Jiajing Emperor

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Jiajing Emperor

Birth and death:	16 September 1507–23 January 1567
Family name:	Zhu (朱)
Given name:	Houcong (厚熜)
Dates of reign:	May 27, 1521–23 January 1567
Era name:	Jiajing (嘉靖)
Era dates:	28 January 1522–8 February 1567
Temple name:	Shizong (世宗)
Posthumous name: (short)	Emperor Su (肅皇帝)
Posthumous name: (full)	Emperor Qintian Lüdao Yingyi Shengshen Xuanwen Guangwu Hongren Daxiao Su 欽天履道英毅聖神宣文廣武洪仁大孝肅皇帝
General note: Dates given here are in the Julian calendar. They are not in the proleptic Gregorian calendar.

The Jiajing Emperor (September 16, 1507–January 23, 1567) was the 11th emperor of China (Ming dynasty) between 1521-1567. Born Zhu Houcong, he was the Zhengde Emperor's cousin.

1 Early years
2 Reign as Emperor
3 Taoist pursuits
4 Legacy and death

[edit] Early years

Jiaqing was never brought up to succeed the throne but was rather the nephew of the Hongzhi Emperor. The throne became vacant with the sudden death of Emperor Zhengde in 1521 and the 14 year old Jiajing was eventually chosen to become emperor and relocated from his father's fief to Beijing.

[edit] Reign as Emperor

From the beginning of Jiaqing's reign, he was infatuated with young women and Taoist alchemical pursuits. He was known to be a cruel and self-aggrandizing emperor and he also chose to reside outside of the Forbidden city in Beijing so he could live in isolation while ignoring state affairs. Meanwhile, Jiaqing employed incapable individuals such as Zhang Cong and Yan Gao, on whom he thoroughly relied to handle affairs of state while loyal individuals such as Hai Rui and Yang Xusheng were dimissed or executed. He also abandoned the practice of seeing his ministers altogether from 1539 onwards and for a period of almost 25 years refused to give official audiences, choosing instead to relay his wishes through eunuchs and officials. This eventually led to corruption at all levels of the Ming government. Jiaqing's ruthlessness also led to an internal plot by his concubines to assassinate him in October, 1542 by strangling him while he slept. The plot was ultimately foiled and all of the concubines involved, as well as their families, were summarily executed.

[edit] Taoist pursuits

Particularly during his later years, Jiajing was known for spending a great deal of time on alchemy in hopes of finding medicines to prolong his life. He would forcibly recruit young girls in their early teens and engaged in sexual activities in hopes of empowering himself, along with the consumption of potent elixirs. He employed Taoist priests to collect rare minerals from all over the country to create elixirs, including elixirs containing mercury, which inevitably posed health problems at high doses. Over the years, Jiaqing's mad devotion to Taoism was to become a heavy financial burden for the empire and create dissent across the country.

[edit] Legacy and death

After 45 years on the throne (the second longest reign in the Ming dynasty), Emperor Jiajing died in 1567–possibly due to mercury overdose–and was succeeded by his son. Though his long rule gave the dynasty an era of stability, Jiajing neglected his official duties which resulted in the decline of the dynasty at the end of the 16th century. His style of governing or for that matter the lack thereof would be emulated by his grandson later in the century.