Xuande Emperor

Zhu Zhanji inherited the throne at twenty-six in 1425 and immediately reversed his father's plan to move the capital from Beijing back to Nanjing. His uncle Zhu Gaoxu rebelled; the young emperor personally led his army and crushed him. A protracted war in Đại Việt ended in Ming withdrawal and Vietnamese independence early in his reign, but the rest of the decade passed without major conflict - minimal Mongol threats in the north, stable ties with Korea, new relations with Japan in 1432, and peaceful contact with Southeast Asia. He permitted Zheng He's final Indian Ocean voyage in 1431-1433. A poet, painter, and military tactician, he lowered taxes in overtaxed Jiangnan, dispatched provincial coordinators to root out corruption, and reformed military service in 1428, though hereditary soldiers remained demoralized. Eunuchs gained influence in his secret police; paper money collapsed despite government promotion. He died at thirty-five in 1435.