Today is the birthday of Zhu Yunwen, the second emperor of the Ming dynasty, born December 5, 1377. The first son of the first son of the Ming dynastic founder Zhu Yuanzhang (Ming Taizu/The Hongwu Emperor), Zhu Yunwen took the throne following the death of his grandfather in 1398. Not that everybody was happy about the arrangement. Zhu Yuanzhang had decreed that imperial succession would automatically fall to the first son of the emperor or, as in the case of Zhu Yunwen, if the first son was no longer living then the crown would pass to the first son of the first son.
As might be expected, ancestral injunctions notwithstanding, Zhu Yunwen’s ascension to the throne as the Jianwen Emperor at the tender age of 21 was going to cause some grumbling in the ranks, particularly from Zhu Yuanzhang’s fourth son, Zhu Di (1360-1424). Zhu Di was a capable general and had been charged with commanding the Ming northern defenses around Beijing and generally keeping an eye on those pesky Mongols. (Apparently, Zhu Yuanzhang didn’t get the memo from CCP propaganda HQ that the Mongols and the Ming were really part of one united family – either that, or he