Mausoleum, the central and largest mausoleum of the Ming tombs located north of Beijing. Youth The Yongle Emperor was born Zhu Di () on 2 May 1360, the fourth son of the new leader of the Red Turbans, Zhu Yuanzhang, who led these rebels to success and became the Hongwu Emperor, the first emperor of the Ming dynasty. According to surviving Ming historical records, Zhu Di's mother was the Hongwu Emperor's primary consort, Empress Ma, the view Zhu Di himself maintained. Some contemporaries maintained, however, that Zhu Di's mother was one of his father's concubines, who might be of Korean origin, and that the official records were changed during his reign to list him as a son of the Empress Ma in order to sanction his succession on the "death" of the Jianwen Emperor. Zhu Di grew up as a prince in a loving, caring environment. His father supplied nothing but the best education and, trusting them alone, reestablished the old feudal principalities for his many sons. Zhu Di was created Prince of Yan, a location important for being both the former capital of the Yuan dynasty and the frontline of battle against Northern Yuan, a successor state to the Yuan dynasty. When Zhu Di moved to Beiping, the former Khanbaliq of Yuan, he found a city that had been devastated by famine and disease, but he worked with his father's general Xu Da who was also his own father-in-law to continue the pacification of the region. The official Ming histories portray a Zhu Di who impressed his father with his energy, daring, and leadership amid numerous successes; nonetheless, the Ming dynasty suffered numerous reverses during his tenure and the great victory at Buir Lake was won not by Zhu Di but by his brother's partisan Lan Yu. Similarly, when the Hongwu Emperor sent large forces to the north, they were not placed under Zhu Di's command. Rise to power The Hongwu Emperor was long-lived and outlived his first heir, Zhu Biao, Crown Prince Yiwen. He worried about his succession and issued a series of dynastic instructions for his family, the Huang Ming Zu Xun. These instructions made it clear that the rule would pass only to children from the emperor's primary consort, excluding the Prince of Yan in favour of Zhu Yunwen, Zhu Biao's son. When the Hongwu Emperor died on 24 June 1398, Zhu Yunwen succeeded his grandfather