Red Turban Rebellion

From 1351 to 1368 rebellions across China against the Mongol Yuan dynasty ended with Zhu Yuanzhang founding the Ming dynasty.

Overview

Floods of the Yellow River, famine, and heavy labor demands for river works fueled discontent with Yuan rule. Members of millenarian religious societies associated with the White Lotus tradition rose in 1351, wearing red headbands. Various rebel regimes fought the Mongols and each other for more than a decade. Zhu Yuanzhang, a former Buddhist monk of poor peasant origin, built a powerful base at Nanjing and defeated his rivals, including Chen Youliang at Lake Poyang in 1363. In 1368 he proclaimed the Ming dynasty and his armies drove the Mongol court out of Beijing. The rebellion restored native Chinese rule after nearly a century.