The Embroidered Uniform Guard (Jinyiwei) began under Hongwu as a personal bodyguard and intelligence arm. Its growth and empowerment became a key tool of court control, later playing central roles in investigations and political purges.
Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed the Ming dynasty and took the reign title Hongwu, establishing a new imperial court whose legitimacy and administrative capacity he would try to secure through institutional rebuilding and harsh political repression.
Hongwu condemned the practice of keeping pre-stamped official forms to ease year-end reporting, treating it as a corruption-enabling abuse of state authority. The ensuing prosecutions and executions exemplified his reliance on severe punishment to discipline the bureaucracy.
Following the Hu Weiyong affair, Hongwu abolished the Central Secretariat and the prime ministership, placing the Six Ministries directly under imperial control. This structural change entrenched Ming autocracy and reshaped imperial decision-making for the rest of the dynasty.
Grand Chancellor Hu Weiyong was executed after being accused of plotting against the throne. The case expanded into a wide purge of officials and associates, becoming a defining moment in Hongwu’s drive to eliminate perceived factional threats at court.
A nationwide census and the first full compilation of the Yellow Registers (huangce) created a foundational household-and-land database used for taxation and corvée obligations. The system strengthened central oversight of local society and fiscal extraction.
Court scholar-official Song Lian was implicated through his family’s legal troubles and exiled; he died before reaching his place of banishment. The episode illustrates how Hongwu-era political discipline could rapidly engulf even eminent literati connected to the court.
After abolishing the chancellorship, Hongwu faced an unmanageable flow of memorials. He appointed grand secretaries (daxueshi) from the Hanlin Academy to assist with paperwork and advising—an early step toward what later evolved into the Ming Grand Secretariat mechanism.
Vice Minister of Revenue Guo Huan was executed for massive embezzlement (reported in grain), and the case implicated numerous officials. The crackdown demonstrated Hongwu’s use of exemplary violence to enforce fiscal discipline and deter bureaucratic corruption.
Hongwu promulgated the first compilation of Dàgào (Great Edicts)—imperial pronouncements combining moral exhortation with harsh penal warnings—aimed especially at deterring official abuses and reinforcing court-defined standards of conduct.
Founding minister Li Shanchang was executed in 1390 after being implicated in treasonous association. His fall signaled that even the dynasty’s earliest architects were not immune from Hongwu’s late-reign political repressions.
Hongwu ordered work on a comprehensive legislative/administrative compendium modeled on earlier precedents (later associated with the tradition culminating in the Da Ming huidian). The initiative reflected the court’s push to systematize proliferating regulations and office functions.
General Lan Yu was executed for alleged conspiracy, and the ensuing purge eliminated large numbers of military elites and associates. The case helped Hongwu reduce the independent power of founding-era commanders and consolidate control over the armed forces.
The Great Ming Code (Da Ming lü) was officially promulgated in its final revised form, becoming the Ming dynasty’s core criminal-legal framework. It institutionalized Hongwu’s drive for moralized order and standardized penalties across the empire.
Hongwu died in Nanjing, and his grandson Zhu Yunwen ascended as the Jianwen Emperor. The succession immediately raised questions about how far the new reign would continue—or temper—Hongwu’s centralized institutions and punitive political legacy.
Hongwu Emperor's Reforms and Purges (1368–1398)
