| Huang-Ming Zuxun | |
| Name1: | Ancestral Instructions of the Ming Emperor |
| P: | Huáng Míng Zǔ Xùn |
| W: | Huang-Ming-Tsu-Hsün |
| Mi: | pronounced as /xwǎŋ mǐŋ t͡sù ɕŷn/ |
| Also Known As: | Record of the Ancestor's Instructions |
| P2: | Zǔ xùn lù |
The Huang-Ming Zuxun (Ancestral Instructions of the Ming Emperor) were admonitions left by the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Chinese Ming dynasty, 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.[1]
The book was divided into thirteen sections:
The Preface, composed by Zhu Yuanzhang himself, admonishes his descendants to exert a strict legalist government (legalism being a Chinese school of thought). 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.[1]
In the preface of the section, Chinese: 祖訓首章, the Hongwu Emperor 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, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, is :