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Zhu Yangzhang was a part of a rebellion against the Yuan Dynasty (Mongolian). After almost 15 years of fighting, he found himself leading the rebellion and by 1368, he had finally ousted the Mongols. He founded the Ming (Bright) Dynasty and began to address what he saw as the shorcomings of the previous dynasty.
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Hu Weiyong, Prime Minister, was executed by the Hongwu Emperor for failing to report a tribute mission from another country. The Emperor feared that Hu was exercising too much power and so he was eliminated. Unfortunately, 30,000 other people associated with Hu were executed as well. This was the first of two political purges during the Hongwu Emperor's reign.
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Civil Service Examinations had a rich history in China. They were begun in 605 AD and continued for over a thousand years. After the Hu Weiyong purge in 1380, Zhu Yuanzhang took direct control of the government. He reinstated the civil service exams (they had been discontinued briefly) for many reasons but predominately because now, he was able to directly control what material was used in student's instruction and testing.
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A second and slightly smaller purge centered around Lan Yu, a general in the Ming military. The reason for his execution is debated but like the first purge, many others (possibly as much as 20,000) lost their lives because of their association with Lan.
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Zhu Yunwen was named sucessor by his grandfather, Zhu Yuanzhang, after his father's death. Upon the death of the Ming founder, Yunwen assumed the throne. After the burial of Zhu Yuangzhang, Yunwen was ill advised by a group of scholors to take out his uncles (starting with the weakest first) in order to secure his throne. His eldest and most militarily mighty uncle, Zhu Di, would soon take the capital and take his place as Emperor. Zhu Yunwen is said to have died during the seige of Nanjing.
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Zhu Di took the throne from his nephew, Zhu Yunwen. Zhu Di accomplished many things during his reign, it being the height of the Early Ming. Zhu Di is responsible for the voyages of Zheng He, for moving the capital to Beijing, building the forbidden city, building part of the Great Wall and repairing the Grand Canal.
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Zheng He was a muslim eunich in the service of the Yongle Emperor. He was given charge of 7 tributary missions. Zheng He's voyages are notable because of the distance that he traveled and for the fact that they occured many years before european explorations. Tragically, the missions were discontinued by the Xuande Emperor in 1433 and most of the records, charts, and vessels were destroyed.
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Beijing had been the homebase of Zhu Di when his father, Zhu Yuanzhang and his nephew, Zhu Yunwen were on the throne. After he declared himself to be Emperor, he relocated to Nanjing, but soon began preparing Beijing to become the government center. In 1421, the capital was officially moved and Beijing has remained its status as the capital city since that time.
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Zhu Gaozhi's reign began on the death of his father, Zhu Di, but Zhu Gaozhi's time on the throne would be cut short by his untimely death.
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Zhu Zhanji, the last Emperor in the Early Ming, had a relatively quiet rule. He was an accomplished artist and some of his work has survived and is in museums today.
