"Hongwu: The Success and Failure of Zhu Yuanzhang" by Zhang Hongjie Publisher: Chongqing Publishing House

Introduction
"Hongwu" is the reign title used by Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang is a unique figure in Chinese history. For Zhu Yuanzhang personally, it was almost an impossible low-probability event to go from extreme poverty to the emperor. The peasant uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty jolted Zhu Yuanzhang out of the bottom of society, and Zhu Yuanzhang successfully ascended to the throne by virtue of his ability to win people's hearts, preferential treatment of intellectuals, and excellent overall view.
In traditional China, the ruler's personality, experience, and cultural level often determine his ruling style. On the one hand, Zhu Yuanzhang's life experience at the bottom made him particularly sympathetic to farmers. He reduced taxes and created and implemented various welfare systems, creating a long period of peace. On the other hand, he managed the country with a strong grassroots cultural background, and was tyrannical and rigid in thinking: abolishing the prime minister, slaughtering meritorious officials, and monopolizing power; launching literary inquisitions and killing civil officials; setting up Jinyiwei to monitor subjects; suppressing commerce, closing the country to the outside world, and restricting foreign trade; forcing immigration and interfering with people's lives in all directions... Zhu Yuanzhang's ruling model made the Hongwu period and even the entire Ming Dynasty show a distinct introversion, closedness, and backwardness. Because the Qing Dynasty inherited the Meiji era, this ruling model actually lasted for five or six hundred years.
This book vividly narrates Zhu Yuanzhang's legendary experience from a beggar to an emperor, places him in the broader context of Chinese culture, and deeply analyzes the success and failure of his rule as well as his profound impact on Chinese culture and society.
About the Author
Zhang Hongjie: PhD in History from Fudan University, postdoctoral fellow from Tsinghua University, currently a researcher at the School of History of Renmin University of China. Author of The Hungry Prosperity, Biography of Zeng Guofan, The Front and Side of Zeng Guofan, Seven Faces of the Ming Dynasty, A Brief Reading of Chinese History, A Brief Reading of Japanese History, Millennium Paradox, Hongwu: The Success and Failure of Zhu Yuanzhang, etc. He once gave a lecture on "Qianlong: Success and Failure" on Lecture Room. Chief writer of the large-scale documentary "Eight Hundred Years of Chu State".