Jiajing
Jiajing refers to the reign of Zhu Houzong, who became the emperor of China during the Ming Dynasty in 1522, following a controversial ascent to the throne that bypassed the traditional line of succession. Known for his intelligence and classical training, Jiajing's reign was marked by significant challenges, including economic decline, natural disasters, and increasing Mongol invasions. Early in his rule, he faced opposition from officials regarding his insistence on honoring his parents, which threatened established rituals of imperial legitimacy. Jiajing's later years saw a decline in active governance as he became preoccupied with Daoism and the pursuit of immortality, resulting in a reliance on dubious elixirs that affected his health and mental capacity.
Throughout his reign, Jiajing attempted to implement fiscal reforms in response to a growing financial crisis exacerbated by droughts, famines, and mounting defense expenses. His refusal to engage in trade with the Mongols ultimately led to increased raids into Ming territory. By the end of his reign, despite advancements in agricultural technology and industry, the Ming Dynasty faced unresolved fiscal and military challenges that would contribute to its eventual decline in the 17th century. Jiajing's legacy includes both his attempts at reform and the political instability that characterized his rule.
Jiajing
Locale China
Date 1521-1567
The reign of Jiajing marks the return of despotic rule to the Ming Dynasty and saw the enactment of controversial revisions to court ritual. Although raids by the Mongols on the northern border increased dramatically during this period, a general avoidance of military confrontation left the problem to future emperors.
Key Figures
Jiajing (reign name, also Chia-ching; personal name Zhu Houzong, Chu Hou-tsung; posthumous name Sudi, Su-ti; temple name Shizong, Shih-tsung; 1507-1567), Ming emperor of China, r. 1522-1567Yang Tinghe (Yang T’ing-ho; 1459-1529), chief grand secretaryAltan (1507-1582), Mongol khan, r. 1543-1582Yen Song (Yen Sung; 1480-1565), grand secretary, 1542-1562Shao Yuanjie (Shao Yüan-chieh; 1459-1539), patriarch of Daoism of the state and minister of ritesTao Zhongwen (T’ao Chung-wen; c. 1481-1560), a Daoist priest
Summary of Event
In 1522, the Ming Dynasty’s chief grand secretary, Yang Tinghe, placed Zhu Houzong, a highly intelligent and classically trained man, on the imperial throne, thereby severing the formal line of succession. Taking the reign name Jiajing, he inherited a state neglected by the heirless tenth Ming emperor Zhengde (Cheng-te, temple name Wuzong or Wu-tsung; r. 1505-1521), whose lust for pleasure led to increased control of government by the powerful eunuch class of bureaucrats.
Perhaps trouble was not expected from Jiajing, but his stubborn insistence on having his own parents recognized officially and given their rightful due soon drew loud protests from many officials, who feared formalizing this broken line of succession. Jiajing had 134 of these officials flogged and jailed, and he ordered the compilation of the history of what became known as the Ta-li affair in 1525. Above all, Jiajing wanted bestowed posthumously on his father honors similar to those accorded the previous emperor. Jiajing also insisted that his mother be received by the court as a dowager empress rather than a princess. His demands, which challenged the ritual foundations of imperial legitimacy, had the effect of altering the manner in which emperors acknowledged their predecessors.
Jiajing’s reign is known to history as one of fiscal crisis and population growth. Between 1522 and 1524, while Yang Tinghe was chief grand secretary, the main imperial granaries held only a three-year reserve, and demand continued to exceed supply year after year. Palace financial reserves were sometimes exhausted during the following decade. Jiajing was forced to cease additional palace and temple construction to slow the depletion of funds, but in May of 1557, the main audience halls and southern ceremonial gates were destroyed by fire and cost more than 730,000 ounces of silver to rebuild. While this project was being undertaken, another fire, started when a lamp tipped over after a night during which the court had indulged in heavy drinking, claimed the emperor’s palace in the western garden of the Forbidden City.
Faced with constant deficits, the emperor approved fiscal reorganization, but widespread drought and famine, combined with mounting defense expenditures, continued to deplete imperial funds. On January 23, 1556, a massive earthquake hit the provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan. Buildings and city walls collapsed, giant crevices opened in the earth, and the aftershocks lasted for days. It has been estimated that as many as 830,000 people perished in the subsequent flooding. The financial demands of meeting this disaster was combined with the need to provision increasing numbers of imperial clansmen with stipends, the disappearance of taxable land, and the failure to register newly cultivated land. Legal overseas trade with Japan quickly degenerated into piracy and its concomitant violence, which spiraled out of control by 1556. Imperial finances would not begin to improve until the 1570’.
Potential sources of revenues such as trade with the Mongols went untapped. Jiajing despised the Mongols and refused to grant their petitions for trade. This intransigence had dire consequences. The Mongols prized items such as silk, tea, metalwares, and pottery, and the procurement of these items became inextricably intertwined with power. The Mongol khan Altan conducted major raids deep into Ming territory in search of scarce supplies after his petitions for trade with China were rejected. Though Jiajing committed precious funds to building new defensive walls, the underling causes of the raids were not addressed. The Mongols were emboldened after defeating the imperial army in 1548, and by March of 1550, no rain or snow had fallen for more than 150 days. The Mongols prepared to attack again. On October 1, they besieged Beijing and looted the suburbs successfully. When an imperial army could not be raised to drive off the invaders, they retreated several days later—booty intact. The Mongols continued their raids from 1550 to 1556, and the Ming armies won only a single significant victory during this period. Not surprisingly, between 1550 and 1560, payments for garrisons doubled while revenues remained constant.
Although the first years of Jiajing’s reign saw genuine changes that included the dismissal of hundreds of eunuchs and unqualified persons and the seizure of their property by the state, this zeal for office did not continue. As Jiajing’s health declined in the 1530’s, he ceased attending to the routine details of government and left such tasks to the likes of Yen Song, the grand secretary from 1542 to 1562. Jiajing had stopped officiating at the Sacrifice to Earth and Heaven altogether by 1553.
Relieved of the most onerous duties of office, Jiajing pursued an ardent interest in the magical arts of Daoism and was encouraged in this pursuit first by a priest named Shao Yuanjie and later by Tao Zhongwen. This obsession began with an interest in increasing fertility, for the emperor remained childless the first ten years of his reign. Soon, however, Jiajing began relying on divinations in matters of state and increasingly ingested aphrodisiacs. His quest for longevity and immortality led to his addiction to the stimulants found in these aphrodisiacs, which were made largely from red lead and white arsenic. Ironically, these elixirs caused mood swings, diminished his mental capacity, and eventually led to his early death. Jiajing’s interest in attaining immortality may even have contributed to an assassination attempt by concubines who dreaded his visits. On November 27, 1542, eighteen palace girls tried to strangle him while he was in a drunken stupor. It seems that some of the elixirs of immortality pursued by Jiajing required intercourse with fourteen-year-old virgins at their first instance of menses. Tao Zhongwen once selected eight hundred girls between the ages of eight and fourteen for use in refining the elixir.
Jiajing’s obsession with Daoism had political implications as well. He turned against the Hanlin Academy, the bastion of Confucianism in imperial China. He demoted and reassigned many Hanlin officials to provincial posts and replaced them with individuals who had no previous affiliation with the academy. Late in 1530, he changed the sacrifices and titles for Confucius (who had been deemed a prince since 738) and did away with all titles of nobility conferred on Confucius and his followers. Images were even ordered abolished from Confucian temples, though this decree was not widely enforced. As Daoist activities increased on the palace grounds, officials able to write well in the poetic Daoist literary form, known as Qing ci, received high favor. Attempts were made to suppress Buddhism as well during this period. In 1536, the Buddhist temple on the palace grounds was ordered dismantled, and 169 of its gold and silver images were melted down.
Significance
During Jiajing’s reign, the wealth of the Ming Dynasty began to decline, though economic activity increased, driven by growth in agricultural technology and the development of the cloth and handicraft industries. Part of the reason for this economic decline amid increased production was the disappearance of existing taxable land and the failure to register new land properly. The increase in population, a series of building projects and natural disasters, and the mounting defense expenditures also contributed to the fiscal crisis. Mongol invasions from the north increased and were met defensively; consequently, the Mongols were not driven from the frontier. Raids by Japanese and other pirates began in the 1520’s and reached a peak by the mid-1550’s, when they threatened the canal cities of Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Nanjing. Though the emperor refused to change his position, his ban on maritime trade (and trade with the Mongols) proved ineffective. All of these problems remained unsolved into the seventeenth century and contributed to the demise of the Ming Dynasty in 1644, less than a century after Jiajing’s death in 1567.
Bibliography
Goodrich, L. Carrington, ed. Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368-1644. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976. Contains useful biographies of Jiajing and other prominent Ming figures.
Mote, Fredrick W. Imperial China, 900-1800. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999. Useful discussion of the mid-Ming period.
Mote, Fredrick W., and Denis Twitchett, ed. The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644, Part 1. Vol. 7 in The Cambridge History of China. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1988. In-depth overview of the reign of Jiajing.
Paludan, Ann. Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors: The Reign by Reign Record of the Rulers of China. London: Thames and Hudson, 1998. Includes a brief discussion of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty and provides historical context.