| Country | Ming Dynasty |
|---|---|
| Titles | Emperor of China |
| Founder | Hongwu Emperor |
| Final sovereign | Chongzhen Emperor |
| Current head | Zhu Rongji |
| Founding | 1368 |
| Deposition | 1644: Manchu Conquest |
House of Zhu, also known as House of Chu (Pinyin: Zhu; Wade–Giles: Chu; Chinese: 朱), was the imperial family of Ming Empire. Zhu was the family name of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty. The House of Zhu ruled China from 1368 until the Manchu Conquest of 1644.
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The founder is Hongwu Emperor (Chinese: 洪武帝; Wade–Giles: Hung-wu Ti; 21 October 1328 – 24 June 1398), known variably by his given name Zhu Yuanzhang (Chinese: 朱元璋; Wade–Giles: Chu Yuan-chang) and by his temple name Taizu of Ming (Chinese: 明太祖; literally "Great Ancestor of Ming"), was the founder and first emperor of the Ming Dynasty of China. His era name, Hongwu, means "vastly martial".
In the middle of the 14th century, with famine, plagues and peasant revolts sweeping across China, Zhu became a leader of an army that conquered China, ending the government of Mongolian Yuan Dynasty，and forcing the Mongols to retreat to the Mongolian Gobi. With his seizure of the Yuan capital (present-day Beijing) , he claimed the Mandate of Heaven (Celestial Kingdom, Chinese: 天朝) and established the Ming Dynasty（Chinese: 明朝）in 1368. Ming dynasty's mission was to drive away the Mongols and to restore Han Chinese rules in China.
Under Hongwu's rule, the Mongol bureaucrats who dominated the government in the Yuan Dynasty's time were replaced by Han Chinese officials. Hongwu revamped the traditional Confucian examination system. Mongol related things, including garments and names, were discontinued from use and boycotted. There were also attacks on palaces and administrative buildings previously used by the Yuan rulers.[1]
Hongwu's grandson Zhu Yunwen (Wade–Giles: Chu Yunwen) assumed the throne as the Jianwen Emperor (1398–1402) after Hongwu's death in 1398. In a prelude to a three-year-long civil war beginning in 1399,[2] Jianwen became engaged in a political showdown with his uncle Zhu Di (Wade–Giles: Chu Ti, Traditional Chinese: 朱棣; Simplified Chinese: 朱棣), the Prince of Yan, later the Yongle Emperor (Traditional Chinese: 永樂; Simplified Chinese: 永乐; pinyin: Yǒnglè; Wade-Giles: Yung-lo; IPA: [jʊ̀ŋlɤ̂]). Jianwen was aware of the ambitions of his princely uncles, establishing measures to limit their authority. The militant Zhu Di, given charge over the area encompassing Beijing to watch the Mongols on the frontier, was the most feared of these princes. After Jianwen arrested many of Zhu Di's associates, Zhu Di plotted a rebellion. Under the guise of rescuing the young Jianwen from corrupting officials, Zhu Di personally led forces in the revolt; the palace in Nanjing was burned to the ground, along with Zhu Di's nephew Jianwen, his wife, mother, and courtiers. Zhu Di assumed the throne as the Yongle Emperor (1402–1424); his reign is universally viewed by scholars as a "second founding" of the Ming Dynasty since he reversed many of his father's policies.[3]
After the coronation, Yongle decided to move China's capital from Nanjing (literally Southern Capital) to Beijing (literally Northern Capital). According to a popular legend, the capital was moved when the emperor's advisers brought the emperor to the hills surrounding Nanjing and pointed out the emperor's palace showing the vulnerability of the palace to artillery attack.
Yongle also ordered to build a massive network of structures in new capital Beijing in which government offices, officials, and the imperial family itself resided. After a painfully long construction time, the Forbidden City was finally completed and became the political capital of China for the next 500 years.
The financial drain of the Imjin War in Korea against the Japanese was one of the many problems—fiscal or other—facing Ming China during the reign of the Wanli Emperor (r. 1572–1620). In the beginning of his reign, Wanli surrounded himself with able advisors and made a conscientious effort to handle state affairs. His Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng (in office from 1572 to 82) built up an effective network of alliances with senior officials. However, there was no one after Zhang Juzheng was as excellent as him in maintaining the stability of these official alliances;[4] these officials soon banded together in opposing political factions. Over time Wanli grew tired and frustrated about the court affairs and frequent political quarreling amongst his ministers, and choosing to stay behind the walls of the Forbidden City and out of his officials' sight.[5]
Officials aggravated Wanli about which of his sons should succeed to the throne; he also grew equally disgusted with senior advisors constantly bickering about how to manage the state.[5] There were rising factions at court and across the intellectual sphere of China stemming from the philosophical debate for or against the teaching of Wang Yangming (1472–1529), the latter of whom rejected some of the orthodox views of Neo-Confucianism.[6][7] Annoyed by all of this, Wanli began neglecting his duties, remaining absent from court audiences to discuss politics, lost interest in studying the Confucian Classics, refused to read petitions and other state papers, and stopped filling the recurrent vacancies of vital upper level administrative posts.[5][8] Scholar-officials lost prominence in administration as eunuchs became intermediaries between the aloof emperor and his officials; any senior official who wanted to discuss state matters had to persuade powerful eunuchs with a bribe simply to have his demands or message relayed to the emperor.[5]
In the early 1630s, A peasant soldier named Li Zicheng (1606–45) mutinied with his fellow soldiers in western Shaanxi.[9] Li's rebel forces retaliated the government by killing the officials, and led a rebellion based in Rongyang, central Henan province by 1635.[10] By the 1640s, an ex-soldier and rival to Li — Zhang Xianzhong (1606–47) — had created a firm rebel base in Chengdu, Sichuan, while Li's center of power was in Hubei with extended influence over Shaanxi and Henan.[10]
Meanwhile, after years' tremendous supporting Korean Royal Family during the Imjin War against Japanese warlord Hideyoshi, the Chinese military and finance, which had not gotten fully recovered, were forced to go in to the new battles. Exhausted, Unpaid and unfed, the army was struggling hard between the Manchu raiders from the north and huge peasant revolts in the provinces. Eventually, the troops fell apart, and was defeated by Li Zicheng — now self-styled as the Prince of Shun — and took the capital without much of a fight.[11] On May 26, 1644, Beijing fell to a rebel army led by Li Zicheng; during the turmoil, rather than facing capture and probable execution at the hands of the rebel ─ Li Zicheng, Chongzhen arranged a feast and gathered all members of the imperial household aside from his sons. Using his sword, he killed all of them there. All people died except his second daughter, Princess Chang Ping, whose attempt to resist the sword blow resulted in her left arm being severed by her father. Then, the last Ming emperor went to Jingshan Hill, and hanged himself with the hair covering his face on a tree in the imperial garden outside the Forbidden City.[11]
Since the fall of the Ming Empire and Manchurian's cruel hunting down and killing, a number of members of the family have changed their surnames to Zhou (Wade-Giles: Chou; Chinese: 周),[12] Wang (Chinese: 王),[13] Gao (Chinese: 高),[14] Guang (Chinese: 廣),[15] Dong (Traditional Chinese: 東; Simplified Chinese: 东)，[16] Zhang (Wade–Giles: Chang; Traditional Chinese: 張; Simplified Chinese: 张), Zhuang (Wade–Giles: Chuang; Traditional Chinese: 莊; Simplified Chinese: 庄)，[17] and Yan (Traditional Chinese: 嚴; Simplified Chinese: 严).[17] Some of them changed their family names back to Zhu after the collapse of Qing, during the era of Republic of China.
Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644 C.E.)
Prominent Princes of the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644 C.E.)
Southern Ming Dynasty (1644 - 1662 C.E.)
Artist and Philosopher
Modern Era