He Zhen (; 1321 - 1388) was a Chinese politician during the late

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...

(1271–1368) and early

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 ...

(1368–1644).

Biography

He Zhen was born in

Dongguan Dongguan,; pinyin: alternately romanized via Cantonese as Tungkun, is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province, China. An important industrial city in the Pearl River Delta, Dongguan borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou t ...

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

in 1321, to He Shuxian (), an official in the Yuan government. When He Zhen was 8 years old, his father died. In 1363, in the 23rd year of Zhizheng period of the

, his troops released

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

, capital of Guangdong province. He was appointed as vice-minister of Guangdong and prime minister of

Jiangxi ; Gan: ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = , translit_lang1_type3 = , translit_lang1_info3 = , image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_caption = Location ...

and

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

provinces. He was one of the most powerful officials and held highest rank in the three provinces of Guangdong, Jiangxi and Fujian. In 1368, in the 1st year of Hongwu period of the

, He Zhen surrendered to the Ming government. He was appointed vice-minister of Jiangxi province. In 1378, the Ming court conferred him with the title of "Count of Dongguan" () upon his contributions of protecting the people in Guangdong province. In 1388, he died at the age of 67, and was given the

posthumous name A posthumous name is an honorary Personal name, name given mainly to revered dead people in East Asian cultural sphere, East Asian culture. It is predominantly used in Asian countries such as China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand. ...

Zhongjing ().

Personal life

He had three sons: He Rong (), He Gui () and He Hong (), who all died in connection with Lan Yu's rebellion.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT: 1321 births People from Dongguan 1388 deaths Yuan dynasty government officials Ming dynasty government officials