The Mongol Yuan Dynasty was a disaster for the Chinese people. Eventually they rebelled and established a new dynasty of their own.
The Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty were chased out of China by a peasant rebellion. It was not just one instance of rebellion. Instead, people all across China rose up against the hated invaders. One of the biggest outbreaks of rebellion was that of the Red Turbans group, so named because of the headwear they favoured. The Red Turbans believed that the future Buddha Maitreya was imminently to make an appearance and viewed the famine and floods in the Yellow River area as definitive signs that the Mandate of Heaven had been withdrawn from the Mongols.
The Chinese who rebelled did not generally want to change society. They wanted a restoration of what they believed to be the proper order of things, with a good Chinese emperor ruling with the aid of good Chinese mandarins. Consequently, they wanted to chase away not just the Mongols but those mandarins and officials whom they accused of collaborating with the invaders – an early example perhaps of the class traitors who suffered so much in the twentieth century.
Many contenders emerged to become the next emperor and to form a new dynasty. Those who reached prominence did so because of their military and organisational skills. The eventual winner was a certain Chu Yuan-chang (1328-98), who was a landless peasant who came from a family of goldwashers, sorcerers and, it seems, perpetual rebels. Chu rose to the top of the Red Turbans and reigned as the Emperor Hongwu (1368-98); his rise is reminiscent of the Han Dynasty, which was recognised as one of the great unifying forces of Chinese society and which was similarly founded by a hard-fighting peasant. The Chinese people had no particular need to see the emperor as having descended from noble stock since, again, it was apparent that Heaven had chosen a suitable Emperor from common stock and that was all that mattered.
Hongwu chose the dynasty name ‘Ming’ which means ‘brilliant’ and he at once set about restoring the glory of China and the throne, based on the best traditions of Tang and Song dynasties. The Tributary system was re-established and neighbouring states in Southeast Asia, for example, were again invited to open trading missions at approved Chinese ports – disguising this naked mercantilism with the provision of gifts to the emperor. The emperor also remembered his peasant roots and used enormous amounts of state money to resettle homeless or landless peasants onto land that had not previously been used but which was suitable for farming. The irrigation system and canals were restored and the country prospered once more.
