Great Ming

Biodata

History

Founding and Hongwu Institutions

Zhu Yuanzhang founded the nation under the name Great Ming on the fourth day of the first lunar month in Zhizheng Year 28. His government abolished the chancellorship through the Hu Weiyong Case, leaving the emperor personally responsible for the Six Ministries. Hanlin scholars eventually assisted him with his heavy workload, providing an embryonic model for the later Grand Secretariat 9 46.

The founding emperor also established powerful frontier princes and guaranteed court support for his descendants. These arrangements left his successor facing both independent princely armies and a costly imperial household. His suppression of meritorious officials had meanwhile depleted the dynasty’s pool of experienced military leaders 1 11 15.

Zhu Yunwen’s Accession

The story begins on the tenth day of the sixth month in Hongwu Year 31, shortly after Zhu Yuanzhang’s death. Su Changhe awakens as the newly enthroned Zhu Yunwen and resolves to prevent the failures he remembers from history. Although Zhu Yunwen has succeeded to the throne, the Hongwu era name remains in use until the following year 1.

Rather than immediately accepting Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng’s proposal to abolish the princely fiefs, Zhu Yunwen summons the Prince of Yan to the capital. He subsequently combines administrative reform, northern military deployments, selective changes of fief, and intelligence operations to weaken the princes’ ability to challenge the court 1 9 15 23 26.

Resolution of the Prince of Yan Crisis

Zhu Di secretly prepares weapons and troops in Beiping, then feigns madness after his conspiracy is exposed. Zhu Yunwen has anticipated this response and uses his accurate prediction to secure the service of Dao Yan, whom he appoints to the Hanlin Academy as Yao Guangxiao 35 40 41.

Yao Guangxiao returns to Beiping and persuades Zhu Di to abandon rebellion. Presented with Zhu Yunwen’s merit-based recruitment policy and vision of an undertaking extending beyond Great Ming’s borders, Zhu Di acknowledges the emperor and pledges to follow him 42.

Geography and Strategic Locations

Government and Institutions

Central Administration

Governance and Public Welfare

• Redress of injustice: Zhu Yunwen proclaims an end to unjust Hongwu-era cases and pardons innocent people 9.
• Relief measures: Taxes are reduced or waived in struggling regions, with assistance ordered for disaster victims, widows, widowers, orphans, unsupported elderly people, and disabled people 9.
• Inspection of the realm: Xia Yuanji and other investigative commissioners are dispatched to examine conditions beyond the capital 9.
• Oversight problems: Slow communication allows local officials to conceal abuses. Zhu Yunwen identifies the difficulty of learning about commoners’ suffering as a central obstacle to effective rule 25.
• Merit-based appointments: His widely circulated “Cat Theory” defends employing capable people regardless of background, following opposition to Yao Guangxiao’s appointment 41.
• Founding families: Zhu Yunwen orders exiled relatives of meritorious families returned and resettled, and promises to resolve injustices against those families within ten years 46.

Economy and Taxation

Financial Structure

• Agricultural dependence: Agricultural taxes supply the overwhelming majority of central revenue; commercial taxes contribute comparatively little 30.
• Treasury pressure: Troops, officials, and imperial relatives consume most annual funds, restricting military expansion and other projects 11 13.
• Landholding imbalance: Princes, officials, landlords, and wealthy merchants control extensive farmland, while exemptions and evasion reduce revenue collected from it 30.
• Revenue estimates: Zhu Yunwen recalls annual central receipts of approximately three million taels of silver, with collected grain worth another ten million taels or more when converted to silver 36.
• Commercial taxation: The existing commercial tax rate is one in thirty, which Zhu Yunwen considers too low to support the empire’s development 44.

Reform Program

• Tax-reform concerns: Huang Zicheng warns that silver payment could burden poorer northern regions and make farmers dependent on merchants. Other ministers identify local resistance and corruption as implementation risks 30.
• Public-welfare constraint: Ma Enhui warns that a wealthy dynasty can still leave its people impoverished, urging Zhu Yunwen not to pursue prosperity solely for the imperial family and nobility 49.

Military and Naval Development

Forces at the Beginning of the Reign

New Army Strategy

• Force reduction: The dismissal of 100,000 soldiers reduces expenditure and wins approval within the Revenue Ministry 7.
• Training plan: Emphasizes physical conditioning, morale, cooperation between troop types, new formations, upgraded equipment, artillery units, and specialized elite training 13.
• Soldier loyalty: Improved provisions, pay, family support, and patriotic education help shift allegiance from individual princes toward the emperor and Great Ming 18 31 34 41.
• Initial coverage: Funding is concentrated on the Capital Garrison, Beiping, Shanhai Pass, and selected other positions rather than the entire army 36.
• Financial limit: Zhu Yunwen judges these deployments sustainable for one or two years, but acknowledges that nationwide expansion requires stronger finances 36 43.

Weapons and Technology

Ocean-Going Navy

• Guangzhou project: Li Jinglong is ordered to fight sea pirates publicly while secretly building a powerful ocean-going navy. He receives one year to lay its foundations 19 20.
• Principal fleet: The Guangzhou undertaking is a backup; Zhu Yunwen’s main fleet is already being built secretly at Longjiang Shipyard under his direct supervision 20.
• Prospective commander: Zhu Yunwen takes Ma Sanbao from Zhu Di’s household, renames him Zheng He, and identifies him as the commander for his planned Age of Discovery 22.
• Strategic aims: Maritime expansion is intended to obtain additional crops, reduce famine, and support an undertaking that also envisages reopening the Silk Road 11 42.

Culture and National Identity

Court and Social Institutions

• Ritual order: Court rank, dress, forms of address, mourning, and official conduct are governed by prescribed etiquette. Violations can lead to impeachment, dismissal, or execution 23.
• Imperial marriages: Zhu Yuanzhang’s rules favor consorts from respectable commoner families to limit the political influence of imperial in-laws 8.
• Religious administration: The Bureau of Buddhist Registers oversees monks nationwide, supported by offices at prefectural, subprefectural, and county levels; a Bureau of Taoist Registers also exists 21.
• Education debate: Zhu Yunwen criticizes an official culture focused on serving the emperor rather than the people and Great Ming itself 36.

National Day and Symbols