At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Emperor Huizong, Toghon Temur, was incompetent and immoral, while corrupt officials held power and ordinary people suffered. Years of locust plagues and rampant epidemics left the land strewn with the dead. Rebellions broke out across the country, the largest being the Red Turban Army, whose most powerful leaders were Guo Zixing and Chen Youliang.
Zhu Chongba, also known as Zhu Hongwu and Zhu Yuanzhang, was the reincarnation of a golden dragon. His rival, Chen Youliang, was the reincarnation of a blue dragon. The Jade Emperor had originally sent the blue dragon down to become emperor of the human world. But Chen Youliang’s mother, furious at the chaos and suffering around her, cursed the heavens by her stove, crying that Heaven was blind and no one was coming to govern this troubled world, where ordinary people lived in misery. The local Earth God heard her complain that Heaven lacked compassion, and reported her words to the Jade Emperor. Enraged, he sent the golden dragon down to rule instead. The golden dragon descended to the mortal world as Zhu Chongba.
Zhu Chongba had a miserable childhood. His parents died one after the other when he was eight. He first tended cattle for a landowner, then was sent to work as a servant at Huangjue Temple. There, the abbot took him under his wing, teaching him the Four Books and Five Classics, martial arts, and Sun Tzu’s Art of War. This gave Zhu Yuanzhang a solid foundation for standing out among the rebel forces later on. After leaving the temple, Chongba became a beggar, then joined Guo Zixing’s Red Turban Army.
When Guo Zixing died in battle, Chongba took command of his army. He gathered many able generals, including Tang He, Xu Da, and Lan Yu, as well as the strategists Liu Bowen and Li Shanchang. With their help, he defeated all his rivals, including Chen Youliang and Zhang Shicheng. In 1368, he finally declared himself emperor in Yingtian Prefecture and founded the Ming Dynasty. This is the story of Chongba’s journey from beggar to emperor.
