Description

The first Ming emperor, Hongwu (1328–98), also well known by his personal name Zhu Yuanzhang, established the national capital in Nanjing. He also renamed Linhao (present-day Linhuai, Fengyang, Anhui Province), where he was born, as Zhongdu and designated it as the middle capital. Construction began there in 1372 of an imperial city with imposing palaces and a capital with inner, middle and outer cities and nine gates, but the emperor suddenly stopped the building in 1375. Although Zhongdu never became the political center of China, some of the concepts ...