The Yongle Emperor took his nephew's throne in 1402, and the deposed emperor's two-year-old son was held for 55 years

The Hongwu Emperor's heir, his eldest son Zhu Biao, died in 1392. The court followed primogeniture and named Zhu Biao's son Zhu Yunwen heir; he took the throne in 1398 as the Jianwen Emperor and began cutting the power of his uncles. His uncle Zhu Di, Prince of Yan, rebelled in 1399. In the sixth month of 1402 Yan troops entered Nanjing through the Jinchuan Gate, opened by defecting commanders. The History of Ming says: "Fire broke out in the palace, and the emperor's end is not known." Zhu Di's eunuchs brought out bodies said to be the emperor's and empress's and buried them eight days later. Zhu Di ordered the scholar Fang Xiaoru to draft his accession edict. Fang asked why the throne did not pass to Jianwen's son or brother. Zhu Di answered, "This is my family matter." Fang threw down the brush and was executed by dismemberment. Jianwen's elder son, aged seven, disappeared. The younger, Zhu Wengui, aged two, was locked in a palace at Fengyang and called "Commoner Jian". In 1457 Emperor Yingzong freed him, allowed him to marry and gave him servants. He was 57 and died soon after. In 1440 a monk who claimed to be Jianwen was found to be a man in his nineties and died in prison. Ming ministers asked three times for a temple name for Jianwen and were refused. The Qing granted him a posthumous title in 1736.