48 Facts About Yongle Emperor

Yongle Emperor was addressed as the "Emperor Manjushri" by Tibetans.

Yongle Emperor initially accepted his father's appointment of his eldest brother Zhu Biao and then Zhu Biao's son Zhu Yunwen as crown prince, but when Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne as the Jianwen Emperor and began executing and demoting his powerful uncles, Zhu Di found pretext for rising in rebellion against his nephew.

The difficulties in Nanjing led the Yongle Emperor to re-establish Beiping as the new imperial capital.

Yongle Emperor repaired and reopened the Grand Canal and, between 1406 and 1420, directed the construction of the Forbidden City.

Yongle Emperor was responsible for the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, considered one of the wonders of the world before its destruction by the Taiping rebels in 1856.

The Yongle Emperor died while personally leading a military campaign against the Mongols.

Yongle Emperor was buried in the Changling Mausoleum, the central and largest mausoleum of the Ming tombs located north of Beijing.

Yongle Emperor's father supplied nothing but the best education and, trusting them alone, reestablished the old feudal principalities for his many sons.

Similarly, when the Hongwu Yongle Emperor sent large forces to the north, they were not placed under Zhu Di's command.

The Hongwu Yongle Emperor was long-lived and outlived his first heir, Zhu Biao, Crown Prince Yiwen.

Yongle Emperor issued numerous justifications for his rebellion, including questionable claims to have been the son of Empress Ma and bold-faced lies that his father had attempted to name him as the rightful heir, only to be thwarted by bureaucrats scheming to empower Zhu Biao's son.

Yongle Emperor would spend most of his early years suppressing rumours and outlaws.

The Hongwu Yongle Emperor had fully restored the practice, punishing rebels and traitors with death by a thousand cuts as well as the death of their grandparents, parents, uncles and aunts, siblings by birth or by bond, children, nephews and nieces, grandchildren, and all cohabitants of whatever family, although children were sometimes spared and women were sometimes permitted to choose slavery instead.

The Yongle Emperor followed traditional rituals closely and held many popular beliefs.

Yongle Emperor did not overindulge in the luxuries of palace life, but still used Buddhism and Buddhist festivals to help calm civil unrest.

Yongle Emperor stopped the warring between the various Chinese tribes and reorganised the provinces to best provide peace within the Ming Empire.

The Yongle Emperor was said to be an "ardent Buddhist" by Ernst Faber.

Yongle Emperor had many of the best scholars chosen as candidates and took great care in choosing them, even creating terms by which he hired people.

Yongle Emperor was concerned about the degeneration of Buddhism in China.

Yongle Emperor apparently offered to send armies to unify Tibet under the Karmapa but Deshin Shekpa demurred, as parts of Tibet were still firmly controlled by partisans of the former Yuan dynasty.

When it was time for him to choose an heir, the Yongle Emperor wanted to choose his second son, Zhu Gaoxu, Prince of Han.

Yongle Emperor even went so far as to undermine Xie Jin's counsel and eventually killed him.

The Yongle Emperor laid out a long and extensive plan to strengthen and stabilise the new economy, but first he had to silence dissension.

Yongle Emperor created an elaborate system of censors to remove corrupt officials from office that spread such rumors.

The Yongle Emperor worked to reclaim production rich regions such as the Lower Yangtze Delta and called for a massive reconstruction of the Grand Canal.

The Yongle Emperor ambitiously planned to move his capital to Beijing.

The Yongle Emperor finalised the architectural ensemble of his father's Xiaoling Mausoleum in Nanjing by erecting a monumental "Square Pavilion" with an eight-metre-tall tortoise-borne stele, extolling the merits and virtues of the Hongwu Emperor.

Yongle Emperor promoted Confucianism, retained traditional ritual ceremonies, and respected the classical culture, overhauled numerous Taoist temples and monasteries in Mount Wudang dedicated to Zhenwu Dadi.

The Yongle Emperor sought to eradicate old Yuan influence from China; the use of popular Mongol names, habits, language, and clothing were forbidden.

The Yongle Emperor sponsored a mosque each in Nanjing and Xi'an; both survive.

Yongle Emperor commissioned Grand Secretary Xie Jin to write the Yongle Encyclopedia, a compilation of Chinese civilization.

Yongle Emperor mounted five military expeditions into the Mongol steppes and crushed the remnants of the Yuan dynasty that had fled north after being defeated by the Hongwu Emperor.

Yongle Emperor repaired the northern defences and forged buffer alliances to keep the Mongols at bay in order to build an army.

Yongle Emperor's strategy was to force the Mongols into economic dependence on the Chinese and to launch periodic initiatives into Mongolia to cripple their offensive power.

Yongle Emperor attempted to compel Mongolia to become a Chinese tributary, with all the tribes submitting and proclaiming themselves vassals of the Ming Empire, and wanted to contain and isolate the Mongols.

The Yongle Emperor issued an order to Ming soldiers in Annam to all books except Buddhist and Taoist shall be burnt and destroyed.

The Hongxi Yongle Emperor ended further expeditions and the descendants of the Xuande Yongle Emperor suppressed much of the information about Zheng He's treasure voyages.

One of the Yongle Emperor's consorts was a Jurchen princess, which resulted in many of the eunuchs serving him being of Jurchen origin, notably Yishiha.

The Yongle Emperor instituted a Ming governor on Luzon during Zheng He's voyages and appointed Ko-ch'a-lao to that position in 1405.

The Yongle Emperor exchanged ambassadors with Shahrukh Mirza, sending Chen Cheng to Samarkand and Herat, and Shahrukh sent Ghiyath al-din Naqqash to Beijing.

Frustrated at his inability to catch up with his swift opponents, the Yongle Emperor fell into a deep depression and then into illness, possibly owing to a series of minor strokes.

Yongle Emperor was entombed in Changling, a location northwest of Beijing.

The Yongle Emperor is generally regarded to have had a lifelong pursuit of glory, power, and wealth.

Yongle Emperor respected and worked hard to preserve Chinese culture by designing monuments such as the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, while patronizing Mongol and Tibetan cultures.

Yongle Emperor deeply admired and wished to save his father's accomplishments and spent a lot of time proving his claim to the throne.

Yongle Emperor's reign was a mixed blessing for the Chinese populace.

Yongle Emperor is remembered very much for his cruelty, just like his father.

Yongle Emperor killed most of the Jianwen Emperor's palace servants, tortured many of his nephew's loyalists to death, killed or by other means badly treated their relatives.