Royals › Monarch / Emperor
Zhu Youxiao
Ming emperor of the Tianqi era, Xizong, whose trust in his wet nurse Madame Ke and the eunuch Wei Zhongxian led to the purge of the Donglin officials
Mural of the event “Purge of the Donglin Faction”, which this person presided over.
Under the Tianqi Emperor (1624–1627) the eunuch Wei Zhongxian and Madam Ke dominated the court; Donglin officials such as Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou died in the imperial prison, and Zhou Shunchang's arrest in Suzhou set off a townspeople's revolt. After the Chongzhen Emperor's accession Wei hanged himself, and in 1629 the court proclaimed the Traitors' Case.
Also known as Ming Xizong · Tianqi Di · Tianqi Emperor
- Roles
- Monarch / Emperor
Zhu Youxiao was the eldest son of Emperor Guangzong, who died in 1620 after a month on the throne; after a dispute over a consort's removal from the palace he succeeded and adopted the reign title Tianqi the next year. He favoured his wet nurse Madame Ke and let the eunuch Wei Zhongxian run the Directorate of Ceremonial and the Eastern Depot. Yang Lian's 1624 memorial charging Wei with twenty-four crimes failed, and in 1625 Yang, Zuo Guangdou and other Donglin officials died in prison, academies were ordered torn down, and officials everywhere built shrines to Wei. Guangning fell to the Manchus in 1622, while Yuan Chonghuan repulsed Nurhaci at Ningyuan in 1626; Xu Hongru led a White Lotus rising in Shandong in 1622, and famine rebels rose in Shaanxi in 1627. The eunuch Liu Ruoyu's memoir Zhuozhong zhi describes the emperor's love of carpentry. He died in 1627 at twenty-three by Chinese count, received the temple name Xizong and was buried at Deling; his brother Zhu Youjian succeeded.
Life and times
- 1605 CEBorn
Ming - 1624Purge of the Donglin Faction
In powerage 19Under the Tianqi Emperor the eunuch Wei Zhongxian and Madam Ke dominated the court; after Yang Lian's memorial of twenty-four crimes, Donglin officials were dismissed and died in prison until the Chongzhen Emperor's accession brought Wei's fall and suicide.- Yang Lian Impeaches Wei ZhongxianIn 1624 the vice censor-in-chief Yang Lian impeached Wei Zhongxian for twenty-four great crimes, but the Tianqi Emperor kept Wei and rebuked Yang.
- Yang Lian Impeaches Wei Zhongxian
- 1627 CEDied
Family tree
- Direct kin
