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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.

The Hongwu Emperor initially based the structure of the Ming government on that of the Yuan Dynasty, with a chancellor or prime minister overseeing a government divided into Six Boards. However, concerned that the chancellor (potentially) wielded too much power, he abolished that position in [[1380]]. The organization of regional administration - including titles/posts and geographic administrative borders - was left largely intact as it existed under the Yuan.

The Hongwu Emperor initially based the structure of the Ming government on that of the Yuan Dynasty, with a chancellor or prime minister overseeing a government divided into Six Boards. However, concerned that the chancellor, or ''chengxiang'' (potentially) wielded too much power, he abolished that position in [[1380]], along with the chief agency of administration ''zhongshu sheng''. This was intended to protect the Imperial government from having any one man gain too much power; however, the elimination of these positions placed a great burden of daily administrative work on the emperor himself, and resulted in palace [[eunuchs]] and officials taking on executive powers.<ref>Wing Sit-Chan, Joseph Adler (eds.), ''Sources of Chinese Tradition: Volume 2: From 1600 Through the Twentieth Century'', Columbia University Press (2013), 12n27.</ref> The organization of regional administration - including titles/posts and geographic administrative borders - was left largely intact as it existed under the Yuan.

One major program initiated by the Hongwu Emperor was the restoration of a system of family registers, known as [[Yellow Registers]], inspired by Tang precedent. As under the Yuan, people were expected to perform much the same professions/occupations as their fathers; this, as well as numerous other data about each family was recorded in a system of registers, providing the government with a better knowledge about the population than had existed since the fall of the Tang. This, in turn, allowed for more accurate and thorough taxation, etc. Taxes were collected twice a year - in winter, and in summer - as under the Tang following the [[An Lushan Rebellion]]; though the government planned to perform periodical land surveys & population censuses, in order to update the tax obligations, the Ming, like the Tang before them, found they lacked the manpower to do so effectively.

One major program initiated by the Hongwu Emperor was the restoration of a system of family registers, known as [[Yellow Registers]], inspired by Tang precedent. As under the Yuan, people were expected to perform much the same professions/occupations as their fathers; this, as well as numerous other data about each family was recorded in a system of registers, providing the government with a better knowledge about the population than had existed since the fall of the Tang. This, in turn, allowed for more accurate and thorough taxation, etc. Taxes were collected twice a year - in winter, and in summer - as under the Tang following the [[An Lushan Rebellion]]; though the government planned to perform periodical land surveys & population censuses, in order to update the tax obligations, the Ming, like the Tang before them, found they lacked the manpower to do so effectively.