Biography of Zhu Di, China's Yongle Emperor

Zhu Di (May 2, 1360–August 12, 1424), also known as the Yongle Emperor, was the third ruler of China's Ming Dynasty. He embarked on a series of ambitious projects, including the lengthening and widening of the Grand Canal, which carried grain and other goods from southern China to Beijing. Zhu Di also built the Forbidden City and led a number of attacks against the Mongols, who threatened the Ming's northwestern flank.

Early Life

Zhu Di was born on May 2, 1360, to the future founder of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, and an unknown mother. Although official records claim the boy's mother was the future Empress Ma, rumors persist that his true biological mother was a Korean or Mongolian consort of Zhu Yuanzhang.

From an early age, according to Ming sources, Zhu Di proved more capable and courageous than his older brother Zhu Biao. However, according to Confucian principles, the eldest son was expected to succeed to the throne. Any deviation from this rule could spark a civil war.

As a teenager, Zhu Di became Prince of Yan, with his capital at Beijing. With his military prowess and aggressive nature, Zhu Di was well-suited to holding northern China against raids by the Mongols. At 16, he married the 14-year-old daughter of General Xu Da, who commanded the northern defense forces.

In 1392, Crown Prince Zhu Biao died suddenly of an illness. His father had to choose a new successor: either the Crown Prince's teenaged son, Zhu Yunwen, or the 32-year-old Zhu Di. Keeping with tradition, the dying Zhu Biao chose Zhu Yunwen, who was next in line for succession.

Path to the Throne

The first Ming emperor died in 1398. His grandson, Crown Prince Zhu Yunwen, became the Jianwen Emperor. The new emperor carried out his grandfather's orders that none of the other princes should bring their legions to observe his burial, for fear of civil war. Bit by bit, the Jianwen Emperor stripped his uncles of their lands, power, and armies.

Zhu Bo, the prince of Xiang, was forced to commit suicide. Zhu Di, however, feigned mental illness as he plotted a revolt against his nephew. In July 1399, he killed two of the Jianwen Emperor's officers, the first blow in his uprising. That fall, the Jianwen Emperor sent a force of 500,000 against Beijing armies. Zhu Di and his army were out on patrol elsewhere, so the women of the city fended off the imperial army by throwing crockery at them until their soldiers returned and routed Jianwen's forces.

By 1402, Zhu Di had made his way south to Nanjing, defeating the emperor's army at every turn. On July 13, 1402, as he entered the city, the imperial palace went up in flames. Three bodies—identified as those of the Jianwen Emperor, the empress, and their oldest son—were found among the charred wreckage. Nonetheless, rumors persisted that Zhu Yunwen had survived.

At the age of 42, Zhu Di took the throne under the name "Yongle," meaning "perpetual happiness." He immediately set about executing anyone who opposed him, along with their friends, neighbors, and relatives—a tactic invented by Qin Shi Huangdi.

He also ordered the construction of a large ocean-going fleet. Some believe that the ships were intended to search for Zhu Yunwen, whom some believed had escaped to Annam, northern Vietnam, or some other foreign land.

Treasure Fleet

Between 1403 and 1407, the Yongle Emperor's workmen built well over 1,600 oceangoing junks of various sizes. The largest were called "treasure ships," and the Armada was known as the Treasure Fleet.

In 1405, the first of seven voyages of the Treasure Fleet left for Calicut, India, under the direction of the Yongle Emperor's old friend, the eunuch Admiral Zheng He. The Yongle Emperor would oversee six voyages through 1422, and his grandson would launch a seventh in 1433.

The Treasure Fleet sailed as far as the east coast of Africa, projecting Chinese power throughout the Indian Ocean and gathering tribute from far and wide. The Yongle Emperor hoped these exploits would rehabilitate his reputation after the bloody and anti-Confucian chaos by which he gained the throne.

Foreign and Domestic Policies

Even as Zheng He set out on his first voyage in 1405, Ming China dodged a huge bullet from the west. The great conqueror Timur had been detaining or executing Ming envoys for years and decided it was time to conquer China in the winter of 1404-1405. Fortunately for the Yongle Emperor and the Chinese, Timur became ill and died in what is now Kazakhstan. The Chinese seem to have been oblivious to the threat.

In 1406, the northern Vietnamese killed a Chinese ambassador and a visiting Vietnamese prince. The Yongle Emperor sent an army half a million strong to avenge the insult, conquering the country in 1407. However, Vietnam revolted in 1418 under the leadership of Le Loi, who founded the Le Dynasty, and by 1424 China had lost control of nearly all Vietnamese territory.

The Yongle Emperor considered it a priority to erase all traces of Mongolian cultural influence from China, following his father's defeat of the ethnically-Mongol Yuan Dynasty. He did reach out to the Buddhists of Tibet, however, offering them titles and riches.

Transport was a perpetual issue early on in the Yongle era. Grain and other goods from southern China had to be shipped along the coast or else portaged from boat to boat up the narrow Grand Canal. The Yongle Emperor had the Grand Canal deepened, widened, and extended up to Beijing—a massive financial undertaking.

After the controversial palace fire in Nanjing that killed the Jianwen Emperor, and a later assassination attempt there against the Yongle Emperor, the third Ming ruler decided to permanently move his capital north to Beijing. He built a massive palace compound there, called the Forbidden City, which was completed in 1420.

Decline

In 1421, the Yongle Emporer's favorite senior wife died in the spring. Two concubines and a eunuch were caught having sex, setting off a horrific purge of palace staff that ended with the Yongle Emperor executing hundreds or even thousands of his eunuchs, concubines, and other servants. Days later, a horse that had once belonged to Timur threw the emperor, whose hand was crushed in the accident. Worst of all, on May 9, 1421, three bolts of lightning struck the main buildings of the palace, setting the newly completed Forbidden City on fire.

Contritely, the Yongle Emperor remitted grain taxes for the year and promised to halt all expensive foreign adventures, including the Treasure Fleet voyages. His experiment with moderation did not last long, however. In late 1421, after the Tatar ruler Arughtai declined to pay tribute to China, the Yongle Emperor flew into a rage, requisitioning over a million bushels of grain, 340,000 pack animals, and 235,000 porters from three southern provinces to supply his army during its attack on Arughtai.

The emperor's ministers opposed this rash attack and six of them ended up imprisoned or dead by their own hands as a result. Over the next three summers, the Yongle Emperor launched annual attacks against Arughtai and his allies, but never managed to find the Tatar forces.

Death

On August 12, 1424, the 64-year-old Yongle Emperor died on the march back to Beijing after another fruitless search for the Tatars. His followers fashioned a coffin and carried him to the capital in secret. The Yongle Emperor was buried in a mounded tomb in the Tianshou Mountains, about 20 miles from Beijing.

Legacy

Despite his own experience and misgivings, the Yongle Emperor appointed his quiet, bookish eldest son Zhu Gaozhi as his successor. As the Hongxi Emperor, Zhu Gaozhi would lift tax burdens on peasants, outlaw foreign adventures, and promote Confucian scholars to positions of power. The Hongxi Emperor survived his father for less than a year; his own eldest son, who became the Xuande Emperor in 1425, would combine his father's love of learning with his grandfather's martial spirit.

Sources

• Mote, Frederick W. "Imperial China 900-1800." Harvard University Press, 2003.
• Roberts, J. A. G. "The Complete History of China." Sutton, 2003.