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Zhu was born into a poor peasant family, and was the only one of his siblings (six in total) to not be adopted out of the family, or married into another family, at a young age. His family was officially classed as "gold panners" under the Yuan system which required people to continue the occupations of their fathers; this despite the fact that there were no gold mines in that local area. Zhu's parents died from an epidemic when he was sixteen. He later grew up to become a rebel leader, leading a successful uprising against the Mongol leaders of the Yuan Dynasty.

Zhu was born into a poor peasant family, and was the only one of his siblings (six in total) to not be adopted out of the family, or married into another family, at a young age. His family was officially classed as "gold panners" under the Yuan system which required people to continue the occupations of their fathers; this despite the fact that there were no gold mines in that local area. Zhu's parents died from an epidemic when he was sixteen. He later grew up to become a rebel leader, leading a successful uprising against the Mongol leaders of the Yuan Dynasty.

Perhaps because of his peasant origins, the Hongwu Emperor adhered to a conservative Confucian notion of the importance of agriculture as the foundation of the State and of the economy, disparaging the merchant class. In a reversal from earlier policies, he returned the taxation system to one based on agricultural production, reducing or eliminating commercial taxes, and, at times (in [[1370]] and [[1398]]), banning private overseas voyages entirely. In accordance with these conservative attitudes, the Hongwu Emperor also had tax rates frozen at a given rate, based on land surveys from the beginning of his reign. The country's agricultural production was prosperous enough to support the population, and the State, for a time, but the State's financial needs grew over the course of the Ming period, along with agricultural and commercial production, which the frozen tax rates failed to capture. Meanwhile, coin became for the first time widely available enough that the people shifted from paper money to an all-cash (metal currency) economy by 1450.

Perhaps because of his peasant origins, the Hongwu Emperor adhered to a conservative Confucian notion of the importance of agriculture as the foundation of the State and of the economy, disparaging the merchant class. In a reversal from earlier policies, he returned the taxation system to one based on agricultural production, reducing or eliminating commercial taxes, and, at times (in [[1370]] and [[1398]]), banning private overseas voyages entirely. In accordance with these conservative attitudes, the Hongwu Emperor also had tax rates frozen at a given rate, based on land surveys from the beginning of his reign. The country's agricultural production was prosperous enough to support the population, and the State, for a time, but the State's financial needs grew over the course of the Ming period, along with agricultural and commercial production, which the frozen tax rates failed to capture.  

 

Meanwhile, the emperor attempted to exercise control over the economy by issuing paper money which was not allowed to be exchanged for silver or copper; in fact, private commercial use of silver and copper currency was prohibited, and taxes were obligated to be paid in coin, as part of efforts to remove precious metals from circulation. The Court also claimed a monopoly on the mining of these metals, and forbade private sea trading as part of its efforts to restrict private possession of cash (though, of course, private merchant journeys continued). Eventually, the market would reverse this, and by 1450, coin was so widely available that the people shifted from paper money to an all-cash (metal currency) economy.

The Hongwu Emperor sought to restore, or at least evoke, the glories of the great Chinese dynasties of the past, in particular the [[Tang Dynasty]], and so had many aspects of court protocol, including court costume, patterned after that of the Tang. Even so, many aspects of Ming Dynasty court protocol, and especially governance policies and administrative structures, can be traced more directly to a continuation and/or modification of Yuan Dynasty systems, rather than any more dramatic break from the immediate past or more complete restoration of the more distant past. One example of this is seen in the [[Chinese imperial examinations]], put back into place in [[1384]], but based on the [[Neo-Confucianism]] of [[Zhu Xi]] and of the Yuan Dynasty examinations, rather than the classical Confucian forms of the Tang dynasty exams.

The Hongwu Emperor sought to restore, or at least evoke, the glories of the great Chinese dynasties of the past, in particular the [[Tang Dynasty]], and so had many aspects of court protocol, including court costume, patterned after that of the Tang. Even so, many aspects of Ming Dynasty court protocol, and especially governance policies and administrative structures, can be traced more directly to a continuation and/or modification of Yuan Dynasty systems, rather than any more dramatic break from the immediate past or more complete restoration of the more distant past. One example of this is seen in the [[Chinese imperial examinations]], put back into place in [[1384]], but based on the [[Neo-Confucianism]] of [[Zhu Xi]] and of the Yuan Dynasty examinations, rather than the classical Confucian forms of the Tang dynasty exams.

Beginning in [[1387]], the emperor's government implemented a system of land registration called "fish-scale registers," under which individuals were responsible for the equivalent of one sixth-of-an-acre (''mu'', 畝) of production for each sixth-of-an-acre they owned, regardless of how much land they actually cultivated. The land surveys associated with implementing this system were successfully completed by [[1393]].

Beginning in [[1387]], the emperor's government implemented a system of land registration called "fish-scale registers," under which individuals were responsible for the equivalent of one sixth-of-an-acre (''mu'', 畝) of production for each sixth-of-an-acre they owned, regardless of how much land they actually cultivated. The land surveys associated with implementing this system were successfully completed by [[1393]].

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==References==

==References==

*Valerie Hansen, ''The Open Empire'', New York: W.W. Norton & Company (2000), 371.  

*Valerie Hansen, ''The Open Empire'', New York: W.W. Norton & Company (2000), 371-376.  

[[Category:Emperors]]

[[Category:Emperors]]

[[Category:Muromachi Period]]

[[Category:Muromachi Period]]