Hu Dahai (; died 1362),

courtesy name A courtesy name ( zh, s=字, p=zì, l=character), also known as a style name, is an additional name bestowed upon individuals at adulthood, complementing their given name. This tradition is prevalent in the East Asian cultural sphere, particula ...

Tongfu (), was a

Chinese Muslim Islam has been practiced in China since the 7th century CE.. There are an estimated 17–25 million Muslims in China, less than 2 percent of the total population. Though Hui Muslims are the most numerous group, the greatest concentration of Mu ...

and military general who lived in the 14th century. He is best known for helping

Zhu Yuanzhang The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328– 24 June 1398), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizu of Ming, personal name Zhu Yuanzhang, courtesy name Guorui, was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1368 to 1398. In ...

(the Hongwu Emperor) establish the

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 ...

in China.

Life

Hu Dahai was born in present-day Si County,

Anhui Anhui is an inland Provinces of China, province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiang ...

Province. His family was of

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

n extraction (though he was almost certainly of mixed Persian-Chinese blood), having come to China through the

Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...

and settled in Anhui as

youtiao ''Youtiao'' (), known in Southern China as yu char kway, is a long golden-brown deep-fried strip of wheat flour dough of Chinese cuisine, Chinese origin and (by a variety of other names) also popular in other East Asia, East and Southeast Asia ...

vendors; Hu was a

from the Hui ethnic group. Hu joined Zhu Yuanzhang's army sometime around the fall of the

Mongol Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family of M ...

-led

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 ...

. After Zhu's forces crossed the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

, they captured all of southern Anhui, most of

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

, and other surrounding areas. Hu received positions of leadership and led troops which defeated rival warlord Yang Wanzhe, leading other

Miao Miao may refer to: * Miao people, linguistically and culturally related group of people, recognized as such by the government of the People's Republic of China * Miao script or Pollard script, writing system used for Miao languages * Miao (Unicode ...

chieftains Jiang Ying, Liu Zhen, and Li Fu to surrender. He served as administrator of the entire

Jiangnan Jiangnan is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including the southern part of its delta. The region encompasses the city of Shanghai, the southern part of Jiangsu ...

region, and was responsible for safeguarding the

Jinhua Jinhua is a prefecture-level city in central Zhejiang province in eastern China. It borders the provincial capital of Hangzhou to the northwest, Quzhou to the southwest, Lishui to the south, Taizhou, Zhejiang, Taizhou to the east, and Shaoxin ...

area of Zhejiang. Although Hu was illiterate, he was renowned for his humility and willingness to accept suggestions from his subordinates. He recommended several well-known scholars and officials from Zhejiang to the service of Zhu Yuanzhang (who later established the

and became its first emperor), including Liu Bowen, Song Lian, Ye Chen, and Zhang Yi. Hu's troops were highly disciplined, and Hu once described them, "My fighting men do not know writing, they only know three duties: do not kill, do not violate women and girls, and do not burn down huts or farmhouses."

History of Ming The ''History of Ming'' is the final official Chinese history included in the '' Twenty-Four Histories''. It consists of 332 volumes and covers the history of the Ming dynasty from 1368 to 1644. It was written by a number of officials commissio ...

, ''juan'' 133. In early 1362,

chieftains Jiang Ying, Liu Zhen, and Li Fu came to appear before Hu in Yanzhou (now part of Jinhua and

Hangzhou Hangzhou, , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly romanized as Hangchow is a sub-provincial city in East China and the capital of Zhejiang province. With a population of 13 million, the municipality comprises ten districts, two counti ...

, not to be confused with Yanzhou in

Shandong Shandong is a coastal Provinces of China, province in East China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It has served as a pivotal cultural ...

) and offered their surrender and allegiance. Hu lauded the men for their courage and made them honorary officers under his command. However, the three chieftains had no intentions of ever serving Hu. Soon after their surrender, Jiang Ying invited Hu to perform a review of some crossbowmen at the Bayong Tower in Jinhua. As Hu prepared to mount his horse and leave the review, a Miao soldier came running up and fell on his knees in front of Hu's horse, and declared that Jiang Ying was trying to kill him. Hu turned and looked at Jiang Ying, who withdrew a wooden club he had hidden in his sleeve and attacked Hu, bashing his skull and killing him. At the same time, other Miao men attacked and killed Hu's son, Hu Guanzhu, as well as Geng Zaicheng. The Miao men looted the city and fled back into their mountain homes.

References

14th-century Chinese people Chinese people of Iranian descent Ming dynasty generals Hui people 1339 deaths Year of birth unknown People from Si County Generals from Anhui Ming dynasty Muslims {{China-mil-bio-stub