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Person1360 – 1424

Yongle Emperor (Chengzu of Ming)

Also called: Zhu Di, Chengzu of Ming, Prince of Yan

Third Ming emperor (r. 1402–1424), who seized the throne from his nephew the Jianwen Emperor in the Jingnan campaign, moved the capital to Beijing and sent out Zheng He’s fleets

Fourth son of the Hongwu Emperor, he was made Prince of Yan in 1370 and took up his post at Beiping in 1380, winning distinction against the Mongols. He launched the Jingnan campaign in 1399 and took the throne in 1402, savagely executing Jianwen’s loyal ministers, such as Fang Xiaoru, who refused to recognise him. He led five campaigns into Mongolia, occupied Vietnam, sent Zheng He into the southern seas and moved the capital to Beijing. He died in 1424 returning from his fifth Mongolian campaign and was buried at Changling, among the Ming Tombs north of Beijing.

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3 related events

  1. 1
    1399 – 1421The Yongle Emperor’s Jingnan Campaign and the Move to Beijingleader

    When the Jianwen Emperor curbed the power of his uncles after Hongwu’s death, Zhu Di, Prince of Yan, rose in 1399 (the Jingnan campaign), took Nanjing in 1402 and became the Yongle Emperor. In 1421 he moved the capital to his own base, Beijing.

  2. 2
    1404Ming–Japan Tally Trademonarch

    In return for being invested by the Ming as “King of Japan” and suppressing pirates, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu won tributary trade with China from 1404, open only to ships carrying a tally (kangō) to prove their identity.

  3. 3
    1405 – 1433Voyages of Zheng Hemonarch

    At the Yongle Emperor’s command the eunuch Zheng He led seven great fleets between 1405 and 1433 through Southeast Asia to India, the Persian Gulf, Arabia and East Africa, displaying Ming power and enlisting new tributary states.

People who appear alongside

  • Ashikaga Yoshimitsu1358 – 1408

    Third Muromachi shogun (r. 1368–1394), who reunited the Northern and Southern Courts in 1392, was invested by the Ming as “King of Japan” to open the tally trade, and built the Golden Pavilion

  • Zheng He1371 – 1433

    Ming eunuch admiral from a Muslim family of Yunnan who, at the Yongle Emperor’s command, led seven great fleets from 1405 through Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean to East Africa

Themes this person appears in

  • Song, Ming and Samurai JapanAD 960 – 1500

    The age when the civil-minded Song bought peace from Liao, Western Xia and Jin while the lower Yangtze boomed and Neo-Confucianism took shape, and the Ming, having driven out the Yuan, rebuilt the East Asian order through imperial autocracy, the sea ban and tribute — as Japan passed through the Kamakura and Muromachi warrior governments into the Warring States era, and Korea from Goryeo to Joseon