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Chapter 14 Early in his reign, the Yongle 永樂 emperor (r. 1403–24)
asked officials to identify auspicious omens across the empire
Gifts of Good Fortune and in order to support the legitimacy of his rule. Not only did
officials search the provinces for accounts of propitious
Praise-Songs for Peace: occurrences, they also recorded them in their writings and
paintings. Many extant works from the period, produced by
Images of Auspicious officials, are on the subject of auspicious signs. This chapter
argues that such texts and images were intended to offset
Portents and Panegyrics doubts about the legitimacy of the Yongle emperor’s
ascension to the throne, and to symbolically affirm Heaven’s
from the Yongle Period approval of his reign. 1
According to the Ming shi 明史 (History of the Ming), the
physiognomist Yuan Gong 袁珙 (1335–1410) described the
appearance of Prince Zhu Di 朱棣 (1360–1424), the future
Lina Lin Yongle emperor, in regal terms, and identified him as the
rightful Son of Heaven. He purportedly told the prince:
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Translated by Silin Chen [You have] a dragon’s walk and a tiger’s step, a protruding
forehead that reaches towards the Heaven, [these are signs of]
the Son of Heaven of Great Peace. When you turn forty, and
your whiskers reach below your navel, you will ascend the
throne.
龍行虎步，日角插天，太平天子也。年四十鬚過臍，即登大寶
矣。
Indeed, two years after his fortieth birthday, Zhu Di
would become emperor. In his seated portrait in the
National Palace Museum, Taipei, he is depicted with a long,
wavy beard and a dark reddish complexion (see Pl. 16.6).
Compared to earlier portraits of rulers from the Song
dynasty (960–1279), this image is painted with more defined
brushstrokes in the area of the face and costume. The Yongle
emperor sits on a spacious, gem-encrusted throne, the back
of which is in the shape of the character shan 山 (mountain).
The arms of the throne are adorned with six dragon heads
with tassels made of precious stones hanging from their
mouths. Thrones of such extravagance do not appear in
earlier imperial portraits. The use of lavish furnishings, like
the references to imperial physiognomy, seems intended to
bolster the legitimacy of a man who rose to power under
violent circumstances.
The Yongle emperor usurped the throne from his nephew
the Jianwen 建文 emperor (r. 1399–1402) following a bloody
civil war. Auspicious omens were identified during his reign
to support the rationale and legitimacy of his actions. It was
believed that Heaven would generate propitious events to
signal its approval of an emperor who possessed the mandate
to rule, and who governed effectively and diligently. Many
officials wrote poems to celebrate these omens, and
paintings were produced to commemorate them.
The mystical beast zouyu
Auspicious omens included sightings of rare creatures and
extraordinary occurrences in nature. In the fourth month of
1404, the Yongle emperor appointed his eldest son, Zhu
Gaochi 朱高熾 (1378–1425), as his successor. In the ninth
month of that year, the Prince of Zhou 周王, Zhu Shu 朱橚
(1361–1425), travelled to the capital to pay his respects, and
presented the emperor with a mystical creature known as a
zouyu 騶虞. The zouyu is said to have the appearance of a
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white tiger, a nature that is humane and righteous, and the
122 | Ming China: Courts and Contacts 1400–1450
