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Shi Kefa
Late Ming minister who, as grand secretary of the Southern Ming court, commanded the defence of Yangzhou and was killed when the Qing army stormed the city
At dusk on a hilltop, a large tent stands open with a table holding a map marked with small stones inside, a saddled horse tethered outside, and fire stands burning; campfires dot the river plain below, and one tiny sentry stands on the slope.
Also known as Zi Xianzhi · Hao Daolin
Shi Kefa, courtesy name Xianzhi and sobriquet Daolin, came of a Xiangfu family registered with the Embroidered Uniform Guard at Daxing; a protege of Zuo Guangdou, he passed the metropolitan examination in 1628. He fought rebel armies through the Chongzhen years and became minister of war at Nanjing in 1643. After Beijing fell in 1644 he favoured the Prince of Lu for the throne, but Ma Shiying installed the Prince of Fu; Shi joined the Hongguang cabinet as grand secretary and was soon sent out to Yangzhou to command the four garrisons north of the Yangzi. When the Qing regent Dorgon wrote urging surrender, Shi refused in a reply that became famous. Qing troops took Yangzhou on the twenty-fifth day of the fourth month of 1645; captured, he refused to submit and was killed, and as his body was never found his adopted son Shi Dewei built a cenotaph on Plum Blossom Ridge. In 1776 the Qianlong court named him Zhongzheng.
Life and times
Dates 1602 CE–1645 CE
- 1625Six Gentlemen Die in Imperial Prisonage 23
- 1645Qing Army Crosses Yangtze, Takes Nanjingage 43