Why did Zhu Yuanzhang want to move the capital?

The idea of moving the capital came about during the reign of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang.

After Zhu Yuanzhang was crowned with a yellow robe and set the capital at Yingtian, he felt that Nanjing was not the center of China. As Nanjing was located in the southeast and the Mongols were still stirring up trouble in the north, he came up with the "Two Capital System" and planned to move the new capital.


The "Two Capital System" originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty. The Duke of Zhou, Ji Dan, built a new city at Luoyi, and the Pingwang of Eastern Zhou moved the capital to Luoyi, thus the "Two Capital System" came into being.

Zhu Yuanzhang and his ministers discussed four places to move the capital, namely, Fengyang, Guanzhong, Luoyang, and Kaifeng. In the ninth month of the second year of Hongwu (1369), Zhu Yuanzhang raised the issue of choosing another place to build the capital.

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It was this "Capital Settlement Conference" that decided to build the capital at Linhao (Fengyang), Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown, on the Huaixi plain, which was not an affluent land. It took 6 years to build the capital, and in the eighth year of Hongwu (1375), it became the largest capital in China.

In April of that year, Zhu Yuanzhang went to inspect the capital but gave up moving it due to feng shui problems. In the fourth month of that year, Zhu Yuanzhang went to visit the capital and gave up the idea of moving it due to feng shui issues, but later he also gave up the idea of moving the capital to Kaifeng because it was in a deplorable state after the war.

When he returned to Nanjing, his ministers suggested that Beijing should be built on the basis of the Yuan capital and moved the capital here. Zhu Yuanzhang, considering the control of the north, agreed and set the capital as the capital.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang never once visited Beijing, probably because he felt that the Yuan dynasty's demise in Beijing was unknown. He named his three sons, King Chu Sine, King Chu Yuzheng of Qin, King Zhu Yuzuri of Jin, and King Chu Di of Yan, as the three feudal kings to guard the north of the country, which was the "Three Northern Fan".

Photograph © MDHIST

The Imperial Palace in Nanjing was built by filling the lake. After it was built, due to the sinking of the ground surface, it gradually formed a south-high and north-low situation, which was very bad in terms of feng shui. So Hongwu 24 years, Ming Taizu sent Prince Zhu Biao to investigate the Guanzhong region.

In the northern part of the region was the Shaanbei Loess Plateau, while in the southern part were the Shaanbei Mountains and the Qinba Mountains, with developed agriculture and a large population, the Guanzhong region was an affluent land, known as the "800-mile Qinchuan".

It was here that the capital was set, and that was the real "China". Moreover, Guanzhong is the most typical capital city culture of China in the Yellow River valley, represented by Xi'an, and also the hometown of Chinese people.

When Liu Bang and Xiang Yu were competing for the world, Xiang Yu claimed the throne of Guanzhong, and Liu Bang held a grudge for it. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang, who regarded Liu Bang as his revolutionary idol, was most optimistic about this feng shui treasure.

He planned to make preparations for moving the capital to Guanzhong after Zhu Biao's inspection. However, the following year, Zhu Biao fell ill and died, which was a great blow to Zhu Yuanzhang and made him reluctant to change the capital again. No one in the Hongwu dynasty ever mentioned the idea of moving the capital again.