1. The Yongle Emperor, known by his temple name as the Emperor Chengzu of Ming, personal name Zhu Di, was the third emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1402 to 1424.
73 Facts About Yongle Emperor
1. 2.
Yongle Emperor was the fourth son of the Hongwu Emperor, the founder and first emperor of the dynasty.
3.
Yongle Emperor's reign is often referred to as the "second founding" of the Ming dynasty, as he made significant changes to his father's political policies.
4.
Yongle Emperor purged the state administration of supporters of the Jianwen Emperor as well as corrupt and disloyal officials.
5.
Yongle Emperor supported the compilation of the massive Yongle Encyclopedia by employing two thousand scholars.
6.
Yongle Emperor ordered the texts of the Neo-Confucians to be organized and used as textbooks for training future officials.
7.
The Yongle Emperor personally led five campaigns into Mongolia, and the decision to move the capital from Nanjing to Beijing was motivated by the need to keep a close eye on the restless northern neighbors.
8.
The Yongle Emperor was a skilled military leader and placed great emphasis on the strength of his army, but his wars were ultimately unsuccessful.
9.
Yongle Emperor is commonly known by his era name as the Hongwu Emperor.
10.
Therefore, in the later version of 1418, all five of the Hongwu Yongle Emperor's sons were recognized as her descendants.
11.
Yongle Emperor trained the prince in poetry and prose writing, and explained the rules of governance and the selection of subordinates.
12.
Yongle Emperor took the opportunity to disguise himself as a regular soldier and immerse himself in the lives of ordinary people.
13.
In 1376, Li Wenzhong, the nephew and adopted son of the Hongwu Yongle Emperor, who was responsible for defending the north, was given the responsibility of preparing the prince's palace in Beijing.
14.
Yongle Emperor utilized the former palaces of the Yuan emperors, providing Zhu Di with a larger and more fortified residence compared to his brothers, some of whom resided in converted temples or county offices.
15.
Yongle Emperor encountered a strong Mongolian influence, which the government tried to suppress by banning Mongolian customs, clothing, and names.
16.
Yongle Emperor used his detachments as a means of balancing the power of the provincial commander, who was unable to mobilize troops without authorization from the emperor and approval from the prince.
17.
Generals Feng Sheng, Fu Youde, and Lan Yu were chosen as his tutors and teachers, but due to a recommendation from Zhu Di, the Hongwu Yongle Emperor began to suspect the three generals of treason.
18.
The Hongwu Yongle Emperor, who was deeply affected by the death of his two eldest sons and the strained relations between his remaining sons and the heir, made the decision to revise the rules governing the imperial family for the fourth time.
19.
Yongle Emperor exercised caution in diplomatic relations, such as when he welcomed Korean delegations passing through Beiping, to avoid any indication of disrespect towards the emperor's authority.
20.
Yongle Emperor had operated in a vast territory, stretching from Liaodong to the bend of the Yellow River.
21.
Yongle Emperor was not afraid to take risks, as demonstrated by his defeat of the Mongols led by Polin Temur at Daning in the summer of 1396.
22.
Yongle Emperor went on a raid with the Prince of Jin several hundred kilometers north of the Great Wall, which earned them a sharp reprimand from the emperor.
23.
Yongle Emperor was an experienced military leader and the oldest surviving descendant of the Hongwu Emperor.
24.
Yongle Emperor even asked for mercy for his friend Zhu Su and begged for permission to return his sons, who had been staying in Nanjing since the funeral of the Hongwu Emperor.
25.
Yongle Emperor claimed that he was rising up to protect the emperor from the corrupt court officials.
26.
Yongle Emperor explained that this was out of respect for his late father.
27.
Yongle Emperor accused the current emperor and his advisors of withholding information about his father's illness and preventing him from attending the funeral.
28.
Yongle Emperor justified his actions as necessary self-defense, not against the emperor himself, but against his corrupt ministers.
29.
Yongle Emperor referred to these actions as the Jingnan campaign, a campaign to clear away disorders.
30.
Yongle Emperor attempted to involve respected supporters of the Jianwen Emperor, such as Fang Xiaoru and Liu Jing, in his administration, but they refused and were subsequently executed.
31.
The original version, created in 1402 at the court of the Jianwen Yongle Emperor, was deemed unacceptable by the new regime.
32.
In contrast to the frequent changes in offices during the Hongwu Emperor's reign, the high levels of the Yongle Emperor's administration remained stable.
33.
Yongle Emperor promoted loyal generals and granted them titles and ranks.
34.
Yongle Emperor restored the administrative structure of the Hongwu era, while making some changes.
35.
The Yongle Emperor was meticulous in his selection of the top officials for the state apparatus, including the members of the Grand Secretariat and the ministers.
36.
Yongle Emperor placed particular trust in those who had served him during the civil war, such as Jin Zhong, Guo Zi, Lu Zhen, and Wu Zhong.
37.
The Yongle Emperor relied heavily on eunuchs, more so than his father did.
38.
Yongle Emperor even recruited eunuchs from the Jianwen era, with whom he had been associated during the civil war.
39.
The Yongle Emperor had four sons, the first three by Empress Xu, while the fourth, Zhu Gaoxi, died in infancy.
40.
Yongle Emperor reminded the emperor of the future accession of Zhu Zhanji, the emperor's favorite grandson and Zhu Gaochi's eldest son.
41.
Yongle Emperor then began to raise his own army and even had an army officer killed.
42.
Yongle Emperor implemented four major reforms, including the abolition of the princely guards, the relocation of the majority of the capital guards from Nanjing to Beijing, the establishment of the capital training camps, and the reorganization of the defenses along the northern border.
43.
The existing princely guards were mostly integrated into the regular army, and although the Yongle Emperor's sons had played an active and successful role in the civil war, they were not given command of the armies after it ended.
44.
Yongle Emperor established the capital training camps, known as the Three Great Camps, in the vicinity of Beijing.
45.
The Yongle Emperor recognized that the most effective way to ensure his own rule and that of his descendants was by supporting the peasants.
46.
The Yongle Emperor was unfamiliar with the Hongwu Emperor's frugal ways, as his reign saw significant spending on foreign expansion and internal politics.
47.
Additionally, as a foreigner in Nanjng, the Yongle Emperor likely felt more at home in Beijng, which served as his political base.
48.
Yongle Emperor appointed his eldest son, Zhu Gaochi, to administer the city and province, and established branches of ministries and chief military commissions in Beijing.
49.
The Yongle Emperor completed the Xiao Mausoleum, where his father and founder of the dynasty, the Hongwu Emperor, was buried.
50.
In Huguang, a large-scale construction project was undertaken by the Yongle Emperor, who employed twenty thousand workers over a period of twelve years to build a complex of Taoist temples and monasteries on the Wudang Mountains.
51.
Yongle Emperor actively promoted traditional education, commissioned the compilation of Confucian classics, and declared Confucianism as the official state ideology.
52.
The Yongle Emperor Encyclopedia was the most significant and extensive collection of encyclopedias during the Yongle Emperor era.
53.
Yongle Emperor displayed benevolence towards Muslims, providing financial support for the repair of mosques.
54.
Yongle Emperor was impressed by the lamas invited from Tibet.
55.
Yongle Emperor only allowed his subjects to become monks to a limited extent, following the Hongwu Emperor's decree that only one man out of forty could do so.
56.
Similar to his father, the Yongle Emperor had hoped to conquer Mongolia in order to resolve security concerns in the north.
57.
One of the main reasons for engaging in foreign activities during the Yongle Emperor's reign was to revive China's declining foreign trade, which had suffered under the isolationist policies of the Hongwu Emperor.
58.
Yongle Emperor strictly prohibited his subjects from engaging in overseas trade and only allowed foreigners to enter China for tributary missions.
59.
In Tibet, the Hongwu Yongle Emperor did not establish contacts with the kings of the Phagmodrupa dynasty, but instead with the Karmapa, who ruled southeastern Tibet, which was adjacent to China.
60.
Yongle Emperor's goal was to establish his superiority and receive tribute by offering Chinese titles and goods in exchange.
61.
Yongle Emperor's descendants were too preoccupied with internal conflicts and had no interest in waging war against China.
62.
Yongle Emperor sent envoys multiple times a year, but the Ming government attempted to control trade and discourage independent private activities.
63.
Furthermore, in his correspondence with Shah Rukh, the Yongle Emperor gradually stopped insisting on his subordination, showing a shift towards a more equal relationship.
64.
In 1403, the Yongle Emperor sent the first mission to Manchuria, offering Chinese goods and titles in exchange for the Jurchens' recognition of their subordination.
65.
From 1411 onwards, the Yongle Emperor dispatched expeditions led by the eunuch Yishiha to the distant hunting tribes of northern Manchuria.
66.
Yongle Emperor rejected the Ming's attempt to re-establish relations in 1417.
67.
Champa was a significant ally against insurgents in Jiaozhi, as they were traditional enemies, but relations cooled in 1414 when the Yongle Emperor refused to return territories previously conquered by the Viets.
68.
In 1405, the Yongle Emperor appointed his favorite commander, the eunuch Zheng He, as admiral of a fleet with the purpose of expanding China's influence and collecting tribute from various nations.
69.
Yongle Emperor was buried in the Chang Mausoleum, the first of the Ming tombs located north of Beijing.
70.
Yongle Emperor was given the posthumous name Emperor Wen and the temple name Taizong, which was customary for second emperors of the dynasty.
71.
In 1538, the Jiajing Yongle Emperor changed the temple name to Chengzu in order to strengthen the legitimacy of his decision to elevate his father to imperial status after his death.
72.
Yongle Emperor was credited with unifying northern and southern China, but they criticized his violent overthrow of his predecessor and the subsequent purges.
73.
Yongle Emperor's high spending on foreign expansion and domestic projects, particularly the relocation of the capital, was met with sharp disapproval even during his lifetime.