Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398) was an orphaned peasant who became a Buddhist monk and then, at the age of 24, joined one of the many rebel armies that had formed as the Mongol Yuan dynasty began to collapse. He proved to be a talented leader and military commander and rose rapidly through the ranks, assembled a corps of outstanding officers and advisers, and emerged as a warlord in his own right. With Nanjing as his base after 1356, he defeated every other rebel group in south China, then proclaimed a new dynasty, the Ming, in 1368 and launched his armies north to drive the Yuan court out of its capital (Beijing) and into the steppe. For thirty years, he ruled “the Central Lands” with an iron hand and increasing paranoia, purging many of his former associates and executing tens of thousands of others connected to them. He is known posthumously as Taizu or the Hongwu emperor, Hongwu being the only reign era he ever used (this single-era practice, previously rare, became standard in the Ming and Qing).
The Huangming zuxun or Ancestral Instructions of the August Ming was originally composed in 1369-1373 and then revised and updated in 1395. It lays out a kind of constitution that all future emperors of the Ming are enjoined to abide by, including such matters as law, governmental structure, foreign policy, ritual, and the management of the imperial aristocracy. The passage below is from the first and thus most important section. It prescribes a non-expansionist approach to foreign relations, combined with a posture of defensive vigilance toward the remnants of Mongol Yuan power on the steppe. Taizu wanted to restore the model of a civilization-state rather than the Mongol-style universal empire. To that end, he not only forbade expansion but also banned private foreign trade, both to curb Japanese piracy along the southern coast and to compel foreign countries to commit to participating in the tributary system in exchange for access to Chinese goods.
The Ming was the only Chinese imperial dynasty to have a permanent non-expansionist policy, although the policy did allow for Chinese colonization in Yunnan, which the Mongols had incorporated into their empire in 1252 and then lost to the Ming in 1381-1382.1 Nor did Taizu’s instructions explicitly preclude military action against the Tai/Dai polities of the upland frontier between Yunnan and Myanmar. The strongest of these polities, Mong Mao, had clashed with Ming armies in 1386-1388 before submitting to Ming suzerainty.2 The Ming also made symbolic claims to authority over Tibet and Manchuria (similar to the Tang practice of “bridling”) without attempting to assert actual control.
A full English translation of the Ancestral Instructions can be found as Appendix 1 in Edward L. Farmer, Zhu Yuanzhang and Early Ming Legislation: The Reordering of Chinese Society Following the Era of Mongol Rule (Brill, 1995). The translation below is mine.
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The barbarians (Yi) of the four quarters are all separated from us by mountains and seas and located in distant corners of the world. Even if we conquered their land, it would not be productive enough to sustain [a prefecture]; even if we conquered their people, they would be incapable of carrying out our commands. If they overestimate their strength and come to make trouble on our frontiers, it will be ill-fated for them. But if they pose no threat to the Central Lands and yet we raise armies to attack them without cause, that would be ill-fated for us. I fear that my descendants, counting on the wealth and might of the Central Lands and coveting some fleeting martial glory, will raise armies for no reason and end up destroying human lives. Remember: This must not be done! In the case of the Hu barbarians (Mongols), however, they are close to the northern and western frontiers and have warred with us for generations. We must select good generals and train our troops well to be constantly on guard against them.
Now I shall list below the names of barbarian countries that should not be attacked.
To the northeast:
Also known as Gaoli (Goryeo). Li Renren (Yi In-im) and his son Li Chenggui (Yi Seong-gye) have assassinated four kings from the Wang clan in succession from the sixth year of Hongwu (1373) to the twenty-eighth year (1395).3 We are therefore waiting [to see how the situation develops.]
To the east, and slightly to the north:
Riben (Japan)
Although it pays homage to us, this is actually a ruse. In secret, they plotted treason with the nefarious minister Hu Weiyong.4 We have therefore cut them off.5
To the south, and slightly to the east:
Greater Liuqiu (Okinawa)
It presents tribute at irregular intervals, and its princes and the sons of its ministers have all been enrolled to study in the Imperial University.6 They have been treated with great courtesy and generosity.
We have no contact with it, and it has never presented tribute.7
To the southwest:
It presents tribute once every three years.
It presents tribute regularly. This country is by the sea.
It presents tribute regularly. This country is by the sea.
Zhancheng and the remaining countries on this list have merchants accompanying their tribute missions and frequently engage in similar subterfuge. Hence, we barred them from presenting tribute. It took four years, from the eighth year of the Hongwu era (1375) to the twelfth year (1379), for them to stop.8 This country is by the sea.
Sumendala (Samudera Pasai, Sumatra)
This country is by the sea.
Xiyang (“the western ocean,” a reference to one or more polities in south India)
This country is by the sea.
This country is on an island in the sea.
Penheng (Pahang, Malay peninsula)
This country is on an island in the sea.
Baihua (the Batak people of Sumatra)
This country is on an island in the sea.
This country is on an island in the sea.
This country is on an island in the sea.
- Taizu originally declared an intention to restore the former kingdom of Dali upon ‘liberating’ Yunnan from the rule of the Yuan loyalist aristocrat Basalawarmi (the Prince of Liang, d. 1382). However, he changed his mind during the conquest when the Duan family (the former ruling house of Dali) sided with the Yuan loyalists and resisted the Ming forces. Yunnan was then incorporated into the Ming empire and placed under the hereditary governorship of the Mu family, descendants of the Ming general Mu Ying (1346-1392). ↩︎
- The Ming later launched four punitive expeditions against Mong Mao in 1438-1449 in retaliation for Mong Mao’s attacks on other Tai polities closer to the Ming frontier. ↩︎
- As of 1395, Ming knowledge regarding the circumstances behind the replacement of Goryeo by the Joseon dynasty in 1392 was still limited and inaccurate. The minister Yi In-im (d. 1388) may have been involved in the assassination of King Gongmin (r. 1351-1374) of Goryeo, but he was not related to Yi Seong-gye (1335-1408), the founder of Joseon. Yi Seong-gye, who seized power over the Goryeo court in 1388, did depose two kings (Gongmin’s son and grandson) in succession and have them murdered in 1389, but he did not kill the last king of Goryeo after deposing him in 1392. The Ming court’s view of Yi as a regicidal usurper complicated Ming relations with Joseon for a number of years, but they eventually stabilized into an unusually close relationship in which the Joseon court saw the Ming empire as both a model for emulation and a source of legitimacy and protection. ↩︎
- Hu Weiyong was the Ming dynasty’s first and only chancellor (chengxiang). In 1380, he was charged with conspiring to overthrow Taizu and was executed along with his entire family and many officials connected to him. In all, over 30,000 people were killed. Taizu then abolished the office of chancellor, deeming it a threat to the emperor’s position, and even stipulated in the Ancestral Instructions that any official who proposed to reestablish it should be put to death. In 1386, Taizu further alleged that Hu had conspired with the king of Japan to smuggle in several hundred Japanese soldiers, as well as gunpowder and weapons, under the cover of a tribute mission. Most historians now doubt the veracity of Taizu’s allegation and interpret it as an attempt to justify his paranoia. ↩︎
- According to other sources, Taizu wanted to invade Japan in retaliation for the continuing pirate raids and for showing insufficient deference to him. However, he dropped the idea in light of the disastrous Yuan invasions of Japan. He then refused to accept further tribute from Japan and also imposed a ban on private foreign trade as a measure to curb piracy. The Ming court and the Ashikaga shogunate of Japan eventually reached an agreement for a tribute-based official “tally trade” system in 1404, six years after Taizu’s death. This system lasted, with some interruptions, until the 1540s but then collapsed due to a rise in smuggling and raiding by armed Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese groups along the coast. ↩︎
- Okinawa was still divided into three states in the 1390s. The Chūzan state developed close tribute relations with the Ming court, welcomed Chinese immigration, and benefited economically by serving as a middleman for trade between China and Japan. It also sent young elite men to study in the Ming capital at Nanjing. The benefits of Ming patronage contributed to Chūzan’s success in unifying Okinawa as the Ryukyu kingdom in 1429. ↩︎
- Since the Sui period, the Chinese had known Taiwan as “Liuqiu” (see source 5.6). That name was only applied to the Ryukyu Islands from the Yuan and Ming onward. Taiwan remained a strange and forbidding foreign land to the Chinese until migrants from Fujian began settling there in the late Ming. ↩︎
- Taizu’s understanding of the tributary system did not allow for private foreign merchants to exploit the system by participating in tribute missions. Countries that broke this rule were penalized by having their tribute privileges cancelled. Hu Weiyong decided not to report the arrival of a tribute mission from Champa (a collection of states in south Vietnam) in 1379, knowing that Taizu would refuse to receive it because it was accompanied by merchants. Hu’s decision to receive the mission without Taizu’s knowledge greatly displeased Taizu and was one of the factors contributing to Hu’s fall from grace. ↩︎
Ethnic Identity in Imperial China 