The Ming Dynasty’s strangest emperor, Zhu Houzhao, aka the Zhengde Emperor, took to the throne of China at the age of 14. Not long after becoming Emperor, Zhengde became drunk with power. He neglected his duties as ruler, and instead chose to spend his time drinking and visiting brothels, which he filled with women of his choosing. He built lavish palaces to store exotic animals like tigers and leopards, and he would often have them turned loose so that he could hunt them down for his own amusement. Even weirder, Zhengde would have his servants go to great lengths to dress up the inside of his palace like a city block. He would then command all the court employees to pretend to be vendors and passersby, so that he could stroll down the
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