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
Dates 1605 CE–1627 CE
- 1624Purge of the Donglin FactionIn powerage 19
- 1624Yang Lian Impeaches Wei Zhongxianage 19