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The Collapse of the Míng Dynasty

This page is intended to provide a very brief overview of events in the transition from the Míng 明 to the Qīng 清 dynasties. Aside from its broader importance for Chinese history, this was a period of special relevance to the history of Taiwan, even though most of the story told here was played out on the mainland. For a more detailed chronology of Taiwan itself, less detailed than this page for the mainland developments, click here.

The sources are countless reference books, the most useful of which are listed at the end.

Click here for geeky note about English usage.

Chapters

1. The Scene Opens
2. Palace Intrigue Among the Concubines
3. Jurchens on the Move
4. Changes at the Top
5. The Jurchens Become Manchus
6. Moving on Běijīng
7. Běijīng Falls Once
8. Běijīng Falls Again
9. The Southern Míng (Nánmíng) Dynasty
10. Enter Koxinga
11. Meanwhile the Dutch Are Annoying People in Táiwān
12. Táiwān as Capital of the Southern Míng Dynasty
13. Sources

1. The Scene Opens

1573

In China, the Lóngqìng 隆庆 / 隆慶 emperor of the Míng 明 dynasty (1368-1644) is succeeded by his senior surviving son, the Wànlì 万历 / 萬曆 emperor. During the Wànlì reign of nearly half a century the economy generates prosperity and wealth not to be seen again for nearly five hundred years, and it is an age of artistic and literary brilliance. All this is no-thanks to the emperor himself, however, who has little interest in government. Historians normally date the beginning of the deterioration of the dynasty to the Wànlì period.

1583

To the northeast of China, Nurhaci (Nǔ’ěrhāchì 努尔哈赤 / 努爾哈赤) (1559-1626) becomes leader (khan) of the southeastern-most group of Jurchen (or Jürchen, Chinese: Nǚzhēn 女真) people.
(Jurchens were herding tribes in northeastern China, specifically in Manchuria, the region northeast of the Great Wall. Jurchens, a subgroup of Tartars (Dádá 鞑靼 / 韃靼), spoke Eastern Turkic languages related to Mongolian. In general, the center of operations for Nurhaci was the region of modern Liáoníng 辽宁 / 遼寧 Province (adjacent to North Korea), just to the south of his homeland in what is today Jílín 吉林 Province. Especially important was the Liáodōng 辽东 / 遼東 peninsula, which extends south and divides the Bóhǎi 渤海 Sea to the west from the Yellow Sea to the right.)

1616

Nurhaci renounces his treaty with China and declares the establishment of the "Later Jīn" 后金 / 後金 dynasty, headed by himself.

1619

Nurhaci’s forces inflict a massive defeat the Míng armies at Sà'ěrhǔ 萨尔浒 / 薩爾滸, giving him control of the Liáodōng 辽东 / 遼東 peninsula as the Jurchens sweep across what is today Liáoníng 辽宁 / 遼寧 province.

(Běijīng 北京, the Míng capital after 1409, was very near the front line, marked by the Great Wall, so despite Míng improvements to the wall —it is the Míng structure that tourists visit today— the Míng situation was becoming ever more tenuous.)

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2. Palace Intrigue Among the Concubines

1620

Following his father’s death, the Wànlì emperor’s eldest son by Concubine Wáng 王 (d. 1613) accedes to the throne as the Tàichāng 泰昌 emperor. The Tàichāng emperor reigns only five weeks, then mysteriously falls ill and dies, possibly poisoned by Concubine Wáng’s rival Concubine Zhèng 郑 / 鄭 (d. 1630).

The Tàichāng emperor’s mentally unstable eldest son is enthroned as the Tiānqǐ 天启 / 天啟 emperor at the age of 16. Actual power falls to Eunuch Wèi Zhōngxián 魏忠贤 / 魏忠賢 (1568-1627), who assumes the role of the emperor’s regent.

One of the most powerful (and corrupt) eunuchs in Chinese history, Eunuch Wèi intimidates the timid Tiānqǐ emperor and, by using a network of spies and freely killing off opponents, runs the court as he pleases, generating enormous resentment. (Click here for outrageous palace scandal.)

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3. Jurchens on the Move

1621

The Jurchen khan Nurhaci (1559-1626) seizes Mukden (modern Shěnyáng 沈阳 / 瀋陽 in Liáoníng Province) and other key cities in northeastern China.

1622

The Míng general Yuán Chónghuàn 袁崇焕 / 袁崇煥 temporarily halts Jurchen encroachment in lands claimed by China.

1623

Chinese rebels in the Liáodōng peninsula rebel against Khan Nurhaci’s governance of them. After lots of people die, the uprising is suppressed.

1624

Eunuch Wèi Zhōngxián orders the deaths of about 200 senior government figures for plotting against him.

1625

Khan Nurhaci suppresses a second Chinese uprising on the Liáodōng peninsula. General Yuán Chónghuàn again attacks Jurchen forces.

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4. Leadership Changes

1626

In the north, Nurhaci dies, producing a power struggle between his sons and nephews. His eighth son, Huáng Tàijí 皇太极 / 皇太極 (Abahai in Manchu) (1592-1643), emerges victorious as the new khan. He has long thought China was pretty cool) and reorganizes the Jurchen tribes under his control into a Chinese style imperial court. By pursuing a conciliatory policy toward his Chinese subjects, he encourages defectors from the corrupt Míng regime of Eunuch Wèi and Wèi’s pathetic captive, the Tiānqǐ emperor.

1627

The pathetic Tiānqǐ emperor dies and is succeeded by his largely unimpressive younger brother, the Chóngzhēn 崇祯 / 崇禎 emperor (reigned 1627-1643). Eunuch Wèi’s enemies succeed in having him seized on charges of corruption, and Eunuch Wèi is forced to commit suicide.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of northern Chinese die of famine. Across China, bandit groups form, blaming the emperor for the famine. General Yuán Chónghuàn 袁崇焕 / 袁崇煥 is given command of all of the empire’s northeastern armies, who apparently loath him (and probably tend to sympathize with the bandits).

1629

Successful against the Jurchens, General Yuán Chónghuàn 袁崇焕 / 袁崇煥, now rather full of himself, alienates his senior officers by summarily executing a fellow general in a fit of envy.

1630

When a Jurchen army reaches the outskirts of Běijīng 北京, General Yuán is accused of forming an alliance with their head, Khan Huáng Tàijí 皇太极 / 皇太極, so Chinese forces use the opportunity to chop General Yuán’s body to pieces in a city marketplace.

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5. The Jurchens Become Manchus

1635

On October 20 Jurchen tribesmen under Khan Huáng’s control select the word “Manchu” (Mǎnzhōu 满洲 / 滿洲), the name of an earlier Jurchen hero and his descendents, as a self-identifying “ethnic” label for themselves. (The name is applied only to Huáng’s Jurchens, formerly known as Jiànzhōu 建州 Jurchens. Other Jurchens remain Jurchens.) (Click here for more about the curious word "Manchu.")

Khan Huáng Tàijí increases his manpower and resources by invading Mongolia, where the tribes are too sparse and disorganized to resist him. Mongol leaders readily enough renounce their allegiance to the Míng dynasty and eight Mongol “banners” (fighting units) are added to the Jurchen army. (Referring to fighting units as “banners” is a Jurchen thing.)

Widespread rebellion plunges much of China into chaos. Mobs loot the mausoleums of the Míng royal family near Běijīng (the same ones tourists like to visit today). The Chóngzhēn emperor, not very impressive even in the best of times, puts on mourning clothes to show his ancestors that the sacking of their tombs made him sad, and then he shows he is clearly in charge by ordering the execution of the tombs’ guardian eunuch. That doesn’t help morale very much and does nothing about the famine or the rebellions.

An imperial fleet operating from bases on the Shāndōng 山东 / 山東 peninsula launches surprisingly effective raids against Manchu coastal stations along the Liáodōng coast.

1636

Khan Huáng, now calling himself emperor instead of khan, declares the founding of the Qīng 清 (“Pure”) dynasty. Since he is in the northeast anyway, he imposes vassal status on Korea, which has been suffering its own problems and is in a poor position to resist. (Korea’s status as a vassal state of China will continue until the treaty of Simonoseki in 1895). Raiding the lower Yellow River basin, Huáng is able to add two Chinese “banners” to his troops. (Nobody really likes the Manchus, but the Míng government is clearly made up of real losers at this point. And besides, there is that famine problem.)

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6. Moving on Běijīng

Shānhǎiguān: Where the Great Wall Meets the Sea
(E.C. Phillips 1882)

1642

After ten years of repeated assaults, the city of Jǐnzhōu 锦州 / 錦州, in Liáoníng Province, falls to Manchu forces. Běijīng is now guarded by the Shānhǎiguān 山海关 / 山海關 Pass, still held by a loyalist general named Wú Sānguì 吴三桂 / 吳三桂. This pass (or gate) is the point where the Great Wall meets the sea, the only passage between Manchuria and China. As General Wú faces Manchu troops marching from the north, to the south there are floods and famines and an ever growing, if fragmented, peasant rebellion.

Lǐ Zìchéng 李自成, a frighteningly talented ironworker from Shaǎnxī 陝西 Province, emerges as a major rebel leader, uniting malcontents into an increasingly threatening military power.

1644

A Manchu general named Dorgon (Duō’ěrgǔn 多尔衮 / 多爾袞) (1612-1650), the 14th son of Nurhaci, is in charge of invading Běijīng and is eager to do so. But he believes he can get Míng troops to desert to the Qīng side first, thereby reducing bloodshed, and more importantly adding to his army. Comment.

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7. Běijīng Falls Once

1644

Meanwhile farther to the south rebel leader Lǐ Zìchéng 李自成 marches across the northern plains toward Běijīng. While he advances, his army keeps growing as more peasants join. In April, he enters Běijīng without opposition.

The Chóngzhēn Emperor, very drunk, orders his palace women to kill themselves. Some obey, others do not. The emperor, furious at those who fail to kill themselves, hacks off the arms of one of his daughters, disembowels another, and sets out to slay his remaining concubines. At dawn, attended by his one remaining loyal (and stupid) eunuch, Chóngzhēn hangs himself from a locust tree behind the palace.

Rebel leader Lǐ, fears that General Wú Sānguì, the holder of the pass, will attack his newly captured city of Běijīng, so he orders the breaching of Yellow River dikes at the ancient city of Kāifēng 开封 / 開封 (in Hénán 河南 Province), then marches northward toward General Wú’s camp at the Shānhǎiguān Pass, hoping to dispose of Wú before Wú disposes of him.

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8. Běijīng Falls Again

1644

Without an emperor to defend (the Chóngzhēn 崇祯 / 崇禎 monarch having died by suicide), General Wú Sānguì ponders whether to side with Rebel Lǐ Zìchéng against the Manchu monster Dorgon, or with Manchu Dorgon against the rebel monster Lǐ. In the end, he decides to support Dorgon. (According to legend, he never liked Lǐ very well after Lǐ stole his favorite concubine.)

General Wú therefore negotiates terms of surrender, opens the Pass he is supposed to be defending, and marches his remaining troops with their new Manchu allies toward Běijīng to help wipe out Rebel Lǐ. (Additional note.)

Seriously annoyed, Rebel Lǐ seizes and beheads General Wú’s father and on June 3 declares himself emperor. Meanwhile, the Manchu leader Dorgon passes freely through the Great Wall and, joining forces with General Wú, captures and enters Běijīng on June 6. Rebel Lǐ, still calling himself emperor, flees southward.

Once in Běijīng, Dorgon enthrones the Manchu boy-khan Fúlín 福临 / 福臨 as the Shùnzhì 顺治 / 順治 emperor (reigned 1644-1661), with Dorgon himself as “Imperial Regent Uncle” (Huángshúfù Shèzhèngwáng 皇叔父摄政王 / 皇叔父攝政王), and proclaims founding of the Qīng dynasty (again). As a security measure, all Chinese are banned from the Forbidden City compound in Běijīng, and all Chinese men are required to show their submission to the new régime by wearing their hair in a queue, on pain of death for treason.

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9. The Southern Míng (Nánmíng 南明) Dynasty

1644

Meanwhile in Nánjīng 南京, Prince Fú (Fú wáng 福王), a grandson of the Wànlì emperor, hopes to restore the dynasty with himself on the throne. (Remember the Wànlì emperor? He was the one whose concubine killed his successor to set her own wimpy kid on the throne.) Prince Fú sets up a successor Míng government, the so-called “Southern Míng dynasty” or Nánmíng Cháo 南明朝, declaring himself to be the Hóngguāng 弘光 emperor. (He figures in at least one very famous Chinese opera, The Peach Blossom Fan [Táohuā Shàn 桃花扇]. A summary of the tale is part of the collection of Chinese opera stories on this web site. Link)

In Fújiàn福建 Province, the coastal pirate, local warlord, and general man-about-town Zhèng Zhīlóng 郑芝龙 / 鄭芝龍 pledges his allegiance to Prince Fú. (Zhèng’s views of the situation and his motivations for this alliance, which he later abandons, are good fodder for your next novel.)

In May, Qīng forces take the Míng loyalist city of Yángzhōu 杨州 / 楊州, in Jiāngsū 江苏 / 江蘇 Province (just north of the Yangtze River), and slaughter all inhabitants to show them who is boss. Prince Fú fears a similar fate for Nánjīng (upstream on the river). (He will surrender and be executed in Běijīng the next year.)

At the same time, Prince Fú’s brother, Prince Táng 唐王, claims the Southern Míng throne at the city of Zhàoqìng 肇庆 / 肇慶 in Guǎngdōng 广东 / 廣東 province in the far south (and still beyond Manchu reach) and establishes himself as the Lóngwǔ 隆武 emperor of the Southern Míng dynasty.

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10. Enter Koxinga (Guóxìngyé 国姓爷)

1645

First and only year of the Hóngguāng 弘光 reign year of Prince Fú (Fú wáng 福王) of the Nánmíng dynasty.

Prince Fú’s supporter, Zhèng Zhīlóng 郑芝龙 / 鄭芝龍, has a son by a wife (Tagawa Matsu 田川マツ) whom he met in Japan. Their son is named Zhèng Sēn 郑森 / 鄭森 (1624-1662), and he is a startlingly brilliant student and generally very impressive person. At 21, still a student, he is presented to the Hóngguāng emperor, Prince Fú.

Prince Fú immediately confers the Míng royal surname (Zhū 朱) on Zhèng Sēn, who is thereafter called “the Lord with the royal name” or Guóxìngyé 国姓爷 / 國姓爺, although he in fact continues to use the surname Zhèng. (Guóxìngyé is spelled “Koxinga” is standard in English, based on the Hokkien pronunciation Kok-sèng-yâ.)

The emperor also has him change his personal name from Sēn to Chénggōng 成功, or “Success,” so historians know him as Zhèng Chénggōng 郑成功 / 鄭成功. So honored and fawned over, he returns to school with the promise of a fabulous career ahead of him. (Today even very impressive 21-year-olds are lucky to get a job flipping burgers. Was Prince Fú desperate? Deceived? Love-struck? Or was Koxinga in a class with Mozart or Einstein or Huà Tuō 华佗 / 華佗? What was going on? This is more fodder for your novel.)

With Prince Fú's defeat, Zhèng's forces are forced southward, effectively confined to areas ever farther south of the Yangtse.

1646

First year of the Lóngwǔ 隆武 reign of 桂王 the Southern Míng dynasty.

1647

Zhèng Chénggōng (Koxinga), Zhèng Zhīlóng’s son, abandons school and leads troops into battle against the Qīng forces.

Zhèng Zhīlóng is forced (or mandaciously persuaded) to surrender to Qīng forces, despite protestations from his wife and son. He will be executed in 1661 because of his son's continued loyalty to the Míng cause. (More for your novel.)

1648

First year of the Yǒnglì 永历 / 永曆 reign of Prince Guì the Southern Míng dynasty. (No further reign names are recorded for the Southern Míng dynasty. But hopes of Míng revival will continue in Táiwān, fuelling a long succession of rebellions.)

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11. Meanwhile the Dutch Are Annoying People in Táiwān

1652

In Táiwān, a rebellion against the Dutch occupation of Táiwān 台湾 / 臺灣 is led by Guō Huáiyī 郭怀一 / 郭懷一 and fails. About 4,000 rebels are massacred and more than 1,000 are taken prisoner.

1659

Zhèng Chénggōng, still on the mainland, allies himself with the Míng loyalist Zhāng Huángyán 张煌言 / 張煌言 in a Yangtze delta campaign (near modern Shànghǎi 上海) and is defeated. (Zhāng is an alienated scholar who has always hated the Míng régime, but remains loyal to it because Confucius says loyalty is good. He is not really very happy among rag-tag rebels, however, which is pretty much all the Míng loyalists are at this point, and that also strikes him as un-Confucian. Rebellions, like Confucianism, are complicated.)

1660

On the death of a favorite concubine, the 22-year-old Shùnzhì emperor, depressed even though he is the first emperor of the Qīng dynasty, proposes to commit suicide, causing courtiers to worry that he is coming unhinged.

1661

Not having committed suicide the previous year, the Shùnzhì emperor dies of smallpox at the age of 23 and his third son becomes the Kāngxī emperor (reigned 1662-1722) at the age of 7, under the tutelage of four regents, dominated by the warlord Áobài 鳌拜 / 鼇拜 (better known in English by his Manchu name, Oboi).

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12. Táiwān as Capital of the Southern Míng Dynasty

Memorial in Xiàmén to Koxinga, Scourge of the Dutch
(P. W. Pitcher 1912)

1661

Zhèng Chénggōng 郑成功 / 鄭成功 siezes the Pénghú 澎湖 archipelago in the Taiwan Strait and then secretly lands in Lù’ěrmén 鹿耳门 / 鹿耳門, in Táinán, enabling him to launch an attack on the less fortified land side of the Dutch fortifications there. The seige of the Dutch fortifications will take nearly a year.

Zhèng declares Táiwān the Eastern Capital (Dōngdū 东都 / 東都) of the Míng Government and establishes two xiàn 县 / 縣 (“counties”). He establishes an administrative office in the old Dutch Fort Providentia. (Click me.)

Angered by the coastal activities of Japanese, Dutch, and Chinese pirates, the imperial regent Oboi decrees (on behalf of the child emperor) an evacuation of the southeastern coast of Fújiàn and especially Guǎngdōng provinces to a distance of 20 miles inland, referred to as the Coastal Evacuation Order (Qiānhǎilìng 迁海令 / 遷海令). (One result is to produce massive, if illegal, migration to Táiwān and southeast Asia.) The decree will be lifted on Oboi’s overthrow in 1669.

1662

The Dutch surrender Táiwān to Zhèng Chénggōng, ending 38 years of occupation. (Click me.)

Zhèng Chénggōng dies of illness at the age of 37, a scant three months after the Dutch surrender, and is succeeded by his son Zhèng Jīng 郑经 / 鄭經.

1673-1681

The Three Feudatories Rebellion (Sānfān zhī Luàn 三藩之亂) breaks out in China, sending shock waves through the Manchu government. (Details.) Zhèng Jīng 郑经 / 鄭經 assists the rebellion. The rebellion draws focus of the Manchu court to the need for better control of the south.

1683

General Shī Láng 施琅 effectively asserts stronger Manchu authority over the south, and Taiwanese leader Zhèng Kèshuǎng 鄭克塽, grandson of Zhèng Chénggōng 鄭成功 surrenders. Having successfully vanquished the Táiwān rebel regime, General Shī Láng proposes to sell the annoying and pestilential island back to the Dutch. The emperor overrules him.

This page expands on events in Chinese history relevant to the history of Taiwan. For a more detailed chronology of Taiwan, but with less detail than this page for the mainland developments, click here.

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Sources:

ÁNG Mànzhēn 唐慢珍 & WÁNG Yǔ 王宇 (eds.)

1990 台湾事典. (The book of Taiwan). Tiānjīn: 南开大学出版社.

CHÉNG Guāngyù 程光裕 & XÚ Shèngmó 徐聖謨 (eds)

1984 中國歷史地圖. (Atlas of Chinese history.) Vol. 2. Taipei: 中國文化大學出版社.

DILLON, Michael (ed.)

1998 China: a cultural and historical dictionary. Richmond (Surrey): Curzon.

GILES, Herbert A.

1898 A Chinese biographical dictionary. Leiden: E.J. Brill.

HUMMEL, Arthur W. (ed.)

1943 Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing period (1644-1912). Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office.

WINTLE, Justin

2002 The Rough Guide history of China. London: Rough Guides.

Picture sources:

PHILLIPS, E. C.

1882 Peeps into China: or the missionary’s children. London: Cassell. (Great wall, p. 25.)

PITCHER, Philip Wilson

1912 In and about Amoy: some historical and other facts connected with one of the first open ports of China. Shanghai: The Methodist Publishing House in China. (Koxinga memorial arch, p. 248.)

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