sourced story
1368Reputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

Zhu Yuanzhang Founds the Ming Dynasty

A poor farmer's son drives out the Mongols and builds a native Chinese dynasty

On the timeline · around 1368 · Song, Yuan, and MingSong, Yuan, and MingZhu Yuanzhang Founds the Ming Dynasty12001250130013501400145015001550

Quick facts

Dynasty founded
1368
Founder
Zhu Yuanzhang (Hongwu Emperor)
Original capital
Nanjing
Dynasty span
1368-1644

What happened

Zhu Yuanzhang, born into deep poverty as the son of a farm laborer and barely literate, joined a rebellion against the crumbling Yuan government in 1352 and rose over the following sixteen years to become a capable general and military strongman. In 1368 he captured the Mongol capital of Dadu, present-day Beijing, driving the Yuan court back to Mongolia and founding the Ming dynasty with its capital initially at Nanjing. The Ming restored native Chinese rule after nearly a century of Mongol rule and would govern China until 1644.

Why it matters

Zhu Yuanzhang's rise from a laborer's son to founding emperor made him one of the few commoners in Chinese history to establish a ruling dynasty rather than seize power from within the existing elite. His government's restoration of native rule, and the Confucian bureaucratic institutions it revived, set the political framework the Ming's most consequential rulers, including his son the Yongle Emperor, would build on.

How we know

Zhu Yuanzhang's biography and the 1368 conquest of Dadu are recorded in Ming-dynasty official histories compiled soon after the events they describe.

Sources

See something wrong? . Corrections with a source get fixed fastest.

Part of a timelineHistory of China30 events · From Neolithic river villages to dynasties that lasted for centuries, then a revolution that ended imperial ruleView all →