Prelude: The Son of a Poor Family
The wheel of reincarnation turned once more.
The Guardian had been a king in India. He had become an emperor in China. But the next lifetime began far from palaces and imperial courts.
In the final, decaying years of the Yuan Dynasty, a child was born into a destitute peasant family named Zhu. His name was Zhu Yuanzhang.
There was no royal palace waiting for him; no dragon throne had been prepared before his eyes. He entered the mortal world among the poorest of ordinary people, at an hour when the land itself was sinking into dark turmoil and oppression.
The Yuan Dynasty was weakening. The people suffered under harsh tyranny, heavy forced labor, famine, and political cruelty. Across the Central Plains, unrest began to rise. Once again, the Guardian had entered the mortal world—and this time, he would begin from the very bottom of human existence.
The Child Who Should Not Have Survived
Even before Zhu Yuanzhang entered the world, mysterious signs and ancient prophecies surrounded his destiny:
❖ A prophecy circulated through the land that a true emperor would be born in Anhui and would one day rise in rebellion to overthrow the Mongol Yuan Dynasty;
❖ Alarmed by the prophecy, imperial authorities launched ruthless crackdowns, threatening pregnant women in the region and forcing countless families to flee into exile;
❖ Zhu Yuanzhang’s parents were driven from their home, wandering as destitute refugees with little more than the hope of survival.
On a dusty road, while his mother was heavily pregnant and his father could barely find a crust of bread, they encountered a squad of Yuan soldiers. The soldiers looked upon the ragged, starving couple and laughed with cruel mockery:
“Can people dressed like filthy beggars possibly give birth to an Emperor?”
They sneered and rode away. Yet, what appeared to ordinary eyes as a meaningless encounter was, from the perspective of Heaven, merely another trial that the Guardian was destined to pass through:
❖ The family survived the persecution;
❖ The child survived the famine;
❖ The ancient destiny continued unbroken.
A Childhood Without a Palace
Zhu Yuanzhang grew up amidst extreme poverty. There was no opportunity for education, no physical comfort, and no certainty that tomorrow would bring enough food to stay alive.
Then, unimaginable calamity struck: a devastating plague and famine swept through his village, taking the lives of his parents and brothers within days. Left utterly alone as a teenager, Zhu Yuanzhang entered Huangjue Temple to survive, becoming a young novice monk:
❖ He chopped wood, carried water, swept courtyard leaves, recited scriptures, and listened to the Buddha's teachings;
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❖ The future founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty began his life not as a pampered prince, but as a humble temple worker;
❖ Before he would command vast legions, he first had to know extreme hunger;
❖ Before he would sit upon an imperial throne, he first had to know what it felt like to have nowhere to lay his head;
❖ Before he would govern a nation, he had to walk among its poorest and most suffering people.
The Years of Wandering
The suffering of the age soon reached the temple walls. Famine deepened across the land, resources vanished, and the monastery was forced to dissolve, driving the monks into the wilderness.
Once again, Zhu Yuanzhang was left with nothing but his begging bowl:
❖ For three long years, he wandered from village to village across Huangzhou and Huai'an, begging for food to sustain his body;
❖ He endured freezing cold, scorching heat, bitter illness, and the constant fear of death beneath the open sky;
❖ He witnessed the unspeakable suffering of the common people, observing a depth of human sorrow that could never be understood from within a golden palace.
Those years of wandering did not merely deprive him—they forged his spirit into diamond. He learned absolute endurance, unyielding determination, and military strategy from the geography of the land. The Guardian had worn glorious crowns before; now, he walked barefoot through the dust.
From the Dust to the Dragon Throne
As the Yuan Dynasty cracked under the weight of its own corruption, widespread rebellions erupted across China. Zhu Yuanzhang joined the Red Turban rebellion, and the ancient warrior spirit within him ignited:
❖ He demonstrated extraordinary military genius, fierce discipline, and an unmatched ability to unite people around a noble cause;
❖ Step by step, he rose from a simple soldier to commander-in-chief, raising the legendary banner: “Expel the Hu barbarians and restore China!”;
❖ He defeated rival warlords one by one, drove the Mongol rulers back beyond the northern steppes, unified the Central Plains, and founded the Great Ming Dynasty as Emperor Hongwu.
The distance between the beginning and the end of his journey spanned an unimaginable gulf: ❖ From a homeless orphan... to a temple worker... to a wandering beggar... to a rebel commander... to the Founding Emperor of a glorious dynasty.
The Guardian Returns to the Fa
During the chaotic closing decades of the Yuan Dynasty, Buddhism across the Han lands had suffered severe destruction—temples were burned, scriptures lost, and monastics scattered to the winds.
Upon ascending the throne, Emperor Hongwu immediately fulfilled the core responsibility of his ancient vow:
❖ He issued imperial decrees to rebuild ruined monasteries, cast new bronze statues, and sponsor grand Buddhist assemblies;
❖ He established official monastic administrations to regulate and protect the purity of the Dharma;
❖ Once again, the warrior on the throne became the ultimate protector of the sacred teachings.
In India, he had been King Ashoka.
In the Sui Dynasty, he had been Emperor Wen, Yang Jian.
Now, in the Ming Dynasty, he was Emperor Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang.
Three lifetimes. Three distinct identities. Three monumental turning points in human civilization. And beneath them all—one immortal, unyielding vow.
The Conclusion: The Unbroken Thread
History remembers Zhu Yuanzhang for his mighty armies, sweeping administrative reforms, and imperial reign. But history rarely records the divine vows made before birth, nor how a single soul can pass through palaces and temples, battlefields and wildernesses, emperor's robes and beggar's rags.
The Guardian’s journey was never about the temporal crown—the crown was merely one stage, the temple another, the wandering years another, and the battlefield another. Each lifetime prepared the foundation for the next, until the final era should arrive.
From humble dust to imperial crown,
He rose to cast oppression down.
Through trial, hunger, grief, and pain,
The Guardian shields the Fa again.
The dragon banner fades to light,
To meet the final cosmic fight.
(To be continued...)