Zhu Chongba was born on October 21, 1328, during the Yuan part of China's history. His father ZhuWusi () or ZhuShizhen () and his mother Chen Erniang were farmers near a small town called Zhongli near the Huai River in central China. Today, it's within Fengyang, Anhui. His family had so little money that they had no land themselves and needed to borrow other people's farmland. They could not feed all their children and had to give away some of them to other people.