The Zhengde Emperor was the eleventh emperor of China's Ming Dynasty.
While previous emperors were obligated to a strict schedule of rituals and audiences every day, Zhengde was the first to manage to break free, absenting himself from the palace, and from the city, for extended periods, beginning in 1517, during which time government and administration carried on without him. The Confucian scholar-bureaucracy resisted this, insisting on the importance of the daily rituals and meetings, but Zhengde simply pushed them aside, in favor of eunuchs who were more amenable to his intentions.
Zhengde died in 1521 without a direct heir; he was succeeded by a nephew, who took the throne as the Jiajing Emperor. This marked the first time in the Ming Dynasty that an emperor was not directly succeeded by his son.
| Preceded by Hongzhi Emperor |
Emperor of Ming 1505-1521 |
Succeeded by Jiajing Emperor |
References
- Ray Huang, 1587: A Year of No Significance, Yale University Press (1981), 8.