The Yongle emperor, detail of a portrait; in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.
Yongle
Wade-Giles romanization:
Yung-lo
Temple name (miaohao):
(Ming) Chengzu or (Ming) Taizong
Posthumous name (shi):
Wendi
Personal name:
Zhu Di
Born:
May 2, 1360, Yingtian [now Nanjing], Jiangsu province, China
Died:
August 5, 1424, Yumuchuan [now in Inner Mongolia], en route to Beijing (aged 64)
Title / Office:
emperor (1402-1424), China
House / Dynasty:
Ming dynasty
Notable Family Members:
father Hongwu

Yongle (born May 2, 1360, Yingtian [now Nanjing], Jiangsu province, China—died August 5, 1424, Yumuchuan [now in Inner Mongolia], en route to Beijing) reign name (nianhao) of the third emperor (1402–24) of China’s Ming dynasty (1368–1644), which he raised to its greatest power. He moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, which was rebuilt with the Forbidden City. Zhu Di’s father, the Hongwu emperor, had rapidly risen from a poor orphan of peasant origin through stages as a mendicant Buddhist monk and then a subaltern in a popular rebellion against the Mongol rulers of the Yuan dynasty to become a ...(100 of 2901 words)