Zhu yuan-zhang (1328–1398) was born into a peasant family in Anhui Province. He had seven elder siblings; several were given away due to a severe lack of food. In his youth, he was a shepherd boy. Quite a few of his fellow shepherds later became his most important military generals.

In 1344, when he was 16, a famine killed everyone in his family except him and one of his brothers. To survive, he turned to Huangjue Temple (皇觉寺) and became a novice monk (行童). Fifty days later, the monastery ran out of funds, he was forced to be a wandering beggar and witnessed first-hand the hardship of the ordinary people.

In 1352, Zhu joined what would later be absorbed by the Red Turban Army (红巾军), an insurgent force in the rebellion against the Yuan Dynasty. By marrying the foster daughter of a rebel commander, Zhu quickly rose to the top.

In 1368, he founded the last ethnic Chinese dynasty, officially known as the Great Ming (大明) and became Emperor Hong-wu (洪武大帝, reign 1368–1398).

Emperor Hong-wu replaced all the foreign bureaucrats from the previous Yuan government with Han Chinese. After some back and forth, he embraced Imperial Examinations which selected civil servants based on merit. The system was well developed during the Tang and Song Dynasties but was abandoned during the Yuan when they preferred to run the bureaucracy using only those they trusted, namely, the Mongols and the Semuren from the foreign countries.

The candidates were tested on their knowledge of Confucian philosophy and literature. The curriculum followed the Song Dynasty's and focused on the Four Books (四书) over the Five Classics (五经). Those who passed the exams were eligible for high-level government positions. Thus, once again, Confucian scholars dominated the bureaucracy.

While Buddhism, together with Daoism and folklore practices, appealed to many, Neo-Confucianism was the dominating religion and philosophy of the era, especially amongst the educated class, as it had been during the Song Dynasty.

Neo-Confucianism tried to take out the more superstitious elements of Buddhism and Daoism that had influenced traditional Confucianism while making it more rational and secular. Wang Yang-ming (王阳明, 1472–1529) was considered one of the most critical Neo-Confucian thinkers. He believed in understanding the world from within the mind and that everyone had the innate knowledge of what is right and what is wrong; and that this should lead to the act of performing only what is good. He believed in unifying knowledge with action, and that the root of social problems lies in one's lack of understanding of oneself and one's relationship with the world, thus failing to live up to what one could be.

In 1360, Zhu Yuan-zhang created the Embroidered Uniform Guards to serve as his personal bodyguards during battles.

His humble beginning made him harbour a special hatred for corrupt officials and gave him a keen awareness of rebellions and assassinations; thus, after the founding of the Great Ming Dynasty, the Embroidered Uniform Guards took on the added responsibility of being his spies and corruption investigators. Each guard carried a special blade called Xiuchundao (绣春刀). This was one of the earliest, largest and most well-organised government-supported secret police forces.

The Guards reported directly, and only, to the emperor. They had complete autonomy in arresting, interrogating, imprisoning and executing anyone — high-level government officials, nobles and the emperor's family members included. In 1382, the organisation had 500 members; in 1385, 14,000; by the reign of Emperor Zheng-de (正德帝, 1505–1521), about 200,000 members.

Towards the end of his reign, Zhu Yuan-zhang, or Emperor Hong-wu (洪武大帝, reign 1638–1398), witnessing the cruelty and the corruption of this organisation, tried to reduce its power. However, when Emperor Yong-le (永乐大帝, reign 1402–1424) came to the throne by usurping his nephew, his paranoia over possible revenge led him to grant the force unprecedented legal authority again, placing it above all branches of the government. It was into this force that Emperor Yong-le ould soon place a Kaifeng Jew and start the golden age for this faraway Jewish diaspora.

The Great Ming Dynasty was preceded by the Yuan, a century during which foreign nomads ruled China, and in a four-class system, the Han Chinese belonged to the third and fourth classes. Therefore, when the Mongols were overthrown, the institutionalised ethnic discrimination against the Han Chinese led to an outburst of resentment against anything foreign.

After regaining power in the social structure, the Confucian scholars celebrated their overwhelming sense of cultural superiority and magnified the concept that China was the centre of the world and the focus of the heavens. They believed the Middle Kingdom, with rich resources and a large farming population, had a self-sufficient economy, and there was no need to trade with the foreigners.

It is ironic that after pushing out the Mongols of the Yuan Dynasty, the Great Ming turned itself into a protectionist and xenophobic empire. Yet, it was defeated by another foreign conqueror — the Manchus of the Qing Dynasty.

Since historically military threats had rarely arrived from the sea, China had very little reason to build up its navy or fortify its coast. In a report to Emperor Jia-jing (嘉靖帝, reign 1521–1567), Supervising Censor Qian Wei, stated, “Ever since the Tang and Song Dynasties, (the Japanese) had consistently sent tribute and had never harassed our coastal regions. Because China satisfied their needs, there was never any need to install fortifications along the coast.”

By the end of the Yuan and beginning of the Ming, however, the infighting between the Japanese princes caused the defeated ones to lose their land and had no means of making a living, so they resorted to smuggling and looting from their rich neighbour — China.

When Zhu Yuan-zhang founded Ming, he established his capital in the southern coastal city of Nanjing, and the southern coast was not at peace. Thus, he spared no time in shutting down China's coastal borders by issuing a series of maritime bans, which mainly was carried out — although varied in terms of strength of execution — throughout the dynasty and set the tone for Ming's naval policies.

The sea ban was meant to protect his people and his land from the Japanese pirates. However, the sea ban policies took away the livelihood of many Chinese people living along the coast of the Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong; and they in turn, in order to survive, were forced into the life of piracy which only exacerbated the original problem that the Ming was trying to solve. Chen Zu-yi (陈祖義, ?–1407) is a good example — originally from Guangdong, he became one of the most feared pirates in the water off Japan and Taiwan, the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. In his heydays, he had more than 10,000 men and more than 10,000 pirate ships. Emperor Zhu Yuan-zhang put a bounty of 500,000 taels of silver for his head, and Emperor Yong-le, 7.6 million taels of silver. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, 80% of the pirates were Chinese.

The prohibition policy reached its most extreme state during the reign of Emperor Jia-jing — not only was private maritime trade prohibited, manufacturing and use of large ships were also banned. Moreover, the penalty for violation went beyond the individual and spread to family and neighbours.

Other than the brief period of sea expedition and naval strength under Emperor Yong-le, maritime prohibition became one of the defining features of the Ming regime; many scholars even call the Ming Dynasty the “golden period” of pirates.