty two years later, begins building the walls for a new capital city at Nanjing.source
  • 1367October 1 – Red Turban Rebellions: Zhu Yuanzhang takes Suzhou from Zhang Shicheng, who unsuccessfully attempts suicide before being captured and taken to Nanjing, where he dies.source
  • 1367December 28 – During the Red Turban Rebellions, Hu Mei captures Shaowu, while Xu Da and Chang Yuchun capture Jinan, bringing both under the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang's control.source
  • 1368January 23 – Zhu Yuanzhang establishes the Ming dynasty with himself as the Emperor Hongwu. The new dynasty will last until 1644. The Emperor immediately orders every county magistrate to set up four granaries, and halts government taxation on books. Work begins later year on restoring the surviving Great Wall of China.source
  • 1369The Hongwu Emperor of the Chinese Ming dynasty issues a decree ordering every country magistrate in the empire to open a Confucian school of learning.source
  • 1371The Hongwu Emperor of the Ming dynasty in China introduces the census registration system of lijia, or the hundreds-and-tithing system, throughout the Yangzi Valley. This system groups households into units of ten and groups of one hundred, whereupon their capacities for paying taxes and providing the state with corvée labor service can be assessed. The system becomes fully operational in 1381, when it counts 59,873,305 people living in China (the historian Timothy Brook asserts that the number was much higher, somewhere between 65 million and 75 million).source
  • 1371May – Under the direction of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Emperor Hongwu, the Ming conquest of Xia begins as troops from China, led by Generals Fu Youde and Tang He invade what is now the Sichuan province from the north, while Admiral Liao Yongzhong leads an attack on Xia's east coast and along the Yangtze river.source
  • 1373The Chinese emperor of the Ming dynasty, the Hongwu Emperor, suspends the traditional civil service examination system after complaining that the 120 new jinshi degree-holders are too incompetent to hold office; he instead relies solely upon a system of recommendations, until the civil service exams are reinstated in 1384.source
  • 1375In Nanjing, capital of Ming dynasty China, a bureau secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Ru Taisu, sends a 17,000 character-long memorial to the throne, to be read aloud to the Hongwu Emperor. By the 16,370th character, the emperor has been offended by several passages, and has Ru Taisu summoned to court and flogged for the perceived insult. The next day, having had the remaining characters read to him, he likes four of Ru's recommendations, and instates these in reforms. Ru is nevertheless castigated for having forced the emperor to hear thousands of characters before getting to the part with true substance. The last 500 characters are elevated in court as the model-type memorial that all officials should aspire to create while writing their own.source
  • 1377King U of Goryeo adopts the Ming calendar and begs to be invested by the Hongwu Emperor.source
  • 1377August – The Hongwu Emperor of the Ming dynasty of China scraps the Office of Reports Inspection (established in 1370) for a new Office of Transmission, in his efforts to create a more efficient communicatory system in the empire. A month before this he noted that anyone could send memorials to the throne; commoners often did, although the only times their petitions were read aloud to the emperor were when they called for the impeachment of local officials who were not up to par with their official duties.Wilkinson, 534–535.source
  • 1380The Hongwu Emperor purges the chancellor of China, Hu Weiyong, and abolishes that office, as he imposes direct imperial rule over the six ministries of central government, for the Ming Empire.source
  • 1380February 12 – Hu Weiyong, the Grand Chancellor of Ming dynasty China, is accused of treason and executed as the Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang (Emperor Hongwu) begins a purge of over 30,000 people perceived as opponents of the Imperial government.source
  • 1381In Ming dynasty China, the lijia census registration system begun in 1371 is now universally imposed, during the reign of the Hongwu Emperor. The census counts 59,873,305 people living in China in this year. This depicts a drastic drop in population since the Song dynasty, which counted 100 million people at its height in the early 12th century. A modern historian states that the Ming census is inaccurate, as China at around this time has at least 65,000,000 inhabitants, if not 75,000,000.source
  • 1382April 9 – Ming dyansty China, ruled by the Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, completes the conquerst of Yunnan the remaining portion of China still occupied by the Yuan dyansty in what is now the Yunnan province. General Fu Youde leads 250,000 Ming Chinese troops overwhelming the smaller Yunnan force of Mongol and Chinese Muslim troops.source
  • 1384The Hongwu Emperor of Ming China reinstates the Imperial examination system for drafting scholar-officials to the civil service, after suspending the system since 1373, in favor of a recommendation system to office.source
  • 1384August 16 – The Hongwu Emperor of Ming China hears a case of a couple who tore paper money notes, while fighting over them. Under the law, this is considered an act of destroying stamped government documents, which is to be punished by a caning with a bamboo rod of 100 strokes. However, the Emperor decides to pardon them, on the grounds that it was unintentional.source
  • 1385The Hongwu Emperor of China's Ming dynasty relents after eighteen tribute missions over the previous eight years, and agrees to invest King U of Goryeo.source
  • 1387November – The Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of China directs General Lan Yu to attack the Mongol forces led by Tögüs Temür, whom the Emperor Zhu had deposed. The confrontation between Lan Yu and Tögüs Temür will culminate six months later at the Battle of Buir Lake, 500 mi north of Beijing.source
  • 1389January 19 – In Ming dynasty China, General Lan Yu is rewarded by the Emperor Zhu Chongba of the Hongwu era for his victory over Mongol invaders in 1388. Lan Yu is given the title Duke of Liang, with rule over what is now the Gansu province.source
  • 1392September 24 – Zhu Yuanzhang, the Hongwu Emperor of Ming dynasty China, declares that all males must wear the queue hairstyle.source
  • 1393April 14 - To resolve issues remaining from the six-year long war in Myanmar between the Kingdom of Ava and the Hanthawaddy Kingdom, a delegation sent by King Swa Saw Ke of Ava arrives at Nanjing, capital of Ming dynasty China, to seek the aid of the court of the Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. The mission is unsuccessful.source
  • 1394The Hongwu Emperor of the Ming dynasty in China orders the Ministry of Public Works to issue a public notice, that every 100 households in the lijia system are to set aside 2 mu (1,390 m 2 ) of land, for planting mulberry and jujube trees.source
  • 1398January – The Dao Ganmeng rebellion in the Chinese vassal state of Möng Mao,started in December by Dao Genmeng, is brought to an end in what is now Myanmar two months after Dao Ganmeng's takeover. With the intervention of the Chinese Empire, led by the Ming dynasty Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, the deposed ruler Si Lunfa is restored to leadership.source
  • 1398June 24 – Hongwu Emperor of China (born 1328)source
  • 1398June 25 – Zhu Yunwen succeeds his grandfather, Zhu Yuanzhang, as Emperor Ming dynasty China, bringing an end to the Hongwu Era and beginning the Jianwen era.source

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