House of Zhu

The House of Zhu (Chinese: 朱; pinyin: Zhū; Wade–Giles: Chu) ruled the Ming dynasty, or China, from 1368 to 1644; in southern China, the Ming state survived until 1662, albeit in an ever-shrinking territory. The Ming was the last Han-led Chinese imperial dynasty, after which China was conquered by the Manchu-led Qing dynasty (1636–1912). The Han-led Chinese nation-state was restored only after the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912, when the Republic of China was established.

This article is about the Ming and Southern Ming imperial family. For the imperial family of the 10th-century dynasty, see Later Liang (Five Dynasties).

House of Zhu
Country
Founded23 January 1368, 655 years ago
FounderHongwu Emperor
Final ruler
Titles
Deposition

Its founder was Zhu Yuanzhang, the leader of the rebellion against the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. He and his descendants lifted China to long-term economic prosperity and political stability. Over time, thanks to the polygamy common among the upper classes of Chinese society, the number of male members of the house increased to one hundred thousand. However, except for the emperors and heirs to the throne, they were excluded from politics for the sake of government stability.

From the late 16th century onwards, economic difficulties and the resulting peasant uprisings brought about a weakening of Ming power, which was used by the Manchus in 1644 to overthrow the dynasty and seize power in China.

After the fall of Ming

After the fall of the Ming dynasty, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty started persecuting the Zhu clan, hence a number of members of the clan have changed their surnames to Zhou,[1] Wang,[2] Gao,[3] Guang,[4] Dong,[5] Zhang, Zhuang,[6] and Yan.[6] Some of them changed their family names back to Zhu after the fall of the Qing dynasty.

See also

References
  1. Unforgettable Youth-hood Archived 14 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine (in Chinese)
  2. Zhen Zhou Local Geography, Xin Zhen: "Zhu to Wang"—Zhu's Descendants (in Chinese)
  3. Zhu Yuanzhang's descendants were founded in Qi Xian (in Chinese)
  4. Yan Zhou Government, Guang Jia Street (in Chinese)
  5. Royal Family Zhu Changed Family Name to 'Dong', went to Guang Dong, and Settled in Zhuang He (in Chinese)
  6. "About the Connections Among Zhu, Zhuang, and Yan" (in Chinese).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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