Zhu Changluo

Also known as Ming Guangzong · Taichang Di

Zhu Changluo was the eldest son of the Wanli emperor, who favoured Zhu Changxun, son of Consort Zheng, and put off naming an heir despite years of protest from his ministers. He was finally made crown prince in 1601, and in 1615 a man armed with a club broke into his Ciqing Palace, the Club Attack case. Wanli died in the seventh month of 1620 and Zhu Changluo took the throne in the eighth, releasing a million taels from the palace treasury for frontier troops, abolishing the mining and commercial taxes and recalling officials punished for their memorials. Within a fortnight he fell gravely ill, took red pills offered by Li Kezhuo of the Court of State Ceremonial, and died on the first day of the ninth month. The court counted the rest of that year as the first year of Taichang, and he was buried at the Qing Mausoleum as Guangzong. The Red Pill, Club Attack and Palace Removal cases became the three great cases of the late Ming.