Qing Emperor

The Qing dynasty (1644–1912) was the last imperial dynasty of China. It was officially founded in 1636 in what is now Northeast China, but only succeeded the Ming dynasty in China proper in 1644. The Qing period ended when the imperial clan (surnamed Aisin Gioro) abdicated in February 1912, a few months after a military uprising had started the Xinhai Revolution (1911) that led to the foundation of the Republic of China (1912–1949).

Nurhaci (1559–1626), khan of the Jurchens, founded the "Later Jin dynasty" in 1616 in reference to the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty (1115–1234) that had once reigned over north China. His son and successor Hong Taiji (1592–1643) renamed his people "Manchu" in 1635 and changed the name of Nurhaci's state from "Later Jin" to "Qing" in 1636. Hong Taiji was the real founder of Qing imperial institutions. He was the first to adopt the title of "emperor" (huangdi) and founded an Imperial Ancestral Temple in the Qing capital Mukden in 1636. After the Qing captured Beijing in 1644 and appropriated the Ming Ancestral Temple, from 1648 on, Nurhaci was worshiped there as Qing "Taizu", a temple name reserved for dynastic founders.

Like their Ming (1368–1644) predecessors—but unlike the emperors of earlier dynasties like the Han (206 BCE–220 CE), Tang (618–907), and Song (960–1276)—Qing emperors used only one era name ("Shunzhi", "Qianlong", "Guangxu", etc.) for their entire reign, and are most commonly known by that name. Starting with Nurhaci, there were thirteen Qing rulers. Following the capture of Beijing in 1644, the Shunzhi Emperor (r. 1643–1661) became the first of the eleven Qing sovereigns to rule over China proper. At 61 years, the reign of the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1661–1722) was the longest, though his grandson, the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735–1796), would have reigned even longer if he had not purposely ceded the throne to the Jiaqing Emperor (r. 1796–1820) in order not to reign longer than his grandfather. Qing emperors succeeded each other from father to son until the Tongzhi Emperor (r. 1861–1874), the 11th Qing ruler, died childess in 1874. The last two emperors were chosen by Empress Dowager Cixi from other branches of the imperial clan.

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