The ''Huang-Ming Zuxun'' (''Ancestral Instructions of the Ming Emperor'') were admonitions and exhortations left by the

Hongwu Emperor The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328– 24 June 1398), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizu of Ming, personal name Zhu Yuanzhang, courtesy name Guorui, was the List of emperors of the Ming dynasty, founding emperor of the Ming dyna ...

Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Chinese

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

, to his descendants. The text was composed in 1373 under the title ''Record of the Ancestor's Instructions''; this was changed to ''Huang Ming Zu Xun'' during the publication of the 1395 edition.Liao Xinyi (). "Huang-Ming Zuxun" (). ''Zhongguo Lishi: Zhongguo Da Baike Quanshu'' (), Vol. 1, p. 401. Zhongguo Da Baike Quanshu Chubanshe (Shanghai), 1992. Op. cit. Theobald, Ulrich.
Chinese Literature: Huang-Ming zuxun
. Accessed 12 Oct 2012. The book was divided into thirteen sections: # Preface (, ''Zhēnjiè'') # Harem (, ''Chíshǒu'') # Ritual Observance (, ''Yán Jìsì'') # Risk management (, ''Jǐn Chūrù'') # National Policy (, ''Shèn Guózhèng'') # Protocol (, ''Lǐyí'') # Legislation (, ''Fǎlǜ'') # The Inner Chambers (, ''Nèilìng'') #

Eunuch A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...

(, ''Nèiguān'') # Administration (, ''Zhízhì'') # Guards (, ''Bīngwèi'') # Public Works (, ''Yíngshàn'') # Public Funds (, ''Gōngyòng'') The Preface, composed by Zhu Yuanzhang himself, admonishes his descendants to exert a strict legalist government (legalism being a Chinese

school of thought A school of thought, or intellectual tradition, is the perspective of a group of people who share common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a philosophy, discipline, belief, social movement, economics, cultural movement, or art movement. ...

). The work pins the survival on the dynasty principally upon personal austerity and watchfulness both over practical administration of the empire, the niceties of ritual and etiquette on various occasions, and various potential traitors including their relatives, spouses, and officials both military and civil.

Countries to not be invaded

In the preface of the section, , the

stated a policy that he would not conquer 15 neighbouring countries in order to maintain harmonious tributary relations with these countries and at the same time promote the development of trade between countries. Accordingly, he created a list of countries not be invaded (). Their locations are compared to where Nanjing, then capital of the Ming Dynasty, is : * Northeast:

Joseon Joseon ( ; ; also romanized as ''Chosun''), officially Great Joseon (), was a dynastic kingdom of Korea that existed for 505 years. It was founded by Taejo of Joseon in July 1392 and replaced by the Korean Empire in October 1897. The kingdom w ...

(朝鮮國) * Directly east by the north:

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

(日本國) * Directly south by the east:

Ryukyu Kingdom The Ryukyu Kingdom was a kingdom in the Ryukyu Islands from 1429 to 1879. It was ruled as a Tributary system of China, tributary state of Ming dynasty, imperial Ming China by the King of Ryukyu, Ryukyuan monarchy, who unified Okinawa Island t ...

(大琉球國), Island near Taiwan (小琉球國) * Southwest:

Trần dynasty The Trần dynasty (Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: Nhà Trần, chữ Nôm: 茹陳; Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: triều Trần, chữ Hán: ikt:朝ikt:陳, 朝wikt:陳, 陳), officially Đại Việt (Chữ Hán: 大越), was a List ...

(安南國),

Khmer Empire The Khmer Empire was an empire in Southeast Asia, centered on Hydraulic empire, hydraulic cities in what is now northern Cambodia. Known as Kambuja (; ) by its inhabitants, it grew out of the former civilization of Chenla and lasted from 802 t ...

(真臘國),

Ayutthaya Kingdom The Ayutthaya Kingdom or the Empire of Ayutthaya was a Thai people, Thai kingdom that existed in Southeast Asia from 1351 to 1767, centered around the city of Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya (city), Ayutthaya, in Siam, or present-day Thailand. Europe ...

(暹羅國),

Champa Champa (Cham language, Cham: ꨌꩌꨛꨩ, چمڤا; ; 占城 or 占婆) was a collection of independent Chams, Cham Polity, polities that extended across the coast of what is present-day Central Vietnam, central and southern Vietnam from ...

(占城國), Sumendala (蘇門答剌),

Pandya dynasty The Pandya dynasty (), also referred to as the Pandyas of Madurai, was an ancient Tamil dynasty of South India, and among the four great kingdoms of Tamilakam, the other three being the Pallavas, the Cholas and the Cheras. Existing sinc ...

(西洋國),

Sunda Kingdom The Sunda Kingdom ( , ) was a Sundanese people, Sundanese Hindu kingdom located in the western portion of the island of Java from 669 to around 1579, covering the area of present-day Banten, Jakarta, West Java, Lampung, and the western part of ...

(爪洼國), Old Pahang Kingdom (彭亨國), Battak (白花國),

Melayu Kingdom The Melayu Kingdom (also known as Malayu, Dharmasraya Kingdom or the Jambi Kingdom; , reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciation ''mat-la-yu kwok'')Muljana, Slamet , (2006), ''Sriwijaya'', Yogyakarta: LKIS, . was a classical Buddhist kingdom ...

(三弗齊國), Bruneian Sultanate (渤泥國).

Sources

1370s books Ming dynasty literature Constitution of China {{china-hist-stub