He was the eldest son of the Yongle Emperor and Empress Renxiaowen and the maternal grandson of Xu Da, Prince of Zhongshan.

As soon as Zhu Gaochi ascended to the throne, he discontinued Zheng He's overseas expeditions, halted the trade of tea for horses with Asian nations, and put an end to the gold and pearl missions to Yunnan and Jiaozhi (present-day northern Vietnam).

He pardoned officials who had been disgraced by the previous regime and restructured the government, appointing his trusted advisors to key positions.

He abandoned his father's unpopular militaristic policies, made changes to the financial and tax system, abolished many mandatory provisions, and encouraged the return of displaced peasants, particularly in the lower regions of the Yangtze River.

[4] While his grandfather was impressed with his literary and administrative abilities, his father held his younger sons in higher regard due to their interest in military pursuits.

[3] In late 1399, during the siege of Beijing, Zhu Gaochi displayed his exceptional organizational and military abilities by successfully defending the city with 10,000 soldiers against Li Jinglong's stronger forces.

[5] The Yongle Emperor recognized Zhu Gaochi's efforts in defending Beijing, but he continued to favor his younger sons who were more inclined towards military matters.

During the Yongle Emperor's absence from the capital, mainly due to campaigns in Mongolia, he governed the empire with the help of authorized ministers and Grand Secretaries.

[4] Zhu Gaochi did not hold a grudge against his younger brother and even increased his income and gave his sons titles after becoming emperor.

[6] On 8 September,[6] Xia Yuanji resumed his role as Minister of Revenue, and Wu Zhong also returned to his ministerial position at the same time.

The emperor, therefore, decided that 40% of the successful candidates in the metropolitan examinations would be from the North in order to increase the representation of Northerners in the civil service.

Several cases were reevaluated, and by late 1424,[8] the families of officials who had been executed for their loyalty to the Jianwen Emperor were vindicated and their confiscated property was returned.

[10] On the day of his enthronement, he put an end to long-distance overseas voyages that had been halted for several years, the trade of tea for horses on the western and northern borders, and the excessive logging in Yunnan and Jiaozhi.

The emperor recalled Huang Fu (黃福) from his position in Jiaozhi (where he had been the head of civil administration and surveillance commissioner since 1407) and replaced him with Chen Zhi (陳智), Earl of Yongchang, but the army was not reinforced and the Viet rebellion continued.

Historians view Huang Fu's recall negatively and consider it to be the main reason for the Ming dynasty's defeat, as he was highly experienced and respected in the province.

On 16 April 1425, he declared the Beijing authorities as "temporary" (行在, xingzai) and two weeks later, he sent his successor, Zhu Zhanji, to Nanjing.

[13] The main objective of the Hongxi Emperor was to put an end to the actions of the Yongle government that he deemed incorrect and un-Confucian.

He aimed to create a Confucian government that would serve as a model, with a morally upright emperor at the helm and wise and virtuous ministers.

The relocation of the capital to Nanjing was also a clear indication of a departure from the Yongle Emperor's aggressive expansionist approach, which focused heavily on the northern border.

They first served as advisors and ministers to his son, the Xuande Emperor, and later under the leadership of his widow, Empress Zhang, but they gradually died out in the first half of the 1440s.

[15] Additionally, none of the Hongxi Emperor's successors actually wanted to move the capital back to Nanjing, and that policy was officially abandoned in 1441.

[14] Chinese historians, who shared Confucian values with the bureaucracy, praised the Hongxi Emperor as an exemplary ruler who consolidated the empire by reversing the costly and unpopular programs of the previous government.