The Civilization of China by Herbert A. Giles

The first half of the fourteenth century, which witnessed the gradual / decline of Mongol influence and power, was further marked by the birth / of a humble individual destined to achieve a new departure in the / history of the empire. At the age of seventeen, Chu Yuan-chang lost both / his parents and an elder brother. It was a year of famine, and they died / from want of food. He had no money to buy coffins, and was forced to / bury them in straw. He then, as a last resource, decided to enter the / Buddhist priesthood, and accordingly enrolled himself as a novice; but / together with the other novices, he was soon dismissed, the priests / being unable to provide even for their own wants. After this he wandered / about, and finally joined a party of rebels commanded by one of his own / uncles. Rapidly rising to the highest military rank, he gradually found / himself at the head of a huge army, and by 1368 was master of so many / provinces that he proclaimed himself first emperor of the Great Ming / dynasty, under the title of Hung (_Hoong_) Wu, and fixed his capital / at Nanking. In addition to his military genius, he showed almost equal / skill in the administration of the empire, and also became a liberal / patron of literature and education. He organized the present system of / examinations, now in a transition state; restored the native Chinese / style of dress as worn under the T'ang dynasty, which is still the / costume seen on the stage; published a Penal Code of mitigated severity; / drew up a kind of Domesday Book under which taxation was regulated; / and fixed the coinage upon a proper basis, government notes and copper / _cash_ being equally current. Eunuchs were prohibited from holding / official posts, and Buddhism and Taoism were both made state religions.

This truly great monarch died in 1398, and was succeeded by a grandson, / whose very receding forehead had been a source of much annoyance to his / grandfather, though the boy grew up clever and could make good verses. / The first act of this new emperor was to dispossess his uncles of / various important posts held by them; but this was not tolerated by one / of them, who had already made himself conspicuous by his talents, and / he promptly threw off his allegiance. In the war which ensued, victory / attended his arms throughout, and at length he entered Nanking, the / capital, in triumph. And now begins one of those romantic episodes which / from time to time lend an unusual interest to the dry bones of Chinese / history. In the confusion which followed upon the entry of troops into / his palace, the young and defeated emperor vanished, and was never seen / again; although in after years pretenders started up on more than one / occasion, and obtained the support of many in their efforts to recover / the throne. It is supposed that the fugitive made his way to the distant / province of Yunnan in the garb of a Buddhist priest, left to him, so the / story runs, by his grandfather. After nearly forty years of wandering, / he is said to have gone to Peking and to have lived in seclusion in the / palace there until his death. He was recognized by a eunuch from a mole / on his left foot, but the eunuch was afraid to reveal his identity.