Jingnan Campaign

Overview

The Jingnan Campaign arose after Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunwen took the throne and pursued a forceful reduction of the imperial princes, intensifying tensions with princes who controlled large armies. Prince of Yan Zhu Di rose under the slogan of “clearing the emperor’s side and pacifying the national crisis.” After nearly four years of war, he entered Nanjing in 1402, the fourth year of the Jianwen era. The Jianwen Emperor disappeared, and Zhu Di ascended the throne as the Yongle Emperor. The war profoundly changed the political structure of the early Ming.

Background

Prince of Yan Zhu Di rose in arms and marched south to seize the throne, defeating the Jianwen Emperor after four years in a coup that brought a change of ruler.

Course of the Event

The roots of the Jingnan Campaign can be traced to the enfeoffment system of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang. In the fourth lunar month of 1370, the third year of the Hongwu era, Zhu Yuanzhang enfeoffed twenty-five members of the imperial clan—twenty-four sons and one grandnephew—as princes stationed along the northern frontier and at strategic locations throughout the empire. The nine frontier princes guarding the north—Liao, Ning, Yan, Gu, Dai, Jin, Qin, Qing, and Su—maintained especially large guards because of their role in defending against Mongol forces. Prince of Yan Zhu Di at Beiping reportedly commanded one hundred thousand troops, while Prince of Ning Zhu Quan at Daning had “eighty thousand armored men and six thousand war carts.” The princes of Jin and Yan repeatedly campaigned beyond the frontier against remnants of the Mongol Yuan and were especially trusted by Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Di in particular was ordered to command frontier troops and held a uniquely powerful position.

The growing power of the princes posed a threat to the central government. Even when Zhu Yuanzhang first created the princely fiefs, Ye Boju, an instructor in Pingyao County, memorialized that excessively powerful princes would become difficult to control after several generations and that later attempts to reduce their power could provoke rebellion. He urged limits on their cities, guard troops, and territories. Zhu Yuanzhang rejected the advice and imprisoned him to death.

Zhu Yuanzhang also gave princes the right to petition the center for the removal of treacherous ministers and to raise troops to “clear the emperor’s side.” The Ancestral Instructions of the Ming declared that if no upright ministers remained at court and treachery arose within, troops should be raised to punish it and clear the emperor’s side. This provision later became an important justification used by Zhu Di.

In 1392, the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu, Crown Prince Zhu Biao died. Zhu Yuanzhang made Zhu Biao’s second son Zhu Yunwen imperial heir-apparent. Zhu Yunwen was described as intelligent, studious, and deeply filial and was favored by his grandfather, although Zhu Yuanzhang reportedly worried that he was too gentle and indecisive. He at one point considered changing the succession but abandoned the idea after remonstrance from Hanlin scholar Liu Sanwu.

Zhu Yuanzhang died in the intercalary fifth lunar month of 1398, the thirty-first year of Hongwu. His grandson Zhu Yunwen succeeded as the Jianwen Emperor. Zhu Yuanzhang’s final edict instructed civil and military officials to support the new ruler and ordered the princes to remain in their territories and not come to the capital. Despite the prohibition on attending the mourning rites, Zhu Di set out toward the capital and was ordered back to Beiping, which angered him.

By the Jianwen Emperor’s accession, the frontier princes already possessed considerable military strength. In the first lunar month of 1399, Zhu Di sent his senior secretary Ge Cheng to court. Zhu Yunwen secretly questioned him about the Yan princely establishment; Ge answered truthfully and was sent back to act as an informer. Zhu Di then personally came to court and, relying on his status as the emperor’s uncle, entered by the imperial route and approached the throne without proper obeisance. Investigating Censor Zeng Fengshao impeached him for disrespect, and Vice Minister of Revenue Zhuo Jing secretly recommended transferring Zhu Di’s fief to Nanchang. Zhu Yunwen rejected both proposals on the ground of close kinship. Zhu Di sensed the court’s suspicion, returned to his residence, and feigned illness while watching developments.

The Jianwen Emperor discussed reducing the princes with Minister of War Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng, Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. Qi Tai advocated striking first at the strongest prince, Yan; Huang favored first removing princes with clearer pretexts in order to secure public support. The emperor followed Huang’s approach and successively stripped five princes of their titles. In the seventh lunar month of 1398, Prince of Zhou Zhu Su was reduced to commoner status and exiled to Menghua in Yunnan. In the fourth lunar month of 1399, the princes of Qi, Xiang, and Dai were removed; Prince of Xiang Zhu Bai burned himself with his entire household, Prince of Qi Zhu Fu was confined in Nanjing, and Prince of Dai Zhu Gui was confined in Datong. In the sixth lunar month, Prince of Min Zhu Pian was reduced and transferred to Zhangzhou.

The policy sharpened the conflict, with the powerful Prince of Yan now the foremost remaining prince. In the twelfth lunar month of 1398, the Jianwen Emperor appointed Zhang Bing as administrative commissioner of Beiping and Xie Gui and Zhang Xin as regional military commanders; he also ordered Song Zhong to station troops at Kaiping and transferred forces formerly under Yan control. Zhu Di saw that he was unlikely to escape reduction and began preparing for war while buying time. He first feigned illness to secure the return of his three sons to Beiping and later feigned madness, although Ge Cheng secretly exposed the deception.

In the seventh lunar month of 1399, the court secretly ordered Zhang Bing and Xie Gui to arrest officials of the Yan princely establishment and ordered Zhang Xin to seize Zhu Di himself. After discussing the matter with his mother, Zhang Xin warned Zhu Di. Zhu Di and Yao Guangxiao then planned an uprising, and Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng brought eight hundred armed men into the residence. On the fourth day of the seventh lunar month, Zhang Bing and Xie Gui surrounded the palace. Zhu Di pretended that he had bound his own officials and invited the two men inside to inspect them; once inside they were seized and killed by hidden troops, together with Ge Cheng and Lu Zhen. That night Zhu Di captured Beiping’s nine gates and took control of the city.

Zhu Di sent a counter-memorial to Nanjing. The Jianwen Emperor reported the matter to the ancestral temple, removed Zhu Di from the imperial clan register, reduced him to commoner status, and ordered a campaign against Yan. Citing the Ancestral Instructions of the Ming, Zhu Di claimed to be “clearing the emperor’s side,” denounced Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng as treacherous ministers, and called his action “Jingnan,” or “pacifying the national crisis.” After the Yan army secured Beiping, Tongzhou submitted voluntarily. Yan forces then took Jizhou, Zunhua, Miyun, Juyong Pass, and Huailai, captured and killed Song Zhong, and received the submission of Yongping Prefecture. The area around Beiping was cleared and the Yan army grew to tens of thousands.

In the eighth lunar month of 1399, the court appointed the sixty-five-year-old veteran Geng Bingwen as General-in-Chief and sent him north. Zhu Yunwen personally warned him not to give the emperor a reputation for killing his uncle. On the fifteenth day, Yan forces used the Mid-Autumn Festival to launch a surprise attack on Xiong County, ambushed reinforcements from Mozhou, and captured Mozhou. At the Battle of Zhending on the twenty-fifth day, Yan forces attacked while Geng Bingwen was escorting an envoy out of the city; Zhu Di personally struck the flank. Geng suffered a major defeat, commanders Li Jian, Ning Zhong, and Gu Cheng were captured, and tens of thousands of soldiers were killed or taken prisoner. Geng withdrew behind Zhending’s walls. After three unsuccessful days of siege, the Yan army returned to Beiping on the twenty-ninth.

After Geng’s defeat, Huang Zicheng recommended Duke of Cao Li Jinglong as the new commander. Li established his base at Dezhou, gathered an army said to number five hundred thousand, and reached Hejian on the eleventh day of the ninth lunar month. Zhu Di rejoiced at the news, predicting that Li would fail and listing “five reasons for defeat.” While Li hesitated, Zhu Di marched to relieve Yongping, defeated Wu Gao’s Liaodong army, then made a surprise attack on Daning, seized Prince of Ning Zhu Quan, and absorbed his elite troops. Li Jinglong meanwhile besieged Beiping, but Zhu Gaochi, heir of Yan, held the city. In the eleventh lunar month Zhu Di returned and crushed the southern army at Zhengcunba, forcing Li back to Dezhou.

In the fourth lunar month of 1400, the second year of Jianwen, Li Jinglong suffered another major defeat at the Battle of Baigou River and the main southern army was destroyed. In the fifth lunar month the Yan army entered Jinan, but Tie Xuan and Sheng Yong held the city and forced Zhu Di to withdraw after a prolonged siege. In the twelfth lunar month the Yan army was badly defeated at Dongchang, Zhang Yu was killed, and Zhu Di narrowly escaped. In 1401, victories at Jiahe and Gaocheng reversed the situation and produced a new stalemate.

In the first lunar month of 1402, the fourth year of Jianwen, Zhu Di changed strategy and stopped contesting every city, instead marching directly toward the capital. In the fourth lunar month, Yan forces destroyed the main southern army at the Battle of Lingbi and captured Ping An, Chen Hui, and others. On the eighth day of the sixth lunar month, they crossed the Yangtze and occupied Zhenjiang. On the thirteenth day they reached Jinchuan Gate of the capital, where Prince of Gu Zhu Hui and Li Jinglong opened the gate and surrendered. The capital fell. The Jianwen Emperor disappeared; one account says he died by self-immolation in the palace, while another says he escaped through a tunnel and lived as a monk in the Yunnan–Guizhou region. On the seventeenth day Zhu Di ascended the throne as the Yongle Emperor and adopted the era name Yongle.

Results and Impact

Prince of Yan Zhu Di rose in arms, marched south, and after four years defeated the Jianwen Emperor and seized the throne in a coup that brought a change of ruler.

The war profoundly altered the political structure of the early Ming dynasty.