Zhu Shizhen
father of Hongwu Emperor
Zhu Shizhen (1281–1344), born Zhu Wusi, was the father of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Hongwu Emperor, the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty of China.
Zhu Shizhen was a native of Jurong. His father, Zhu Chuyi, later relocated the family to Xuyi in Si Prefecture, and in subsequent years Zhu Shizhen moved to Zhongli in Hao Prefecture with his wife of the Chen clan and their children. In 1344, when a severe drought devastated the lands north of the Huai River, Zhu Shizhen, Lady Chen, and their eldest son succumbed one after another. After founding the Ming dynasty in 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang posthumously elevated his father as Emperor Chun, with the temple name Renzu, while his mausoleum was established at Fengyang as the Imperial Mausoleum.
Early life
Zhu Wusi was born in 1281 at Zhujiaxiang, Tongde Township, Jurong County, Jiangsu, China. His father, Zhu Chuyi, was registered as a "gold-washing household" (taojin hu) under the Yuan dynasty, which required him to deliver a fixed amount of gold annually to the authorities. As there were no gold mines in Jurong, Zhu Chuyi was forced to sell agricultural products for cash and then purchase gold to meet the quota—an arduous and costly burden. Unable to withstand the continued pressure from officials, in 1289, when Zhu Wusi was eight years old, Zhu Chuyi moved the family to Sunjiagang, located thirteen li north of Si Prefecture (in modern Xuyi County, Huai'an, Jiangsu).
Zhu Wusi married a woman of the Chen family, who bore him a son, Zhu Chongsi, and a daughter while they resided in Xuyi.
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This entry incorporates text from “Zhu Shizhen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.