Xuande
Xuande ( 宣德 ; birth name: 朱瞻基 Zhu Zhanji , temple name : 宣宗 Xuanzong ; * February 25, 1399 ; † January 31, 1435 ) was the fifth Chinese emperor of the Ming Dynasty and ruled from 1425 to 1435. He was the eldest son of Emperor Hongxi and Empress Zhang.
Emperor Xuande is considered an exemplary Confucian emperor. He did not shy away from military confrontation, was a recognized artist and great promoter of art and culture. His reign was marked by political and economic stability, prosperity and cultural prosperity, which is why it is considered the high point of the early Ming period.
Heir to the throne
When Zhu Zhanji, who later became Xuande Emperor, was born in 1399, his grandfather Yongle was still Prince of Yan. With his accession to the throne, it quickly became clear that the boy would probably one day be emperor, because his father was made crown prince immediately afterwards . Xuande was his grandfather's favorite because he shared a passion for northern China, martial expeditions and politics. He received exemplary training from Yongle, and the emperor often took his grandson with him to war, hunting trips, or inspections. When his father inherited the throne, Zhu Zhanji was immediately named heir to the throne and involved in state affairs.
Difficult beginning
Emperor Hongxi died suddenly and after only a short reign. Xuande took power in the Middle Kingdom when he was only twenty-six. The first thing he did was break with the plan to move the capital back to Nanjing and instead brought the rest of the administration to Beijing . The reasons for this are clear: Xuande grew up there and preferred the north.
However, immediately after taking office, the young emperor was faced with a much more serious problem, the rebellion of his uncle Zhu Gaoshu, the prince of Han. Inevitably, he found himself in the same situation as Emperor Jianwen , whom his uncle Yongle had overthrown. Zhu Gaoshu had been reprimanded several times by his father Yongle for his presumptuous behavior and was even banished to Le'an in Shandong . When his brother Hongxi died and his nephew inherited the imperial title, Zhu Gaoshu was deeply angry. On September 2, 1425 he declared war on the imperial court, raised an army and began to use his own imperial officials. Xuande was hesitant at first, but when Grand Secretary Yang Jung made it clear to him that his situation was completely different from that of Jianwen, the emperor immediately set to work. The Grand Secretary made it clear that both the administration and the army were united behind Xuande. He took command of the punitive expedition himself on September 9, 1425 and went into battle alongside the experienced general Xu Lu (1358–1430) against his uncle.
On September 22nd, 20,000 soldiers stormed the city of Le'an and captured the rebel prince. The uprising was quickly put down and Zhu Gaoshu and his entourage were brought to Beijing and executed. More than 600 unfaithful military and civilian officials shared this fate. Another 2,200 officials were banished to the borders. Research revealed that two other uncles of the emperor were involved in the plot. Xuande spared them, however, but in return disempowered all Ming princes and condemned them to total dependence on the imperial Ming court.
Reforms
The Xuande emperor continued his father's reforms undeterred. He completely reorganized the censor board responsible for overseeing all ministers and officials. In his opinion, the censors had so far been far too lenient and sometimes even corrupt. In August 1428, the emperor occupied it from scratch and appointed the incorruptible Gu Zuo as chief censor. The procedures and the entire organization were reorganized, and the competencies of the censorship were greatly expanded. He gave this institution enormous prestige .
In the provincial administration, Xuande created the post of “grand coordinator”, which was in fact a provincial governor who was directly subordinate to the emperor and, as his deputy, had unlimited control over the officials there. These coordinators took over special missions from the emperor and thus increased the power of the government. In the military, Xuande tried to cope with the ongoing problems of desertion , corruption and inefficiency. He sent censors to the armies, issued new, stricter regulations for the army and severely punished negligence. Not only did he personally inspect the army, but he also held the largest Ming Troop parade in Beijing to increase the soldiers' drill. Although he managed to contain the problems, they remained constant until the fall of the Ming. The main cause of moral decline and inefficiency in the army was the obsessional nature of the profession within soldiers' families. A soldier's son had to follow the same rank whether he wanted to or not.
The tax system has been greatly simplified through standardization and should in future take more account of economically weak regions or professions. A faster organization in the event of disasters such as floods and famines was enforced. With regard to the institutional changes, Xuande was to take a path that would decisively shape the future of the dynasty. Even more than his grandfather, Yongle, he relied on the eunuchs to do government work. He set up a special palace school for them and appointed them army inspectors. The eunuchs were much more loyal than other officials because of their direct dependence on the emperor, but their new power would prove fatal to weak heavenly sons.
Foreign policy
The most important foreign policy problem area continued to be Annam, which was occupied by the Ming . The people there still resisted stubbornly, and the war against the rebels continued unabated. The Annam War was marked by victories and defeats on both sides, but when the Ming Army suffered a defeat in 1427 with an alleged loss of 70,000 men, Xuande was forced to act. He started peace negotiations and offered the peaceful withdrawal of the Ming troops, in return he demanded peace in the south and Annam as a tribute vassal . In 1431 the rebel leader Lê Loi accepted the offer, but was initially only appointed "deputy" of the Ming and was not officially accepted as the new King of Annam until 1436.
The northern border against the Mongols was calm during the Xuande era. The Chinese succeeded in dividing the Mongol tribes into two parts through diplomatic intrigues, and they fought each other bitterly. Xuande did not support either side in the hopes that they would eliminate each other. Similarly, he expanded the northern border defense and strengthened the garrisons in Inner Mongolia . Xuande continued to cultivate relations with the vassal kingdom of Korea as well as his predecessors and received entire caravans of palace ladies, cooks and exotic animals from the Korean king. With Japan he tried to further expand relations and to promote trade even more. The Shogun Yoshimochi initially refused, but his successor Yoshinori showed interest. Xuande sent ambassadors to Japan, and the shogun did likewise. China granted the Japanese far-reaching trade privileges in 1433, and relations between the two countries normalized to a friendly relationship. It was not until 1549 that there was a break between the Ming and Japan, which was sinking in civil war; see: Sengoku time .
In June 1430, Emperor Xuande ordered that Zheng He should make another sea voyage to South Asia. Zheng He's largest naval expedition began, and it was to take him as far as the Red Sea . Xuande tried successfully to make up for the loss of prestige caused by the Annam War and to strengthen his reputation in the southern vassal states. As a result of this expensive but useful diplomatic offensive, the emperor received embassies from all over South and Southeast Asia, who sought to pay their respects to the Ming emperor and regarded an alliance with China as advantageous.
Art lover
Xuande was the first Ming emperor to be organized to promote the arts. He founded the Art Academy in Beijing and brought numerous artists to his court, who became the epitome of culture. He was himself a well-known calligrapher and painter , the only emperor of China besides Huizong , who is counted among the country's great artists. He often signed his works with the words: Playfully painted with the imperial brush . His pictures are considered cultivated and elegant. He probably learned this art from the scholars of his private secretariat, above all Xia Chang (1388–1470), who is considered the best painter at the court. The pictures of the emperor are often dedicated to family members or high officials, because receiving such a gift from the emperor's hands was considered an extremely high honor.
The emperor devoted himself extensively to promoting art. For example, he embellished the Ming tombs with numerous figures and the largest marble arches in China. The imperial porcelain factories he particularly supported, so the Xuande porcelain the finest porcelain counts Ming period and otherwise luxury goods of all kinds celebrated a heyday. As a passionate collector, he sent his eunuchs all over the empire to find valuable objects and rarities . These included stone treasures, but also rare animal species. The Xuande emperor also died suddenly in 1435, leaving only a nine-year-old heir. Xuande's mother, the Great Dowager Empress Zhang, was to take over the reign and with success.
literature
- Frederick W. Mote: Imperial China 900–1800. Harvard, Cambridge 2003, ISBN 0-674-44515-5
- Ann Paludan: Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors. Thames & Hudson, London 1998, ISBN 0-500-05090-2
- Denis Twitchett , Frederick W. Mote: The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 7. The Ming Dynasty 1368-1644. Part 1. University Press, Cambridge 1988, ISBN 0-521-24332-7
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Hongxi |
Emperor of China 1425 - 1435 |
Zhengtong |
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Xuande |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Zhu Zhanji (maiden name); 朱瞻基 (maiden name, Chinese); Xuanzong (temple name); 宣宗 (temple name, Chinese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Chinese emperor of the Ming Dynasty |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 25, 1399 |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 31, 1435 |