The History of Ming says a rich man paid for a third of Nanjing's walls, offered to pay the emperor's army, and was exiled to Yunnan

The History of Ming (Ming Shi), compiled under the next dynasty, tells this in its biography of Empress Ma, wife of the Hongwu emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang. A rich man of Wuxing named Shen Xiu paid to build one third of the capital's walls. He then asked to reward the army. The emperor was angry. He said a commoner who rewards the Son of Heaven's army is a rebel and should be executed. The empress answered that law punishes crimes, not ill omens; a commoner as rich as the state brings disaster on himself, and heaven would deal with him. The emperor spared Shen and sent him to garrison duty in Yunnan. Popular tradition calls this man Shen Wansan, gives his name as Shen Fu, and dates him about 1330 to 1379. A memorial house in Binhu District, Wuxi, tells visitors that he built the wall from Jubao Gate to Shuixi Gate, finished three days early, gave gold to the army, and lost his property to the emperor. The historian Gu Cheng studied epitaphs and private writings of the period and concluded that the Ming Shi and later sources are wrong and that Shen Wansan was a man of the Yuan dynasty. The Wuxi house displays a carving of him building the walls.