Who they were
Born Zhu Yuanzhang to a destitute peasant family and orphaned in a famine, he spent time as a Buddhist novice and beggar before rising through the Red Turban rebellions to master the Yangtze valley.
What they did
He founded the Ming dynasty in 1368 with its capital at Nanjing and drove the Yuan court back to the steppe. He rebuilt registers of land and population and codified law in the Great Ming Code. After the Hu Weiyong case of 1380 he abolished the chancellorship, concentrating rule in the emperor personally; his purges of officials were vast and brutal.
Legacy
With Liu Bang of Han, he is one of only two commoner founders of a major dynasty. The autocratic Ming framework he created lasted nearly three centuries.