Zhu Zhanji

Also known as Ming Xuanzong · Xuande Di

Zhu Zhanji was the eldest son of the Hongxi emperor Zhu Gaochi; his grandfather the Yongle emperor named him imperial grandson-heir and took him on northern campaigns. He succeeded his father in 1425 and adopted the reign title Xuande the next year. In 1426 his uncle Zhu Gaoxu, Prince of Han, rose at Le'an, and the emperor marched there in person until Zhu Gaoxu surrendered. He gave up the costly war in Jiaozhi, now northern Vietnam, withdrawing the garrisons around 1428, sent Zheng He on a seventh voyage to the Western Ocean in 1430, and set up a palace school where young eunuchs learned to read. He died in Beijing in the first month of 1435 with the temple name Xuanzong and the posthumous title Emperor Zhang. Shen Defu's Unofficial Gleanings of the Wanli Era (Wanli yehuo bian) records his passion for cricket fighting, which led to levies of crickets in the south and a mocking popular rhyme.