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72-808: Li Zicheng (22 September 1606 – 1645), born Li Hongji , also known by his nickname, the Dashing King , was a Chinese peasant rebel leader who helped overthrow the Ming dynasty in April 1644 and ruled over northern China briefly as the Yongchang Emperor ( Chinese : 永昌帝 ; pinyin : Yǒngchāng Dì ) of the short-lived Shun dynasty before his death a year later. Li Zicheng was born in 1606 as Li Hongji to an impoverished family of farmers in Li Jiqian village, Yan'an prefecture, northeast Shaanxi province . Li Zicheng had

144-536: A Robin Hood -style figure who showed compassion to the poor and only attacked Ming officials. Li advocated the slogans of "dividing land equally" and "abolishing the grain taxes payment system" which won great support from the peasants. The song, "Killing cattle and sheep, preparing tasty wine and opening the city gate to welcome the Dashing King" was widely spread at the time. The 1642 Kaifeng flood , caused by breaches of

216-582: A Ming army on his way to Nanjing . Gao was then defeated in a series of battles against Lu Xiangsheng but escaped. Lu was unable to follow up on his victories and he was called back to the northern frontier to deal with the Qing dynasty 's invasion. Sun Chuanting was made Grand Coordinator of Shaanxi. Sun captured Gao Yingxiang when he invaded Shaanxi and sent him to Beijing where he was dismembered. His followers joined other rebel leaders such as Li Zicheng and Lao Huihui. The rebel situation deteriorated even further as

288-588: A bandit in Baifa Monü Zhuan , a wuxia novel by Liang Yusheng , where the heroine comments he is worthy of being a king. Li is featured as a character in some of the works of Hong Kong wuxia writer Jin Yong (Louis Cha). Li's rebellion against the Ming dynasty is featured in Sword Stained with Royal Blood and his personality is analysed from the point of view of Yuan Chengzhi , the protagonist. In The Deer and

360-472: A brother who was 20 years his senior and raised Li Zicheng alongside his son and Zicheng's nephew, Li Guo. While Li Zicheng was literate, the source of his education is disputed. Over the course of his late adolescence and early adulthood, Li worked on a farm, in a wine shop, in a blacksmith's shop, and as a mailman for the state courier system. According to folklore, in 1630, Li was put on public display in an iron collar and shackles for failing to repay loans to

432-589: A few hundred men. The forces of the former Ming general were virtually annihilated by the Qing army, and though Tang Tong managed to escape he soon surrendered to the Qing. At dusk on May 26, Dorgon's forces settled eight kilometers away from the Pass and slept in their armor until midnight, when they were awoken again to continue marching. Having instructed his brothers Ajige and Dodo to lead two wings of ten thousand men each to protect his flanks, Dorgon led his main force toward

504-531: A fight. In 1644, Li Zicheng declared the formation of the Shun dynasty . In Beijing, Chongzhen made a last-ditch effort to raise an army from the civilian population and sent them out against Li. More than half the army deserted before they were 100 li away from Beijing. Li advanced on the Ming capital in two directions, taking Taiyuan , Datong , and Changping in the process. On 24 April, one of Chongzhen's eunuchs ordered

576-467: A major problem for the remainder of the Ming dynasty. Yang He was eventually impeached and arrested for ineffectiveness. He was replaced with Hong Chengchou who would later defect to the Qing dynasty . His subordinates, in particular the brothers Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao were reckless. Soldiers slaughtered rebels as well as civilians alike to turn in heads for rewards. At one point an official even submitted female heads, claiming they were bandits. He

648-419: A proven military leader – a committee of Manchu princes chose to pass the throne to Hong Taiji's five-year-old son Fulin and appointed Dorgon and Jirgalang as co- regents . Because Jirgalang had no political ambition, Dorgon became the prime ruler of the Qing government. Just as Dorgon and his advisors were pondering how to attack the Ming , peasant rebellions were ravaging northern China and threatening

720-529: A rebel army led by Gao Yingxiang (高迎祥), nicknamed "the Dashing King.” He inherited Gao's nickname and command of the rebel army after Gao's death. Within three years, Li succeeded in rallying more than 30,000 men to his cause. They attacked and killed prominent government officials such as Sun Chuanting in Henan , Shanxi , and Shaanxi . As Li won more battles and gained more support, his army grew larger. Historians attribute this growth in numbers to Li's reputation as

792-603: A river and flooding the city, killing 270,000 people. The rebels looted whatever was left of the city and retreated. By 1643, the rebels had coalesced into two major factions in Li Zicheng in Central China and Zhang Xianzhong in Sichuan. Li declared himself Prince of Shun. Zhang declared himself Prince of the Xi. Wuchang , Hanyang , and Changsha fell to Zhang, who declared the formation of

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864-420: A usurious magistrate. The magistrate, a man by the name of Ai, struck a guard who tried to give Li shade and water. A group of sympathetic peasants freed Li from his shackles, spirited him to a nearby hill, and proclaimed him their leader. Although they were only armed with wooden sticks, Li and his band managed to ambush a group of government soldiers sent to arrest them, and obtained their first real weapons. By

936-634: The Chongzhen Emperor raised taxes in 1637 to fund the military. A new Vice Minister of War, Xiong Wencan, was put in charge of overall rebel pacification activities, but Hong Chengchou and Zuo Liangyu basically ignored all his orders. Hong defeated Li Zicheng in Sichuan, but victory in battle meant little against the rebel forces, and sometimes the army looted and raped in the area evicted of rebels. Ming forces continued to score victories against Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong without being able to kill or capture them. At one point Zhang Xianzhong surrendered and

1008-654: The Shun dynasty , allowing Dorgon and the Qing army to rapidly conquer Beijing . As the Ming dynasty declined , and the threat from northern enemies grew, Ming emperors saw the strategic value of Shanhai Pass and frequently garrisoned troops there, armies which sometimes reached up to 40,000 men. Under the rule of Hong Taiji (r. 1626–1643), the Qing were becoming more aggressive against the Ming. After an intermittent siege that lasted over ten years, Qing armies led by Jirgalang captured Songshan and Jinzhou in early 1642. The garrison of Ming general Wu Sangui in Ningyuan became

1080-585: The Southern Ming , was killed by Wu Sangui in 1662. Wu Sangui was given a large territory in the southwest China, where he ruled for the Qing as a local feudal lord until he was recalled to Beijing in 1673. He and three other governors then rose in rebellion against the Qing. Though Wu died in 1678, the rebellion of the Three Feudatories lasted until 1681. In 1683 the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1662–1722) defeated

1152-556: The Xi dynasty . Li felt threatened by Zhang's growing success so he put a bounty on his head. Li consolidated power within his own faction by eliminating Luo Rucai and other local bandits. In the autumn, the Chongzhen Emperor ordered Sun Chuanting to attack Li. This turned out to be the last Ming offensive as the Ming army was completely destroyed and Sun killed in battle. Li followed up the victory by capturing Xi'an , which surrendered without

1224-523: The Yellow River dikes by both sides, ended the siege of Kaifeng and killed over 300,000 of its 378,000 residents. After the battles of Luoyang and Kaifeng, the Ming government was unable to stop Li's rebellion, as most of its military force was involved in the battle against the Manchus in the north. In 1643, Li captured Xiangyang and proclaimed himself "King of Xinshun" (新順王). Titling himself "Prince of

1296-561: The Cauldron , set in the Qing dynasty during the early reign of the Kangxi Emperor , Li is revealed to have survived and fathered a daughter, A'ke , with Chen Yuanyuan . Li is also briefly mentioned by name in Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain and The Young Flying Fox . Li is the main character of the historical epic novel Li Zicheng by Yao Xueyin . Li also makes an appearance in

1368-589: The Great Shun at the Wuying Palace (武英殿). After 42 days in Beijing, Li Zicheng set the imperial palace complex on fire and abandoned the capital to flee toward the west. The Beijing population then massacred nearly two thousand rebels who had not fled. On June 5, the Beijing population prepared to welcome those who had defeated Li Zicheng. The elders and officials who went out of the city expecting to greet Wu Sangui and

1440-974: The Great Wall into Shanxi ; Wu then broke pursuit to return to Beijing. Li then reestablished a power base in Xi'an ( Shaanxi province), where he had declared the foundation of his Shun dynasty in February 1644. After repressing revolts against Qing rule in Hebei and Shandong in the Summer and Fall of 1644, in October of that year Dorgon sent several armies to extirpate Li Zicheng from his Shaanxi stronghold. Qing armies led by Ajige , Dodo , and Shi Tingzhu (石廷柱) won consecutive engagements against Shun forces in Shanxi and Shaanxi, forcing Li Zicheng to leave his Xi'an headquarters in February 1645. Li retreated through several provinces until he

1512-638: The Manchus put an end to Li's illegitimate rule and restore peace to the empire, thus receiving the Mandate of Heaven to rule China. In the History of Ming , Li Zicheng was described as having high cheekbones, deep-set eyes and a jackal-like voice. Li Yan, a semi-mythical advisor of Li Zicheng who was thought to have died in 1644, has been suspected to be a metaphor for the rise and fall of Li Zicheng’s rebellion, as historians doubt his existence in real life. Li appears as

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1584-565: The Ming capital of Beijing . In February 1644, rebel leader Li Zicheng founded the Shun dynasty in Xi'an and proclaimed himself king. In March, his armies captured the important city of Taiyuan in Shanxi . Seeing the progress of the rebels, on April 5, the Ming Chongzhen Emperor (Zhu Youjian) requested the urgent help of any military commandant in the empire. Eager to secure the loyalty of his military elite, on April 11 he granted

1656-533: The Ming dynasty. Wu Sangui's departure from the stronghold of Ningyuan had left all territory outside the Great Wall under Qing control. Dorgon's Han Chinese advisors Hong Chengchou and Fan Wencheng (范文程) urged the Manchu prince to seize the opportunity of the fall of Beijing to claim the Mandate of Heaven for the Qing dynasty. Therefore, when Dorgon received Wu's letter, he was already leading an expedition to attack northern China and had no intention of restoring

1728-455: The Ming heir apparent were shocked when the leader of the victorious army turned out to be Prince Regent Dorgon of the Qing. Dorgon and his retinue rode to Donghua Gate (東華門), an eastern gate to the Forbidden City , to receive the imperial regalia; Dorgon was then escorted to Wuying Palace by the former Ming imperial bodyguards, who had previously submitted to Li Zicheng but now vowed to serve

1800-587: The Ming. Dorgon asked Wu to work for the Qing instead. Wu had little choice but to accept. On May 25, Li Zicheng deployed his men along the Sha River (沙河) a few kilometers west of the Shanhai Pass fortifications. He could observe the battlefield from a nearby hill, accompanied by two young Ming princes whom he had taken hostage. Wu Sangui assigned two trusted lieutenants to the defense of the northern and western walls of Shanhai Pass, and let gentry-led militia protect

1872-530: The New Discipline", he established a capital at Xi'an. In April 1644, Li and 300,000 troops marched on the Ming capital of Beijing. They captured Beijing (the gates of which were opened from inside) and the Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself. Li proclaimed himself the emperor of the Shun dynasty . Li, as all contenders for the throne were required, claimed to have the Mandate of Heaven bestowed upon him. Firstly, Li

1944-506: The Pass. At dawn on May 27, the main Qing army reached the gates of Shanhai Pass, where Dorgon received Wu Sangui's formal surrender. Wu Sangui asked his men to attach pieces of white cloth to their back so that the Qing forces could tell them apart from the Shun rebels. Wu Sangui's forces were deployed in the vanguard and were ordered to charge the Shun army, but despite disorder in the Shun ranks, their defense line did not yield. Unable to break

2016-629: The Qing. Dorgon welcomed the Shunzhi Emperor to Beijing on October 19. The young monarch was officially enthroned as Emperor of China on November 8, 1644, marking the moment when the Qing seized the Mandate of Heaven . On May 28, Wu Sangui's Ming title of Pingxi Earl (平西伯) was raised to Pingxi Prince (平西王). His troops shaved their heads and joined the main Qing forces. Very soon after entering Beijing, Dorgon despatched Wu and his troops to pursue Li Zicheng. Wu managed to engage Li's rearguard many times, but Li still managed to cross Guangu pass of

2088-455: The army, which sentenced him to death for breaking military law. An officer named Chen Hongfan spared him due to being impressed by his valiance. Zhang Xianzhong then joined the rebellion and followed Ma Shouying, who made him a petty officer and named him the "Yellow Tiger". Eventually hardship struck in the winter of 1631 and Zhang was forced to surrender with Luo Rucai, the first of several times he would do so out of expedience. Li Zicheng

2160-419: The city had fallen. He returned to Shanhai Pass. Li Zicheng sent two armies to attack the pass but Wu's battle-hardened troops defeated them easily on May 5 and 10. In order to secure his position, Li was determined to destroy Wu's army. On May 18 he personally led 60,000 troops out of Beijing to attack Wu. Meanwhile, Wu Sangui was writing to Dorgon to request the Qing's help in ousting the bandits and restoring

2232-703: The combined forces of the Manchurian Prince Dorgon and the Ming general Wu Sangui who had defected to his side. The Ming and Manchu forces captured Beijing on 6 June and Fulin ascended to the throne to establish the Shunzhi reign with Dorgon as his regent. When Wu Sangui and Prince Dorgon took control of Beijing, Li fled to Xi'an in Shaanxi. It is not known how or if Li died during his flight, and there are multiple accounts of his death which vary and some of them have been exaggerated. However, across multiple sources,

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2304-481: The command of Hong Chengchou. He failed to rout the rebels and suffered a defeat. Lu Xiangsheng was put in charge of rebel pacification in Huguang. Meanwhile, the Ming suffered a major defeat when rebel forces surrounded Cao Wenzhao, when he overextended and ran into rebel cavalry forces. Cao killed himself. The rebels had become better organized and had heavy cannons by 1636. Gao Yingxiang moved towards Taozhou and crushed

2376-475: The day before and that the rebels' army was now in Changping, 65 kilometers northwest of Beijing. Li and his army reached the suburbs of the capital on April 23. Instead of mounting a full-scale attack on the city walls, Li sent the recently surrendered eunuch Du Xun to see Emperor Zhu Youjian, hoping to secure his surrender. Zhu refused. On April 24 Li Zicheng breached the walls of Beijing, and Zhu hanged himself

2448-487: The east. Zhang Xianzhong failed to take the city of Luzhou, which was heavily defended with cannons that dealt heavy casualties to the rebels, killing 1,100. Li Zicheng continued his rebel activity throughout 1635 and 1636 with modest success. However, his lieutenant defected to the Ming and took Li's girlfriend along with him. Li lost Xianyang to the Ming after that. To the north, a 43,000 strong Ming army arrived in Henan under

2520-530: The eastern wall of the garrison. He then deployed his troops near Sha River to face Li Zicheng's army. Also on May 25, Dorgon received a letter from Wu Sangui declaring that Wu was willing to surrender to the Qing in return for Dorgon's help in suppressing Li Zicheng's forces. Immediately setting his troops on a forced march toward Shanhai Pass, Dorgon and the Qing army quickly covered about 150 kilometers. On their way to Shanhai Pass, they ran into Tang Tong, who had been ordered to attack Wu Sangui from behind with

2592-432: The evening of May 27, Li and his main army stayed at Yongping (永平) on the road to Beijing while many of his officers and soldiers fled toward the capital. On the next day he retreated toward Beijing, which he reached on May 31. He then let his troops loot the capital's official residences and government bureaus. On June 3, as a "final gesture of defiance" after his decisive defeat, Li officially declared himself Emperor of

2664-495: The future. The rebellion posed no threat to the Ming army, but due to the rugged mountain terrain of Shaanxi, the Ming pacification army of 17,000 was unable to effectively root out the rebels. Another bandit leader Gao Yingxiang rose up in revolt and joined Wang Jiayin soon after. In early 1629 the veteran anti-rebel leader Yang He was called into service and made Supreme Commander of the Three Border Regions. What he found

2736-407: The gates to be opened for the rebels, but the guards refused. The defense shot off their cannons in a large show of force, but they had no ammunition. When the rebels realized that only powder was being fired, they attacked in force and took the city gates in a brief struggle. The Chongzhen Emperor ordered the imperial family to commit suicide. Before hanging himself, Chongzhen cut off the arm of one of

2808-536: The inability of the rebels to take well-defended cities, the Ming army was also unable to decisively defeat them, so the Ming started building blockhouses in towns to fortify the countryside. In 1635, a meeting between major rebel groups took place at Rongyang in Central Henan. Zhang Xianzhong and Gao Yingxiang were tasked with taking Southern Zhili, Luo Rucai with defending the Yellow River, and Ma Shouying with leading

2880-436: The last 60 years of the Ming, they were especially bad, and there was not a single year in which Shaanxi did not experience a natural disaster. The entire region was a natural disaster zone. Shanxi too suffered from windstorms, earthquakes, and famines. In the south, Henan also experienced starvation and it was said that "grains of rice became as precious as pearls." The Chongzhen Emperor 's petty and mercurial ways exacerbated

2952-515: The late Ming dynasty era, the government had been weakened financially, and struggled to deal with the economic issues, environmental problems, and widespread disease (smallpox and possibly the plague) that afflicted peasant populations. In 1639, an epidemic that would later become known as the Chongzhen Great Plague hit the Yangzi region and spread across the north. Famine and drought compounded

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3024-448: The mass unemployment of large numbers of men from the central and northern provinces around the Yellow River region. This contributed to the overall deterioration of government control, and the formation of bandit groups which became endemic in the last decades of the Ming. In the spring of 1628, Wang Jiayin started a revolt in Shaanxi with some 6,000 followers, one of whom was Zhang Xianzhong , who would go on to depopulate Sichuan in

3096-480: The mobile division. Zhang and Gao sacked Fengyang , the ancestral home of the Hongwu Emperor and the location of his tomb. Over 4,000 Ming officials were killed and 2,600 structures were burned down. During the operation, a dispute occurred between Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong on whether or not to kill the eunuchs, which led to the dissolution of the rebel alliance. They split up with Li moving west and Zhang to

3168-665: The next day on the Jingshan hill behind the Forbidden City . Zhu was the last Ming emperor to reign in Beijing. Soon after the Emperor called for help, powerful Ming general Wu Sangui left his stronghold of Ningyuan north of the Great Wall and started marching toward the capital. On April 26, his armies had moved through the fortifications of Shanhai Pass (the eastern end of the Great Wall) and were marching toward Beijing when he heard that

3240-553: The number of Li Zicheng's troops because they wanted to emphasize the Qing's military prowess against the Shun. Wakeman gives a figure of 60,000 men for Li's army, whereas Frederick Mote claims that Li had more than 100,000 troops under his command. Assessments of Wu's forces range from 40,000 to 80,000, mounting to a total of about 100,000 when counting militia units. Wakeman claims that Wu's "regular army" counted 40,000 men, but that he commanded "50,000 troops of his own" and had managed to raise 50,000 men from local militia. Mote, on

3312-571: The only major army standing between the Qing forces and the Ming capital in Beijing. In the summer of 1642, a Qing army managed to cross the Great Wall and ravaged northern China for seven months before withdrawing in May 1643, with prisoners and loot, without having fought any large Ming army. In September 1643, Hong Taiji suddenly died without having named an heir. To avert a conflict between two strong contenders for succession – namely Hong Taiji's eldest son Hooge and Hong Taiji's agnate brother Dorgon ,

3384-537: The other hand, states that Wu had 80,000 men garrisoned in Ningyuan when he left that city for Shanghaiguan in April 1644, and that 20,000 to 30,000 militiamen also came to him unsolicited the day of the battle of Shanhai Pass. Angela Hsi, for her part, cites a contemporaneous source to argue that Wu led 40,000 troops ("one of the better military forces of the day") and that he was assisted by 70,000 residents of Liaodong (遼東), "who were reputed to be excellent fighters." On

3456-911: The overlordship of the Ming dynasty with the Seven Grievances and started attacking the Ming in Manchuria . By 1627, the war with the Later Jin as well as the eruption of the She-An Rebellion in 1621 had drained Ming treasuries to dangerously low levels, with just seven million taels left in the Taicang Vault. The Ming realm was also suffering from natural disasters in Shaanxi , Shanxi and Henan . In 1627 widespread drought in Shaanxi resulted in mass starvation as harvests failed and people turned to cannibalism . Natural disasters in Shaanxi were not unusual but in

3528-452: The princesses who could not bring themselves to suicide. She was still alive the next day when the rebels found her. Li Zicheng's victory was short-lived. The next month the northern general Wu Sangui defected to the Qing dynasty, and together they defeated Li at the Battle of Shanhai Pass . Li's Shun dynasty was dismantled the following year, with Li disappearing in the chaos. Zhang Xianzhong

3600-440: The process killed Fu Zonglong and Meng Ruhu. He Renlong was executed for being suspected of aiding the rebels. In 1642, Xiangcheng , Shucheng , Runing, Xiangyang, De'an , and Chengtian all fell to Li Zicheng. Zhang Xianzhong took Luzhou . Li's siege of Kaifeng went badly as he tried again and again to take the heavily defended city. During one attack, he lost an eye to an arrow. The city was taken on 7 October 1642, by diverting

3672-473: The rebels' line, Wu's troops suffered heavy casualties. Historian Frederic Wakeman claims that by the late afternoon, Wu Sangui's army was on the verge of defeat when a "violent sandstorm" started blowing on the battlefield. Dorgon chose this moment to intervene: galloping around Wu's right flank, the Qing cavalry charged Li's left wing at Yipianshi ("Lone Rock", north of Shanhai Pass). When they saw mounted warriors with shaved foreheads rushing at them out of

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3744-406: The situation by constantly switching grand secretaries, which prevented a coherent government response from coalescing. Chongzhen's reign alone saw around 50 grand secretaries appointed to the post, representing two-thirds of all holders of that post throughout the entire Ming dynasty. To prevent further depletion of the imperial treasury, Chongzhen cut funding for the Ming postal service, which saw

3816-493: The social discontent caused by the epidemic. Environmental disaster, disease, and the failure of the Chongzhen government to protect its people led to major peasant uprisings across Northern China beginning in 1628, with the Shaanxi province as an epicenter of rebellion. Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong , also from Shaanxi province, were two of the major leaders in the peasant rebellions during the late Ming dynasty. In 1633, Li joined

3888-484: The southwestern corner of Henan in Chexiang Gorge. Heavy rains battered the rebels for 40 days. After weeks of deprivation, 13,000 rebels, including Li Zicheng , surrendered to Chen Qiyu. They were returned to their homes under supervision. When 36 rebels were killed and their heads hung up on the city walls, a full-scale revolt broke out again. Li Zicheng besieged Longzhou but was driven away by Zuo Guangxian. Despite

3960-417: The storm, Shun troops broke their lines and fled. With their left wing shattered, the Shun army was routed; thousands of Shun soldiers were massacred as they retreated chaotically toward Yongping. The number of troops that took part in the battle is unclear and has been disputed. Early Qing sources claim that Li Zicheng's army counted up to 200,000 men. But Frederic Wakeman says such sources tend to inflate

4032-423: The title of "earl" to four generals, including Wu Sangui and Tang Tong  [ zh ] (唐通). Tang Tong, the only one of these new earls who was then in Beijing, reorganized the capital's defenses and, with a eunuch named Du Xun (杜勳), went to fortify Juyong Pass , the last stronghold protecting the northern approach to Beijing. On April 22, the Ming court learned that Tang Tong had surrendered to Li Zicheng

4104-531: The visual novel The Hungry Lamb: Traveling in the Late Ming Dynasty  [ zh ] . There are many stories and folklore attributed to Li Zicheng. One such story claims that when Li Zicheng was young he killed one of his classmates and was promptly disowned by his family and shunned by his community. Late Ming peasant rebellions In 1618, the Later Jin dynasty under Nurhaci openly renounced

4176-671: The winter of 1640, Sichuan was being ravaged by Zhang Xianzhong, and Ming forces were deserting on a daily basis. Yang requested to be relieved from his post. The Chongzhen Emperor refused and instead sent him more funds for medicine and famine relief. Kill your oxen and sheep And prepare your wine and spirits Open your gates and welcome the Dashing Prince When the Dashing Prince comes You won’t be paying taxes In 1641, Zhang Xianzhong captured Xiangyang and Li Zicheng captured Luoyang . Li soon lost Luoyang to Ming forces but he

4248-577: The year of his death is said to have been 1645. One account states that in the summer of 1645 Li went to raid a village in search of provisions with his remaining followers and was killed by soldiers guarding the village. Another theory is that Li Zicheng became a monk and died in 1674. Lin Qing, the leader of the Eight Trigrams uprising of 1813 by the Tianli sect (天理教) of the White Lotus , proclaimed that he

4320-419: Was Han Chinese and hailed from the Shaanxi province of China, which strengthened his legitimacy to the throne versus the foreign Manchus. Li also gained the support of scholar officials which was important in ruling over the people of China as a Confucian state. The name of the dynasty is translated to mean "Obedient to Heaven". Li's army was eventually defeated on 27 May 1644 at the Battle of Shanhai Pass by

4392-577: Was arrested and jailed until his nephew Li Guo freed him, and together they fled the area. In Gansu , Li Zicheng joined the army again and became a squad commander of 50 men. After taking part in the suppression of the rebel Gao Yingxiang, Li became a rebel due to charges of stealing rations. By 1633, the rebels had spread into Huguang , Sichuan , Shanxi. Chen Qiyu was made Supreme Commander of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Huguang, and Sichuan. He drove out Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai from Sichuan. The rebels in Henan were driven west until they were bottled up in

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4464-413: Was awarded troops and supplies on the promise that he would fight against Li Zicheng. Throughout 1638 and 1639, earthquakes rattled Sichuan and locusts ravaged Suzhou . The rebel movement gained momentum as more refugees joined them to increase their odds of survival. Li Zicheng kept losing battles and fled into the mountains. Luo Rucai surrendered to the Ming. It appeared for a time that ultimate victory

4536-455: Was demoted. It was estimated that by 1631 there were roughly 200,000 rebels operating in 36 rebel groups. Zhang Xianzhong was a native of Yan'an , Shaanxi . He was said to be strong, valiant, but also hairy and had a lust for killing. In his official biography, it is said that "if a single day went by and he did not kill someone, then he was really unhappy." When his family disowned him for getting into repeated fights with his peers, he joined

4608-446: Was killed by Qing forces in 1647. Battle of Shanhai Pass The Battle of Shanhai Pass , fought on May 27, 1644 at Shanhai Pass at the eastern end of the Great Wall , was a decisive battle leading to the beginning of the Qing dynasty rule in China proper . There, the Qing prince-regent Dorgon allied with former Ming general Wu Sangui to defeat rebel leader Li Zicheng of

4680-468: Was killed in September 1645, either by his own hand or by a self-defense peasant group. The Qing conquest of China lasted for several more decades. Resistance to Qing rule was intensified by the "haircutting command" on July 21, 1645, which forced all Chinese men to adopt the clothing of the Manchus and shave their forehead, leaving their remaining hair tied into a queue . Zhu Youlang , the last emperor of

4752-405: Was recognized by then as the foremost rebel leader. With his large following he besieged Kaifeng . Upon hearing this, Yang Sichang stopped eating and died in spring. He was replaced by Ding Qirui. Meanwhile, Zhang Xianzhong was beaten back and forced to move west from Yunyang . Even as the Ming armies collapsed from 1641 to 1644, they were still scoring local victories over the rebels. Ding Qirui

4824-655: Was sent against the renewed rebellion. He was ambushed near Mount Luoying and suffered 10,000 losses. Xiong Wencan was impeached and replaced by Yang Sichang. Although Yang Sichang and Zuo Liangyu clashed on policy, they scored a number of victories against the rebels from 1639 to 1640. It appeared once again that the Ming were turning the tide. Zuo inflicted a major defeat on Zhang Xianzhong near Mount Manao, killing 3,500 and capturing several commanders. Zhang escaped to western Sichuan. Yang became wary of Zuo's successes and tried to promote another general, He Renlong, as his equal. When that didn't work, both generals were alienated. By

4896-517: Was that situations were even more dire than they appeared. Salaries for soldiers of Shaanxi were three years in arrears, and their own soldiers were deserting to join the rebels. Yang was unable to suppress Wang Jiayin's rebels, who took several isolated fortresses as late as 1630. Yang's policy of amnesty for surrendered peasants was generally ineffective. Once surrendered, the peasants would go back to their homes and join other rebel bands. Despite Ming victories in battle, peasant rebellions would remain

4968-450: Was the reincarnation of Li Zicheng. Although the success of the Ming-Qing transition was attributed to the weakening of the Ming dynasty (exacerbated by Li Zicheng's rebellion), official historiography during the Qing dynasty regarded Li as an illegitimate usurper and outlaw. This view sought to discourage and demonize notions of rebellion against the Qing government, by propagating that

5040-483: Was the second son of Li Shouzhong and hailed from Mizhi , Shaanxi . Li showed an aptitude for horse archery at an early age but was forced to become a shepherd at the age of ten due to poverty. He became an orphan when his mother died three years later. Li joined the army at the age of 16 but later left and entered the postal service in 1626. At some point Li became an outlaw for killing a man he found in bed with his wife after returning from an extended business trip. He

5112-443: Was unable to control his starving men who looted the towns they crossed. Some simply deserted to scrounge for food. Ding was impeached and replaced by Fu Zonglong. Zhang Xianzhong's army had swelled upward of 100,000 but he was unable to score any major victories against Ming forces except in the taking of cities in Sichuan, which they slaughtered. Luo Rucai left Zhang and joined Li Zicheng. Li captured both Xincai and Nanyang , and in

5184-475: Was within grasp for the Ming forces. The Qing invaded again in 1638, exacerbating the Ming's already depleted resources. In 1639, Zhang Xianzhong rebelled again after having recuperated in Gucheng . He opened the prisons of Gucheng and killed the local officials. Joining forces, Zhang and Luo attacked the nearby town of Fangxian and then moved towards the heavily forested mountains of the Shaanxi border. Zuo Liangyu

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