Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The Mongol Yuan dynasty in China, established by Kublai Khan, apparently suffered the all-too-frequent problems of a degenerate and indulgent leadership: it promoted racial discord, failed to supervise officials, and raised heavy taxes. . . . China was carved up among the rebel warlords, one of whom, in Anhui, appointed peasant Zhu Yuanzhang as general. . . . By 1368, Zhu controlled the whole of southern China and he set up his Ming ('brilliant') empire in Nanjing, restoring the empire to native Han Chinese. He called himself the Hongwu emperor and is considered one of China's greatest emperors. . . . Zhu was one of only two peasants to reach this rank. By 1369 he had driven the Mongols out of China, except for Szechuan and Yunnan. . . . Under the Ming, the empire reached its zenith, expanding westward and southward, and undertaking major naval expeditions across the Indian Ocean to Africa." [Furtado: 1001 Days]