Hongxi Emperor

Zhu Gaochi (朱高熾, 1378–1425), the Hongxi Emperor, was the fourth emperor of the Ming dynasty. He succeeded his father, the Yongle Emperor, in September 1424 and died in May 1425, before his reign was a year old. His era name, Hongxi (洪熙), means "vast brightness", and his temple name, Renzong (仁宗), "benevolent ancestor".

In those few months he reversed much of his father's costly policy. He ended the great maritime expeditions and campaigns abroad, relieved taxes in stricken regions, freed ministers his father had imprisoned and gave the civil officials of the Grand Secretariat a leading place in government. His son, the Xuande Emperor, continued the same course.

Zhu Gaochi's Life before the Throne

Zhu Gaochi was born in 1378, the eldest son of Zhu Di, then Prince of Yan, and was educated by Confucian tutors. He was heavy and in poor health, with little interest in soldiering, although he was said to be a fine archer. He preferred books and the company of scholars, and this set him apart from his father and from his ambitious younger brothers, Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Gaosui.

He proved himself early. When his father rebelled against the Jianwen Emperor in 1399, Zhu Gaochi was left to hold Beiping (Beijing), and he defended the city against a far larger imperial army.

After his father took the throne as the Yongle Emperor, Zhu Gaochi was named crown prince in 1404. Through the long years when Yongle was away campaigning against the Mongols in the north, the crown prince governed in his place, first from Nanjing and later from Beijing, and so came to the throne with long experience of the imperial administration.

His brother Zhu Gaoxu, who had distinguished himself as a soldier in the civil war, never accepted his position, and the crown prince's supporters at court were often slandered and punished. In 1421 the minister of revenue, Xia Yuanji, was imprisoned for opposing another expensive campaign in Mongolia. In the same year Yongle ordered a halt to new treasure voyages, although Zheng He's sixth voyage, which had already sailed, was allowed to complete its mission.

The Rule of the Hongxi Emperor

The Hongxi Emperor is remembered in the Ming histories as a humane and able ruler who understood that the empire rested on the welfare of ordinary people. Where there was famine he ordered relief grain distributed at once, on one occasion overruling officials who wanted to consult further first.

On his accession he ended Zheng He's maritime expeditions for good, and Zheng He was given command of the garrison at Nanjing. He also stopped the government's costly purchases of gold, pearls and timber, and remitted taxes so that farmers who had abandoned their land could return to it.

Restoring the Civil Officials

He released Xia Yuanji and restored him as minister of revenue, and he freed the scholar Yang Pu, who had spent ten years in prison. He gave his most trusted advisers, the Hanlin academicians of the Grand Secretariat, high ministerial rank. Three of them, Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong and Yang Pu, known together as the "Three Yangs", dominated the government for the next two decades and presided over a period that later historians regarded as one of the best-governed in Ming history.

The Question of the Capital

His father had moved the Ming court from Nanjing to Beijing, completing the new palace, the Forbidden City, in 1420. Yongle wanted his capital near the northern frontier, where it could direct the defence against the Mongols.

The Hongxi Emperor did not share that view. Nanjing, the capital chosen by the dynasty's founder, lay in the rich south and was far easier to supply. Early in 1425 he announced that the court would return there and sent his son, the crown prince Zhu Zhanji, to Nanjing to prepare.

He died before the move could take place, and his successors kept the court in Beijing. The city's status as the principal capital was formally confirmed in 1441.

Death and Legacy of the Hongxi Emperor

The Hongxi Emperor died suddenly in May 1425, after a reign of about nine months. The cause is not known for certain. He was succeeded by his eldest son, who reigned as the Xuande Emperor.

His widow, Empress Zhang, became one of the most respected figures of the early Ming court. As empress dowager during her son's reign, and as grand empress dowager during the minority of her grandson, the Zhengtong Emperor, she was a steadying influence who supported the civil officials and kept the palace eunuchs in check until her death in 1442.

The reign was too short for great achievements, but the policies Zhu Gaochi began, peace on the frontiers, relief for the tax-paying population and government by the Grand Secretaries, were carried on by his son and shaped the character of the Ming for a generation.

Hongxi Porcelain: A Note for Collectors

The Hongxi era name came into use only at the start of 1425, and the emperor died within months. No imperial porcelain bearing a Hongxi reign mark is known. Whatever the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen made in these months was unmarked and is very hard to separate from late Yongle and early Xuande production. A piece with a Hongxi mark should therefore be treated with great caution.

It was under his son that reign marks became standard on imperial porcelain, and the six-character Xuande mark is the first that collectors meet regularly. A Xuande-marked bowl in our collection shows the type.