setting one against another so that they
murdered one another. In the first decades of his rule the dangerous
cliques of gentry had formed again, and were engaged in mutual
struggles. The most formidable clique was led by Hu Wei-yung. Hu was a
man of the gentry of Chu's old homeland, and one of his oldest
supporters. Hu and his relations controlled the country after 1370,
until in 1380 Chu succeeded in beheading Hu and exterminating his
clique. New cliques formed before long and were exterminated in turn.

Chu had founded Nanking in the years of revolution, and he made it his
capital. In so doing he met the wishes of the rich grain producers of
the Yangtze delta. But the north was the most threatened part of his
empire, so that troops had to be permanently stationed there in
considerable strength. Thus Peking, where Chu placed one of his sons as
"king", was a post of exceptional importance.

In Chu Yuean-chang's last years (he was named T'ai Tsu as emperor)
difficulties arose in regard to the dynasty. The heir to the throne died
in 1391; and when the emperor himself died in 1398, the son of the late
heir-apparent was installed as emperor (Hui Ti, 1399-1402). This choice
had the support of some of the influential Confucian gentry families of
the south. But a protest against his enthronement came from the other
son of Chu Yuean-chang, who as king in Peking had hoped to become
emperor. With his strong army this prince, Ch'eng Tsu, marched south and
captured Nanking, where the palaces were burnt down. There was a great
massacre of supporters of the young emperor, and the victor made himself
emperor (better known under his reign name, Yung-lo). As he had
established himself in Peking, he transferred the capital to Peking,
where it remained throughout the Ming epoch. Nanking became a sort of
subsidiary capital.

This transfer of the capital to the north, as the result of the victory
of the military party and Buddhists allied to them, produced a new
element of instability: the north was of military importance, but the
Yangtze region remained the economic centre of the country. The
interests of the gentry of the Yangtze region were injured by the
transfer. The first Ming emperor had taken care to make his court
resemble the court of the Mongol rulers, but on the whole had exercised
relative economy. Yung-lo (1403-1424), however, lived in the actual
palaces of the Mongol rulers, and all the luxury of the Mongol epoch was
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