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Yang Rong
Ming grand secretary from Jian'an who entered the cabinet under Yongle, rode on the emperor's Mongolian campaigns and kept his death in the field secret until the army returned
In a council hall, a long table holds an unrolled map scroll, a brass-cornered chest and a brush pot, with tall-backed chairs around it and a bronze lamp at the left; a figure stands with their back turned on the balcony at the right, with palace roofs beyond.
Also known as Yang Zirong · Zi Mianren · Dongyang
- Roles
- Chief Ministers
Yang Rong, first named Zirong, with the courtesy name Mianren, came from Jian'an in Fujian and passed the palace examination in 1400. When Zhu Di, Prince of Yan, entered Nanjing, Yang stopped his horse to ask whether he would first visit his father's tomb or first take the throne, winning his favour; Zhu gave him the name Rong and, once enthroned, placed him in the Wenyuan Hall cabinet. He rode beyond the frontier with the emperor five times, and when the emperor died at Yumuchuan on the way home in 1424, he and Jin Youzi hid the death and brought the body back in a coffin made of molten tin. He remained in the cabinet under Renzong, Xuanzong and the young Yingzong, and was called the Eastern Yang after the site of his house. Returning from leave to visit his family graves in 1440, he died at the Wulin post station aged seventy and was given the posthumous name Wenmin.
Life and times
Dates 1371 CE–1440 CE