Jiajing Emperor

Jiajing Emperor 嘉靖帝
Emperor of the Great Ming
Reign	27 May 1521 – 23 January 1567
Predecessor	Zhengde Emperor
Successor	Longqing Emperor
Spouse	Empress Xiao Jie Su 孝潔肅皇后 Empress Zhang 張皇后 Empress Xiao Lie 孝烈皇后 Empress Xiao Ke 孝恪皇后
Issue
8 sons and 5 daughters
Full name
Family name: Zhu (朱; Chu in Wade-Giles spelling) Given name: Houcong (厚熜; Hou-tsung in Wade-Giles spelling)
Era name and dates
Jiajing (Chia-ching; 嘉靖): 28 January 1522 – 8 February 1567
Posthumous name
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
Temple name
Ming Shizong (Shih-tsung) 明世宗
House	Ming Dynasty
Father	Zhu Youyuan 朱祐杬
Mother	Empress Ci Xiao Xian 慈孝獻皇后
Born	(1507-09-16)16 September 1507
Died	23 January 1567(1567-01-23) (aged 59)
Burial	Yongling, Ming Dynasty Tombs, Beijing

The Jiajing Emperor (Chia-ching Emperor; Chinese: 嘉靖帝; IPA: [tɕjɑ́tɕîŋ]; 16 September 1507 – 23 January 1567) was the 11th Ming Dynasty Emperor of China who ruled from 1521 to 1567. Born Zhu Houcong, he was the former Zhengde Emperor's cousin. His father, Zhu Youyuan (1476–1519), the Prince of Xing, was the fourth son of the Cheng-hua emperor (1465–1487) and the eldest son of three sons born to the emperor's concubine, Lady Shao.

His era name means "Admirable tranquility".

Early years

As the nephew of the Hongzhi Emperor, Zhu Houcong was not brought up to succeed to the throne. However, the throne became vacant in 1521 with the sudden death of the Hongzhi Emperor's son, Emperor Zhengde, who did not leave an heir. The 14 year old Zhu Houcong was chosen to become emperor, and so relocated from his father's fief (near today's Zhongxiang, in Hubei Province) to Beijing.

As the Jiajing Emperor, Zhu Houcong had his parents posthumously elevated to an "honorary" imperial rank, and had an imperial-style Xianling Mausoleum built for them near Zhongxiang.^[1]

Reign as Emperor

Custom dictated that an emperor who was not an immediate descendant of the previous one should be adopted by the previous one, to maintain an unbroken line. Such a posthumous adoption of Zhu Houcong by Emperor Zhengde was proposed, but he resisted, preferring instead to have his father declared emperor posthumously. This conflict is known as the "Great Rites Controversy." The Jiajing Emperor prevailed and hundreds of his opponents were banished, physically beaten at court (廷杖), or executed. Among the banished was the great Ming poet Yang Shen.^[2]

The Jiajing Emperor 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. Ignoring state affairs, Jiajing employed incapable individuals such as Zhang Cong and Yan Song, on whom he thoroughly relied to handle affairs of state. In time Yan Song and his son Yan Shifan – who gained power only as a result of his father's political influence – came to dominate the whole government even being called the "First and Second Prime Minister". Loyal individuals such as Hai Rui and Yang Xusheng challenged and even chastised Yan Song and his son but were thoroughly ignored by the emperor. Hai Rui and many loyal ministers were eventually dismissed or executed. Jiajing 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. Only Yan Song, a few handful of eunuchs and Daoist priests ever saw Jiajing. This eventually led to corruption at all levels of the Ming government. However, Jiajing was intelligent and managed to control the court.^[3]

Jiajing's ruthlessness also led to an internal plot by his concubines to assassinate him in October, 1542 by strangling him while he slept. A group of palace girls who had had enough of Jiajing's cruelty decided to band together to murder the emperor. The lead palace girl tried to strangle the emperor with ribbons from her hair while the others held down the emperor's arms and legs but made a fatal mistake by tying a knot around the emperor's neck which would not tighten. Meanwhile some of the young girls involved began to panic and one (Zhang Jinlian) ran to the empress. The plot was exposed and on the orders of the empress, all of the girls involved, including the emperor's favourite concubine (Consort Duan, née Cao) and another concubine (Consort Ning, née Wang), underwent execution by the slow slicing method and their families were killed.^[4][5]

The Ming dynasty had enjoyed a long period of peace, but in 1542 the Mongol leader Altan Khan began to harass China along the northern border. In 1550 he even reached the suburbs of Beijing. Eventually the empire appeased him by granting special trading rights. The empire also had to deal with pirates attacking the southeastern coastline;^[6] general Qi Jiguang was instrumental in defeating these pirates.

Jiajing on his state barge, from a scroll painted in 1538 by unknown court artists

A porcelain vase with glazed fish designs, from the Jiajing reign period.

Starting in 1550, Beijing was enlarged by the addition of the outer city.^[7]

The deadliest earthquake of all times, the Shaanxi earthquake of 1556 that killed over 800,000 people, occurred during the Jiajing Emperor's reign.

Taoist pursuits

He was a devoted follower of Taoism and attempted to suppress Buddhism. After the assassination attempt in 1542, Jiajing moved out of the imperial palace, and lived with a 13 year-old teenage girl who was small and thin, and was able to satisfy Jiajing's sexual appetite (lady Shan ). Jiajing began to pay excessive attention to his Taoist pursuits while ignoring his imperial duties. He built the three Taoist temples Temple of Sun, Temple of Earth and Temple of Moon and extended the Temple of Heaven by adding the Earthly Mount. Over the years, Jiajing's devotion to Taoism was to become a heavy financial burden for the empire and create dissent across the country.

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.

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 believing to be the Elixir of Life – and was succeeded by his son, the Longqing Emperor. Though his long rule gave the dynasty an era of stability, Jiajing's neglect of his official duties resulted in the decline of the dynasty at the end of the 16th century. His style of governance, or the lack thereof, would be emulated by his grandson later in the century.

Family

Sons

Daughters

References

• The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 7: The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644, Part I, "The Prince of Ning Treason" by Frederick W. Mote and Denis Twitchett.