The Great Rites Controversy was a political dispute in Ming China from 1521 to 1524 between the Jiajing Emperor and the majority of officials, led by Senior Grand Secretary Yang Tinghe, concerning the status of the Emperor's parents and the question of his adoption by the Hongzhi Emperor.
In 1521, the childless Zhengde Emperor died and was succeeded by his thirteen-year-old cousin, the Jiajing Emperor. The new emperor's father, Zhu Youyuan (d. 1519), was a younger half-brother of the Hongzhi Emperor, but because Zhu Youyuan's mother was only a concubine, neither he nor his son had a direct claim to the throne. Yang Tinghe and the other grand secretaries, supported by most officials, proposed that the Jiajing Emperor be adopted by the Hongzhi Emperor, making him the younger brother of the Zhengde Emperor and legitimizing his succession. This would, however, reduce his biological parents to the status of uncle and aunt. Deeply devoted to his parents, the young emperor strongly rejected this arrangement. The dispute between the Emperor and the bureaucracy became known as the Great Rites Controversy. Yang Tinghe attempted to enforce official unity by sending some supporters of the Emperor's position to distant provinces. After prolonged debates, a compromise was reached in 1521–1522: the Emperor's biological parents and grandmother were granted imperial titles, while the Jiajing Emperor formally recognized the Hongzhi Emperor as his adoptive father.
The Emperor was dissatisfied with the compromise and sought to further elevate the titles of his parents in 1522–1523. The officials rejected his demands, arguing that the distinction between the main imperial line and his birth line had to be maintained. In early 1524, some officials began supporting the Emperor's position and reopened the debate. From March onward, the Emperor's patience with opposition diminished, and he began arresting and dismissing officials who challenged him. That same month, Yang resigned due to illness, allowing the Emperor's supporters to gain greater influence and occupy key positions. The controversy continued to intensify. In August 1524, more than two hundred officials staged a protest before the Zuoshun Gate in the imperial palace. The demonstration ended with their arrest; seventeen officials died from beatings, while the others were punished. Afterwards, the Emperor's supporters occupied high offices and the titles and status of his parents were revised according to his wishes.
Selection of the new emperor
In 1505, the Hongzhi Emperor, the 10th emperor of China's Ming dynasty, died and his only son succeeded him as the Zhengde Emperor. The Zhengde Emperor died childless on 20 April 1521. His closest male relative, his young cousin Zhu Houcong (born 1507), was chosen as the next emperor. Zhu Houcong was the only surviving son of Zhu Youyuan, Prince of Xing (died 1519), the younger brother of the Hongzhi Emperor. Zhu Houcong's installation was recommended by Grand Secretary Yang Tinghe and approved by the other grand secretaries, the leading imperial eunuchs, and Empress Dowager Zhang, the Zhengde Emperor's mother.
Zhu Houcong lived in his princely fief of Anlu, Huguang, in central China, in central China. On the day of the Zhengde Emperor's death, the grand secretaries drafted an edict signed by the Empress Dowager, calling on the young prince to come to Beijing and ascend the throne, no difficulties being expected with him. Zhu Houcong formally received the delegation delivering the Empress Dowager's edict in Anlu, agreed to accept the throne, and departed for Beijing on 7 May 1521.
The selection of Zhu Houcong as successor was problematic from the perspective of the Ming succession rules. According to the succession laws, only sons of the empress were eligible to inherit the throne, and an attempt to place a descendant of a concubine on the throne was punishable by death. Zhu Houcong's father, Zhu Youyuan, was the son of a concubine and therefore had no right of succession. The Hongzhi Emperor's other brothers were also sons of concubines, and therefore neither they nor their descendants were eligible for the throne. The closest legitimate successor was Zhu Houyao (朱厚燿; 1501–1537), Prince of Chong, a grandson of the Hongzhi Emperor's uncle Zhu Jianze (朱見澤; 1455–1505).
To resolve the problem of Zhu Houcong's succession rights, Yang Tinghe decided to circumvent the issue by having Zhu Houcong adopted by the Hongzhi Emperor, allowing him to become ruler as the younger brother of the deceased Zhengde Emperor. The adoption would have preserved the continuity of the imperial line and granted legitimacy and legality to Zhu Houcong's accession. The idea of adoption was supported by the other grand secretaries, ministers, and officials. Yang made a serious mistake that would later prove costly. In the Empress Dowager's edict summoning Zhu Houcong to the throne, he was addressed as the Prince of Xing and was called upon to come to Beijing and ascend the throne, without any mention that he was to inherit the throne as the adopted son of the Hongzhi Emperor.
Debate before Jiajing's accession
On 26 May 1521, officials of the Ministry of Rites informed Zhu Houcong and his entourage in Liangxiang, about 30 km south of Beijing, of the plans for the next stage of the proceedings. The first difficulties then emerged—concerning the era name of the new emperor's reign (which was to begin from the New Year, although its name was to be announced upon his accession to the throne) and Zhu Houcong's status. Zhu Houcong demanded entry into the city through the main gate, as the designated emperor, rather than through a side gate as a prince or heir apparent. He refused to yield even when Yang Tinghe personally came to the outskirts of Beijing to urge him to do so. The grand secretaries, along with the other officials of the central government, had assumed that the new emperor would ascend the throne as the younger brother of the Zhengde Emperor. Therefore, the Ministry of Rites planned for Zhu Houcong to proceed as if he were the heir apparent. Zhu Houcong and his advisers rejected these arrangements. They argued that the Empress Dowager's edict contained no mention that he was an heir apparent, nor that he was receiving the imperial title as the son of the Hongzhi Emperor and the brother of the Zhengde Emperor. The edict simply summoned him to ascend the throne and assume the imperial title. Under time pressure, the officials yielded to Zhu Houcong's demands, allowing him to enter the city with imperial honors on the following day, 27 May. On the same day, Zhu Houcong ceremonially ascended the throne as the Jiajing Emperor.
Regarding the choice of the reign era name, the grand secretaries initially proposed "Shaozhi" (紹治; 'Continuation of proper governance'). The phrase Shaozhi was probably derived from a passage in the court's appeal urging the Emperor to accept the throne, which stated that good governance would result from the emperor following the policies and rituals established by the Hongwu Emperor (r. 1368–1398), the founder of the dynasty. Thus, it expressed a program of political continuity. It could also be interpreted as "continuing the line of the Hongzhi Emperor", and therefore carried a reference to the new emperor's adoption by the Hongzhi Emperor. The Emperor rejected the proposed era name and chose his own, "Jiajing" (嘉靖). Its meaning is usually rendered as "admirable and tranquil" or "splendid peace". The phrase appears in a passage from the Book of Documents, in which the Duke of Zhou admonishes the young King Cheng and praises the Shang king Wu Ding, who had governed the realm with "excellent tranquility". Wu Ding was praised for restoring the prestige of the declining Shang dynasty, not through force, but through the influence of his virtue. The phrase Jiajing therefore represented a criticism of the condition of the state and of the Zhengde Emperor's reign, as well as a declaration of a policy of reform and restoration. In the same admonition, King Wen of Zhou, the virtuous father of the exemplary founding Zhou king Wu, is contrasted with the inept final Shang king Zhou. The Jiajing Emperor saw a parallel between the figures of the three kings and his own circumstances: the inept Zhengde Emperor, his virtuous father Zhu Youyuan, and himself. He therefore believed that his accession was not owed to grand secretaries, ministers, or the Empress Dowager, but rather to the virtue of his father recognized by Heaven. This belief shaped his filial devotion toward his biological parents and his rejection of adoption by the Hongzhi Emperor.
Dispute over Jiajing's adoption and the status of his parents
After his accession to the throne, the Jiajing Emperor ordered the Ministry of Rites to submit a proposal concerning the status of his mother and his deceased father. Yang Tinghe responded by issuing instructions on how the matter should be handled, citing precedents from the accessions of emperors from collateral branches of the imperial family who had been adopted by childless emperors, namely Emperor Ai of Han in the 1st century BC and Emperor Yingzong of Song in the 11th century. He stated that anyone who disagreed with his decision would face dismissal from office.
Under this principle of adoption, since the Jiajing Emperor had been adopted by the Hongzhi Emperor, the Hongzhi Emperor and Empress Dowager Zhang would become the Jiajing Emperor's adoptive parents, while the new emperor's biological parents, Zhu Youyuan and Lady Jiang, would be reduced in status to that of his uncle and aunt. The same decision had been made in the case of Emperor Yingzong of Song, when such eminent authorities as Sima Guang, Cheng Yi, and Zhu Xi agreed that the principle and purpose of adoption was the transfer of the adopted person into a new family, thereby severing the adopted person's ties with his biological parents. Adoption was also required by Chinese family law, under which it was considered self-evident that, in the absence of a direct heir, succession and inheritance depended on adoption. Therefore, Yang instructed the ministry that the Hongzhi Emperor should receive the posthumous title "Deceased Imperial Father" (皇考), Zhu Youyuan should be titled "Deceased Imperial Uncle and Great Prince of Xing" (皇叔考興獻大王), and Lady Jiang should be titled "Imperial Aunt and Great Consort of Xing" (皇叔母興國大妃). The Emperor himself was to refer to Zhu Youyuan and Lady Jiang as his "imperial uncle" and "imperial aunt". To ensure that proper sacrifices could be offered to Zhu Youyuan as his father, Zhu Houxuan (朱厚炫; 1500–1577), Prince of Chongren, was to be adopted as Zhu Youyuan's son and would thereby inherit the title of Prince of Xing.
For Yang and his supporters, the preservation of the direct line of succession and the rituals confirming and honoring the (adoptive) imperial father were matters of paramount importance for the state, and therefore far more significant than the familial question of honoring the Jiajing Emperor's biological father. If the direct line of succession had been considered ended with the Zhengde Emperor and the Jiajing Emperor had succeeded as the representative of a new line, it would have created an exceptionally serious precedent, opening the way for other collateral branches of the imperial family to claim the throne. By the late 15th century, the imperial clan had grown to more than two thousand members. Yang, however, made an error by failing to state in the edict summoning the Jiajing Emperor to the throne that his right of succession derived from his adoption by the Hongzhi Emperor. Yang's second major mistake was misjudging the Emperor by failing to take into account the depth and strength of the Jiajing Emperor's feelings toward his father, who had died only recently, in 1519. The Emperor rejected the adoption arrangement and firmly refused to declare his parents as his uncle and aunt.
On 11 June 1521, the Ministry of Rites submitted to the Emperor a memorandum approved at an assembly of more than sixty responsible officials, which established the arrangement of titles and relationships between the Emperor and his relatives according to Yang's proposal. The Emperor returned the memorandum and ordered that the matter be reconsidered. Yang attempted to persuade the leading imperial eunuchs of the correctness of the adoption arrangement. Their representatives told him that, regardless of how persuasive his arguments might be, they would always stand by their emperor. The Emperor also sought broader support. In June 1521, he made the proper manner of honoring deceased biological parents the subject of the palace examinations for officials. His attempt failed: none of the candidates in their essays dared to challenge Yang's position. In the following weeks, the Ministry of Rites repeatedly urged the Emperor to formally approve the memorandum on adoption and the related rituals, but he refused to give his consent and called for more careful consideration of the issue.
In August 1521, the first official to support the Emperor's position was Zhang Cong, a newly graduated civil service examination candidate, who submitted a memorandum defending the Emperor's stance for consideration. He argued that the succession decree appointing the Emperor named him as the son of the Prince of Xing, and that the precedents selected by Yang Tinghe as binding could not be applied because they concerned different circumstances. In those cases, childless emperors, while still alive, had chosen successors from collateral branches of the imperial family. These successors were brought to the capital, formally adopted, and raised as future emperors. Zhang emphasized that, according to the classics, rituals were essentially expressions of human feelings, and in this case they reflected the Jiajing Emperor's relationship with his biological parents, especially his father. Regarding the arguments based on the views of the Song statesmen and philosophers, he pointed out that their writings also contained arguments against the Emperor's adoption. For example, Cheng Yi had stated that the eldest son could not become the son of another person.