The Wanli Emperor spent 48 years on the throne, much of it feuding
Crowned at nine, Zhu Yijun was raised by a powerful minister to be frugal and virtuous. Then he learned his tutor Zhang Juzheng had lived in luxury all along. That discovery soured the young Wanli Emperor on his officials, and a fifteen-year quarrel over his heir deepened the rift.
Zhu Yijun arrived on 4 September 1563, the son of the heir Zhu Zaiji and a concubine, Lady Li; two older brothers had died in infancy. Energetic and quick to learn, he had eight tutors in Confucian classics, history and calligraphy, chosen by Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng, who even compiled moral tales for him. His devout Buddhist mother made him reluctant to impose death sentences, and though he could be harsh with officials, he rarely resorted to violence.
For the first ten years after his 1572 accession, Zhang ran the government alongside the eunuch Feng Bao and the Emperor's mother. Aiming to enrich the state and strengthen the army, Zhang converted tax payments from goods into silver under the single whip reform, compiled a new land survey from 1580 to 1582, and kept an armed peace with the Mongols through the general Qi Jiguang. China grew more powerful than at any point since the early fifteenth century. When Zhang died on 9 July 1582, he was accused of bribery and lavish living; his allies were dismissed, Feng Bao fell, and two years later Zhang's family property was seized.
Wanli wanted his third son, Zhu Changxun, as heir, but officials backed the eldest, Zhu Changluo, and the dispute ran for over fifteen years until he gave in in 1601. Frustrated, he withdrew from his quarrelling bureaucrats and in 1596 tried to build a parallel administration of eunuchs, abandoned in 1606.
His armies nevertheless won three campaigns in the 1590s: 40,000 troops crushed a Ningxia revolt in 1592, Ming and Korean forces drove the Japanese back from most of Korea and repelled a second invasion in 1597, and a southwestern rebellion was put down in 1599. Late in the reign the Jurchens beat the Ming at Sarhu in 1619. Wanli died on 18 August 1620.
Source: Wanli Emperor
