On the fourth day of the first lunar month in 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne in Nanjing and became emperor, with the founding name "Daming", and since then the Ming Dynasty has officially entered the stage of Chinese history. The original Beijing division of the Ming Dynasty was selected in Nanjing, but as early as the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, he had the idea of moving the capital, because Nanjing was too far from the northern border, and it was difficult to achieve timely and effective both strategic offensive and strategic defense.
In 1391, Zhu Yuanzhang sent the crown prince Zhu Biao to Guanzhong to investigate, intending to move the capital to Chang'an. However, the idea of moving the capital had not yet been specifically planned, and Zhu Biao died of illness. The loss of his beloved son in his later years made Zhu Yuanzhang depressed, and he no longer mentioned the matter of moving the capital.
In 1398, Zhu Yuanzhang died. He passed the throne to Zhu Biao's son Zhu Yunjiao, who was known as Emperor Jianwen. However, before Emperor Jianwen could sit on the throne, Zhu Di (the fourth son of Zhu Yuanzhang), the King of Yan in Beiping, rebelled in the name of "Qing Jun's side, JingGuo Difficulty". After three years of the "Battle of Jingnan", Zhu Di defeated Emperor Jianwen and successfully seized the throne, becoming the third emperor in the history of the Ming Dynasty, known as the Yongle Emperor.
For Zhu Yuanzhang, although Nanjing is not an ideal capital, it is acceptable. But for Zhu Di, Nanjing, as the capital of the country, is how to see how awkward, the reasons are roughly three aspects.
First, Zhu Di's power was based in Beiping rather than in Nanjing. Although he forcibly suppressed all opposition voices by force, he was unable to win the hearts and minds of Jiangnan Shizi. Therefore, instead of staying in Nanjing and fighting with these seemingly mysterious southern scholars, it is better to move the capital directly to his hometown of Beiping, and it is always beneficial to him to return to the home field.
Second, The strategic position of Beiping is very prominent, and it is a choke point connecting the northeast with Guannei. Fixing the capital of Beiping and stationing a large number of troops around Beiping could not only prevent sneak attacks by the Mongol forces in the north, but also firmly control the military power in his own hands, which was especially important for Zhu Di, who had seized the world by force.
Third, Beiping, as Zhu Di's "land of longxing", from the perspective of feudal superstition, is also more conducive to the development of Zhu Di's lineage.
In the first year of Yongle (1403), zhu Di, who was "homesick", ordered that Peiping be renamed "Shuntianfu" (Beijing), nominally on a par with "Ying Tianfu" (Nanjing). Three years later, Zhu Di ordered the construction of the Beijing Imperial Palace (forbidden city) and the expansion of the city of Beijing, based on the Nanjing Imperial Palace. After fourteen years of construction, the Forbidden City was finally completed. In November of the eighteenth year of Yongle (1420), Zhu Di officially announced the relocation of the capital to Beijing, changing Nanjing to the capital of Liu. Since then, the plan to move the capital that has been brewing for eighteen years has finally been completed in Zhu Di's later years.
In the twenty-second year of Yongle (1424), Zhu Di died on the way back to the Northern Expedition to Mongolia, and the crown prince Zhu Gaozi was enthroned as emperor and was known as the Hongxi Emperor.
The Hongxi Emperor Zhu Gaozi was the second-shortest-reigning emperor in the history of the Ming Dynasty, reigning for just over eight months. However, in such a short period of time, he did many things that had a very far-reaching impact on the later development of the Ming Dynasty, paving the way for his successors to prosperity. Therefore, from any point of view, Zhu Gaozi is a well-deserved good emperor.
In April of the first year of Hong Xi (1425), Zhu Gaozi suddenly made a decision that was very shocking to the eyes of the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu at that time: to move the capital back to Nanjing. You know, his father Zhu Di can be said to have devoted all his national strength to building Beijing, and now that less than five years have passed, Zhu Gaozi plans to move back to Nanjing. Of course, in ancient times the emperor's decision was certainly indisputable. As soon as Zhu Gaozi gave the order, all the courtiers were naturally about to start preparing for the relocation. Two weeks later, Zhu Gaozi sent the crown prince Zhu Zhanji to Nanjing to pay homage to Zhu Yuanzhang's imperial tomb, and stayed in Nanjing to take charge of the relocation of the imperial court.
Why did Zhu Gaozi plan to move back to Nanjing? In fact, his reason is simple: Nanjing's expenses are much lower than Beijing's. Throughout the ages, The Capital Division has been a gathering place for a large number of people, and the daily consumption of grain alone is very amazing. Beijing is strategically located, but it is far from the economic center, and most of the resource supply has to be transported from the south by water transport. In ancient times, transportation was inconvenient and the transportation cost was extremely high, and the capital of Beijing would naturally cause a lot of consumption along the way. Nanjing is located in the southern economic center, close to the grain producing areas in jiangnan, the transportation cost is relatively light, and a large amount of money and grain can be saved every year. In addition, Zhu Gaozi was not interested in expanding his territory into the northern region, he only hoped that his people could live a worry-free life, so the strategic significance of fixing the capital beijing was not so prominent.
However, just as the plan of return was being carried out in an orderly manner, Zhu Gaozi died suddenly on May 29, 1425, the first year of Hong Xi's reign (1425), at the age of 47. Before his death, Zhu Gaozi repeatedly expressed his intention to return the capital to Nanjing in his will: "The north and south provide hundreds of millions of labor, and the army and the people are in difficulty." The four sides look up to Xian Nanjing, and Si Ye Wu's su xin. However, his successor, the Xuande Emperor Zhu Zhanji, was closer in character to his grandfather Zhu Di, who apparently believed that Beijing was more suitable as the capital than Nanjing, so Zhu Gaozi's last wish was not fulfilled, and Beijing remained the capital of the Ming Dynasty until the fall of the Ming Dynasty.
References: History of the Ming Dynasty, Records of emperor Akihito