Beginning of Prince of Anhua Rebellion

Date: May 12, 1510 • Location: Tongchuanshi, China

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 1510–1511. Zhu Zhifan, the Prince of Anhua (in modern Shaanxi, China), began an unsuccessful rebellion against the reign of the Zhengde Emperor. Zhu Zhifan was a prince of the Ming dynasty of China, belonging to a minor branch of the Zhu Zhan family. Zhu Zhan was the sixteenth son of the Hongwu Emperor, the founding emperor of the dynasty. In 1492, he inherited the title of Prince of Anhua and was based in Ningxia, the center of one of the frontier regional headquarters along the border of the Ming dynasty with Mongolia. In May 1510, he took advantage of the dissatisfaction of the officers and soldiers of the garrison there with the consistent collection of taxes and rebelled. He justified the rebellion by attempting to remove the eunuch Liu Jin, who was the de facto head of the Ming government at the time. The rebellion only lasted a few weeks and collapsed in late May 1510 when Qiu Yue, a loyalist who had apparently joined the rebels, captured Zhu Zhifan. Government troops then took control of the city of Ningxia.