The Prince of Anhua rebellion () or Prince Anhua uprising was a rebellion by

Zhu Zhifan Zhu Zhifan (; died 1510) was a member of the Ming dynasty's imperial family. He held the title Prince of Anhua from 1492 until 1510; his major power was in central Shaanxi. Uprising The Prince of Anhua had long thought himself a suitable candi ...

, Prince of Anhua and member of the

House of Zhu The House of Zhu () was the ruling house of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and the Southern Ming (1644–1662) in Chinese history. After the fall of the Ming dynasty, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty started persecuting the Zhu clan, hence a numbe ...

, against the reign of the

Zhengde Emperor The Zhengde Emperor (; 26 October 149120 April 1521) was the 11th Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigned from 1505 to 1521. Born Zhu Houzhao, he was the Hongzhi Emperor's eldest son. Zhu Houzhao took the throne at only 14 with the era name Zh ...

from 12 May 1510 to 30 May 1510. The Prince of Anhua revolt was one of two princedom rebellions during Zhengde's rule as emperor of the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...

, and precedes the

Prince of Ning rebellion The Prince of Ning rebellion () was a rebellion that took place in China between 10 July and 20 August 1519 during the Ming dynasty. It was started by Zhu Chenhao, Prince of Ning and a fifth-generation descendant of Zhu Quan, and was aimed at ov ...

in 1519.

Background

The eunuch

Liu Jin Liu Jin (; 28 February 1451 – 25 August 1510) was a powerful Ming dynasty Chinese eunuch during the reign of the Zhengde Emperor. Liu was famous for being one of the most influential officials in Chinese history. For some time, Liu was the em ...

rose to power during the ascension of the

. He initiated a series of tax reforms to increase state revenues. In 1492,

inherited the title of Prince of Anhua, a princedom located in modern

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), N ...

. Zhu desired the imperial throne, and surrounded himself with a group of loyal supporters. A team of officials was sent to Ningxia in March 1510 to enforce the new military tax rates introduced by Liu Jin. The order issued to punish tax evaders was resented by the soldiers garrisoned at Ningxia. Sensing the opportunity, Zhu began plotting his rebellion with disgruntled officers.

Rebellion

The officials of Ningxia were invited to a banquet hosted by the Prince on the night of 12 May 1510. As they were drinking, rebel soldiers entered the court and massacred the guests, initiating the rebellion. The day afterward, soldiers were also sent out to kill or arrest the officials who had refused to attend. Prince Zhu also issued imperial edicts and commands declaring his ''raison d'être'' to boost support for his rebellion. He criticized the corruption of Liu Jin and claimed that his rebellion would oust Liu Jin from power. Under the influence of Liu Jin, regional commanders ignored Zhu's request for reinforcements and Zhu's edicts never reached the imperial court. The first major battle of the rebellion occurred on 21 May between two hundred imperial soldiers accompanied by archers and rebels guarding boats on the

Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Ha ...

. The rebels were defeated and the soldiers captured the rebel boats and weapons. The military officer Qiu Yue had joined the rebellion out of fear for his family who still resided in Ningxia. Qiu offered his troops to Zhu, but secretly assembled an army of men still loyal to the Zhengde Emperor while feigning illness to avoid directly assisting Zhu. Qiu purposefully misled Zhu by offering disinformation on the movements of imperial troops. With a hundred men, Qiu's forces killed many of Zhu's supporters in the Prince's court. The rebellion ended with the capture of Zhu on 30 May 1510.

Aftermath

News of Zhu's capture spread and the remaining rebels fled or were killed by loyalist soldiers. After a long period of captivity, Zhu was allowed to kill himself to avoid execution on 14 March 1511. Zhu's sons lost their imperial titles, and monetary and material awards were given to those who had helped to suppress the rebellion. The official, Yang Yiqing, was sent to the area with the eunuch and military inspector, Zhang Yong, to defeat the rebels, but arrived after the uprising had already ended. While they returned to the capital with the captured Zhu, they conspired to blame the rebellion on Liu Jin, whom they felt was a threat.

was arrested on 16 September 1510 and was executed by

slow slicing ''Lingchi'' (; ), translated variously as the slow process, the lingering death, or slow slicing, and also known as death by a thousand cuts, was a form of torture and execution used in China from roughly 900 CE up until the practice ended aro ...

on 27 September.

References

{{authority control Rebellions in the Ming dynasty Conflicts in 1510 16th century in China 1510 in China Rebellious princes