third emperor of the Ming dynasty, was also known by his princely designation Yen-wang 燕王, by his reign title Yung-lo 永樂 (1402-24), by his posthumous name Wen-huang-ti 文皇帝, by the designation of his mausoleum Ch'ang-ling 長陵, and by his two temple names, T'ai-tsung 太宗, and Ch'eng-tsu 成祖, the latter conferred on him in 1538. He was the fourth son of the Ming founder, Chu Yüan-chang, but although he claimed to be the fourth of five sons born to the Empress Ma, the founder's principal consort, modern scholars have in general agreed in a suspicion recorded at least as early as the late Ming that he was born to one of the lesser consorts, variously alleged to be a Mongol or a Korean. The facts remain uncertain. This matter, like so many historical details of his life and reign, is relevant to his usurpation of the throne from his nephew, Chu Yün-wen, and to his subsequent attempts to bolster the legitimacy of his accession. Throughout his reign, elaborate efforts were made to expunge embarrassing facts and to replace them with carefully contrived counter statements; basic sources were destroyed, the shih-lu of the Hung-wu reign was twice rewritten, and various fictions were artfully woven into the fabric of the recent history. The specific issue with regard to Chu Ti's maternity is that the founder's Tsu-hsün (Ancestral Admonitions) clearly lays down a rule limiting the succesion to sons of principal consorts. By asserting that he was the fourth son born to the founder's principal consort, Chu Ti did not supersede thereby the rights to the succession legitimately held by Chu Yün-wen and his heirs, but he put himself among the legitimate potential heirs; moreover, he became thereby the generational senior among such clan members, with responsibility to intercede in basic policy disagreements stemming from his interpretation of the Ancestral Admonitions. The civial was of 1399-1402 was, by this interpretation, an intra-clan affair, and not a matter in which the statesmen of the realm could rightfully intervene. Thus the issue of Chu Ti's maternity is of central importance to the history of his era.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yongle_Emperor

http://asianhistory.about.com/od/china/p/Biography-Of-The-Yongle-Em...

Diplomatic missions and exploration of the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yongle_Emperor)

Further information: Chinese exploration and Treasure voyages

As part of his desire to expand Chinese influence throughout the known world, the Yongle Emperor sponsored the massive and long term Zheng He expeditions. While Chinese boats continued traveling to Japan, Ryukyu, and many location in South-East Asia both before and after the Yongle era, Zheng He's expeditions were China's only major sea-going explorations of the world (although the Chinese may have been sailing to Arabia, East Africa, and Egypt since the Tang Dynasty[21] or earlier). The first expedition was launched in 1405 (18 years before Henry the Navigator began Portugal's voyages of discovery). The expeditions were under the command of eunuch Zheng He and his associates (Wang Jinghong, Hong Bao, etc.). Seven expeditions were launched between 1405 and 1433, reaching major trade centers of Asia (as far as Tenavarai (Dondra Head), Hormuz and Aden) and north-eastern Africa (Malindi). Some of the boats used were apparently the largest sail-powered wooden boats in human history (National Geographic, May 2004).

The Chinese expeditions were a remarkable technical and logistical achievement. Zhu Di's successors, the Hongxi Emperor and the Xuande Emperor, felt that the costly expeditions were harmful to the Chinese state. The Hongxi Emperor ended further expeditions and the descendants of the Xuande Emperor suppressed much of the information about the Zheng He voyages.

On 30 Jan 1406, Yongle expressed horror when the Ryukyuans castrated some of their own children to become eunuchs in order to give them to Yongle. Yongle said that the boys who were castrated were innocent and didn't deserve castration, and he returned the boys to Ryukyu and instructed them not to send eunuchs again.[22]

In 1411, a smaller fleet, built in Jilin and commanded by another eunuch Yishiha, who was a Jurchen, sailed down the Sungari and Amur Rivers. The expedition established a Nurgan Regional Military Commission in the region, headquartered at the place the Chinese called Telin (特林) (now the village of Tyr, Russia). The local Nivkh or Tungusic chiefs were granted ranks in the imperial administration. Yishiha's expeditions returned to the lower Amur several more times during the reigns of the Yongle and Xuande emperors, the last one visiting the region in the 1430s.[23][24][25]

After the death of Timur, who intended to invade China, the relations between the Yongle Emperor's China and Shakhrukh's state in Persia and Transoxania state considerably improved, and the countries exchanged large official delegations on a number of occasions. Both the Chinese envoy to Samarkand and Herat, Chen Cheng, and his opposite party, Ghiyasu'd-Din Naqqah left detailed accounts of their visits to each other's country.

One of his wives was a Jurchen princess, which resulted in many of the eunuchs serving him being of Jurchen origin, notably Yishiha.[26][27]

The Yongle Emperor instituted a Chinese Governor on Luzon during Zheng He's voyages and appointed Ko Ch'a-lao to that position in 1405.[28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67] China also had vassals among the leaders in the archipelago.[68][69] China attained ascendancy in trade with the area in Yongle's reign.[70] The local rulers on Luzon were "confirmed" by Yongle's Governor or "high officer".[71]

States in Luzon,[72][73] Sulu,[71][74] Sumatra,[75] and Brunei[76][77] all established diplomatic relations with Ming China and exchanged envoys and sent tribute to the Yongle Emperor.