Background
Zhu Houzhao was born on October 27, 1491. He was the only child of the great Hongzhi Emperor Zhu Youcheng, the only monarch in the ancient history of China that strictly followed monogamy.
正德帝
Zhu Houzhao was born on October 27, 1491. He was the only child of the great Hongzhi Emperor Zhu Youcheng, the only monarch in the ancient history of China that strictly followed monogamy.
Zhu Houzhao, the crown prince of the Ming Empire, obtained his affectionate parents’ full love and attention, as well as the best education. As a boy who had both the royal honor and authority and the civilian's genuine and happy family, Zhu Houzhao was one of the happiest crown princes in the history of China.
He was an intelligent and mischievous kid, with an elegant and unconventional soul.
However, when he was 14, his beloved father passed away, left him a big empire and some smart prime ministers to support him.
Zhu Houzhao ascended the throne in 1505, taking the reign name Zhengde. Devoting himself entirely to pleasure-seeking, he relied on his eunuchs for information on the government. Corruption became rampant, public offices were bought and sold, and excessive taxes were levied on the people. Because the eunuchs who dominated the government were for the most part northerners, the southern provinces were without representation, and their situation was particularly bad. Rebellions were frequent there, and large numbers of people turned to banditry. Finally, in 1510, the Zhengde emperor became aware of the corruption and ordered the execution of the chief eunuch, Liu Jin, whose house was found to be piled with rare jewels, gold, and silver.
But eunuchs still retained influential positions within the government, for the emperor refused to devote himself to statecraft. Instead, he delighted in traveling incognito throughout the country - on one occasion he was nearly captured in a Mongol raid - and spending his time learning exotic languages. He mastered Tibetan, Mongol, and Juchen and gave himself titles in these languages. Hundreds of officials who criticized his eccentric behavior were tortured, killed, or demoted.
He eventually drowned in 1521, when his pleasure barge capsized, finally bringing his reign to a merciful end. Although he left the scene, the damage he left behind proved permanent: during the years of his reign, without oversight from the throne, palace eunuchs achieved such power within the government’s structure that subsequent emperors were unable to dislodge them.
With governance left entirely in their hands, palace eunuchs became China’s most powerful class. Without checks or oversight, corruption became endemic and public offices were openly bought and sold, while taxes soared to pay for the emperor’s pleasures and to feather the nests of courtiers and officials.
Zhengde Emperor was uninterested in governing his empire and disregarded state affairs, abandoning himself instead to an extravagant and profligate lifestyle, marked by lavish spending, bizarre behavior, and poor choices that set the stage for the Ming Dynasty’s downfall.
Despite all his good Confucian teaching, and all the best intentions of all his advisers and ministers, Zhengde Emperor had very little interest in actually ruling. What he was interested in, however, was women. At one time, his personal harem was so large that many of the women starved to death from lack of supplies. And, what began as a zoo outside the Forbidden City in Beijing, called "Bao Fang," or "The Leopard's Chamber," which used to house a lot of exotic animals, was converted to house women for the Emperor’s own amusement. And as if all of that didn’t sate his ridiculous appetite, he frequented brothels in the city as well.
Zhengde Emperor was married to Empress Xiaojingyi at the age of 14. All of their children died at a young age.
Wang Mantang was an unofficial consort of the Zhengde Emperor.
Liu Jin was a very influential and powerful eunuch during Zhengde Emperor's reign. He is also known as one of the most corrupt officials in Chinese history.
