Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T15:04:52.429Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - The Chia-ching reign, 1522–1566

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
James Geiss
Edited by
Frederick W. Mote  and
Denis Twitchett
Get access

Summary

THE EMPEROR'S SELECTION AND ACCESSION

Chu Hou-ts'ung, the eleventh emperor of the Ming dynasty, was born on 16 September 1507 on his father's estate in An-lu, Hu-kuang province (modern Chung-hsiang hsien in Hupeh). His father, Chu Yu-yüan (1476– 1519), the Prince of Hsing, was the fourth son of the Ch'eng-hua emperor (r. 1465 – 1487) and the eldest of three sons born to the emperor's concubine, Lady Shao. Fond of poetry and calligraphy, he refused to engage in many of the other leisure pursuits of his peers and indulged himself instead in artistic and literary pastimes. Lady Shao, the future emperor's grandmother, had been sold by her father to the eunuch intendant of Hangchow, who trained her to write and recite T'ang dynasty poetry and then presented her as a gift to the Ch'eng-hua emperor. At the time of her grandson's accession in 1521, she was a blind old woman living in retirement in the imperial laundry, a compound outside the Imperial City set aside for retired or disgraced palace women. The future emperor's mother, née Chiang (1477–1538), was the daughter of an officer in the Peking guard. Wed to the prince in 1492, she accompanied him to his estate in An-lu in 1494.

Historians of the reign had to note that the future emperor's birth was attended by the extraordinary and auspicious signs that marked such important people. They wrote, for example, that in the year of his birth the Yellow River remained clear for five days and that roseate clouds filled the skies, because such portents marked the birth of a legitimate emperor.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of China , pp. 440 - 510
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bacon, Francis. The essays of Francis Bacon. New York: Scribner, 1908.
Chang, T'ing- yü et al. ed. Ming shih. 1736; rpt. Peking: Chung-hua shu-chü, 1974.
Fan, Shou-chi, comp. Huang Ming Su huang wai shih 1582; unpaginated ms. N.p., 1582. Gest Oriental Library, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.
Fisher, Carney T. The great ritual controversy in Ming China. Ann Arbor Mich.: University Microfilms International, 1978.
Geiss, James. Peking under the Ming, 1368 – 1644. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International, 1979.
Goodrich, L. Carrington and Fang, Chaoying, ed. Dictionary of Ming biography. New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1976.
Higgins, Roland L. Piracy and coastal defense in the Ming period, governmental response to coastal disturbances, 1523 – 1549. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International, 1981.
Huang, Ray. 1587, A year of no significance: The Ming dynasty in decline. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1981.
Huang, Ray. Taxation and government finance in sixteenth-century Ming China. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1974.
Hucker, Charles O. “Hu Tsung-hsien's campaign against Hsü Hai, 1556.” In Chinese ways in warfare, ed. Kierman, Frank A. Jr., and Fairbank, John K.. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1974.Google Scholar
Legge, James, trans. The Chinese classics. 1870; 2nd ed., 5 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1893; rpt. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Press, 1960; 2nd ed. Taipei: Chin-hsüeh shu-chü, 1969.
Liu, Tzu-chien (James T. C. Liu). Ou-yang Hsiu ti chih hsüeh yü ts'ung cheng. Kowloon, Hong Kong: Hsin-ya yen-chiu so, 1963.
Ming, T'ai-tsu. Huang Ming tsu hsün. 1395; rpt. in Ming ch'ao k'ai kuo wen hsien. In No. 34 of Chung-kuo shih hsüeh ts'ung shu, ed. Hsiang-hsiang, Wu. Taipei: Hsüeh-sheng shu-chü, 1966, III.
Nakayama, Hachirō “Futatabi Kasei-chō no tairei mondai no hattan ni tsuite.” In Shimizu hakushi tsuitō kinen Mindaishi ronsō, ed. kai, Shimizu hakushi tsuitō kinen Mindaishi ronsō hensan iin. Tokyo: Daian, 1962.Google Scholar
Okada, Hidehiro. “Life of Dayan Qaghan.” Acta Asiatica, 11 (1966).Google Scholar
Okada, Hidehiro. “Outer Mongolia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.” Ajia Afurika gengo bunka kenkyū, 5 (1972).Google Scholar
Pelliot, Paul. “Le Ḫōǰa et le Sayyid Ḥusain de l'histoire des Ming.” T'oung pao, Series 2, 38 (1948).Google Scholar
P'eng, Hsin-wei. Chung-kuo huo pi shih. First ed. Shanghai: Ch'ün-lien ch'u-pan she, 1954; 2nd. ed. Shanghai: Jen-min ch'u-pan she, 1958; 3rd ed. Shanghai: Jen-min ch'u-pan she, 1965.
Schurz, William Lytle. The Manila galleon. New York: Dutton, 1939.
Serruys, Henry. “Chinese in southern Mongolia during the sixteenth century” Monumenta Serica, 18 (1959).Google Scholar
So, Kwan-wai (Su Chün-wei). Japanese piracy in Ming China during the sixteenth century. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1975.
Wang, Yü-ch'üan (Wang Yü-ch'uan, Wang Yuquan). Lai wu chi. Peking: Chung-hua shu-chü, 1983.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×