Yung-lo 永樂

(the Yongle Emperor, Zhu Di)

1360 – 1424 CE

Son of the farmer-Buddhist monk-general who ended the Yuen dynasty and became emperor, Yung-lo was born into luxury and power. But later, in order to escape assassination attempts, had to pretend madness and become a vagrant. Transforming this disaster into opportunity, he became emperor himself. As emperor, at a time when the next largest navy in the world had 300 small ships, he built a fleet of over 3500 huge vessels that sailed all over the world and established colonies from Africa to the United States more than 70 years before Columbus. He moved his capital to Beijing, built the Forbidden City, promoted a world-wide surge in science, education, and religious tolerance and supporting Tibetan Buddhism started the Karmapa’s Black Crown Ceremony.

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