Yang Pu

Also known as Zi Hongji · Nanyang

Yang Pu, courtesy name Hongji, came from Shishou in Huguang, passed the jinshi examination in 1400 and was made a Hanlin compiler. Early in the Yongle reign he served the heir apparent Zhu Gaochi as a librarian of the eastern palace. In 1414, when the household was slow to send envoys to welcome the emperor back from his northern campaign, Yang and Huang Huai were thrown into the prison of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, where he spent ten years. When Zhu Gaochi came to the throne in 1424 he freed Yang, made him a Hanlin academician and put him in charge of the newly founded Hongwen Pavilion. Under the Xuande emperor he entered the Grand Secretariat, and in the first years of the boy emperor Yingzong he governed with Yang Shiqi and Yang Rong; he was called the Southern Yang after the location of his house, and the three were known as the Three Yangs. He died in 1446 aged seventy-five, with the posthumous name Wending.