Fu Youde () (died 20 December 1394) was a Chinese general and a highly competent commander in the

Ming The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

navy.

Early life

Fu Youde came from an humble background in

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

and became an eminent field marshal. In 1361, after serving under a succession of overlords, Fu surrendered to

Zhu Yuanzhang The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328 – 24 June 1398), personal name Zhu Yuanzhang (), courtesy name Guorui (), was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1368 to 1398. As famine, plagues and peasant revolts in ...

. After his brilliant campaign in Suchuan in 1371, Fu was awarded the rank of marquis, and when the

Prince of Yan Prince or King of Yan () was a Chinese feudal title referring to the ancient Chinese State of Yan and to its fiefs including the capital Yanjing (located within modern Beijing). Typically, the title is translated as "King of Yan" for rulers pri ...

met him in 1380, he was serving as

Xu Da Xu Da (1332–1385), courtesy name Tiande, was a Chinese military general and politician who lived in the late Yuan dynasty and early Ming dynasty. He was a friend of the Hongwu Emperor, the founder and first ruler of the Ming dynasty, and assist ...

's deputy, training troops, conducting patrols of the border, and supervising the construction of defenses along the Great Wall.

Rise to prominence

In the autumn of 1381 General Fu Youde was ordered to command an army of 300,000 troops in

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

—then still a remaining outpost of

Mongol The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member of ...

power. Along with Ting P’u-lang, Fu Youde defeated

Basalawarmi Basalawarmi ( xng, ᠪᠠᠵᠠᠯᠠᠸᠠᠷᠮᠠᠢ, , died January 6, 1382), commonly known by his hereditary noble title, the Prince of Liang, was a Yuan dynasty prince and loyalist who fought against the ascendant Ming dynasty in China pro ...

while fighting under the

Hongwu Emperor The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328 – 24 June 1398), personal name Zhu Yuanzhang (), courtesy name Guorui (), was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1368 to 1398. As famine, plagues and peasant revolts in ...

. Led by General Fu Youde, the Ming army attacked Yunnan and tried to subdue the

Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...

. The Ming army killed an estimated 60,000 people and castrated the young sons of prisoners, according to an ancient custom. Early in 1384 the campaign in

and

Guizhou Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...

was declared over and General Fu was awarded a dukedom with an annual stipend of three thousand

picul A picul or tam is a traditional Asian unit of weight, defined as "as much as a man can carry on a shoulder-pole". History The word ''picul'' appeared as early as the mid 9th century in Javanese. Following Spanish, Portuguese, British and m ...

s of rice. General Fu Youde came to

Beiping "Beijing" is from pinyin ''Běijīng,'' which is romanized from , the Chinese name for this city. The pinyin system of transliteration was approved by the Chinese government in 1958, but little used until 1979. It was gradually adopted by various ...

in 1385 to take over the military command left vacant by the death of

. When Fu Youde took over the theater command of the Beiping garrison, he had about seventeen guard units with more than 131,000 men, while the troop strength of the entire country had exceeded the one million mark. In time, Fu Youde rose through the ranks of the military, eventually becoming one of the

’s most important generals.The Cambridge History of China, Volume 7, p.173. However, he was eventually eliminated by the emperor in 1394, either by execution or suicide at the emperor's command. Youde's son is thought to have married a princess and his daughter became a consort to the emperor's third son, Prince Gong of Jin.

References

1394 deaths Ming dynasty generals Ming dynasty politicians Politicians from Suzhou, Anhui Suicides by sharp instrument in China Year of birth unknown 14th-century Chinese people Generals from Anhui People executed by the Ming dynasty Executed Ming dynasty people Executed people from Anhui Forced suicides of Chinese people Red Turban rebels {{China-hist-stub

Early life

Rise to prominence

See also

References