Southern Ming Dynasty
| Southern Ming | |||||||
| Chinese | 南明 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Nán Míng |
The Southern Ming was a loyalist movement that was active in southern China following the Ming dynasty's collapse in 1644. The Ming were overthrown when peasant rebels captured Beijing. Ming generals then opened the gates of the Great Wall to the Qing, hoping they would fight the rebels. Loyalists fled to Nanjing, where they enthroned the Zhu Yousong, Prince of Fu. The Nanjing regime lasted until 1645, when the Qing captured Nanjing. Later, a series of pretenders held court in various southern Chinese cities.
The Nanjing regime lacked the resources to pay and supply its soldiers, who were left to live off the land and pillaged the countryside. The soldiers' behavior was so notorious that they were refused entry by those cities in a position to do so. Court official Shi Kefa obtained modern cannons and organized resistance at Yangzhou. The cannons mowed down a large number of Qing soldiers, but this only enraged those who survived. After the city fell in May 1645, the Qing slaughtered as many as 800,000 inhabitants in a notorious massacre. Nanjing surrendered promptly and without resistance on June 6. The Prince of Fu was taken to Beijing and executed in 1646.
The literati in the provinces responded to the news from Yangzhou and Nanjing with an outpouring of emotion. Some recruited their own militia and became resistance leaders. Shi was lionized and there was a wave of hopeless sacrifice by loyalists who vowed to erase the shame of Nanjing. By late 1646, the heroics had petered out and the Qing advance had resumed. Notable Ming pretenders held court in Fuzhou (1645–1646), Guangzhou (1646–1647), and Anlong (1652–1659). The Prince of Ningjing maintained a palace in the Kingdom of Tungning (modern-day Tainan, Taiwan) until 1683.
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