# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/hongwu-emperor
# Generated: 2026-08-31T20:47:02.167Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/hongwu-emperor"
name: "Hongwu Emperor"
slug: "hongwu-emperor"
description: "He went from orphaned monk begging for food to the man who overthrew the Mongols and founded the Ming dynasty — three centuries of empire launched by someone who'd lived at the bottom and remembered it."
tagline: "Founding emperor of China's Ming dynasty; ruled 1368–1398"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Portrait_assis_de_l'empereur_Ming_Taizu.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "China"
  isoCode: "CN"
category:
  name: "Historical Figures"
  slug: "historical-figures"
profileType:
  name: "Historical Figure"
  slug: "historical-figure"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2798645"
birthDate: "1328-10-29"
deathDate: "1398-06-24"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           63.4
  momentum:             18.36968529586721
  historical:           27.398328
  currentAttention:     4.964285714285715
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "RISING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  141
  category: 230
tags:
  - name: "Politicians"
    slug: "politicians"
  - name: "Model"
    slug: "model"
  - name: "Politics"
    slug: "politics"
  - name: "Medieval Era"
    slug: "medieval-era"
sources:
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongwu_Emperor"
    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9957"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Hongwu%20Emperor"
    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%87%D9%88%D9%86%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%88"
    title: "هونجوو"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://azb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%87%D9%88%D9%86%D9%82%D9%88%D9%88"
    title: "هونقوو"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%87ju_Yuan%C3%A7jan"
    title: "Çju Yuançjan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A7%D0%B6%D1%83_%D0%AE%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%8C%D1%87%D0%B6%D0%B0%D0%BD"
    title: "Чжу Юаньчжан"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bo.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%BD%80%E0%BE%B2%E0%BD%B4%E0%BD%A0%E0%BD%B4%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%A1%E0%BD%BC%E0%BD%93%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%80%E0%BE%B2%E0%BD%84%E0%BC%8B%E0%BC%8D"
    title: "ཀྲུའུ་ཡོན་ཀྲང་།"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongwu"
    title: "Hongwu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cdo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ci%C5%8F_Ngu%C3%B2ng-ci%C5%8Fng"
    title: "Ciŏ Nguòng-ciŏng"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ckb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A6%DB%8C%D9%85%D9%BE%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA%DB%86%D8%B1_%DA%BE%DB%86%D9%86%DA%AF_%D9%88%D9%88"
    title: "ئیمپراتۆر ھۆنگ وو"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chung-wu"
    title: "Chung-wu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongwu"
    title: "Hongwu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperiestro_Hongvuo"
    title: "Imperiestro Hongvuo"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhu_Yuanzhang"
    title: "Zhu Yuanzhang"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongwu"
    title: "Hongwu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%87%D9%88%D9%86%DA%AF%E2%80%8C%D9%88%D9%88"
    title: "هونگ‌وو"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongwu"
    title: "Hongwu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://frr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongwu"
    title: "Hongwu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongwu"
    title: "Hongwu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hak.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%ACn_Thai-ch%C3%BA"
    title: "Mìn Thai-chú"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%97%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%92%D7%95%D7%95%2C_%D7%A7%D7%99%D7%A1%D7%A8_%D7%A1%D7%99%D7%9F"
    title: "חונגוו, קיסר סין"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaisar_Hongwu"
    title: "Kaisar Hongwu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongwu"
    title: "Hongwu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9C%B1%E5%85%83%E7%92%8B"
    title: "朱元璋"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hongwu_Emperor"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://it.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hongwu"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://sr.wikiquote.org/wiki/%D0%A6%D0%B0%D1%80_%D0%A5%D1%83%D0%BD%D0%B3-%D0%B2%D1%83_%D0%B8%D0%B7_%D0%B4%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%98%D0%B5_%D0%9C%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B3"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://zh.wikiquote.org/wiki/%E6%9C%B1%E5%85%83%E7%92%8B"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongwu"
    title: "Hongwu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Zhu Yuanzhang lost everything to the epidemics and famines that tore through 14th-century China under Mongol rule, spending time as a novice monk begging for alms and watching how ordinary people suffered. In 1352 he joined the Red Turban rebels, and within four years commanded his own army and held Nanjing. He beat rival warlords — decisively at Lake Poyang in 1363 — then declared himself King of Wu while still formally recognizing the Red Turban's figurehead. In early 1368 he renamed his state Da Ming, "Great Radiance", took the reign name Hongwu, "Vastly Martial", and spent the next four years driving the Yuan armies north and unifying China. His thirty-year reign rebuilt a country hollowed out by war: he distrusted book-learned scholars, built institutions through pragmatic reform rather than Confucian moral example, and kept his army disciplined enough to spare civilians. Mongolia itself stayed out of reach.