-
He was born to to Zhu Shizhen. He and his family were poor peasants. His hometown was Huazhou which is about 100 miles northwest of Nanjing near China’s east coast.
-
Zhu Chongba became an orphan and decided to become a monk to avoid starvation. He became a monk at Huangjue monastery. He often begged for scraps on the streets.
-
He quickly became second in command to Guo Zixing who became jealous of him because he was a good leader. Chongba later changed his name to Zhu Yuanzhang.
-
He married Princess Ma, Guo's adopted daughter. Ma later helped subdue the problems between her father and husband.
-
Zhu Yuanzhang leads the rebel forces after Guo Zixing dies. The rebel forces capture Nanjing and Zhu Yuanzhang proclaims himself Emperor and becomes the Hongwu Emperor.
-
Yongle (known as Zhu Di) was born as the fourth son of Emperor Hongwu and Empress Ma. He was born in the Chinese Republic shortly before his father founded the Ming Dynasty in 1368.
-
Emperor Hongwu founded the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty was the period of native Chinese ruling. It succeeded the Yuan (Mongel) Dynasty. The arose following a series of natural disasters that hit China during the early and middle 1300's, adding to the misery of a people under the harsh rule of the Mongol Yuan dynasty. The Forbidden City was built during the Ming Dynasty.
-
Emperor Hongwu had assigned territories to the members of the royal family and stationed them across the empire. Zhu Di was assigned to Beiping (today Beijing) and he rebuilt the defenses of the northern boundary of China. It is said that he lived there for about two decades.
-
Emperor Hongwu sent his eldest son away to Xi'an and Luoyang. Biao was to see if either of the cities would make good capital cities. Baio died shortly after this.
-
He died at the age of 69. He had been ruling for 30 years when he died. Emperor Hongwu had had trouble choosing his successor. He had first chosen his first son Zhu Biao, but when Zhu Biao died he traditionally chose Zhu Biao’s son, Zhu Yunwen.
-
Emperor Jianwen (known as Zhu Yunwen) started ruling after his grandfather had died. Emperor Hongwu had chosen him because after his eldest son died, it was tradition for his son to succeed. Immediately after he gained power he began to plan to reduce the power of each territorial prince.
-
The Prince of Zhou was arrested in Kaifeng accused of treason. He was stripped of royal status and exiled to Yunnan
-
The Princes of Qi, Xiang and Dai lost their royal status. The Princes of Qi and Dai were placed under house arrest in Nanjing and Datong. The Prince Xiang committed suicide.
-
This was a war between the Jianwen emperor and his uncle Zhu Di (Yongle). Di wanted power over Nanjing and was angered that his nephew ruled instead of him. Zhu Di's base of power to launch the military campaign against Jianwen was in Beiping (today's Beijing).
-
The war against Emperor Jianwen and Zhu Di (Yongle) ends when Di captures the imperial capital, Nanjing. Emperor Jianwen's body was never found. It is thought that he either burned in his palace or escaped.
-
Zhu Di takes power after winning the Jingnan war against his nephew, Emperor Jianwen.
-
The Forbidden city starts getting built in Beiping (Beijing) after Emperor Yongle makes plans to move the capitol from Nanjing to Beijing.
-
Emperor Yongle moves the Imperial Capital from Nanjing to Beiping (Beijing) after building the Forbidden city. Yongle moves the capitol to Beiping because he had lived there for years and his base of power was there. His father had also had plans to move the capitol from Nanjing to other cities but he never accomplished it so Yongle did it.
-
After fourteen years of construction the Forbidden City is completed. Forbidden City served as the home of emperors and their households as well as the political and ritual center of China during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
-
Emperor Yongle dies when he returns from a campaign at age 64. He is succeeded by one of his sons and since then the Forbidden City served as a home to dozens of emperors.
-
Peasant uprising leader Li Zicheng who overthrew the Ming dynasty set fire to the palace when retreating. The fire almost burned the entire palace to ruins. Since then, it took several emperors over 100 years to rebuild it.
-
The Qing Dynasty begins after Li Zicheng captures Beijing. Desperate Ming dynasty officials called on the Manchus for aid. The Manchus took advantage of the opportunity to seize the capital and establish their own dynasty in China.
-
A ceremony was held at the Forbidden City to proclaim the young Shunzhi Emperor as ruler of all China.The Qing rulers maintained the Palace's Ming Dynasty scheme, except for the names of some of the principal buildings.
-
During the Second Opium War, Anglo-French forces took control of the Forbidden City and occupied it until the end of the war. Later, during the Boxer War Empress Cixi flees the palace leaving it to be occupied by the treaty forces.
-
the Forbidden City ceased to be the political center of China with the abdication of Puyi, the last Emperor of China. an agreement signed between the Qing imperial house and the new Republic of China government stated that Puyi was allowed/ required to live within the walls of the Forbidden City.
-
https://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/astimeln.htm
https://www.wonders-of-the-world.net/Forbidden-city/History-of-the-forbidden-city.php
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ming-dynasty-Chinese-history
http://factsanddetails.com/china/cat2/sub4/entry-5603.html
https://study.com/academy/answer/who-became-emperor-after-hong-wu.html -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingnan_Campaign
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-asia/imperial-china/ming-dynasty/a/an-introduction-to-the-ming-dynasty-13681644
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hongwu
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Forbidden-City
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Forbidden_City -
http://factsanddetails.com/china/cat2/sub4/entry-5603.html
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Yongle#ref8093
https://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2016/12/29/capital-histories-how-beijing-came-be-chinas-capital
http://english.cri.cn/4406/2007/02/12/1281@195333.htm
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Qing-dynasty
