Zheng De's Visit to the South of the Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River

(Zheng De xia jiang nan)

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Zheng De was one of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644). He was a somewhat ridiculous emperor, and many of his absurd activities are recorded in Chinese history. A romantic by nature, Zheng De disliked restrictions. Born in the Forbidden City, crowned in his early twenties and surrounded by a group of rigid yet powerful officials, he simply could not do as he pleased. He had no privacy and no personal freedom. Under these circumstances, he spent much of his time in pleasure-seeking activities.

After the day's routine government work, Zheng De enjoys walking about the Forbidden City. He likes to joke with palace maids, guards and domestic servants. Once, he plays with the guards' weapons and almost injures himself. A palace official sees this and complains about it at a palace meeting. For his own safety, Zheng De is told to stop loitering about the palace, and to stop joking with the servants because of his royal status. He grows very frustrated and decides to move out the palace, building a house for himself and his pets outside the Forbidden City. He names it "Leopard House". He raises leopards there, and turns the house into a party place for musicians, students, Taoist priests, monks and foreigners — including a Portuguese traveller to China. Zheng De also composes chamber music, including the popular "Sha bianyue". The Leopard House was notorious at the time for its profligate lifestyle. He also raises tigers at a place named "Tiger Bridge" — a name which still exists today in a southern suburb of Beijing — and enjoys wrestling with tigers, once being injured seriously enough that he was forced to recover over a number of months.

During the twelfth year of Zheng De's regime, the Mongols begin invading his kingdom along the northern border. Zheng De wants to command the imperial army on an expedition to the north. His proposal is of course declined by his officials, out of concern for his safety and his royal status. Zheng De comes up with a new proposal, so creative that no one could have imagined it. for me to go to war as your Emperor,' he says, 'I will appoint myself an official and “Since it is too risky for me to go to war as your Emperor,” he says, “I will appoint myself an official and dispatch myself as a commander to the battlefield.” He is thus not violating any rules. Although everyone is shocked, Zheng De appoints himself “Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Army” and orders himself to leave the Forbidden City for military service, effective immediately. At last he is able to make his way out of Beijing, a city he sees as a gilded cage.

He finds the people, diversity and scenery of the southern reaches of the Yangtze River very attractive, and his visit to the area becomes his final absurd act. He decides that he wants to tour the area; however, whenever he proposes such a trip, his officials write petitions which make it difficult to push the proposal through. The Emperor clearly needs some clever excuses this time as well. An opportunity finally arises when, during the fourteenth year of his reign, his uncle — a southern warlord — announces independence. Zheng De is now able to justify travelling on behalf of “the nation’s safety”.

The rebel troops are poorly organized, and are quickly defeated. Mere days after Zheng De leaves the Forbidden City with his imperial army, his uncle is captured by a commander in the imperial army. Reading this news, Zheng De is now in an awkward position: a trip to the south with an armed force has suddenly become unreasonable. He makes another decision which shocks everyone: he suppresses the news and continues to advance with his troops! He stays in the Yangtze River region for a full year. In Nanjing, an important city in southern China, Zheng De releases his uncle, then recaptures him by himself as a nice way to end the expedition. The dramatic nature of this event has become a popular subject for many operas in China.