Royals › Monarch / Emperor
Zhu Houzhao
Ming Zhengde emperor who let the eunuch Liu Jin rule, lived in his Leopard Quarter, styled himself General Zhu Shou, and died childless after a boating accident
In a side chamber of a palace, a yellow ceremonial robe embroidered with a dragon hangs on a wooden stand, its hem worked with waves and rocks, before a carved folding screen, while a black lacquer chest sits on a low table by a lattice window and no person is in view.
Also known as Ming Wuzong · Zhengde Di
- Roles
- Monarch / Emperor
Zhu Houzhao, eldest son of the Hongzhi emperor, was born in 1491, named heir the next year and enthroned in 1505, reigning as Zhengde from 1506. From the start he favoured eight eunuchs led by Liu Jin, known as the Eight Tigers, and the grand secretaries who demanded their punishment were forced out. In 1510 the Prince of Anhua rebelled and the eunuch Zhang Yong used the campaign to expose Liu, who was put to death by slicing. The emperor lived in a pleasure compound outside the palace, the Leopard Quarter and gave himself the title Generalissimo Zhu Shou; in 1517 he went to the northern frontier in person and fought the Mongol Dayan Khan's forces at Yingzhou. When Zhu Chenhao, Prince of Ning, rebelled in 1519 and was defeated by Wang Yangming, the emperor went south anyway, fell ill after tumbling from a boat at Qingjiangpu, and died in 1521 at twenty-nine, without a son; his cousin Zhu Houcong succeeded him.
Life and times
Dates 1491 CE–1521 CE