Mavericks › Uprising Leaders
Li Zicheng
Late Ming rebel leader from Mizhi who founded the Great Shun regime, captured Beijing in 1644 and was routed by Wu Sangui and the Qing at Shanhai Pass
Mural of the event “Chongzhen's Last Stand”, which this person took part in.
In late Ming, the Little Ice Age climate caused successive years of great famine in the north, yet the court because of the Liaodong war added tax and forced the people, causing the Shaanbei to erupt with sky-overwhelming peasant uprising, with defense lines collapsing in and out.
Also known as Yuanming Hongji · Haochuang Wang
- Roles
- Uprising Leaders
Li Zicheng, originally named Hongji, came from Mizhi in Shaanxi and lost his post as a courier when the stations were cut back. Early in the Chongzhen reign he joined Gao Yingxiang's rebels as the Dashing General, and after Gao was captured and executed in 1636 he took the title Dashing King. Entering Henan in 1640, he followed Li Yan's advice and spread a ditty promising no grain tax to those who welcomed him, and the next year he took Luoyang and killed the Prince of Fu. In early 1644 he founded Great Shun at Xi'an, and in the third month he took Beijing, where the Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself on Coal Hill. Beaten by Wu Sangui and the Qing at Shanhai Pass, he hastily took the imperial title and retreated west. In 1645 he was killed at Mount Jiugong in Tongshan, Hubei, though one tradition says he became a monk. Guo Moruo's 1944 essay on the three-hundredth anniversary of 1644 asks why his regime collapsed so fast.
Life and times
Dates 1606 CE–1645 CE
- 1644Chongzhen's Last StandTook partage 38
- 1644Qing Army Enters the PassTook partage 38
- 1644Li Zicheng Takes Beijing; Chongzhen Diesage 38
- 1644Wu Sangui Opens Shanhai Pass Gateage 38