Vassals princes of Ming dynasty

Male members

Crown Prince, Great Imperial Son (皇太子, Huang Taizi), for eldest son and heir of an Emperor.

Crown Prince, Great Imperial Grandson (皇太孙), for eldest son of a crown prince, grand imperial son.

All children of a crown prince, grand imperial grandson would be granted with 2nd rank Commandery Prince or Commandary Princess, except eldest son.

First rank Prince (亲王), for imperial son except eldest son.

Hereditary Prince, Prince's son (世子), for eldest son and heir apparent of a 1st rank prince.

Hereditary Prince, Prince's grandson (世孙), for eldest son of a hereditary prince.

Some princes of Ming dynasty had passed their own position to their great-grandson too, they would be called as shizengsun (世曾孙, Prince's great-grandson)

Second rank Commandery Prince, for crown prince or 1st rank prince's son except eldest son.

Commandery Chief Son (郡长子), for eldest son and heir apparent of a commandery prince.

Commandery Chief Grandson (郡长孙), for eldest son of a c.chief son.

Defender General (镇国将军), for commanadery prince's son except eldest son. It's rank was same as 1st rank officers.

Bulwark General (辅国将军), for son of a defender general. It's rank was same as 2nd rank officers.

Due to some sons of commandery princes were mothered by their abuse concubine or they have offended, they have directly granted with bulwark general.

Supporter General (奉國將軍), for son of a bulwark general. It's rank was same as 3rd rank officers.

Defender Lieutenant (鎮國中尉), for son of a supporter general. It's rank was same as 4th rank officers.

D.lieutenant's primary consort called as Reverent Lady (恭人).

Bulwark Lieutenant (輔國中尉), for son of a defender lieutenant. It's rank was same as 5th rank officers.

B.lieutenant's primary consort called as Proper Lady (宜人).

Supporter Lieutenant (奉國中尉), for son of a bulwark lieutenant. It's rank was same as 6th rank officers.

S.lieutenant's primary consort called as Peace Lady (安人).

Son of a supporter lieutenant would as supporter lieutenant too.

Female members

Princess (公主), for imperial daughter.

Prince Consort Commander (駙馬都尉), for imperial son-in-law.

Commandery Princess (郡主), for daughter of a crown prince or first rank prince.

County Princess (縣主), for daughter of a commendery prince.

Commandery Lady (郡君), for daughter of a defender general.

County Lady (縣君), for daughter of a bulwark general.

Village Lady (鄉君), for daughter of a supporter general.

Clanswoman (宗女), for daughter of a lieutenant.

Except imperial daughter and clanswoman, all of consorts of these female members were called as yibin (儀賓), their ranks apart were 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th.

Offenders imperial member called as Commoner (庶人). If a 1st rank prince demoted and had others clansman, emperor would find one of them and let him presided the others clansman, and called as Clan Councilor (宗理).

Because of the imperial members were too much in Wanli reign, Wanli Emperor ordered to reduced their salaries and restricted the succession order. The new succession order for 1st rank prince was: if a prince had no heir, a 2nd rank commandery prince could succeed the 1st rank prince's peerage. However, except the eldest son, his other younger sons could not promoted as 2nd rank princes and still hold the position as defender generals.

Forefathers of House of Zhu

For convenience to shows relationships of these imperial princes and emperors, this text will shows forefathers of Hongwu Emperor and their sons.

1st rank Princes

When the dynasty collapsed, Ming had 86 1st rank princes.

Hongwu Emperor created 24 princes, 1 became Yongle Emperor, 7 were demoted or suicide, and 2 had not descendants).

Crown Prince Zhu Biao had 4 princes, 1 was bestowed and 3 were demoted.

Jianwen Emperor created a prince, then bestowed by Southern Ming.

Yongle Emperor created 8 princes, 1 was bestowed.

Hongxi Emperor created 9 princes, 1 was bestowed, 4 had not descendants and 1 were demoted.

Xuande Emperor only created a prince, who became Jingtai Emperor.

Zhengtong or Tianshun Emperor created 7 princes, 1 was demoted and 3 had not descendants.

Chenghua Emperor created 9 princes, 6 had not descendants.

Hongzhi Emperor bestowed a prince.

Zhu Youyuan (Prince Xian of Xing or Emperor Ruizong) had a bestowed prince.

Jiajing Emperor created 6 princes, 1 became Longqin Emperor and 4 were bestowed.

Longqing Emperor created 2 princes, 1 was bestowed.

Wanli Emperor created 7 princes, 3 were bestowed, 2 posthumously as Emperors.

Taichang Emperor created 6 princes, 1 became Chongzhen Emperor, 5 were bestowed.

Chongzhen Emperor created 6 princes, 4 were bestowed.

Altogether 1st rank prince of the dynasty had 64 actual princes and 22 bestowed princes (not included brothers, cousins, uncles, granduncles of Hongwu Emperor etc.) . There were 16 actual 1st rank princes were demoted (Jing, Zhou, Dai & Ming created again, Qi & Gu demoted twice. Tang demoted, then succeeded by heir or another lineages, but the title had not demoted so excluded), 15 princes had not descendants. When the dynasty ended, there was 33 1st rank prince. 3 emperors of Southern Ming and Prince of Lu the Agent bestowed 8 princes (1 rose as 1st rank from 2nd rank Commentary Prince). 1st rank Princes had 1 Chinese characters title and posthumous name.

Zhu Shouqian, 1st generation of Prince of Jingjiang, was Hongwu Emperor's grandnephew. His was the 1st generation prince, but titles for him and his descendants were same as 2nd rank Commentary Prince. Also, brothers of Hongwu Emperor's forefathers' bestowed title same as 2nd rank, but they were not indicate as 2nd rank Prince. Therefore, in the list of princes, Prince of Jingjiang and bestowed princes created by Hongwu Emperor will not show as "Commentary Prince".

2nd rank Commentary Princes

All of the 1st rank princes created 624 2nd rank Commentary Princes (Excluded bestowed princes, but included Commentary Princes who had become 1st rank Prince). 2nd rank Commentary Princes had 2 Chinese characters title and posthumous name.

Prince of Tan, Xiang, An, Ying, Liang, Xiu, Xing, Qi, Yong, Shou, Ru, Jing (泾), Jing (景), Rui and Hui only had single descendants, so they did not created Commentary Prince.

Longwu Emperor and Yongli Emperor of Southern Ming created some non-royals as Princes too.

Generation names

Hongwu Emperor considered that names of descendants would duplicated, he had gave generation name poems to all of his sons and Zhu Shouqian. Every 1st generation princes have poems with 20 characters. Also, Hongwu formulated his descendants' given name must use characters with Wu Xing (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal & Water), only descendants of Zhu Shouqian not need to followed.

Crown Princes

In Ming dynasty, there were many Crown Princes died young, also some Emperors posthumously bestowed their late sons as Crown Princes. This list show all of Crown Princes in Ming dynasty and Southern Ming, includes Crown Princes who later became Emperor.

Prince of Yan

Zhu Di, who belongs to this lineage became Yongle Emperor. This lineage shows titles that before Zhu Di and his sons became Emperor & imperial sons. Zhu Di's generation poem was:- "Gao Zhan Qi Jian You, Hou Zai Yi Chang You. Ci He Yi Bo Zhong, Jian Jing Di Xian You"
(高瞻祁見祐，厚載翊常由。慈和怡伯仲，簡靖迪先猷)

After Zhu Di enthroned, this poem became main generation name for Ming Emperors. This poem had used until "Ci" (慈) and "He" (和) generation.

Prince of Qi

Zhu Fu was 7th son of Hongwu Emperor. He bore the title of Prince of Qi in 1370, and restored the title in 1403. He and his son later demoted by his 4th brother Yongle Emperor. Zhu Fu's original determined generation poem was:-

"Xian Neng Chang Ke Qing, Rui Zhi Shi Kan Zong. Yang Xing Qi Yuan Ya, Yin Si Fu Hui Tong.
(賢能長可慶，睿智實堪宗。養性期淵雅，寅思復會通。)

This generation name had used until "Chang" (長) generation.

Prince of Gu

Zhu Hui was 19th son of Hongwu Emperor. He bore the title of Prince of Gu on 17 May 1391. Zhu Hui's original determined generation poem was:-

“Fu Zhi Xi Xiong Chang, Cong Xing Chan Fu Chang. Du Xie Xun Yi Yu, Kuo Ji Yu Zhen Xiang”
(賦質僖雄敞，叢興闡福昌。篤諧恂懌豫，擴霽昱禎祥。)

Due to he and his son got demoted by his 4th brother Yongle Emperor and died young, this poem was only used until generation of his son, Fu (賦).

Imperial vassals princes established by Jianwen Emperor

After Zhu Yunwen enthroned as Jianwen Emperor, he enfeoffed his brothers as 1st rank princes. Then, Yongle Emperor demoted them but Southern Ming later restored their original titles with different posthumous names.

As they were sons of Zhu Biao, their generation poem was:-

This poem would governed the first character of the personal names of the next 20 emperors of China, but only the first two were officially ever used, due to the usurpation of Yongle Emperor. Only name of Zhu Xiongying, Zhu Biao's eldest son, had not followed this poem, because this poem was created after he died.

Imperial vassals princes established by later emperors

Due to all of later 1st generation princes were Yongle Emperor's descendants, they used Yongle's own generation poem that given by Hongwu Emperor, which is:-

The main emperors line had used this poem until "Ci" (慈) generation.

Prince of Han

The title of Prince of Han was originally used by Zhu Ying, who was 14th son of Hongwu Emperor, but Hongwu later granted Zhu Ying with the title of Prince of Su. When Yongle Emperor reigned, his 2nd son Zhu Gaoxu was granted as Prince of Han, then demoted by Xuande Emperor due to his rebellion. All of Zhu Gaoxu's sons died with him and left no children.

Prince of Yu

Before Longqing Emperor enthroned, he was granted with the title of Prince of Yu by his father Jiajing Emperor, due to he was not the eldest son. After Jiajing's Crown Prince Zhu Zairui (2nd son) died, Jiajing still did not want to designated Longqing as heir until he died. This list shows Longqing and his sons with the titles when he was Prince of Yu, but excludes 4th son of Longqing, Zhu Yiliu, due to he was born after Longqing enthroned.

Prince of Lu (潞王)

Not confused with the peerage created by Hongwu Emperor, Prince of Lu (魯王). The first Prince of Lu was Zhu Yiliu, who was 4th son of Longqing Emperor. Zhu Changfang, one of regents of Southern Ming, was a member of this peerage. Fief of this peerage members was located at Weihui (衛輝府), nowadays Henan Province.

Posthumously bestowed & non-title imperial princes

When Hongwu Emperor enthroned, he had posthumously bestowed his brothers and other paternal relatives as princes. Their posthumously title actually are form of 2nd rank commendary prince. Also, some of later imperial sons got no title in their life, but got posthumously as 1st rank prince after they died. Some of imperial sons also had not posthumously as Prince. This list show all of the posthumously bestowed princes those belong to emperors lineage of House of Zhu, include descendants of Zhu Biao & Southern Ming princes, but exclude maternal relatives of Hongwu Emperor and other nobles due to they cannot considered as members of House of Zhu.

Notes: Princes of this list are arranged by generation and ages.

Family trees

Legend:

  - Hongwu Emperor himself

  - Posthumously emperors (non-actual emperors)

  - Members who have posthumously title

  - Actual crown prince

  - First-rank prince

  - Members who have not title / Second rank commandery prince

  - Hereditary prince (heir apparent of first rank prince)

– – – - The dashed lines denotes the unknown lineages

Bold personal names are for forefathers of Hongwu Emperor and members last used personal names.

Titles with bold writing are actual titles.

Forefathers & paternal relatives of Hongwu Emperor

Zhu Biao's lineage
Posthumous names of Zhu Yuntong, Yunjian & Yunxi are different (due to given by different emperors). Therefore, their titles shows here are without posthumous name.

Zhu Fu, Prince of Qi