The princes of the Ming dynasty were titled and salaried members of the imperial bureaucracy with nominal lordship over various fiefs throughout China. All were members of the imperial Zhu clan descended from the twenty-six sons of Zhu Yuanzhang. None controlled the administration of their nominal fief (unlike some tribal leaders or Confucius's descendents, the Dukes of Overflowing Sagacity, who continued to rule their territories outside of the normal provincial system).
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Like all members of the imperial family, the princes were not bound by the standard imperial administration or courts. Instead, their status, promotions, and punishments were regulated by the Imperial Clan Court, itself staffed and directed by other members of the clan in the capital.
Title
The Chinese title of these lords was Wáng (王), which was held by the "emperors" of the Shang and Zhou dynasties and by the "kings" of the Warring States. The English translation of "prince" is generally preferred for these Ming rulers, however, owing to their extremely limited authority.
History
During the Hongwu era at the founding of the dynasty, the emperor enfeoffed his many sons and gave them control over large garrisons of as many as 20,000 men. In the succeeding Jianwen era, an attempt by the emperor to demote or disarm his many powerful uncles (known in Chinese as 削蕃, lit. "The Weakening of the Marcher Lords") prompted the Jingnan Campaign of the Prince of Yan which ended with the apparent death of the young emperor in a palace fire and Yan's ascension as the Yongle Emperor. Despite justifying his campaign as an effort to uphold the traditions of the Hongwu Emperor and to free his nephew from the ill counsel of the court advisors, the Yongle Emperor completed the work of removing the imperial clan from the militarized borders with Mongolia, Manchuria, and Annam. For example, he granted the territory of the Prince of Ning – whose capture and support had been essential for Yan's victory and with whom he had promised to divide the empire – to allied Mongols and placed the prince himself in an ungarrisoned sinecure in Nanchang.
Over the course of the dynasty, some titles were absorbed by the crown, others abolished following unsuccessful revolution, and still others created for cadet branches of the dynasty.
Crown Prince
The crown prince of the empire was known as the Taizi (lit. "Supreme Son"). Under the terms of the Hongwu Emperor's dynastic instructions, he was to be selected in accordance with strict Confucian agnatic primogeniture: the eldest son of the primary consort succeeded, . Although legitimizing the ascension of the Yongle Emperor involved forged claims that he had been selected by the Hongwu Emperor over his brother Crown Prince Yiwen in direct violation of the emperor's own policy, the practice was subsequently observed except in the aftermath of the Tumu Incident. This repeatedly led to teenaged and even infant princes ascending to the throne and contributed to the domination of the government by powerful eunuch dictators.
Those crown princes who failed to ascend to the imperial throne were given posthumous names including their title of taizi. They include: