Zhu Youcheng was born during a time in which Lady Wan, the favorite concubine of his father, the Chenghua Emperor, and her supporters were eliminating all potential heirs to the throne.

He closely oversaw all state affairs, implementing measures such as reducing taxes and government spending, and appointing capable officials to ministerial positions.

[3] His mother was a woman surnamed Ji (紀),[a] who was one of the Yao women captured during the suppression of the rebellion in the southern Chinese province of Guangxi and brought into the palace.

He inherited his mother's southern appearance:[5] small stature, darker complexion; he had a bushy moustache, a sparse beard, and intelligent, bright eyes.

[8] However, after becoming pregnant, she had to live secretly in the chambers of the former Empress Wu due to the danger posed by the emperor's favorite, Lady Wan.

[4] Concerned about her fate after the Chenghua Emperor's death and the accession of Zhu Youcheng, Lady Wan began plotting against the successor.

[10] In February 1487, Zhu Youcheng married Lady Zhang from Xingji (興濟), a city located on the Grand Canal, less than 200 km south of Beijing (present-day Qing County, Cangzhou prefecture).

Despite this, the emperor did construct a temple in Guangxi to pay tribute to his mother's unknown ancestors and a shrine in the Forbidden City to honor her memory.

[11] After their son was born in October 1491, the emperor began to favor not only his wife, but also her father, brothers—Zhang Heling (張鶴齡) and Zhang Yanling (張延齡)—and all other relatives.

Then, in the spring of 1492, the Hongzhi Emperor named his young son as crown prince, further solidifying the power and influence of the Zhang family.

[12] Both brothers received numerous gifts, including land, stewardship of imperial warehouses in Beijing, and licenses to trade in salt.

[14] Even the extended family of the Zhangs were granted titles, offices, lands, and opportunities for corruption that were unparalleled compared to the relatives of other Ming empresses.

These included the establishment of imperial estates, direct appointments that bypassed the Ministry of Personnel, patronage in the salt trade, and bribery, which damaged the image of a conscientious and hard-working, yet inefficient, emperor.

[14][b] However, the emperor's decision to limit the powers of the eunuch secret police units, known as the Western and Eastern Depots, was met with gratitude by the bureaucracy and population of the capital.

The second case involved Li Guang, who was commissioned by the emperor to raise funds through the sale of salt licenses and payments for the promotion and appointment of officials.

However, on 28 October 1498, Li Guang was driven to commit suicide after it was alleged that a pavilion he had built in the imperial gardens was placed in an unsuitable location according to feng shui principles.

However, the newly appointed Grand Secretaries, Liu Jian (劉健) and Xu Pu (徐溥), as well as those selected a few years later, Qiu Jun (丘濬), Li Dongyang, and Xie Qian (謝遷), were all honorable men.

[20] He actively worked to heal and streamline the state administration,[23] presiding over daily morning audiences as one of his primary duties as emperor.

[25] During the Hongzhi era, two important works were compiled to supplement the Ming Code: Da-Ming huidian (大明會典) and Wenxing tiaoli (問刑條例; 'Clauses and precedent rules for judicial interrogation').

[20] While the emperor reduced tributary relations with Southeast Asia, private foreign trade with the region flourished due to the lack of government enforcement.

[30] In Suzhou, wealthy families began to rival the nobility in their patronage of the arts, leading to the flourishing of the Wu School of painting, which included renowned artists such as Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, Tang Yin, and Qiu Ying.

Grand Secretary Li Dongyang held great influence in matters of painting, calligraphy, and poetry, and the emperor himself was a patron of Shen Du (沈度) and other court painters, such as Lü Ji.

[32] In 1494, after a famine in Shaanxi, the emperor offered 2 million jin (around 1,200 tons) of tea from state reserves to merchants in exchange for rice to be sent to the affected regions.

In Jiangxi and Huguang, rice, grain, silver, and cloth were used as currency, while in the more underdeveloped northwest (in Shaanxi and Shanxi), skin was used and in the southwest (Yunnan), cowrie shells were used.

[36] Furthermore, the technical process of producing copper coins was problematic as their casting was expensive and officials did not have access to qualified experts, leading them to even use detained counterfeiters.

[20] He saw himself as a Confucian ruler who should gain superiority over neighboring nations through the power of virtue rather than weapons, and thus he generally avoided aggressive actions.

One of the most significant disturbances during the late 15th century was the rebellion led by a woman named Mi-lu from the Lolo tribe, which took place on the border of Guizhou and Yunnan from 1499 to 1502.

[43] In the previous reign, the Hongzhi Emperor's ministers inherited enmity with the Sultan of Turpan, who had captured Hami, an important city on the Silk Road west of China, much to their displeasure.

This success was likely due to the influence of the experienced military minister Ma Wensheng, who had served in the northwest in his youth and had a better understanding of the situations beyond the Great Wall than other Beijing statesmen.

However, no changes were made to the structure of the highest offices, allowing for a swift rise in the abuse of eunuch power under the subsequent emperors, Zhengde and Jiajing.