Taichang Emperor

The Taichang Emperor (28 August 1582 – 26 September 1620), personal name Zhu Changluo, was the 15th emperor of the Ming dynasty. He was the eldest son of the Wanli Emperor and succeeded his father as emperor in 1620. However, his reign came to an abrupt end less than one month after his coronation when he was found dead one morning in the palace following a bout of diarrhea. He was succeeded by his son, Zhu Youjiao, who was enthroned as the Tianqi Emperor. His era name, "Taichang", means "grand prosperity." His reign was the shortest in Ming history.

Zhu Changluo was born in 1582, during the tenth year of the Wanli Emperor's reign. His mother, Lady Wang, was a servant of the emperor's mother. Lady Wang was promoted, but did not gain the favor of the Wanli Emperor, and her son, despite being the emperor's eldest, was ignored by him. Instead, the Wanli Emperor showed preference towards Zhu Changxun, the son of his favorite concubine, Lady Zheng. This led to the Wanli Emperor's intention to appoint Zhu Changxun as crown prince, but it faced strong opposition from the ministers. As a result, the matter remained at a standstill for many years due to the stubbornness of both sides.

In 1601, the Wanli Emperor finally succumbed to the pressure of ministers, officials, and above all his mother, and officially appointed nineteen-year-old Zhu Changluo as the crown prince and rightful heir to the throne. However, even with this formal recognition, intrigue and the emperor's dissatisfaction with the succession persisted. In 1615, the court was rocked by an unusual scandal when a man named Zhang Chai armed himself with a wooden staff and broke into the Forbidden City, specifically targeting the Crown Prince's palace. While the initial investigation deemed him insane, another investigator suggested the involvement of two eunuchs close to Lady Zheng. Both eunuchs were swiftly executed, but speculation about the true perpetrators of the plot continued to circulate.

The Wanli Emperor died on 18 August 1620, and Zhu Changluo officially ascended the throne as the Taichang Emperor on 28 August. However, just a few days after his coronation, he fell ill and died on 26 September 1620, despite attempts at treatment. The Taichang Emperor's eldest son, Zhu Youxiao, then became the new Ming ruler. The death of the relatively young emperor sparked suspicion, speculation, and recrimination among different court factions.

Early life
Zhu Changluo was born in 1582, the 10th year of the Wanli era, to the Wanli Emperor and a palace attendant, Lady Wang, who served under the Emperor's mother, Empress Dowager Xiaoding. After it was discovered that Lady Wang was pregnant, the Emperor was persuaded by his mother to make her a concubine and awarded her the title "Consort Gong of the Second Grade" (恭妃). However she was never one of the Wanli Emperor's favourite consorts. After his birth, Zhu Changluo was largely ignored by his father even though he, as the firstborn son of the emperor, was by default the heir apparent (crown prince) according to the Ming dynasty's traditional rules of succession. He was born shortly after his elder sister, the Princess Rongchang; the Wanli Emperor's eldest child and only child with his primary wife Empress Xiaoduanxian.

Zhu Changluo spent most of his life as a hapless pawn in a power struggle for the title of crown prince. The Wanli Emperor openly preferred naming Zhu Changxun, his younger son born to his favourite consort Noble Consort Zheng as crown prince over the seniority of Zhu Changluo, but his intention was met with vehement opposition by most of his Confucian-educated ministers who insisted that the Emperor adhered to dynastic traditions. Frustrated by the multiple petitions to install Zhu Changluo as crown prince, the Wanli Emperor decided to stonewall the issue and left the question of his designated heir in suspense. Some historians have suggested that the impasse on the selection of crown prince was part of the cause of the Wanli Emperor's withdrawal from daily government administration.

Caught in this political limbo, Zhu Changluo was deliberately not assigned a regular tutor or given any systematic Confucian education even after he started school at the age of 13, an unusually late age for Ming princes to begin their education. In 1601, the Wanli Emperor gave in to pressure from his ministers and more importantly from the empress dowager and a 19-year-old Zhu Changluo was formally instated as crown prince and heir apparent. However this formal recognition did not signal the end of court intrigues. Rumours of the Wanli Emperor's intention to replace Zhu Changluo with Zhu Changxun continued to surface through the years,

In 1615, the Ming imperial court was hit by a mysterious scandal. A man called Zhang Chai, armed only with a wooden staff, managed to drive away the eunuchs guarding the palace gates and break into Ciqing Palace—then the crown prince's living quarters. Zhang Chai was eventually subdued and thrown in prison. Although initial investigations found him to be a lunatic, upon further investigations by a magistrate named Wang Zhicai, Zhang Chai confessed to being party to a plot instigated by two eunuchs working under Noble Consort Zheng. According to Zhang Chai's confession, the two eunuchs had promised him rewards for assaulting the crown prince, thus indirectly implicating Lady Zheng in an assassination plot. Presented with incriminating evidence and the gravity of the accusations, the Wanli Emperor, in an attempt to spare Lady Zheng, personally presided over the case and laid full blame on the two eunuchs, who were executed along with Zhang Chai. Although the case was quickly hushed up, it did not squelch public discussions and eventually became known as the "Case of the Wooden Staff Assault" (梃擊案), one of three notorious mysteries of the late Ming dynasty.

In 1615, the crown prince became infuriated with his concubine, Lady Liu, who was the mother of the future Chongzhen Emperor. He ordered her punished, Lady Liu died during the ordeal. It is debated whether the crown prince ordered her to be killed or if her death was an accident. Fearing that this incident would further turn his father against him and towards Zhu Changxun, the crown prince had Lady Liu secretly buried in the Western Hills near Beijing and forbade palace staff from mentioning the affair. On his ascension to the throne, the Chongzhen Emperor had Lady Liu reburied in the Ming tombs next to her husband.

Reign
The Wanli Emperor died on 18 August 1620 and was succeeded by Zhu Changluo on 28 August 1620, the latter's 38th birthday by Western calculation. Upon his coronation, Zhu Changluo adopted the era name "Taichang" (literally "grand prosperity") for his reign, hence he is known as the Taichang Emperor.

The first few days of his reign started promisingly enough as recorded in the Ming histories. Two million taels of silver was entailed as a gift to the troops guarding the border, important bureaucratic posts left vacant during the Wanli Emperor's long periods of administrative inactivity were finally starting to be filled, and many of the deeply unpopular extraordinary taxes and duties imposed by the Wanli Emperor were also revoked at this time. However, ten days after his coronation, the Taichang Emperor became so ill that celebrations for his birthday (by Chinese calculation) were cancelled.

According to non-official primary sources, the Taichang Emperor's illness was brought about by excessive sexual indulgence after he was presented with eight maidens by Lady Zheng. The emperor's already serious condition was further compounded by severe diarrhoea after taking a dose of laxative, recommended by an attending eunuch Cui Wensheng on 10 September. Finally on 25 September, to counter the effects of the laxative, he asked for and took a red pill presented by a minor court official named Li Kezhuo, who dabbled in apothecary.

It was recorded in official Ming histories that the Taichang Emperor felt much better after taking the red pill, regained his appetite and repeatedly praised Li Kezhuo as a "loyal subject". That same afternoon, the emperor took a second pill and was found dead the next morning on 26 September 1620.

The death of an emperor who was seemingly in good health within the span of a month sent shock waves through the Ming Empire and rumours started spreading. The much talked about mystery surrounding the Taichang Emperor's death became known as the infamous "Case of the Red Pills" (红丸案), one of three notorious 'mysteries' of the late Ming dynasty. Consort Kang of the Li Clan was also involved in this matter. The fate of Li Kezhuo, whose pills were at the center of this controversy, became a hotly contested subject between competing power factions of officials and eunuchs vying for influence at the Ming imperial court. Opinions ranged from awarding him money for the emperor's initial recovery to executing his entire family for murdering the emperor. The question was finally settled in 1625 when Li Kezhuo was exiled to the border regions on the order of the powerful eunuch Wei Zhongxian, signalling the total dominance of eunuchs during the reign of the Taichang Emperor's son, the Tianqi Emperor.

Legacy
The Taichang Emperor's unexpected death threw the Ming imperial court into some logistical disarray. Firstly, the court was still officially in mourning over the death of the Wanli Emperor, whose corpse at this point was still lying in state waiting for an auspicious date to be interred. Secondly, all imperial tombs were custom made by the reigning emperor and there was no proper place to bury the Taichang Emperor, who had only just ascended the throne. A tomb was hastily commissioned over the foundation of the demolished tomb of the Jingtai Emperor. The construction was finally completed on the eighth month of 1621 and consecrated Qingling (庆陵). Finally, on the question of naming the emperor's reign, although the emperor had taken the formal era name of "Taichang", it was sandwiched between the 48th year of the Wanli era (1620) and the first year of the Tianqi era (1621). After much discussion, the Ming imperial court accepted Zuo Guangdou's suggestion to designate the Wanli era as having ended in the seventh lunar month of 1620, while the Taichang era spanned from the 8th to 12th months in the same year. The Tianqi era officially started from the first lunar month of 1621.

Family
Consorts and Issue:
 * Empress Xiaoyuanzhen, of the Guo clan (孝元貞皇后 郭氏; 1580–1613)
 * Princess Huaishu (懷淑公主; 1604–1610), personal name Huijian (徽娟), second daughter
 * Empress Dowager Xiaohe, of the Wang clan (孝和皇太后 王氏; 1582–1619)
 * Zhu Youjiao, the Tianqi Emperor (天啓帝 朱由校; 23 December 1605 – 30 September 1627), first son
 * Zhu Youxue, Prince Huai of Jian (簡懷王 朱由㰒; 1607–1610), second son
 * Empress Dowager Xiaochun, of the Liu clan (孝純皇太后 劉氏; 1588–1615)
 * Zhu Youjian, the Chongzhen Emperor (崇禎帝 朱由檢; 6 February 1611 – 25 April 1644), fifth son
 * Consort Gongyizhuang, of the Li clan (恭懿莊妃 李氏; 5 December 1588 – 6 December 1624)
 * Consort Yi, of the Fu clan (懿妃 傅氏; 1588–1644)
 * Princess Ningde (寧德公主), personal name Huiyan (徽妍), sixth daughter
 * Married Liu Youfu (劉有福) in 1626
 * Princess Suiping (遂平公主; 1611 – 8 February 1633), personal name Huijing (徽婧), seventh daughter
 * Married Qi Zanyuan (齊贊元) in 1627, and had issue (four daughters)
 * Consort Kang, of the Li clan (康妃 李氏; 1584–1674)
 * Zhu Youmo, Prince Hui of Huai (懷惠王 朱由模; 30 November 1610 – 1615), fourth son
 * Princess Le'an (樂安公主; 1611–1643), personal name Huiti (徽媞), ninth daughter
 * Married Gong Yonggu (鞏永固; d. 1644), and had issue (three sons, two daughters)
 * Zhu Huizhao, (朱徽妱; 1616–1617), tenth daughter
 * Consort Yi, of the Ding clan (懿妃 定氏)
 * Zhu Youxu, Prince Huai of Xiang (湘懷王 朱由栩), sixth son
 * Consort Jing, of the Feng clan (敬妃 馮氏)
 * Zhu Youshan, Prince Zhao of Hui (慧昭王 朱由橏; b. 1620), seventh son
 * Concubine Shen, of the Shao clan (慎嬪 邵氏)
 * Princess Daowen (悼溫公主; 1621–1621), personal name Huizheng (徽姃), 11th daughter
 * Concubine Xiang, of the Zhang clan (襄嬪 張氏)
 * Concubine Ke, of the Li clan (恪嬪 李氏)
 * Concubine Ding, of the Guo clan (定嬪 郭氏)
 * Lady of Selected Service, of the Wang clan (選侍 王氏)
 * Zhu Youji, Prince Si of Qi (齊思王 朱由楫; 14 August 1609 – 1616), third son
 * Lady of Selected Service, of the Zhao clan (選侍 趙氏; d. 1620)
 * Unknown
 * Princess Daoyi (悼懿公主), first daughter
 * Zhu Huiheng (朱徽姮), third daughter
 * Princess Daoshun (悼順公主; 1606–1607), personal name Huixian (徽嫙), fourth daughter
 * Zhu Huiweng, (朱徽㜲; 1608–1609), fifth daughter
 * Zhu Huiwan (朱徽婉), eighth daughter