The most indulgent and pleasure-seeking emperor of the Ming Dynasty - Zhu Houzhao

He is known in history as the emperor who was lecherous and indulged in excess, but at the age of 31, his words "All past matters are my fault" reveal the loneliness and awareness of an emperor.

He presents a personality that can be extremely outrageous yet still retains a pure heart; he can be completely unreliable but hold up the nation at critical moments.

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Zhu Houzhao was born on September 24th of the fourth year of Hongzhi (October 26, 1491). His father, Emperor Xiaozong of Ming, Zhu Youjian, was very devoted, having only one empress, Empress Zhang, who gave birth to only one son, nicknamed "Houzhao."

The emperors of the Ming Dynasty were coaxed into consuming various elixirs made by soothsayers, which actually severely exceeded heavy metal standards, causing most of them to have health issues, leading to poor reproductive abilities or even complete infertility.

As a result, after Zhu Houzhao was born, he was naturally the center of attention, becoming the crown prince at the age of 2, showered with all the love from his father, mother, and the world.

And Zhu Houzhao had distinct characteristics.

Young: Naturally intelligent.

Starting at the age of 6, he began studying, and he was naturally bright, taking lectures very seriously and treating the lecturers with respect. Within a few months, he knew the names of all the lecturers from the Hanlin Academy and the Left Spring Office, and if any teacher was absent, he would ask, "Where is Mr. So-and-so today?"

This made Emperor Xiaozong extremely fond of him, and he always took the crown prince along on outings. At the same time, Xiaozong, hearing that the crown prince enjoyed military affairs in his spare time, believed he was wise to remember danger even in leisure and thus did not interfere - this is also the reason why Zhu Houzhao later gave himself the alias Zhu Shou and proclaimed himself "Duke of the State, Grand General of Military Affairs, and Chief General", especially fond of being a great general and daring to go to the front lines.

On the eighth day of the fifth month in the eighteenth year of Hongzhi, Emperor Xiaozong passed away. In his last moments, Xiaozong summoned high-ranking ministers Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, and Xie Qian to his bedside, entrusting them with the duty of assistance, praising the crown prince as "intelligent and brave" while worrying about his "love for comfort."

At that time, Zhu Houzhao was only 14 years old, at the most playful age, just as puberty was beginning to emerge, and suddenly without the restrictions of his father, he began to unleash himself under the influence of his eunuch friends.

Youth: Unleashing oneself

In his first year in power, the eunuchs Liu Jin and the "Eight Tigers" catered to his preferences, taking him to enjoy archery, animal fights, and secret plays with foreign monks. The young emperor felt incredibly excited and also thought that political affairs were rather tedious - he did not think that governance and the world were unimportant, but felt that there were too many rules, wasting his time, as he still wanted to "find friends to play after work."

In the second year, he spent 240,000 taels of silver to build a leopard house with 200 rooms, but inside it were actually only one clouded leopard and three common leopards, filled with various secret rooms, training grounds, Buddhist temples, and even yurts, essentially a "world of my own" built by the young emperor.

Of course, the main feature was the emperor's K11 clubhouse, where eunuchs helped him bring in various beauties. The emperor would play when he woke up, sleep when he was tired, and then go to the training ground for fun, living wildly every day.

Various historians saw it and were anxious, historically referred to as “a crowd of seducers, involved day and night.”

For the next 14 years, he became progressively more engrossed, living there for 14 years and "never returning to the imperial palace." But he was not entirely neglectful of state affairs, as he trained the "Outer Four Families Army" (the border army he personally organized) during the day and returned to indulge in pleasures at night.

When the girls were not enough, he would go out late with friends to raid homes, picking out pretty girls to take back to the leopard house, even widows. The "Records of Emperor Wuzong of Ming" notes: "There was a frenzy in the countryside, with one family of women nearly depleted in one night."

During a tour in Yangzhou, he publicly inspected prostitutes, selecting over a hundred to fill the leopard house.

He adopted 127 foster sons, with the most favored being Qian Ning (the top eunuch of the leopard house) and Jiang Bin (a powerful border general). By day, he called them "sons" to practice military drills, and by night, he called them "brothers" to enjoy playtime together.

Middle Age: Distinguished military achievements

Do not think he only knew how to play.

In the twelfth year of Zhengde, Mongolian prince Dayan Khan led 50,000 cavalry to invade the south. Zhu Houzhao was taken by surprise and then felt an opportunity had come; the 26-year-old young emperor had been waiting for the chance to match up and began to fight.

He directly cosplayed as "Duke of Military Affairs and Grand General Zhu Shou," personally leading troops to a campaign in Yuzhou! He personally led reinforcements to battle for several days, personally slaying an enemy, and the Ming army repelled the Tatars, not daring to penetrate for many years, marking the only successful defense against a large-scale Mongolian invasion by the Ming army in the 16th century.

Death: Accidental drowning

In the fourteenth year of Zhengde, Prince Ning Zhu Chanhao revolted, and Wang Yangming subdued it in 43 days. Zhu Houzhao refused to stay out, insisting on “personally leading” - in fact, he was touring the country! He traveled from Beijing to Nanjing, Yangzhou, and Huai'an, striking triumphal poses along the way, forcing the suppression of the rebellion to become an emperor version of the "Seven-day Tour of Jiangnan."

During the journey, he capsized while fishing at Qingjiangpu and fell into the water (September of the fifteenth year of Zhengde), getting scared and choking on water, causing his health to deteriorate from then on.

After returning to the capital from the drowning, he suffered until the following March, dying in the leopard house. Just before his death, he held the hands of eunuchs Chen Jing and Su Jin, gasping and uttering the most sober last words in history: "I am gravely ill and cannot proceed... All past matters are my fault, not something you can foresee. National affairs are of great importance, and they should be discussed with the cabinet ministers."

In simple language: “I can’t go on. Tell the empress dowager that national affairs are important, and to listen more to the ministers. All those absurd things in the past were my doing, and it’s not your fault for not advising me.”

This sentence saved many lives and maintained political stability.

Zhu Houzhao indulged day and night, and after his death, he left no heirs, primarily due to taking too many medications, leaving his body too weak.

Afterward, his cousin Zhu Houcong (Emperor Jiajing) succeeded to the throne.

He was a short-lived emperor, not a model of diligence and love for the people, but more like a playful mortal pushed onto the throne by the times.

Zhu Houzhao: I was wrong, but I really lived.

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