The Forbidden City in Beijing has been built from the twentieth year of Yongle (1420) has a history of nearly 600 years, as the residence of the 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties and the center of political power, the Forbidden City in Beijing is the treasure of the Chinese nation, the ancient craftsmen left a huge ancient architectural complex and countless cultural relics for China, and the Forbidden City has also become one of the most national business cards in China and is famous all over the world.
However, have you ever thought that we almost missed this beautiful Forbidden City, if Zhu Di had not moved the capital to Beijing, he would not have built the Forbidden City in Beijing, and if there was no Ming Dynasty's construction of Beijing, the Qing Dynasty would not have chosen Beijing as the capital, and naturally there would be no Beijing Forbidden City that spanned the Ming and Qing dynasties and until today. So what exactly prompted Ming Chengzu Zhu Di to move the capital to Beijing and build this great imperial palace?
Forbidden City, Beijing
Ming Chengzu Zhu Di was the fourth son of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, who was given the title of King of Yan and sat in Beijing to guard the border for the Ming Dynasty, even if his eldest brother and crown prince Zhu Biaoying died young, Zhu Di, the King of Yan, had no connection with the throne, and Zhu Yuanzhang passed the throne to his grandson Zhu Yunjiao, in order to Emperor Jianwen. However, the ambitious Zhu Di did not want to admit his fate, and launched the Battle of Jingnan in the first year of Jianwen (1399) under the pretext of "Qing Junfang", and after four years of war invaded the capital of the Ming Dynasty at that time, Nanjing, Emperor Jianwen disappeared, and Zhu Di took the throne as emperor. In the first ten years after he ascended the throne, Zhu Di spent most of his time in the Nanjing Imperial Palace, but from the moment he took the throne, Zhu Di had already made up his mind to move the capital to Beijing.
The Battle of Jing
In the first year of Yongle, Li Zhigang and others in the Rebbe Shangshu said: "Since the former emperors ... In the land of the cause, there is ascension. See the place where the Emperor of Beiping Bu zhengshi carried the xingxing, and it was advisable to follow the system of Emperor Taizugao's zhongdu and establish it as Kyoto. Zhu Di went with the flow, "System: Yes." Its name is Peking. In the fourth year of Yongle, Qiu Fu, the Duke of Qiguo, sang: "Please build a Palace in Beijing for the sake of luck." Of course, this was also at the behest of Zhu Di himself, and after Qiu Fu's performance was approved, the construction of the palace in Beijing had been officially launched, of course, not in the name of moving the capital, but under the guise of "building a palace".
Subsequently, Zhu Di systematically increased the population of Beijing, and immigrants, veterans, and even criminals from all over the world were resettled to Beijing to increase its population and lay the population foundation for the future capital. In addition, Zhu Di also practiced what he preached, and repeatedly went to Beijing to live in the name of patrol hunting and northern expeditions, reducing the time spent in the capital Nanjing, so that the political power center of the empire was substantially transferred to Beijing. In the fifth year of Yongle, Zhu Di's Empress Xu (Xu Da's daughter) died, and Zhu Di built the empress's mausoleum in Beijing, and all this has clearly expressed his intention to move the capital to Beijing, sending a signal to the ministers of the DPRK. Moving the capital to Beijing is already unstoppable.
Zhu Di
So what made Zhu Di so eager to move the capital? There may be three main reasons.
First of all, Zhu Di himself did not have a good impression of Nanjing. Zhu Yuanzhang fixed the capital in Nanjing and created the Ming Dynasty, but all this had nothing to do with himself, after all, this was zhu biao and Zhu Yunjiao's family, he was far away in Beiping, and had nothing to do with all the imperial respects in Nanjing. What made Zhu Di even more disappointed in Nanjing was the impression of Zhu Di by the nanjing subjects, after Zhu Di entered Nanjing, "the ministers either died or fled, and several empty court offices" were not only the close ministers of Emperor Jianwen, Fang Xiaoru, Huang Zicheng, and Qi Tai, but other ministers such as Shangshu Tiexuan of the Bingbu And Gong Tai of huke also expressed their indomitability and resistance to Zhu Di in different ways.
Map of Nanjing
Nanjing was a city that witnessed Zhu Di's "usurpation", and the people of the capital had a good impression of Emperor Jianwen, so naturally it was impossible to identify with the new emperor who usurped the throne, and Zhu Di was also aware of this. Although he was in a high position, he also greatly hoped to be recognized by everyone up and down, so this made Zhu Di miss Beiping even more- the old country he had been in the domain of that year, he rose from here, and he believed that the people of Beiping would definitely support him.
Secondly, as a "usurper of the throne", Zhu Di has always hoped to wash away his stain through certain great achievements. Zhu Di was well aware that his throne was not coming from the right path, and although he tried his best to cover up and try to eliminate all traces of the existence of Emperor Jianwen, he knew that history would definitely give him a "just" ruling, so if he wanted to justify himself in the history of Qing, he must not only be a prince of shoucheng, but must make some great achievements, just like Li Shimin of Tang Taizong who seized the throne of his brother Tang.
Beijing (or Beiping) was originally the residence of King Yan, one of the nine Sai kings (the kings of the town guarding the frontier) divided by Zhu Yuanzhang, that is, zhu Di himself, beijing was the frontier position of the defense of The Mongols, and when the Mongols had been driven back to Saiwai, Zhu Di's great achievements could only be achieved by going deep into the desert steppe to pursue the Mongols. As a famous general of the Ming Dynasty at that time, Zhu Di wanted to start from Nanjing, so it was bound to be too far, and Nanjing could not provide enough strategic support for the front line, but Beijing was just right, so Zhu Di built Beijing to plan for his own expedition to Mongolia. It turns out that Zhu Di later used Beijing as a base and marched on Mongolia (Tatars and Valabe) five times in the eighth, twelfth, twentieth, twenty-first, and twenty-second years of Yongle, and finally died on the way back from the last northern expedition.
Zhu Yuanzhang divided the nine Sai kings
Finally, and most importantly, Zhu Di wanted to relieve the northern King of Sai from his military power, and in order to fill the vacuum of the northern defensive line, he could only "guard the gate of the country with the son of heaven." After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang successively enfeoffed his nine sons to sit in the north, known as the "King of Mo Nan Sai", these Sai kings were extremely powerful, had military power, and could mobilize local troops and even appoint local officials. During the Jianwen period, Emperor Jianwen, in view of the excessive power of the local feudal kings, only promoted the reduction of the clan and made some small progress. Zhu Di, the King of Yan, himself, was dissatisfied with Emperor Jianwen's cutting of the domain and launched the Battle of Jingnan and seized the throne.
After Zhu Di ascended the throne, he naturally knew the threat posed to him by the kings of the Seychelles, and he was also worried that the kings of the clan would repeat the "Battle of Jingnan" like himself, so he must continue to implement Emperor Jianwen's policy of cutting the domain. Zhu Di planned to move the Cypriot kings on the border to the interior, and the interior did not need to fight foreign wars, so naturally they could cut or limit their military power, but this caused a vacuum in the northern defense line, so Zhu Di's countermeasure was to "fill it with oneself", as the most effective commander and general of the Ming Dynasty during the Jianwen and Yongle periods, Zhu Di did have the ability to personally defend the north.
It is based on the above considerations that Ming Chengzu Zhu Di decided to move the capital to Beijing, and to rebuild a larger imperial palace modeled on the appearance of the Forbidden City in Nanjing, so this is the Forbidden City in Beijing today, just imagine, if Zhu Di did not usurp the throne, or Zhu Di did not have the series of "careful thinking" that eventually led to the relocation of the capital to Beijing, then we may not see this solemn and magnificent Forbidden City today.
References: Dragon Bed, Ming Dynasty Six Emperors, Lecture Notes on the History of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Records of Emperor Taizong