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120-610: In 1627, Jirgalang took part in the first Manchu campaign against Korea under the command of his older brother Amin . In 1630, when Amin was stripped of his titles for having failed to fight an army of the Ming dynasty , Huangtaiji gave Jirgalang control of the Bordered Blue Banner , which had been under Amin's command. As one of "four senior beile " (the other three were Daišan , Manggūltai , and Huangtaiji himself), Jirgalang participated in many military campaigns against

240-572: A Moghul prince who ruled Turfan , had sent an embassy requesting the resumption of trade with China, which had been interrupted by the fall of the Ming dynasty. The mission was sent without solicitation, but the Qing agreed to receive it, allowing it to conduct tribute trade in Beijing and Lanzhou (Gansu). But this agreement was interrupted by a Muslim rebellion that engulfed the northwest in 1646 (see

360-709: A Muslim leader known in Chinese sources as Milayin ( 米喇印 ) revolted against Qing rule in Ganzhou ( Gansu ). He was soon joined by another Muslim named Ding Guodong ( 丁國棟 ). Proclaiming that they wanted to restore the Ming, they occupied a number of towns in Gansu, including the provincial capital Lanzhou . These rebels' willingness to collaborate with non-Muslim Chinese suggests that they were not only driven by religion. Both Milayin and Ding Guodong were captured and killed by Meng Qiaofang (孟喬芳; 1595–1654) in 1648, and by 1650

480-571: A committee of Manchu princes chose the 5-year-old Fulin as successor. The princes also appointed two co-regents: Dorgon , the 14th son of Nurhaci , and Jirgalang , one of Nurhaci's nephews, both of whom were members of the Qing imperial clan . In November 1644, the Shunzhi Emperor was enthroned as emperor of China in Beijing . From 1643 to 1650, political power lay mostly in the hands of

600-571: A queue identical to those of the Manchus. The punishment for non-compliance was death. This policy of symbolic submission helped the Manchus in telling friend from foe. For Han officials and literati, however, the new hairstyle was shameful and demeaning (because it breached a common Confucian directive to preserve one's body intact), whereas for common folk cutting their hair was the same as losing their virility . Because it united Chinese of all social backgrounds into resistance against Qing rule,

720-602: A queue resembling that of the Manchus . After Dorgon's death on the last day of 1650, the young Shunzhi Emperor started to rule personally. He tried, with mixed success, to fight corruption and to reduce the political influence of the Manchu nobility. In the 1650s, he faced a resurgence of Ming loyalist resistance, but by 1661 his armies had defeated the Qing's last enemies, Koxinga and the Prince of Gui , both of whom would succumb

840-603: A few months later. Nurhaci's son and successor Hong Taiji (1592–1643) continued his father's state-building efforts: he concentrated power into his own hands, modeled the Later Jin's government institutions on Chinese ones, and integrated Mongol allies and surrendered Chinese troops into the Eight Banners . In 1629 he led an incursion to the outskirts of Beijing, during which he captured Chinese craftsmen who knew how to cast Portuguese cannon. In 1635 Hong Taiji renamed

960-458: A fortified Ming position that guarded access to the plain around Beijing . In January or February 1644, Jirgalang requested that his name be placed after Dorgon's in all official communications. On February 17, 1644, Jirgalang, who was a capable military leader but looked uninterested in managing state affairs, willingly yielded control of all official matters to Dorgon. He was not present when Qing forces entered Beijing in early June 1644. In 1647 he

1080-402: A one-week siege. Dorgon's brother Prince Dodo then ordered the slaughter of Yangzhou's entire population . As intended, this massacre terrorized other Jiangnan cities into surrendering to the Qing. Indeed, Nanjing surrendered without a fight on 16 June after its last defenders had made Dodo promise he would not hurt the population. The Qing soon captured the Ming emperor (who died in Beijing

1200-464: A powerful figure at the Qing imperial court until his death in 1655. The four future regents of the Kangxi Emperor , Oboi , Ebilun , Sonin , and Suksaha , were among his supporters. Soon after Jirgalang died of illness on June 11, 1655, his second son Jidu ( simplified Chinese : 济度 ; traditional Chinese : 濟度 ; pinyin : Jìdù ; 1633–1660) inherited his princely title, but

1320-399: A queue, and surrender, the officials would be allowed to stay at their post. He had to repeal this command three weeks later after several peasant rebellions erupted around Beijing, threatening Qing control over the capital region. Dorgon greeted the Shunzhi Emperor at the gates of Beijing on 19 October 1644. On 30 October the six-year-old monarch performed sacrifices to Heaven and Earth at

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1440-577: A regime loyal to the Ming. Factional bickering and numerous defections prevented the Southern Ming from mounting an efficient resistance. Several Qing armies swept south, taking the key city of Xuzhou north of the Huai River in early May 1645 and soon converging on Yangzhou , the main city on the Southern Ming's northern line of defense. Bravely defended by Shi Kefa , who refused to surrender, Yangzhou fell to Manchu artillery on 20 May after

1560-522: A reprimand for his accepting bribes did not reassure the Manchu elite, which saw eunuch power as a degradation of Manchu power. The Thirteen Offices would be eliminated (and Wu Liangfu executed) by Oboi and the other regents of the Kangxi Emperor in March 1661 soon after the Shunzhi Emperor's death. In 1646, when Qing armies led by Bolo had entered the city of Fuzhou, they had found envoys from

1680-616: A scene of this visit carved in the Potala Palace in Lhasa , which he had started building in 1645. Meanwhile, north of the Manchu homeland, adventurers Vassili Poyarkov (1643–46) and Yerofei Khabarov (1649–53) had started to explore the Amur River valley for Tzarist Russia . In 1653 Khabarov was recalled to Moscow and replaced by Onufriy Stepanov , who assumed command of Khabarov's Cossack troops. Stepanov went south into

1800-482: A successor, the fledgling Qing state faced a possibly serious crisis. Several contenders—namely Nurhaci's second and eldest surviving son Daišan , Nurhaci's fourteenth and fifteenth sons Dorgon and Dodo (both born to the same mother), and Hong Taiji's eldest son Hooge —started to vie for the throne. With his brothers Dodo and Ajige , Dorgon (31 years old) controlled the Plain and Bordered White Banners , Daišan (60)

1920-483: A young northern Chinese who was fluent in Manchu. The "Six Edicts" ( Liu yu 六諭) that the Shunzhi Emperor promulgated in 1652 were the predecessors to the Kangxi Emperor's " Sacred Edicts " (1670): "bare bones of Confucian orthodoxy" that instructed the population to behave in a filial and law-abiding fashion. In another move toward Chinese-style government, the sovereign reestablished the Hanlin Academy and

2040-684: Is a relatively little-known period of Qing history. In the 1580s, when China was ruled by the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), a number of Jurchen tribes lived in Manchuria . In a series of campaigns from the 1580s to the 1610s, Nurhaci (1559–1626), the leader of the Jianzhou Jurchens , unified most Jurchen tribes under his rule. One of his most important reforms was to integrate Jurchen clans under flags of four different colors—yellow, white, red, and blue—each further subdivided into two to form an encompassing social and military system known as

2160-531: Is now Hunan province), he patiently built up his forces; only in late 1658 did well-fed and well-supplied Qing troops mount a multipronged campaign to take Guizhou and Yunnan. In late January 1659, a Qing army led by Manchu prince Doni took the capital of Yunnan, sending the Yongli Emperor fleeing into nearby Burma , which was then ruled by King Pindale Min of the Toungoo dynasty . The last sovereign of

2280-471: The Altar of Heaven . The southern cadet branch of Confucius ' descendants who held the title Wujing boshi 五經博士 and the sixty-fifth generation descendant of Confucius to hold the title Duke Yansheng in the northern branch both had their titles reconfirmed on 31 October. A formal ritual of enthronement for Fulin was held on 8 November, during which the young emperor compared Dorgon's achievements to those of

2400-684: The Duke of Zhou , a revered regent from antiquity. During the ceremony, Dorgon's official title was raised from "Prince Regent" to "Uncle Prince Regent" ( Shufu shezheng wang 叔父攝政王), in which the Manchu term for "Uncle" ( ecike ) represented a rank higher than that of imperial prince. Three days later Dorgon's co-regent Jirgalang was demoted from "Prince Regent" to "Assistant Uncle Prince Regent" ( Fu zheng shuwang 輔政叔王). In June 1645, Dorgon eventually decreed that all official documents should refer to him as "Imperial Uncle Prince Regent" ( Huang shufu shezheng wang 皇叔父攝政王), which left him one step short of claiming

2520-573: The Eight Banners . Nurhaci gave control of these Banners to his sons and grandsons. Around 1612, Nurhaci renamed his clan Aisin Gioro ("golden Gioro" in the Manchu language ), both to distinguish his family from other Gioro lines and to allude to an earlier dynasty that had been founded by Jurchens, the Jin ("golden") dynasty that had ruled northern China from 1115 to 1234. In 1616 Nurhaci formally announced

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2640-605: The Grand Secretariat in 1658. These two institutions based on Ming models further eroded the power of the Manchu elite and threatened to revive the extremes of literati politics that had plagued the late Ming, when factions coalesced around rival grand secretaries. To counteract the power of the Imperial Household Department and the Manchu nobility, in July 1653 the Shunzhi Emperor established

2760-500: The Hanlin Academy , and limited membership in the Deliberative Council of Princes and Ministers to Manchus and Mongols. The regents also adopted aggressive policies toward the Qing's Chinese subjects: they executed dozens of people and punished thousands of others in the wealthy Jiangnan region for literary dissent and tax arrears, and forced the coastal population of southeast China to move inland in order to starve

2880-551: The Holy Roman Empire , for guidance on matters ranging from astronomy and technology to religion and government. In late 1644, Dorgon had put Schall in charge of preparing a new calendar because his eclipse predictions had proven more reliable than those of the official astronomer . After Dorgon's death Schall developed a personal relationship with the young emperor, who called him "grandfather" ( mafa in Manchu). At

3000-564: The Ming , peasant rebellions were dangerously approaching Beijing . On 24 April of that year, rebel leader Li Zicheng breached the walls of the Ming capital, pushing the Chongzhen Emperor to hang himself on a hill behind the Forbidden City . Hearing the news, Dorgon's Chinese advisors Hong Chengchou and Fan Wencheng (范文程; 1597–1666) urged the Manchu prince to seize this opportunity to present themselves as avengers of

3120-466: The Qing conquest , but had now become entrenched rulers of enormous domains in southern China. The civil war (1673–1681) tested the loyalty of the new Qing subjects, but Qing armies eventually prevailed. Once victory had become certain, a special examination for "eminent scholars of broad learning" ( Boxue hongru 博學鴻儒) was held in 1679 to attract Chinese literati who had refused to serve the new dynasty. The successful candidates were assigned to compile

3240-749: The Ryūkyū Kingdom , Annam , and the Spanish in Manila . These tributary embassies that had come to see the now fallen Longwu Emperor of the Southern Ming were forwarded to Beijing, and eventually sent home with instructions about submitting to the Qing. The King of the Ryūkyū Islands sent his first tribute mission to the Qing in 1649, Siam in 1652, and Annam in 1661, after the last remnants of Ming resistance had been removed from Yunnan , which bordered Annam. Also in 1646 sultan Abu al-Muhammad Haiji Khan ,

3360-529: The Southern Ming . In early 1649, Jirgalang, accompanied by Han Chinese soldiers under Han Chinese banner general Prince Kong Youde loyal to the Qing, ordered a six-day massacre of the inhabitants of the city of Xiangtan in present-day Hunan due to fierce resistance by Li Chixin's army who were former Chuang ( Li Zicheng 's) partisans. Southern Ming loyalist He Tengjiao was also killed at Xiangtan by Kong Youde. He returned to Beijing in 1650 after having

3480-630: The Sungari River , along which he exacted " yasak " (fur tribute) from native populations such as the Daur and the Duchers , but these groups resisted because they were already paying tribute to the Shunzhi Emperor ("Shamshakan" in Russian sources). In 1654 Stepanov defeated a small Manchu force that had been despatched from Ningguta to investigate Russian advances. In 1655 another Qing commander,

3600-586: The Taiwan -based Kingdom of Tungning run by descendants of Koxinga . After the Kangxi Emperor managed to imprison Oboi in 1669, he reverted many of the regents' policies. He restored institutions his father had favored, including the Grand Secretariat , through which Chinese officials gained an important voice in government. He also defeated the rebellion of the Three Feudatories , three Chinese military commanders who had played key military roles in

3720-592: The Xinyou Coup that brought Empress Dowager Cixi and the young emperor's uncle Prince Gong to power. Father: Šurhaci Mother: Ula Nara Hunai, secondary consort ( 侧福晋 乌拉那拉·虎奈) Consorts and issue: First Manchu invasion of Korea The Later Jin invasion of Joseon occurred in early 1627 when the Later Jin prince Amin led an invasion of the Joseon dynasty . The war ended after three months with

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3840-624: The era names of Shaowu ( 紹武 ) and Yongli . Short of official costumes, the Shaowu court had to purchase robes from local theater troops. The two Ming regimes fought each other until 20 January 1647, when a small Qing force led by Li Chengdong captured Guangzhou, killed the Shaowu Emperor, and sent the Yongli court fleeing to Nanning in Guangxi . In May 1648, however, Li mutinied against

3960-530: The official history of the fallen Ming dynasty. The rebellion was defeated in 1681, the same year the Kangxi Emperor initiated the use of variolation to inoculate children of the imperial family against smallpox. When the Kingdom of Tungning finally fell in 1683, the military consolidation of the Qing regime was complete. The institutional foundation laid by Dorgon, and the Shunzhi and Kangxi emperors allowed

4080-422: The prince regent Dorgon. Under his leadership, the Qing conquered most of the territory of the fallen Ming dynasty , chased Ming loyalist regimes deep into the southwestern provinces, and established the basis of Qing rule over China proper despite highly unpopular policies such as the "hair cutting command" of 1645, which forced all Qing male subjects to shave their forehead and braid their remaining hair into

4200-478: The " Longwu Emperor " Zhu Yujian, Prince of Tang—a ninth-generation descendant of Ming founder Zhu Yuanzhang —and one in Zhejiang around "Regent" Zhu Yihai , Prince of Lu. But the two loyalist groups failed to cooperate, making their chances of success even lower than they already were. In July 1646, a new Southern Campaign led by Prince Bolo sent Prince Lu's Zhejiang court into disarray and proceeded to attack

4320-643: The "Righteous Emperor" ( yi huangdi 義皇帝). On the same day of mid-January 1651, however, several officers of the White Banners led by former Dorgon supporter Ubai arrested Dorgon's brother Ajige for fear he would proclaim himself as the new regent; Ubai and his officers then named themselves presidents of several Ministries and prepared to take charge of the government. Meanwhile, Jirgalang , who had been stripped of his title of regent in 1647, gathered support among Banner officers who had been disgruntled during Dorgon's rule. In order to consolidate support for

4440-561: The Banner officers who gave Jirgalang their support, and Jirgalang appointed them to the Council of Deliberative Princes to reward them. On 1 February, Jirgalang announced that the Shunzhi Emperor, who was about to turn thirteen, would now assume full imperial authority. The regency was thus officially abolished. Jirgalang then moved to the attack. In late February or early March 1651 he accused Dorgon of usurping imperial prerogatives: Dorgon

4560-557: The Forbidden City at the age of twenty-two. The Manchus feared smallpox more than any other disease because they had no immunity to it and almost always died when they contracted it. By 1622 at the latest, they had already established an agency to investigate smallpox cases and isolate sufferers to avoid contagion . During outbreaks, royal family members were routinely sent to "smallpox avoidance centers" ( bidousuo 避痘所) to protect themselves from infection. The Shunzhi Emperor

4680-571: The Jurchens the " Manchus ", and in 1636 changed the name of his polity from "Later Jin" to " Qing ". After capturing the last remaining Ming cities in Liaodong, by 1643 the Qing were preparing to attack the struggling Ming dynasty, which was crumbling under the combined weight of financial bankruptcy, devastating epidemics, and large-scale bandit uprisings fed by widespread starvation. When Hong Taiji died on 21 September 1643 without having named

4800-478: The Jurchens. Mao Wenlong was reported to Ming authorities by Joseon for cowardice and treachery. Mao began acting independently and minted his own coins in 1628, while conducting illicit trading in contravention of Ming law. He was caught by Yuan Chonghuan in 1629 and executed for smuggling on 24 July 1629. Yuan reported the death of Mao Wenlong to the Joseon court, stating that it had been done to "properly establish

4920-406: The Later Jin establishing itself as sovereign tributary overlord over Joseon. However Joseon continued its relationship with the Ming dynasty and showed defiance in solidifying its tributary relationship with the Later Jin. It was followed by the Qing invasion of Joseon in 1636. The kingdom of Joseon had previously sent 10,069 musketeers and 3,000 archers to aid the Ming dynasty in attacking

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5040-644: The Later Jin in 1619, which culminated in an allied defeat at the Battle of Sarhū . The Joseon general Gang Hong-rip surrendered with his remaining forces and insisted that Joseon did not hold anything against the Jurchens, having only sent reinforcements to repay an obligation to Ming. In 1623, a faction at the Joseon court known as the Westerners deposed King Gwanghaegun ( Hangul : 광해군, Hanja : 光海君) and installed Injo as king. The following year Yi Gwal rebelled against King Injo, but failed in ousting him, and

5160-512: The Later Jin on the advice of his advisers. The Ming general Mao Wenlong 's army of 26,000 men engaged in raids against the Jurchens from an island base off the Korean peninsula. The Westerners aided him by allowing him to station his troops in Uiju . The Later Jin had lost at the Battle of Ningyuan the previous year and their Khan, Nurhaci , died from his wounds afterwards. Peace negotiations with

5280-679: The Longwu regime in Fujian. Zhu Yujian was caught and summarily executed in Tingzhou (western Fujian) on 6 October. His adoptive son Koxinga fled to the island of Taiwan with his fleet. Finally in November, the remaining centers of Ming resistance in Jiangxi province fell to the Qing. In late 1646 two more Southern Ming monarchs emerged in the southern province of Guangzhou , reigning under

5400-420: The Manchu homeland before the conquest and under which "each of the banners was given a fixed geographical location according to the points of the compass." Despite tax remissions and large-scale building programs designed to facilitate the transition, in 1648 many Chinese civilians still lived among the newly arrived Banner population and there was still animosity between the two groups. Agricultural land outside

5520-513: The Manchus demanded changing the terms of diplomatic relationship from equality to sovereign-vassal. The Joseon court, dominated by anti-Manchu hawks, rejected the demand. This led to the Qing invasion of Joseon in 1636. The Ming general Yuan Chonghuan was impeached for having been duped by the Jin into entering peace negotiations, and court officials accused him of lack of agency. This was the last time Ming would openly engage in peace negotiations with

5640-574: The Ming after the battle delayed an aggressive Ming response to the Jurchen loss, and the Ming general Yuan Chonghuan was busy fortifying the border garrisons and training new musketeers. The new Khan, Hong Taiji, was eager for a quick victory to consolidate his position. By invading Joseon he also hoped to extract much needed resources for his army and subjects, who had suffered in the war against Ming. In 1627, Hong Taiji dispatched Amin , Jirgalang , Ajige and Yoto to Joseon with 30,000 troops under

5760-714: The Ming and the Chahar Mongols . In 1636 he was granted the title " Prince Zheng of the First Rank ", with rights of perpetual inheritance. In 1642, Jirgalang led the siege of Jinzhou , an important Ming city in Liaodong that surrendered to Qing forces in April of that year after more than one year of resistance. While Dorgon was staying in Mukden , in November or December 1643 Jirgalang was sent to attack Shanhai Pass ,

5880-574: The Ming heir apparent, they saw Dorgon, a horseriding Manchu with his shaved forehead, present himself as the Prince Regent. In the midst of this upheaval, Dorgon installed himself in the Wuying Palace ( 武英殿 ), the only building that remained more or less intact after Li Zicheng had set fire to the palace complex on 3 June. Banner troops were ordered not to loot; their discipline made the transition to Qing rule "remarkably smooth." Yet at

6000-420: The Ming. In the very first palace examination held under Qing rule in 1646, candidates, most of whom were northern Chinese, were asked how the Manchus and Han Chinese could be made to work together for a common purpose. The 1649 examination inquired about "how Manchus and Han Chinese could be unified so that their hearts were the same and they worked together without division." Under the Shunzhi Emperor's reign,

6120-607: The Mongol Minggadari (d. 1669), defeated Stepanov's forces at fort Kumarsk on the Amur, but this was not enough to chase the Russians. In 1658, however, Manchu general Šarhūda (1599–1659) attacked Stepanov with a fleet of 40 or more ships that managed to kill or capture most Russians. This Qing victory temporarily cleared the Amur valley of Cossack bands, but Sino-Russian border conflicts would continue until 1689, when

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6240-453: The Muslim rebels had been crushed in campaigns that inflicted heavy casualties. Dorgon's unexpected death on 31 December 1650 during a hunting trip triggered a period of fierce factional struggles and opened the way for deep political reforms. Because Dorgon's supporters were still influential at court, Dorgon was given an imperial funeral and was posthumously elevated to imperial status as

6360-401: The Qing sovereign to Christianity was crushed when the Shunzhi Emperor became a devout follower of Chan Buddhism in 1657. The emperor developed a good command of Chinese that allowed him to manage matters of state and to appreciate Chinese arts such as calligraphy and drama. One of his favorite texts was "Rhapsody of a Myriad Sorrows" ( Wan chou qu 萬愁曲), by Gui Zhuang (歸莊; 1613–1673), who

6480-459: The Qing to erect an imperial edifice of awesome proportion and to turn it into "one of the most successful imperial states the world has known." Ironically, however, the prolonged Pax Manchurica that followed the Kangxi consolidation made the Qing unprepared to face aggressive European powers with modern weaponry in the nineteenth century. Although only nineteen imperial consorts are recorded for

6600-457: The Qing, and the concurrent rebellion of another former Ming general in Jiangxi helped Yongli to retake most of south China. This resurgence of loyalist hopes was short-lived. New Qing armies managed to reconquer the central provinces of Huguang (present-day Hubei and Hunan ), Jiangxi, and Guangdong in 1649 and 1650. The Yongli emperor had to flee again. Finally on 24 November 1650, Qing forces led by Shang Kexi captured Guangzhou and massacred

6720-682: The Qing. To prepare for the arrival of this " living Buddha ," the Shunzhi Emperor ordered the building of the White Dagoba ( baita 白塔) on an island on one of the imperial lakes northwest of the Forbidden City, at the former site of Qubilai Khan 's palace. After more invitations and diplomatic exchanges to decide where the Tibetan leader would meet the Qing emperor, the Dalai Lama arrived in Beijing in January 1653. The Dalai Lama later had

6840-454: The Shunzhi Emperor had really named these four Manchu nobles as regents, because they and Empress Dowager Zhaosheng clearly tampered with the emperor's testament before promulgating it. The emperor's will expressed his regret about his Chinese-style ruling (his reliance on eunuchs and his favoritism toward Chinese officials), his neglect of Manchu nobles and traditions, and his headstrong devotion to his consort rather than to his mother. Though

6960-491: The Shunzhi Emperor had supposedly expressed regret for abandoning Manchu traditions gave authority to the nativist policies of the Kangxi Emperor's four regents . Citing the testament, Oboi and the other regents quickly abolished the Thirteen Eunuch Bureaus. Over the next few years, they enhanced the power of the Imperial Household Department , which was run by Manchus and their bondservants , eliminated

7080-410: The Shunzhi Emperor in the Aisin-Gioro genealogy made by the Imperial Clan Court , burial records show that he had at least thirty-two of them. There were two empresses in his reign, both relatives of his mother. He had a total of fourteen children, but only four sons (Fuquan, Xuanye, Changning, and Longxi) and one daughter (Princess Gongque) lived to be old enough to marry. Unlike later Qing emperors,

7200-419: The Shunzhi Emperor was preparing to hold a special examination to celebrate the glories of his reign and the success of the southwestern campaigns, Zheng sailed up the Yangtze River with a well-armed fleet, took several cities from Qing hands, and went so far as to threaten Nanjing . When the emperor heard of this sudden attack he is said to have slashed his throne with a sword in anger. But the siege of Nanjing

7320-409: The Southern Ming stayed there until 1662, when he was captured and executed by Wu Sangui, the former Ming general whose surrender to the Manchus in April 1644 had allowed Dorgon to start the Qing conquest of China . Zheng Chenggong ("Koxinga"), who had been adopted by the Longwu Emperor in 1646 and ennobled by Yongli in 1655, also continued to defend the cause of the Southern Ming. In 1659, just as

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7440-442: The Southern Ming, retook Guilin (Guangxi province) from the Qing. Within a month, most of the commanders who had been supporting the Qing in Guangxi reverted to the Ming side. Despite occasionally successful military campaigns in Huguang and Guangdong in the next two years, Li failed to retake important cities. In 1653, the Qing court put Hong Chengchou in charge of retaking the southwest. Headquartered in Changsha (in what

7560-578: The Thirteen Offices ( 十三衙門 ), or Thirteen Eunuch Bureaus, which were supervised by Manchus, but manned by Chinese eunuchs rather than Manchu bondservants . Eunuchs had been kept under tight control during Dorgon's regency, but the young emperor used them to counter the influence of other power centers such as his mother the Empress Dowager and former regent Jirgalang. By the late 1650s eunuch power became formidable again: they handled key financial and political matters, offered advice on official appointments, and even composed edicts. Because eunuchs isolated

7680-447: The average number of graduates per session of the metropolitan examination was the highest of the Qing dynasty ("to win more Chinese support"), until 1660 when lower quotas were established. To promote ethnic harmony, in 1648 an imperial decree formulated by Dorgon allowed Han Chinese civilians to marry women from the Manchu Banners, with the permission of the Board of Revenue if they were registered daughters of officials or commoners, or

7800-427: The capital was also marked off ( quan 圈) and given to Qing troops. Former landowners now became tenants who had to pay rent to their absentee Bannermen landlords. This transition in land use caused "several decades of disruption and hardship." In 1646, Dorgon also ordered that the civil examinations for selecting government officials be reestablished. From then on they were held regularly every three years as under

7920-485: The capture of He Tengjiao against the forces of the Yongli Emperor , the last ruler of the Southern Ming regime. The group led by Jirgalang that historian Robert Oxnam has called the "Jirgalang faction" was composed of Manchu princes and nobles who had opposed Dorgon and who returned to power after the latter died on December 31, 1650. Concerned that Dorgon's brother Ajige may try to succeed Dorgon, Jirgalang and his group arrested Ajige in early 1651. Jirgalang remained

8040-412: The cause of the emperor's death, rumors soon started to circulate that he had not died but in fact retired to a Buddhist monastery to live anonymously as a monk , either out of grief for the death of his beloved consort, or because of a coup by the Manchu nobles his will had named as regents. These rumors seemed not so incredible because the emperor had become a fervent follower of Chan Buddhism in

8160-409: The city when they contracted smallpox—the young monarch still succumbed to that illness. The emperor's last will , which was made public on the evening of 5 February, appointed four regents for his young son: Oboi , Soni , Suksaha , and Ebilun , who had all helped Jirgalang to purge the court of Dorgon's supporters after Dorgon's death on the last day of 1650. It is difficult to determine whether

8280-445: The city's population, killing as many as 70,000 people. Meanwhile, in October 1646, Qing armies led by Hooge (the son of Hong Taiji who had lost the succession struggle of 1643) reached Sichuan, where their mission was to destroy the kingdom of bandit leader Zhang Xianzhong . Zhang was killed in a battle against Qing forces near Xichong in central Sichuan on 1 February 1647. Also late in 1646 but further north, forces assembled by

8400-633: The corruption and influence-peddling that was rife in the bureaucracy, and that many moralistic officials from the north attributed to the existence of southern literary clubs and to the decline of classical scholarship. During his short reign, the Shunzhi Emperor encouraged Han Chinese to participate in government activities and revived many Chinese-style institutions that had been either abolished or marginalized during Dorgon's regency. He discussed history, classics , and politics with grand academicians such as Chen Mingxia (see previous section) and surrounded himself with new men such as Wang Xi (王熙; 1628–1703),

8520-438: The emperor fell into dejection for months, until he contracted smallpox on 2 February 1661. On 4 February 1661, officials Wang Xi (王熙, 1628–1703; the emperor's confidant ) and Margi (a Manchu) were called to the emperor's bedside to record his last will. On the same day, his seven-year-old third son Xuanye was chosen to be his successor, probably because he had already survived smallpox. The emperor died on 5 February 1661 in

8640-526: The emperor had intended, Feng Quan's return only intensified factional strife. In several controversies at court in 1653 and 1654, the southerners formed one bloc opposed to the northerners and the Manchus. In April 1654, when Chen Mingxia spoke to northern official Ning Wanwo ( 寧完我 ; d. 1665) about restoring the style of dress of the Ming court, Ning immediately denounced Chen to the emperor and accused him of various crimes including bribe-taking, nepotism , factionalism, and usurping imperial prerogatives. Chen

8760-513: The emperor had often issued self-deprecating edicts during his reign, the policies his will rejected had been central to his government since he had assumed personal rule in the early 1650s. The will as it was formulated gave "the mantle of imperial authority" to the four regents, and served to support their pro-Manchu policies during the period known as the Oboi regency , which lasted from 1661 to 1669. Because court statements did not clearly announce

8880-542: The emperor in burial—suggests that the Shunzhi Emperor's death was not staged. After being kept in the Forbidden City for 27 days of mourning, on 3 March 1661 the emperor's corpse was transported in a lavish procession to Jingshan 景山 (a hillock just north of the Forbidden City), after which a large amount of precious goods were burned as funeral offerings. Only two years later, in 1663, was the body transported to its final resting place. Contrary to Manchu customs at

9000-513: The emperor in the two Yellow Banners (which had belonged to the Qing monarch since Hong Taiji) and to gain followers in Dorgon's Plain White Banner, Jirgalang named them the "Upper Three Banners" ( shang san qi 上三旗; Manchu: dergi ilan gūsa ), which from then on were owned and controlled by the emperor. Oboi and Suksaha , who would become regents for the Kangxi Emperor in 1661, were among

9120-436: The emperor's awesomeness." Prior to his execution, Yuan Chonghuan addressed him thus: You were given the authority of a general. But now you, Mao Wenlong, have treacherously raised yourself to the level of a lord, amassed soldiers, siphoned off rations, slaughtered the refugees of Liaodong, despoiled Korea, harassed Denglai, carried out illicit commerce, looted and plundered commoners' boats, changed people's names, and violated

9240-551: The entire population, killing between 74,000 and 100,000 people. These massacres ended armed resistance against the Qing in the Lower Yangtze. A few committed loyalists became hermits , hoping that for lack of military success, their withdrawal from the world would at least symbolize their continued defiance against foreign rule. After the fall of Nanjing, two more members of the Ming imperial household created new Southern Ming regimes: one centered in coastal Fujian around

9360-603: The fallen Ming and to claim the Mandate of Heaven for the Qing. The last obstacle between Dorgon and Beijing was Ming general Wu Sangui , who was garrisoned at Shanhai Pass at the eastern end of the Great Wall . Himself caught between the Manchus and Li Zicheng's forces, Wu requested Dorgon's help in ousting the bandits and restoring the Ming. When Dorgon asked Wu to work for the Qing instead, Wu had little choice but to accept. Aided by Wu Sangui's elite soldiers, who fought

9480-566: The far southwestern reaches of China. After repressing anti-Qing revolts in Hebei and Shandong in the Summer and Fall of 1644, Dorgon sent armies to root out Li Zicheng from the important city of Xi'an ( Shaanxi province), where Li had reestablished his headquarters after fleeing Beijing in early June 1644. Under the pressure of Qing armies, Li was forced to leave Xi'an in February 1645, and he

9600-468: The following year) and seized Jiangnan's main cities, including Suzhou and Hangzhou ; by early July 1645, the frontier between the Qing and the Southern Ming had been pushed south to the Qiantang River . On 21 July 1645, after Jiangnan had been superficially pacified, Dorgon issued a most inopportune edict ordering all Chinese men to shave their forehead and to braid the rest of their hair into

9720-467: The following year. The Shunzhi Emperor died at the age of 22 of smallpox , a highly contagious disease that was endemic in China, but against which the Manchus had no immunity . He was succeeded by his third son who assumed the throne as the Kangxi Emperor and went on to reign for sixty years. Because fewer documents have survived from the Shunzhi era than from later eras of the Qing dynasty, this era

9840-410: The food of Joseon should only be fed to Joseon subjects. The relationship between Joseon and Later Jin remained uncomfortable and bleak. The invasion was bitterly resented by Joseon's statesmen and Confucian scholars, who believed that it was treacherous and unfilial for Joseon to abandon Ming considering the assistance it had provided against Japan in the past. This resentment was inflamed in 1636 when

9960-416: The foundation of the "Later Jin" dynasty , effectively declaring his independence from the Ming. Over the next few years he wrested most major cities in Liaodong from Ming control. His string of victories ended in February 1626 at the siege of Ningyuan , where Ming commander Yuan Chonghuan defeated him with the help of recently acquired Portuguese cannon . Probably wounded during the battle, Nurhaci died

10080-461: The guidance of Gang Hong-rip and Li Yongfang. The Jurchens met sharp resistance at the border towns but Joseon border garrisons were quickly defeated. On 14 January, the Jurchen army advanced into Uiju where Mao Wenlong was stationed, and Mao quickly fled with his men into the Bohai Sea . The Neunghan Fortress fell on the 21 January. Next the Jurchens attacked Anju . When it became clear that defeat

10200-431: The hair cutting command greatly hindered the Qing conquest. The defiant population of Jiading and Songjiang was massacred by former Ming general Li Chengdong (李成東; d. 1649), respectively on 24 August and 22 September. Jiangyin also held out against about 10,000 Qing troops for 83 days. When the city wall was finally breached on 9 October 1645, the Qing army led by Ming defector Liu Liangzuo (劉良佐; d. 1667) massacred

10320-473: The height of his influence in 1656 and 1657, Schall reports that the Shunzhi Emperor often visited his house and talked to him late into the night. He was excused from prostrating himself in the presence of the emperor, was granted land to build a church in Beijing, and was even given imperial permission to adopt a son (because Fulin worried that Schall did not have an heir), but the Jesuits' hope of converting

10440-561: The last paragraph of the "Conquest of China" section above). Tribute and trade with Hami and Turfan, which had aided the rebels, were eventually resumed in 1656. In 1655, however, the Qing court announced that tributary missions from Turfan would be accepted only once every five years. In 1651 the young emperor invited to Beijing the Fifth Dalai Lama , the leader of the Yellow Hat Sect of Tibetan Buddhism , who, with

10560-463: The late 1650s, even letting monks move into the imperial palace. Modern Chinese historians have considered the Shunzhi Emperor's possible retirement as one of the three mysterious cases of the early Qing. But much circumstantial evidence—including an account by one of these monks that the emperor's health greatly deteriorated in early February 1661 because of smallpox, and the fact that a concubine and an Imperial Bodyguard committed suicide to accompany

10680-479: The military help of Khoshot Mongol Gushri Khan , had recently unified religious and secular rule in Tibet . Qing emperors had been patrons of Tibetan Buddhism since at least 1621 under the reign of Nurhaci , but there were also political reasons behind the invitation. Namely, Tibet was becoming a powerful polity west of the Qing, and the Dalai Lama held influence over Mongol tribes, many of which had not submitted to

10800-422: The monarch from the bureaucracy, Manchu and Chinese officials feared a return to the abuses of eunuch power that had plagued the late Ming. Despite the emperor's attempt to impose strictures on eunuch activities, the Shunzhi Emperor's favorite eunuch Wu Liangfu (吳良輔; d. 1661), who had helped him defeat the Dorgon faction in the early 1650s, was caught in a corruption scandal in 1658. The fact that Wu only received

10920-569: The name of the princehood was changed from "Zheng" (鄭) to "Jian" (簡). The title " Prince Zheng " was re-established in 1778 when the Qianlong Emperor praised Jirgalang for his role in the Qing defeat of Ming and granted Jirgalang a place in the Imperial Ancestral Temple. Jirgalang's second son Jidu and Jidu's second son Labu ( Chinese : 喇布 ; pinyin : Lăbù ; d. 1681) participated in military campaigns in

11040-481: The names of the Shunzhi Emperor's sons did not include a generational character. Before the Qing court moved to Beijing in 1644, Manchu women used to have personal names, but after 1644 these names "disappear from the genealogical and archival records". Imperial consorts were usually known by their titles and the name of their patrilineal clan, while imperial daughters were given a title and rank by which they then became known only after their betrothal. Although five of

11160-567: The new emperor, but Dorgon refused and insisted that one of Hong Taiji's sons should succeed his father. To recognize Dorgon's authority while keeping the throne in Hong Taiji's descent line, the members of the council named Hong Taiji's ninth son, Fulin, as the new emperor, but decided that Dorgon and Jirgalang (a nephew of Nurhaci who controlled the Bordered Blue Banner) would act as the five-year-old child's regents . Fulin

11280-524: The peace agreement. The Jin army then withdrew to Mukden , ending the three-month-long invasion. In the postwar negotiations, the Later Jin forced Joseon to open markets near the borders because its conflicts with Ming had brought economic hardship and starvation to Jin subjects. Joseon was also forced to transfer suzerainty of the Warka tribe to Jin. Furthermore, a tribute of 100 horses, 100 tiger and leopard skins, 400 bolts of cotton, and 15,000 pieces of cloth

11400-402: The people's sons and daughters. These are the crimes for which you will be put to death. Shunzhi Emperor The Shunzhi Emperor (15 March 1638 – 5 February 1661), also known by his temple name Emperor Shizu of Qing , personal name Fulin , was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty , and the first Qing emperor to rule over China proper . Upon the death of his father Hong Taiji ,

11520-422: The permission of their banner company captain if they were unregistered commoners. Only later in the dynasty were these policies allowing intermarriage rescinded. Under the reign of Dorgon—whom historians have variously called "the mastermind of the Qing conquest" and "the principal architect of the great Manchu enterprise"—the Qing subdued almost all of China and pushed loyalist " Southern Ming " resistance into

11640-524: The rebel army for hours before Dorgon finally chose to intervene with his cavalry, the Qing won a decisive victory against Li Zicheng at the Battle of Shanhai Pass on 27 May. Li's defeated troops looted Beijing for several days until Li left the capital on 4 June with all the wealth he could carry. After six weeks of mistreatment at the hands of rebel troops, the Beijing population sent a party of elders and officials to greet their liberators on 5 June. They were startled when, instead of meeting Wu Sangui and

11760-485: The rebellion was crushed. Its survivors fled to the Jin court where they recommended Hong Taiji to invade Joseon. General Gang Hong-rip was also led to believe by the survivors that his family had died in the coup, so he pushed for the invasion out of a desire for revenge. Meanwhile the Westerners took on an explicitly pro-Ming and anti-Jurchen stance in their relations with the two states. Injo severed relations with

11880-501: The regency was exposed on 6 May of that year, Hooge was stripped of his title of Imperial Prince and his co-conspirators were executed. Dorgon soon replaced Hooge's supporters (mostly from the Yellow Banners) with his own, thus gaining closer control of two more Banners. By early June 1644, he was in firm control of the Qing government and its military. In early 1644, just as Dorgon and his advisors were pondering how to attack

12000-662: The reins of government, the Shunzhi Emperor issued an edict announcing that he would purge corruption from officialdom. This edict triggered factional conflicts among literati that would frustrate him until his death. One of his first gestures was to dismiss grand academician Feng Quan (馮銓; 1595–1672), a northern Chinese who had been impeached in 1645 but was allowed to remain in his post by Prince Regent Dorgon. The Shunzhi Emperor replaced Feng with Chen Mingxia (ca. 1601–1654), an influential southern Chinese with good connections in Jiangnan literary societies. Though later in 1651 Chen

12120-414: The same time as he claimed to have come to avenge the Ming, Dorgon ordered that all claimants to the Ming throne (including descendants of the last Ming emperor) should be executed along with their supporters. On 7 June, just two days after entering the city, Dorgon issued special proclamations to officials around the capital, assuring them that if the local population accepted to shave their forehead, wear

12240-589: The second half of the Shunzhi Emperor 's reign and the early reign of the Kangxi Emperor , notably against Koxinga and Wu Sangui . Jirgalang's 13th generation descendants Duanhua (Prince Zheng) and Sushun (Duanhua's younger brother) were politically active during the reign of the Xianfeng Emperor (r. 1851-1861). They were appointed as two of eight regents for the infant Tongzhi Emperor (r. 1862-1874), but were quickly overthrown in 1861 in

12360-570: The signature of the Treaty of Nerchinsk fixed the borders between Russia and the Qing. Though the Qing under Dorgon's leadership had successfully pushed the Southern Ming deep into southern China, Ming loyalism was not dead yet. In early August 1652, Li Dingguo , who had served as general in Sichuan under bandit king Zhang Xianzhong (d. 1647) and was now protecting the Yongli Emperor of

12480-525: The throne for himself. One of Dorgon's first orders in the new Qing capital was to vacate the entire northern part of Beijing to give it to Bannermen , including Han Chinese Bannermen. The Yellow Banners were given the place of honor north of the palace, followed by the White Banners east, the Red Banners west, and the Blue Banners south. This distribution accorded with the order established in

12600-405: The time the messenger returned, Injo had already fled from Hanseong ( Seoul ) to Ganghwa Island in panic. Despite the Jin invasion's success, Amin was willing to negotiate a peace. The following settlement was agreed upon on Ganghwa Island: While negotiations were taking place, the city of Pyongyang underwent several days of looting by the Jurchens before Amin was ordered by Hong Taji to sign

12720-464: The time, had first been the wife of another Manchu noble. She gave birth to a son (the Shunzhi Emperor's fourth) in November 1657. The emperor would have made him his heir apparent, but he died early in 1658 before he was given a name. The Shunzhi Emperor was an open-minded emperor and relied on the advice of Johann Adam Schall von Bell , a Jesuit missionary from Cologne in the Germanic parts of

12840-639: The time, which usually dictated that a deceased person should be cremated, the Shunzhi Emperor was buried. He was interred in what later came to be known as the Eastern Qing Tombs , 125 kilometers (75 miles) northeast of Beijing, one of two Qing imperial cemeteries. His tomb is part of the Xiao ( 孝 ) mausoleum complex (known in Manchu as the Hiyoošungga Munggan), which was the first mausoleum to be erected on that site. The fake will in which

12960-539: The young monarch deposed his new Empress in 1653. The following year Xiaozhuang arranged another imperial marriage with her Khorchin Mongol clan, this time matching her son with her own grand-niece. Though Fulin also disliked his second empress (known posthumously as Empress Xiaohuizhang ), he was not allowed to demote her. She never bore him children. Starting in 1656, the Shunzhi Emperor lavished his affection on Consort Donggo , who, according to Jesuit accounts from

13080-494: Was a close friend of anti-Qing intellectuals Gu Yanwu and Wan Shouqi (萬壽祺; 1603–1652). "Quite passionate and attach[ing] great importance to qing (love)," he could also recite by heart long passages of the popular Romance of the Western Chamber . In September 1660, Consort Donggo , the Shunzhi Emperor's favourite consort, suddenly died as a result of grief over the loss of a child. Overwhelmed with grief,

13200-410: Was also dismissed on charges of influence peddling, he was reinstated in his post in 1653 and soon became a close personal advisor to the sovereign. He was even allowed to draft imperial edicts just as Ming Grand Secretaries used to. Still in 1653, the Shunzhi Emperor decided to recall the disgraced Feng Quan, but instead of balancing the influence of northern and southern Chinese officials at court as

13320-641: Was executed by strangulation on 27 April 1654. In November 1657, a major cheating scandal erupted during the Shuntian provincial-level examinations in Beijing. Eight candidates from Jiangnan who were also relatives of Beijing officials had bribed examiners in the hope of being ranked higher in the contest. Seven examination supervisors found guilty of receiving bribes were executed, and several hundred people were sentenced to punishments ranging from demotion to exile and confiscation of property. The scandal, which soon spread to Nanjing examination circles, uncovered

13440-477: Was found guilty and all his posthumous honors were removed. Jirgalang continued to purge former members of Dorgon's clique and to bestow high ranks and nobility titles upon a growing number of followers in the Three Imperial Banners, so that by 1652 all of Dorgon's former supporters had been either killed or effectively removed from government. On 7 April 1651, barely two months after he seized

13560-475: Was in charge of the two Red Banners, whereas Hooge (34) had the loyalty of his father's two Yellow Banners. The decision about who would become the new Qing emperor fell to the Deliberative Council of Princes and Ministers , which was the Manchus' main policymaking body until the emergence of the Grand Council in the 1720s. Many Manchu princes argued that Dorgon, a proven military leader, should become

13680-530: Was inevitable, the Anju garrisons committed suicide by blowing up their gunpowder storehouse. Pyongyang fell without a fight and the Jin army crossed the Taedong River . By this time, news of the invasion had reached the Ming court, which immediately dispatched a relief contingent to Joseon, slowing the Jurchen advance into Hwangju . King Injo then dispatched an envoy to negotiate a peace treaty, but by

13800-530: Was killed—either by his own hand or by a peasant group that had organized for self-defense in this time of rampant banditry—in September 1645 after fleeing though several provinces. From newly captured Xi'an, in early April 1645 the Qing mounted a campaign against the rich commercial and agricultural region of Jiangnan south of the lower Yangtze River , where in June 1644 a Ming imperial prince had established

13920-480: Was officially crowned emperor of the Qing dynasty on 8 October 1643; it was decided that he would reign under the era name "Shunzhi." Because the Shunzhi reign is not well documented, it constitutes a relatively little-known period of Qing history. On 17 February 1644, Jirgalang, who was a capable military leader but looked uninterested in managing state affairs, willingly yielded control of all official matters to Dorgon. After an alleged plot by Hooge to undermine

14040-495: Was particularly fearful of the disease, because he was young and lived in a large city, near sources of contagion. Indeed, during his reign at least nine outbreaks of smallpox were recorded in Beijing, each time forcing the emperor to move to a protected area such as the "Southern Park" (Nanyuan 南苑), a hunting ground south of Beijing where Dorgon had built a "smallpox avoidance center" in the 1640s. Despite this and other precautions—such as rules forcing Chinese residents to move out of

14160-520: Was relieved and Zheng Chenggong repelled, forcing Zheng to take refuge in the southeastern coastal province of Fujian. Pressured by Qing fleets, Zheng fled to Taiwan in April 1661 but died that same summer. His descendants resisted Qing rule until 1683, when the Kangxi Emperor successfully took the island. After Fulin came to rule on his own in 1651, his mother the Empress Dowager Zhaosheng arranged for him to marry her niece, but

14280-421: Was removed from his post of regent and replaced by Dorgon's brother Dodo . Despite his removal, Jirgalang continued to serve as a military leader. In March 1648, Dorgon ordered the arrest of Jirgalang on various charges and had Jirgalang degraded from a qinwang (first-rank prince) to a junwang (second-rank prince) . Later in the same year, however, Jirgalang was sent to southern China to fight troops loyal to

14400-553: Was to be extracted and gifted to the Jin Khan. Injo's brother was sent to deliver this tribute. However in later letters to the Joseon king, Hong Taiji would complain that the Koreans did not behave as if they had lost, and were not abiding by the terms of the agreement. Joseon merchants and markets continued to trade with Ming and actively aided Ming subjects by providing them with grain and rations. Hong Taiji rebuked them, saying that

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