Princess Changde
princess of Ming dynasty

Princess Changde (常德公主; 1424–1470), personal name unknown, was a princess of the Ming dynasty and the third daughter of Emperor Xuanzong. She was his only daughter with Empress Xiaogongzhang of the Sun Clan, thus making her the only full sister of Emperor Yingzong.
Life
Princess Changde was born in the jiachen year of the Yongle era (1424) in Beijing to the then Huang Taisun ('imperial grandson-heir') Zhu Zhanji and his then concubine Sun. Her great-grandfather, the Yongle Emperor, died later the same year and her grandfather became Emperor Hongxi.
On 27 June 1425, when she was 1 year old, her grandfather died and her father became Emperor Xuanzong and her mother became the Noble Consort Sun. On March 1, 1428, when she was 4 years old, her mother became the Empress Sun. When she was 11 years old her father died and was followed as Emperor by her younger brother, who became the Emperor Yingzong.
In 1436 (the 5th year of the Zhengtong reign), when she was 12 years old, her mother, Empress Dowager Sun, arranged for her to marry Xue Huan, the son of Xue Lu, Marquis of Yangwu, whose Mother was of the Wang clan, after which she was granted the higher title of "Grand Princess". In the same instance her Husband Xue Huan, was appointed to the position of Commandant and granted the rank of fuma. Unfortunately the marriage didn't seem to be a happy one.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Princess Changde” is princess of Ming dynasty. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Princess, Changde and princess, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “princess of Ming dynasty” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11060387. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1424, 1470, 1425 and 1428.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Princess Changde” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.