Yongli Emperor | |||||||||||||||||
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Commandery Prince of Yongming (永明王) Prince of Gui lineage (桂王系) |
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Reign | ? - 1646 | ||||||||||||||||
Predecessor | title created | ||||||||||||||||
Successor | title repealed, as promoted as Prince of Gui | ||||||||||||||||
Prince of Gui (桂王) | |||||||||||||||||
Reign | 1646 | ||||||||||||||||
Predecessor | Zhu You'ai, Prince Gong | ||||||||||||||||
Successor | Zhu Ci | ||||||||||||||||
Emperor of Southern Ming | |||||||||||||||||
Reign | 18 November 1646 - 1 June 1662 | ||||||||||||||||
Predecessor | Shaowu Emperor | ||||||||||||||||
Successor | Ming dynasty collapsed | ||||||||||||||||
Born | November 1, 1623 | ||||||||||||||||
Died | June 1, 1662 | (aged 38)||||||||||||||||
Empress | Empress Xiao Gang Kuang | ||||||||||||||||
Issue | Zhu Cijue Zhu Ci... Zhu Cixuan, Crown Prince Aimin Zhu Ci... Zhu Ciwei Zhu Ciyi Zhu Cichao |
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House | Southern Ming dynasty (House of Zhu) | ||||||||||||||||
Father | Zhu Changying, Prince Duan of Gui / Emperor Lizong | ||||||||||||||||
Mother | Lady Maria Ma, Empress Dowager Zhaosheng Cihui Renshou |
Full name | |
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Zhu Youlang (朱由榔) | |
Era name and dates | |
Yongli (永曆): 18 November 1646 – 1 June 1662 | |
Posthumous name | |
Emperor Yingtian Tuidao Minyi Gongjian Jingwen Weiwu Liren Kexiao Kuang 应天推道敏毅恭检经文纬武礼仁克孝匡皇帝 |
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Temple name | |
Zhaozong (昭宗) |
The Yongli Emperor (Chinese: 永曆; 1623–1662; reigned 18 November 1646 – 1 June 1662), personal name Zhu Youlang, was the fourth and last emperor of the Southern Ming dynasty of China. His era name means "Perpetual calendar".
Zhu Youlang was the son of Zhu Changying (朱常瀛), the seventh son of the Wanli Emperor. He inherited the title Prince of Gui (桂王) from his brother and lived an obscure life as a minor member of the extremely large imperial family until the fall of Beijing and the suicide of Chongzhen, the last Ming emperor, in 1644. The true beneficiaries of the collapse of the Ming were the Manchus, a northeastern people that rapidly conquered northern China, the Lower Yangtze valley, and Central China. Descendants of the Ming continued to hang on in the south, and Youlang ascended the throne as the fourth Southern Ming emperor, with the reign-title Yongli in November 1646. Then he converted to Christianity thanks to the efforts of Polish Jesuit Michał Boym. By 1661, pressed back into Yunnan province, he fled to Burma. A Manchu army followed and captured him there, and he was executed in June 1662.
In April 1644 the last Ming emperor to rule all China committed suicide as a rebel army entered Beijing. Six weeks later, on 5 June, the army of the Manchus, a people from beyond the Great Wall, entered the city and proclaimed the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing. In the following two years, as the Qing extended their control over northern China, the remaining Ming loyalists attempted to regroup in the south, but in rapid succession the Hongguang, Longwu, and Shaowu emperors were captured and executed.