That Chu Yuan-chang is the only founder of an imperial Chinese dynastyborn into a household of destitute farmers, thus coming from the bottomlayer of Chinese society, is one of the best known facts of Chinese history.Born on 21 October 1328 at Chung-li village in Hao-chou district (modernFeng-yang district of central Anhwei, just southeast of the important rail-road intersection and industrial city of Peng-pu), his earliest years were onesof great hardship. His parents and grandparents were tax defaulters who hadfled from place to place in the Huai region, seeking a place to scratch ameager livelihood from the drought- and epidemic-ridden land as tenantfarmers. He was the youngest surviving child among four sons and twodaughters. All but the eldest son had been adopted out or married off becausethe family could not feed them. By the 1330s the Huai region had becomethe cradle of the Red Turban rebellion, its messianic doctrines drawingsupport from the increasing misery experienced by hard-pressed people. Itwas believed that at the moment of greatest darkness and desolation, thelight of Manichean reversal would reappear, and the Maitreya Buddha wouldcome from the Western Paradise to rule in the world, bringing a dramati-cally Utopian reversal of men’s fortunes. The young Chu Yuan-chang’s ma-ternal grandfather, a fortuneteller and veteran of the Chinese army that hadresisted the final phase of the Mongol conquest in the 1270s, had filled theboy’s ears with wonderful stories about magical happenings and high adven-ture. Such was the environment of his earliest years.
In 1344, when Chu was sixteen, an epidemic accompanying a summer oflocusts and drought carried off most of his family —his father, mother, andmarried oldest brother still living at home —within the space of three weeksin May and June. His sister-in-law and her young son and one marriedbrother away from home were the only other survivors. The survivors weretoo poor to bury the dead properly, let alone to provide for ChuYuan-chang. Late in October, therefore, he was offered to a nearby Bud-dhist monastery as a novice to do menial work in fulfillment of a vow madeby his father when he had been a sickly infant. In the meantime he hadbecome a tall, sturdy youth, notable for a rugged pockmarked face domi-nated by a jutting jaw, features so strange that they aroused awe and wereseen to portend unusual qualities. Those he undoubtedly had, yet his risefrom destitute, illiterate farmer’s son to occupant of the imperial throne asthe founder of a great new dynasty is a story that would seem unreal asfiction.
Within a few weeks, in December of 1344, the monks at the Huang-chiieh Temple (or Yu-chiieh Temple, as it possibly was then known)26were forced to send all the novices out to beg for their food. Chu, so faras we know, wandered through the Huai region as a mendicant monk forthree years from 1345 to 1347, but it is also probable that he becamefamiliar with aspects of military life and may have served for some timein an army, possibly a Mongol army. Moreover, it is certain that he cameto know intimately the circumstances of rebellion and of its suppression.In 1347 or 1348 he returned to the temple, remaining there from aboutage twenty to twenty-four. At this time he seems to have been introducedto literacy and to the simple study of Buddhist scriptures. He had a goodmind and a powerful memory.
By 1352 rebellion was everywhere in the central Huai, taking manyforms, albeit mostly Red Turban. The district city of Hao-chou, the nexttown west of Chung-li village, was captured and held by a group of RedTurban adherents on 16 February 1352. Kuo Tzu-hsing (d. 1355), aleader of the insurgents, was the son of a fortuneteller and the blinddaughter of a rich man; the family is described as having been skillfulmoney-makers. Kuo was considered a courageous and able fighter, but aman of rash temper who did not get along well with others. Believing theMaitreya doctrine, he was convinced that the troubled times portendedgreat change. He had prepared for that by spending liberally in order togather a following of like-minded spirits and loyal fighters. Proclaimingthemselves commanders-in-chief, Kuo and four companions led their fol-lowers against Hao-chou. Kuo may have been the nominal leader, but theothers soon became defiant. The relations among them were unstable fromthe beginning.
The Yuan authorities did not immediately attempt to retake Hao-chou.Instead, they sent out undisciplined army units to raid innocent villages,burn Buddhist temples, and capture ordinary people whom they branded asRed Turbans in order to gain credit for their operations. Chu’s rural templelay in the fighting zone; it was burned and plundered by one side or theother in February 1352. Chu and the other monks and novices fled, butthen returned to the damaged buildings, having nowhere else to go. Helater wrote about the experience, saying that he received repeated messagesfrom friends within the rebel forces warning him of danger and urging himto join them. On 15 April the young monk, still six months from histwenty-fourth birthday, presented himself at the gates of nearby Hao-chouand asked to join Kuo Tzu-hsing’s command. That was a fortuitous turning point in his life. He quickly became a favored follower, trusted aide,corporal of a guard squad, and member of Kuo’s household. Kuo had twowives, the older the mother of two sons about Chu’s age. The younger wifepersuaded Kuo to attach this able young man more securely to their familyfortunes by marrying him to an adopted daughter. That young woman,then nineteen, was the daughter of a close friend named Ma who shortlybefore his death had entrusted his only child to Kuo. She was to becomethe future empress Ma. Chu’s relationship with the younger wife of KuoTzu-hsing was to become very important; eventually she sided with him indisputes with Kuo’s sons, and he took her daughter as his concubine.
Yuan forces sent by the court attempted to clear the central and easternHuai River region of rebels in 1352 and 1353. Toward the end of 1352they drove Sesame Seed Li from his base at Hsii-chou in northern Kiangsu,and early in 1353 two of his generals took refuge at Hao-chou, crowdingthe already strained resources of that small city. They used the title ofprince (wang) and arrogated to themselves seniority over Kuo and his fellowcommanders-in-chief. Factions developed. Kuo sided with one and wastaken captive by the other. Chu Yuan-chang, returning from an expeditionin the field, discovered the situation. Taking Kuo’s younger wife and herchildren, he went to the camp of the other faction’s leader and was able tobring help that saved Kuo’s life.
From late in the winter of 1352 until June 1353, Hao-chou was sur-rounded by Yuan forces sent from Hsii-chou. The death of the Yuan fieldcommander, the famed hydraulic engineer Chia Lu (who in 1351 haddirected the Yellow River project) caused the siege to be lifted and savedthe Hao-chou base. Subsequently Chu left to return to his village, where herecruited a force of over 700 men led by twenty-four former friends andchildhood companions, including his future chief of staff, Hsu Ta. Thismilitary leadership group formed the core of his personal following for thenext twenty years. Throughout the following months he continued toparticipate in wide-ranging sorties and field commands, practicing general-ship and forming his own tactical sense. In the fall of 1353 Kuo Tzu-hsinggave him an independent commission, allowing him to escape the oppres-sive factional struggles at Hao-chou. This was the beginning of his inde-pendent career; he bore the title of guard commander.
During the campaigns that followed, he first captured the district townof Ting-yuan to the south. Proceeding even farther south, he gained alongthe way large numbers of conquered or defecting soldiers and won severalimportant victories. By the end of the year he was in possession ofCh’u-chou (near the Anhwei-Kiangsu border) and neighboring districts onthe north bank of the Yangtze. He remained there through 1354 and into the first half of 1355. It became his base camp, where he built his ownloyal army, said now to number 30,000, and began to assemble a localgoverning staff. Li Shan-ch’ang (1314—90), the first of his advisors with arural elite and Confucian background, joined Chu in 1354 and began toimpress the lessons of history on the eager young learner. He served as thehead of Chu’s secretariat.
After successfully defending Ho-yang (or Ho-chou, on the north bank ofthe Yangtze in modern Ho-hsien) against besieging Yuan forces throughthe first months of 1355, Chu began to look to the richer south bank. Mostimportant was the great city of Nanking, then called Chi-ch’ing, whichdominated that portion of the lower Yangtze region. Kuo Tzu-hsing haddied at Ho-yang early in 1355. Kuo’s sons considered themselves theirfather’s heirs and successors; Han Lin-erh, the Red Turban Sung emperor,confirmed Kuo’s elder son and one of Kuo’s former officers, his brother-in-law Chang T’ien-yu, in those superior positions, and named Chu theirsecond in command. But Chu in turn was surrounded by his twenty-fourcompanions, to whom were added several important military leaders whohad defected from other rebellions; it was Chu’s personal reputation, notthe Red Turban banner, which drew them to him. Among these wasCh’ang Yii-ch’un, his most aggressive general in the years that followedand second only to Hsu Ta in his trust. Also volunteering to join him werecommanders of the important forces along the Anhwei inland waterways,namely Liao Yung-an and Yii T’ung-hai. Their fleets of small boats andbarges gave Chu the means to cross the river and to fight on broader frontswith both land and water forces.
The long-anticipated crossing of the Yangtze was carried out on 10 July1355. A first attack on Nanking then followed in mid-August. It was notsuccessful, but Chu’s armies remained, vanquishing the surroundingsmaller towns. Late in October, in a second attack on Nanking, KuoTzu-hsing’s elder surviving son and Chang T’ien-yu were killed, removingChu’s court-appointed seniors. The entire command now came under hissole control.
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