Chinese tradition held that he was the “Son of Heaven,” the human being designated by heavenly powers  to maintain order on earth.  A Chinese emperor demonstrates the Mandate of Heaven by avoiding natural disasters and making life better for the people. Natural disasters are avoided primarily be making sure that dykes and dams are strong enough to keep flooding in check. Canals and irrigation projects must be built and maintained. The country must have the rule of law and taxation must be reformed. 

The privileged life of the emperor began inside the walls of the Forbidden City.  Hundreds of concubines resided in his harem, and thousands of eunuchs looked after his desires.  

His daily activities were carefully choreographed performances in the form of inspections, audiences, banquets, etc.  Everything about his person, institution, and personal effects bore designs forbidden to others.  For instance, the written characters of the emperor’s name were taboo throughout the realm.  Individuals who had the rare privilege of a personal audience with the emperor had to perform the kowtow—three kneeling and nine head knockings.  Those who gave even minor offenses faced severe punishment.  Even the highest officials could have his bare buttocks flogged with bamboo canes, a punishment that sometimes brought victims to the point of death.

Ming Emperor Yongle moved the capital back to Beijing in 1403 and began to reconstructing the imperial palace. The Forbidden City, located in the center of China's capital, Beijing, displays an extraordinarily harmonious balance between buildings and open space within a symmetrical layout.

His three architects were given the brief to build an extravagant set of palaces to serve as the emperor's metropolis. Audience halls were needed for receiving delegations, together with temples for ritual purification and processional paths. Also required were large domestic quarters with gardens for himself and his family as well as administrative accommodation, a shrine for ancestral rites and, as patron of three types of religion, temples of Buddhism, Lamaism and Taoism.

The principal buildings were aligned along a straight axis from south to north, flanked by a symmetrical arrangement of minor structures on parallel axes. Yongle claimed that his city had symbolic importance by serving as a reflection of the ordered heavens.

Construction of the Forbidden City started in 1406, the 5th year of Yongle's reign. The construction took 14 years - and an estimated one million workers, and 100,000 artisans, were involved.