The era of Hongwu Emperor was noted for its tolerance of minorities and religions; Ma Zhou, the Chinese historian, indicates that the Hongwu Emperor ordered the renovation and construction of many mosques in Xi'an and Nanjing.
37 Facts About Hongwu Emperor
2.
The reign of the Hongwu Emperor is notable for his unprecedented political reforms.
3.
Hongwu Emperor established the Embroidered Uniform Guard, one of the best known secret police organizations in imperial China.
4.
Hongwu Emperor confiscated land held by large estates and forbade private slavery.
5.
Hongwu Emperor had seven older siblings, several of whom were "given away" by his parents, as they not always had enough food to support the family.
6.
Hongwu Emperor then buried them by wrapping them in white cloth.
7.
Hongwu Emperor learned to read and write during the time that he spent with the Buddhist monks.
8.
Hongwu Emperor rose rapidly through the ranks and became a commander.
9.
Ming's legal system established by Hongwu Emperor contains various methods of execution including flaying, and slow slicing.
10.
Over time, Hongwu Emperor became increasingly fearful of rebellions and coups, and ordered the execution of those of his advisors who criticized him.
11.
Hongwu Emperor was said to have ordered the massacre of several thousand people living in Nanjing after having heard one talked about him without respect.
12.
Since the beginning of the Ming dynasty in 1357, great care was taken by Hongwu Emperor to distribute land to peasants.
13.
In 1370, Hongwu Emperor ordered that some lands in Hunan and Anhui should be given to young farmers who had reached adulthood.
14.
Hongwu Emperor instigated the planting of 50 million trees in the vicinity of Nanjing, reconstructing canals, irrigation, and repopulation of the North.
15.
The Hongwu Emperor realized that the Northern Yuan still posed a threat to the Ming dynasty, even though they had been driven away after the collapse of the Yuan dynasty.
16.
Hongwu Emperor decided to reassess the orthodox Confucian view that the military class was inferior to that of the scholar bureaucracy.
17.
Hongwu Emperor attempted, and largely succeeded in, the consolidation of control over all aspects of government, so that no other group could gain enough power to overthrow him.
18.
Hongwu Emperor abolished the Chancellor's post, which had been head of the main central administrative body under past dynasties, by suppressing a plot for which he had blamed his chancellor Hu Weiyong.
19.
Finally, in 1380, Hongwu Emperor had Hu and his entire family arrested and executed on charges of treason.
20.
Hongwu Emperor was unable to refute the accusations and finally ended the purge shortly afterwards.
21.
Hongwu Emperor noted the destructive role of court eunuchs under the previous dynasties.
22.
Hongwu Emperor drastically reduced their numbers, forbidding them to handle documents, insisting that they remain illiterate, and executing those who commented on state affairs.
23.
The legal code drawn up in the time of Hongwu Emperor was considered one of the great achievements of the era.
24.
Hongwu Emperor felt that agriculture should be the country's source of wealth and that trade was ignoble.
25.
Hongwu Emperor tried to remove Mencius from the Temple of Confucius as certain parts of his work were deemed harmful.
26.
Hongwu Emperor wrote essays which were posted in every village throughout China warning the people to behave or else face horrifying consequences.
27.
Hongwu Emperor wrote the Six Maxims which inspired the Sacred Edict of the Kangxi Emperor.
28.
Around 1384, Hongwu Emperor ordered the Chinese translation and compilation of Islamic astronomical tables, a task that was carried out by the scholars Mashayihei, a Muslim astronomer, and Wu Bozong, a Chinese scholar-official.
29.
Mongol and Central Asian Semu Muslim women and men were required by the Code of the Great Ming to marry Han Chinese after the first Ming emperor Hongwu passed the law in Article 122.
30.
Hongwu Emperor ordered the construction of several mosques in Nanjing, Yunnan, Guangdong and Fujian provinces, and had inscriptions praising the Islamic prophet Muhammad placed in them.
31.
Hongwu Emperor rebuilt the Jinjue Mosque in Nanjing and large numbers of Hui people moved to the city during his rule.
32.
Hongwu Emperor listed 15 countries that Ming would not attempt to conquest, such as Japan, Srivijaya, Siam, Lewchew and An Nan.
33.
Hongwu Emperor was a non-interventionist, refusing to intervene in a Vietnamese invasion of Champa to help the Chams, only rebuking the Vietnamese for their invasion, being opposed to military action abroad.
34.
Hongwu Emperor specifically warned future emperors only to defend against foreign barbarians, and not engage in expansionist military campaigns for glory and conquest.
35.
Hongwu Emperor sent a message to the Japanese that his army would "capture and exterminate your bandits, head straight for your country, and put your king in bonds".
36.
The History of Ming, compiled during the early Qing dynasty, describes how Hongwu Emperor met with an alleged merchant of Fulin named "Nieh-ku-lun".
37.
Hongwu Emperor was buried at Xiaoling Mausoleum on the Purple Mountain, in the east of Nanjing.