Zhu Yuanzhang was born in poverty and had no education. After joining the army as the leader of the rebel army, young people began to study hard about culture, often consulted some literati with an open mind, made rapid progress, and gradually could write some poems or participate in comments. Especially when he became king, he often wrote some poems to declare his ambition.
Although the level of Zhu Yuanzhang's poetry writing is somewhat different from that of previous dynasties, it is a masterpiece today. For example, the poem "Chanting Chrysanthemum" is said to be written in imitation of Huang Chao's poem, and it feels more domineering than Huang Chao's poem after careful reading, showing the spirit of dominating the world and being arrogant.
There is also an imperial poem that is considered to be the most ferocious in history. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang won an unprecedented victory in the war with Chen Youliang and rested in prajna temple, a suburb of Jinling. The old monk in the temple asked his name and didn't want to reveal his true identity, so he wrote a poem on the wall: "Kill all the millions of soldiers in the south of the Yangtze River with blood on his waist." Monks don't know heroes, only by their names. "
Compared with chanting chrysanthemum, this poem is more murderous, which fully shows Zhu Yuanzhang's ambition to stand on his own feet and destroy his opponents. It turns out that he did it. He went from herding cowboys and beggars to the founding emperor of Daming.
There are about 30 poems handed down from ancient times by Zhu Yuanzhang, which are not famous sentences in terms of the level of poetry, but the content and tolerance of his doggerel may be unparalleled.