The Ming Dynasty's Golden Decade - Emperor Xuande's reign

Warrior, artist, masterful leader and wise delegator. All these qualities converged in one man, Zhu Jianji, the Xuanda Emperor, the Ming Dynasty's fifth ruler. His decade-long reign would become the dynasty's last golden age. This is the life and the endeavours of On the 16th of March 1399, mighty military prince Zhu Di, in his fief of Beiping, was brought great news. His first grandchild, Zhu Jianji, was born. The boy was the issue of Zhu Gaochi, the prince's eldest son, and his wife, Lady Zhang. The future emperor's life would be rocked before he reached the age of one, as his grandfather, Zhu Di, rebelled against the Jianwen Emperor, his own nephew, seizing the Ming Dynasty's throne and becoming the Yongle Emperor in 1402. As the young Jianji grew up, he quickly became Yongle's favourite grandson. Much like the emperor, he displayed great enthusiasm for the military and for hunting, but also proved to have much talent in the literary arts, which he studied with prominent scholars such as Hu Guang. Though his own father Gaochi was overweight and disliked exercise, Jianji developed into an accomplished warrior and was eager to join the emperor during hunting trips and for military inspections. When he was 12 years old in 1411, Yongle officially invested the boy as Huang Taisun, imperial grandson, making him the successor to his father, the crown prince The Yongle Emperor evidently valued his grandson's interest and burgeoning skill in military matters. When he departed for his second campaign against the Mongols in April 1414, he took the 15-year-old Zhu Jianji with him. The teenager witnessed the realities of war firsthand and returned to Beijing five months later with the triumphant Ming armies. Growing into an adult, Jianji honed his martial and cultural skills, notably developing a taste for painting. But the future emperor had also developed a strong personality. In the imperial palace, he frequently defended his father, crown prince Zhu Gaoshi, against the frequent attacks of his uncle Zhu Gaoxu. The latter, proud and insubordinate, had never tolerated being passed over for the succession and grew resentful against both Gaochi and his son Jianji. To ensure the security of the lineage, the promising future emperor was married around his 18th birthday in 1470. Not only was he wed to one Lady Hu, the daughter of a military commander, but he also took a concubine, Lady Sun, a woman of great beauty and education, who would one day give birth to his successor. The future of the dynasty was well in hand. Yongle's enthusiasm for campaigning would lead to his end. After a reign of over two decades, the emperor died while returning from his fifth campaign in Mongolia in August 1424. He was quickly succeeded by his son, Zhu Gaoshi, who ascended the throne the following month as the Hongxi emperor. Shortly after, Jianji was officially invested as the crown prince. Hongxi's reign would adhere to Confucian ideals of benevolence and frugality. The emperor notably decided to overrule his late father's decision to switch the Ming dynasty's capital from Nanjing to Beijing, aiming to reinstate the former as the empire's heart. To prepare for this great administrative and logistical shift, he dispatched his son Zhu Danji to the south in April 1425. However, barely had the crown prince found his markings in Nanjing, he was recalled with alarming news. The emperor had fallen terribly ill. The crown prince hastily returned to the capital, only to find he was too late. The Hongxi emperor had died on the 29th of May after a mere eight months of reign. All eyes turned to the crown prince. The empty throne of the Ming dynasty was now Zhu Jianji's to ascend. On the 27th of June 1425, he sat on the dragon throne at the age of 26 years old, launching the Xuandao era, proclamation of virtue. The Xuandao emperor, generally more aligned with his grandfather Yongle's vision rather than his father's, suspended the transfer of the imperial court to Nanjing. Beijing would thus remain the empire's capital city until the end of imperial China. But the youthful emperor's reign would not be a simple mirror of Yongle's. Unlike his grandfather, Xuande actively relied on his advisors and delegated responsibilities. Key officials already in place, such as the talented three youngs, Yang Xieqi, Yang Rong, and Yang Pu, as well as Huang Huai, Jin Youzi, and Xia Yuanyi, kept their elevated positions as grand secretaries, ministers, and Hanlin academicians. Xuandao regularly met with them, inviting them to read memorials submitted to the throne and suggest appropriate responses, which he usually approved. An efficient governance was thus put into place, with trusted officials acting autonomously, awaiting only the throne's green light. But in addition to regular scholar officials, the Xuandao emperor would also value the employment of eunuchs. Going against the founding emperor Hongwu's vision, he judged the education of eunuchs essential so that they could carry out administrative and personal errands. Thus, Xuanda ordered talented Hanlin academicians to teach eunuchs in the inner school. However, this decision would also sow the seeds for the eunuchs' rise in influence later in the dynasty, enabling some to divert and abuse the authority granted by their positions. Concerned by the welfare of the people and the state, Xuanda dispatched two high-ranking officials to, quote, tour and pacify the regions of Nanzhili, the southern metropolitan region, and Zhejiang province in September 1425. These xunfu, grand coordinators, acting independently from any agency, would oversee efficient and lawful local administration. But as the reign of the Xuandao emperor was smoothly blooming, a storm was looming on the horizon. Prince Zhugao Xu, the emperor's infamously unruly uncle, had been banished by Yongle to Le'an in 1417. Ever since, his eyes had been fixed on Beijing, with ever-growing resentment. In the face of a young emperor with meagre experience, the prince judged the time had come to make his move. Inspired by Yongle's own rebellion to seize the throne, Zhugao Xu rose up in arms in September 1426. The prince openly declared he would march on the capital, claiming Xuanda had erred by appointing malevolent officials, a justification absurdly copied on Yongle's own. Initially uncertain, the emperor was convinced by Yang Rong to take the initiative. This would be no repeat of the Jingnan campaign. Appointing General Xue Lu, veteran of the civil war, as his field commander, Xuanda personally marched out of Beijing the following week to crush the rebellion. Before long, Xue Lu's 20,000 man strong vanguard was at the walls of Le'an. As Zhugao Xu refused to surrender, the imperial troops stormed the city, promptly capturing the rebel prince. The rebellion had been nipped in the bud. In its aftermath, over 600 implicated civilian or military officials were executed, and a further 2,200 were banished to the frontier. Although initially spared, Zhugao Xu himself was ultimately killed in prison, either executed or tortured to death. To prevent any future vengeance, all his sons were executed in turn. Later investigations found his brother Gao Sui, the emperor's other uncle, to be implicated in the rebellion, but he was forgiven out of concern for stability. Civil war had been avoided, but another part of the empire was in crisis, the recently annexed province of Jiaozhu. Nearly two decades prior, the Annam region in present-day northern Vietnam had been integrated to the Ming empire as Jiaozhu province. However, the Vietnamese population strongly rejected Chinese authority, to the point of a complete uprising instigated by Le Loi in 1418. Despite constant efforts, Ming forces found themselves unable to crush his guerrilla campaign of resistance. Shortly before Xuande's accession, his peace-inclined father Hongxi had ordered the withdrawal of talented and locally respected commander Huangfu, which further weakened local Chinese authority. Le Loi was thus able to conquer the south of the province. With Xuande now at the realm, the controversial Jiaozhu question had to be addressed. Some officials pleaded for further military investment to keep the province, while others, citing Hongwu's ancestral injunctions of non-conquest beyond China proper, argued for complete withdrawal. Though the emperor leaned towards the latter, he appointed General Wang Kong, veteran of the Mongolian campaigns, as commander-in-chief in Jiaozhu province in May 1426. But by now, Le Loi's momentum was unstoppable. The Ming armies, suffering defeat after defeat, shifted into a defensive position, and Wang Kong was soon besieged. A relief force of over 100,000 men under Generals Liu Sheng from the north and Mu Sheng from the west was promptly dispatched. However, Liu Sheng's force was ambushed and crushed in September 1427, himself being killed in action. On the western front, Mu Sheng was driven back. Any hope of relief had collapsed. Wang Kong, out of options, agreed to surrender under Le Loi's terms, without waiting for imperial approval. The Ming general was allowed to withdraw unharmed back to China, alongside between 80 and 200,000 civilian and military personnel stationed in Jiaozhu province. The fourth era of Chinese domination was over. A few months later, the victorious Le Loi founded his own Le Dynasty, which would last for over three centuries. Eventually, Xuande reluctantly recognised his authority over the region, although as an administrator sanctioned by the throne, rather than an independent ruler. De facto, however, the Vietnamese had recovered their independence. With the Ming Dynasty finally at peace, the imperial court could now dedicate its attention to the empire's health. Yongle's years of campaigning and great expeditions had driven him to raise taxes sharply throughout the empire. The lower Yangtze region suffered particularly, as from the very outset of Hongwu's reign, it had already been subjected to exuberant punitive taxation. In August 1426, local commissioner Zhou Gan reported a terrible situation. Crushed by impossible taxes and unpayable debts, swarms of farming households had fled the region, causing a severe loss of wealth and threatening to choke the vital shipment of grain from the south to the capital. In some areas, taxpaying households had dwindled by as much as 90% since the Hongwu reign. Xuande took the issue seriously. In May 1430, the emperor ordered general tax reductions across the empire. Five months later, he also dispatched fiscal administrators and grant coordinators to oversee more efficient and lawful tax collection. Assessing the situation, officials Kuangzhong and Zhouchen notably advised a staggering 75% tax reduction for Suzhou, which would be approved three years later. Alongside these general reforms, Xuande was also particularly attentive to local crises. Much like his father Hongxi, he took great care to relieve areas struck by natural disasters, such as droughts, floods and locust invasions. In such regions, taxes were reduced or temporarily exempted, grain was distributed, and imperial commissioners were dispatched to oversee the just local application of these measures. Grant coordinators were also dispatched in 1430 to supervise Henan, Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces, and five years later, similar officials were assigned to the northern frontier. Over time, through Xuande's innovations, every Ming province would come to host a grant coordinator. Promote the upright and dismiss the crooked, and the people will be contented. Confucius. Xuande's reign would see a major reform of the censorate. This agency oversaw the officials of the empire, tasked with monitoring their conduct and rooting out and impeaching inefficient or corrupt officials. Sensing the agency's discipline had withered, the emperor replaced its head, Liu Guan, by the honourable Guo Zuo in August 1428. The latter promptly found the former guilty of abusing his power and purged 43 censors. Under Guo Zuo's leadership, the censorate's efficiency markedly increased, notably, the number of officials dismissed by the agency tripled over the course of a decade. Xuande's reforms also concerned the Ming dynasty's armies. Many officers had inherited their positions and possessed neither experience nor commandability, often neglecting their duties. Some embezzled funds intended for soldiers' pay and reduced the soldiers to personal servants. As a result, discipline eroded, morale plummeted, and desertions became widespread. In 1426, the emperor dispatched censors to root out such abusers and to determine the real number of troops in each unit, allowing for accurate salary and equipment allocation. This practice, known as military purification, would thereafter become a regular procedure. In late 1429, in an effort to restore morale, the emperor conducted an immense military review on the outskirts of Beijing, open to the public. Despite these reforms, the Ming military was only a pale reflection of its former might, as the next reign would shockingly reveal. Affairs of the state were in hand. Xuande also made a major change in his harem. The emperor seems to have disliked his wife, Empress Huo, despite her virtuous conduct. She was often ill and criticized the emperor's overindulgence in personal pleasures. As a side note, Xuande indeed had a taste for fine food and an eye for the ladies, enjoyed hunting and other sports, and devoted much of his time to cricket fighting. But above all, Empress Huo had borne him no sons to succeed him, only two daughters. In contrast, his concubine, the famously beautiful noble consort Sun, gave birth to a boy named Zhu Jizhen in November 1427, the future Yingzong Emperor. The baby was promptly designated as the heir apparent in May 1428, as Xuande aimed to depose Huo and install Sun as the new Empress. But with no legal grounds to formally depose Empress Huo, she was asked to resign her position, thereafter becoming a simple consort, while Sun took over her position. Later that year, the emperor's line was further secured when virtuous consort Wu gave birth to another son, Zhu Qiyu, the future Jingtai Emperor. Despite peace within the empire, Xuande remained vigilant on the northern frontier, aware that the Mongols, though weakened by Yongle's campaigns and internal strife, could still pose a threat. As the emperor was personally inspecting the frontier at the head of 3,000 cavalry in October 1428, a Mongol raid occurred locally. A skilled warrior, the emperor personally commanded the counter-attack and pacified the region. But the incident prompted the consolidation of border defences under General Xue Lu. By the time of their completion in May 1430, the outpost garrison of Kaiping was abandoned as troops withdrew behind a newly reinforced barrier. The Ming position and the frontier thus shifted further into a defensive stance. But the Mongol faction soon fell under the control of Oirat leader Pogon, who sought good relations with the Ming. His son, however, would one day inflict one of the worst blows to the Ming dynasty in its history. Further east, the Ming dynasty nominally controlled the Nurgan regional military commission. As from 1426, Eunuch Yi Shihua, who had been Yongle's champion in establishing this administrative region, was regularly dispatched on mission to preserve local Ming authority. The last of these, to oversee the succession of the Nurgan chief by his son, was launched in 1432. At the head of 50 ships and 2,000 soldiers, Yi Shihua sailed down the Amur river to Nurgan, where he also rebuilt his Yongning temple, the original having been destroyed. Interestingly, ruins of the second temple would still be observed in the 1850s by Russian geologist and geographist Grigory Markyanovich Permikhin. Yi Shihua would conduct no further expeditions, as he was thereafter appointed to administer the military in Liaodong province. The Nurgan regional military commission would be abandoned after the Xuandao reign. For the son of heaven, nothing lies beyond. Within the four seas, all is the sovereign's domain. The kingdom of Korea, a long-standing vassal of China, sent several tribute missions to the Ming during the Xuandao reign. In 1427, the nation sent 5,000 war horses to China, as requested by the imperial court. At the time, Korea was ruled by the famous king Sejong the Great of the Joseon dynasty, who attached great importance to education. He notably created Hangul, the current Korean writing system. Aiming to further his nation's knowledge, he requested to send Korean students to study at the Ming imperial university. However, Xuandao refused, merely sending Confucian classics and historical works to Korea instead. The emperor evidently preferred using the tributary system for personal interests. Xuandao requested tribute in the form of hunting dogs and falcons, leopards, Korean virgin girls for his harem, and cooks, as he had a taste for Korean dishes. Aiming to handle the problem of piracy in the southeast, especially Zhejiang province, Xuandao would also restore diplomatic and tributary relations with Japan. Indeed, the Chinese imperial court believed the problematic Wokou pirates were Japanese, though in reality they were a mix of Japanese, Korean, and mainly Chinese pirates. But relations with the states had broken down in 1411, when the last Chinese envoy was not only refused an audience, but detained by the Japanese shogun Yoshimochi, who was angered by the Ming claim to overlordship over Japan, and preoccupied with internal affairs. Until his death in 1428, the shogun remained close to the idea of restoring relations, despite Xuandao's offers to enlarge the size of tribute missions. His successor, Yoshinori, was however eager to restore ties. In February 1432, Xuandao dispatched the eunuch Chaishan to the Ryukyu kingdom, from where the message was conveyed to mainland Japan. Relations were formally resumed when an embassy headed by Ryuichi Doen reached Beijing in June 1433. Regular tribute missions thereafter continued between the two nations, though Wokou piracy would continue to plague the Chinese coast for decades. Xuandao's reign would also see the revival and final chapter of one of China's most epic endeavours, Zheng He's treasure voyages. The Yongle emperor had sent admiral Zheng He on six immense diplomatic and exploration missions, which reached as far as eastern Africa, and brought back many exotic luxuries, such as giraffes. Their enormous cost however, drew heavy criticism from many officials, and the expeditions had been terminated under the frugal Hongxi emperor. Admiral Zheng however remained at the emperor's service, as grand defender of Nanjing, overseeing the city. On the 25th of March 1428, Xuandao notably ordered him to rebuild and repair the great porcelain tower. With the death of the respected minister for revenue, Xia Yuanji, the greatest critic of the treasure voyages, in February 1430, Xuandao soon gave orders for a new formidable seafaring expedition. After months of preparation, Zheng He had the head of about 27,000 crewmen and up to 100 ships, including the famous treasure ships, set sail from Nanjing. The treasure fleet would travel to present-day Vietnam, Java, Sri Lanka, India and Persia, with detachments reaching the Islamic holy city of Mecca, and possibly eastern Africa. After many diplomatic, cultural and commercial exchanges at each stop, the bulk of the fleet regrouped at Hormuz, and began the return trip in March 1433. The expedition soon returned to China after two and a half years of adventure, reaching Beijing by late July, where the emperor rewarded the treasure fleet's crew. In mid-September, foreign ambassadors from 11 different states were received in the forbidden city. While details remain uncertain, Zheng He himself appears to have died during the return voyage, after a brief illness, between the ages of 61 to 64. Thus ended the greatest maritime endeavour in all of Chinese history. In late 1434, while touring the northern frontier, the emperor fell ill. His condition only worsened after his return to Beijing. Within two months, he was on his deathbed. Xuandao officially confirmed his eldest son, Zhu Qizhen, the seven-year-old heir apparent, under the regency of his own mother, Empress Dowager Zhang. Xuandao died on the 31st of January 1435, in the forbidden city's Palace of Heavenly Purity, at the age of only 35. He was entombed in the Jing Mausoleum, which he had ordered to be built small and modest out of regality. Xuandao received the posthumous name of Emperor Zhang, and was enshrined as the Xuandao Emperor, proclaimed ancestor. With the Xuandao Emperor's death, so ended the last golden age of the dynasty, as well as its early phase. The late emperor's legacy would be rightfully inscribed as one of efficient and wise leadership. No court intrigue paralysed governance. No great natural disasters, nor major internal nor external conflicts shook the nation. Exchanges with the outside world were reinvigorated, while civil and military institutions were reformed, smoothing the functioning of the state. Justice was administered remarkably fairly for the times. Culture also flourished under the Xuandao Emperor. He patronised many great painters and calligraphers, personally evaluated artists aspiring to court positions, and more remarkably, was a talented and prolific artist himself. Zhu Qizhen would ascend the throne as the first child emperor of the Ming dynasty. His reign would mark the beginning of a slow and long decline for the Ming, and set another record, being captured by the Mongols, deposed, placed under house arrest, and eventually reclaiming his throne. Thank you for watching my video, I hope you enjoyed it. If so, please leave a like and subscribe to the channel. If you have any questions or requests, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.