His early life
The Yongle Emperor was born in 1360. He was the fourth son of Zhu Yuanzhang, a man of exceptional talent and ambition who had risen from obscurity to seize the throne as Emperor Taizu and founded the Ming Dynasty.
At the tender age of eleven, Zhu Di was given the title of Prince of Yan. This was more than just an honorary title and his responsibility in this position was to help secure the northern borders against the constant threat of invaders and invasions. He settled in Beiping, which was by then a largely abandoned city but remained the strategic center from which to protect the north of the Empire.
Zhu Di grew up in what was effectively a military camp. By the time he was in his early twenties, he had already led a series of successful offensives against the Mongols. He quickly distinguished himself as a leader who possessed considerable courage and energy, but also great ambition. In his formative years he helped reform the structure of his army by making more extensive use of light cavalry, which enabled him to match the Mongols and meant that he was able to pursue the enemy across the steppes.
When the Crown Prince died in 1392, there was a power struggle over who should be nominated as the new heir. In the end, the ever ambitious Zhu Di lost to his nephew Zhu Yunwen.
Rebellion
In 1398, Emperor Taizu finally died. Twenty-one-year-old Zhu Yunwen was crowned the Jianwen Emperor. Almost immediately there was tension between Jianwen and Zhu Di. This first manifested itself in an argument when Jianwen, fearful of Zhu Di’s intentions, refused to allow Zhu Di and his military retinue to go to the capital and visit his father’s grave. Jianwen then began to move more decisively against Zhu Di, first issuing edicts to strip the princes of powers, then appointing loyalists to key positions around them.
Finally, in July 1399, Zhu Di began to openly rebel against the Jianwen Emperor. He claimed that he had been forced to take this action to purge the court of bad influences and bad advisers.
What followed was three years of civil war during which Zhu Di and his son Zhu Gaoxi demonstrated their military acumen and bravery in a series of battles. In 1402 he boldly gambled on marching on Nanjing and on the Emperor’s Palace. This plan worked perfectly and took Jianwen by surprise. In the chaos that followed when Zhu Di entered the city, the Palace caught fire. It is almost certain that the Jianwen Emperor and his wife were burned to death in hell, although his remains could not be identified.
as emperor
Four days after the fire, Zhu Di assumed the throne as the Yongle Emperor. He selected the reign name Yongle (or Yong Le) which means ‘Perpetual Happiness’; however, he could hardly have chosen a less appropriate name given his actions in the months that followed. He first set about mercilessly purging all of Jianwen’s followers and anyone he felt might be a threat to him. He made extensive use of the ‘nine exterminations’ punishment which meant not only the execution of the person himself but of his entire extended family. Most famously, he ordered the execution of the scholar Fang Xiaoru for refusing to write an inaugural speech for him, along with all of his family and students, supposedly a total of about 870 people.
In all, some 10,000 people were thought to have been executed in the weeks following the Yongle Emperor’s ascension to the throne. One of the few survivors of this purge was Jianwen’s two-year-old son, Zhu Wengui, who was imprisoned and then forgotten for fifty years.
Forbidden Palace
With Nanjing Palace destroyed, the Yongle Emperor returned to Beiping, which became the de facto capital. In 1406, he finally began to build a palace in the city; to fulfill his ambition, this palace was built on an epic scale. In 1421, after an enormous cost in both money and lives, the palace was completed. Later, the palace would be known to the world as the Forbidden City. With the palace complete with him, he decided to formally declare Beiping as his new capital. In doing so, he changed the name of Beiping (meaning Pacific North) to Beijing (Capital of the North). As part of the infrastructure work, he also invested enormous resources in the repair and improvement of the Grand Canal, as it greatly improved transportation to the city.
ZhengHe
From 1405 until his death he sent the eunuch Zheng He and a huge fleet of ships on a series of expeditions throughout Asia and Africa and perhaps as far as the Americas. It is rumored that the main purpose of these missions was to try to find the Jianwen Emperor, as the Yongle Emperor grew increasingly concerned that he had survived the palace fire and was ready for revenge. Other motives could have been the search for the elixir of life or just curiosity.
Death
During his reign he personally led five expeditions to the northern frontiers to subdue invaders and pacify the region. In 1424 he led an expedition against the Mongol chief Alutai, however in doing so he contracted an illness and died on his way back to Beijing.
By 1407, Empress Xu had died and the emperor had chosen a site for her tomb near Beijing and began construction of a huge mausoleum. This area was later used by successive emperors and is now known as the Ming Dynasty Tombs. Her (and the Empress’) tomb is called Changling.
Legacy
His reign is considered one of the golden periods in Chinese history and coincided with a zenith in Chinese power. However, despite this, his personal achievements are largely overshadowed by his legendary violence. Although towards the end of his reign he began to publicly express remorse for his actions, they did not correspond to the facts: in 1420 he believed that one of his favorite concubines had been poisoned and ordered the execution of 2,800 court ladies. for the persistent ‘death by a thousand cuts’ method.