In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang did not know every word, he just had no literary talent and could not express himself with those beautiful sentences. Therefore, when Zhu Yuanzhang reviewed the memorials, he used vernacular, simple and clear, and did not mince words.

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang was born as a farmer and had no opportunity to learn, read or write since he was a child. However, he continued to improve his cultural abilities during his military campaigns in the north and south. He was just a small soldier when he first joined the army, but he later rose through the ranks and became the leader of the rebel army.

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang's promotion to the position of leader of the rebel army shows that Zhu Yuanzhang has become a somewhat literate person through self-study. Because in ancient times, during the southern and northern wars, issuing military orders and communicating information between generals relied on written documents. If Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't even write documents, it would be impossible for him to be the leader of an insurrectionary army, let alone govern the country.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang’s way of reviewing memorials was to use his own vernacular to review, because with Zhu Yuanzhang’s literary talent, he could only do this. In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang still has calligraphy that has been passed down to the present, namely the "General Soldier's Calligraphy", "Big Soldier's Calligraphy" and "Wu King's Handwriting Scroll" written when he was the commander of the rebel army. These calligraphy all have an obvious common feature, that is, what Zhu Yuanzhang spoke was "Vernacular" - straight to the point, speaking straight to the point, just like our current Mandarin. But Zhu Yuanzhang's calligraphy is quite neat. Although the handwriting cannot be compared with that of famous calligraphy, it is at least good.

Therefore, although Zhu Yuanzhang was born as a farmer and had not read many books, he was able to write some sentences to express his thoughts with his own hard work. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang was not illiterate. He used his "vernacular" to review the memorials.