Yongle Emperor Orders Forbidden City Construction

1404

Zhu Di commanded a million conscripts and one hundred thousand artisans to begin building a vast palace complex in Beijing that would house Ming and Qing emperors for five centuries. Timber was floated down rivers from Sichuan jungles, marble quarried from Fangshan, and golden tiles fired in imperial kilns. The axis of Chinese political power shifted permanently northward toward the steppe frontier.