Chongzhen Emperor - Fall of The Ming Dynasty

Fall of The Ming Dynasty

The collapse of the Ming intensified during Chongzhen's reign. Popular uprisings broke out throughout China, including those of Zhang Xianzhong and the more important Li Zicheng. These could not be put down by the already hard-pressed Ming armies, who had to contend with the Manchu threat to the north.

In April 1644, Li prepared to take the Ming capital of Beijing. Rather than face capture and probable execution at the hands of the newly-proclaimed Shun Dynasty, Chongzhen arranged a feast and gathered all members of the imperial household aside from his sons. Using his sword, he killed all of them there. All died except his second daughter, Princess Chang Ping, whose attempt to resist the sword blow resulted in her left arm being severed by her father. Then, still wearing his imperial attire, Chongzhen fled to Jingshan Hill and committed suicide when he hanged himself from a tree. Li Zicheng ordered to bury him and his wife together into his concubine Consort Tian's tomb, which later was called Siling of the Ming Dynasty Tombs.

The Shun Dynasty lasted less than a year until Li's defeat at the Battle of Shanhai Pass, with the victorious Manchus establishing the Shunzhi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty as ruler of all China.

After Chongzhen's death, loyalist forces had proclaimed a Southern Ming Dynasty in Nanjing, naming Zhu Yousong, Prince of Fu as the Hongguang Emperor. However, in 1645 Qing armies started to move against the remnants of the Ming, and Nanjing surrendered on 8 June 1645. Zhu was captured on 15 June and brought to Beijing, where he died the following year. The dwindling Ming were continually pushed farther south, and the last Emperor of the Southern Ming, Zhu Youlang, Prince of Gui, was finally executed in Burma in 1662 by Qing general Wu Sangui.