Shunzhi Emperor 順治帝 | |||||||||||||||||
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Emperor of the Qing dynasty | |||||||||||||||||
Reign | 8 October 1643 – 5 February 1661 | ||||||||||||||||
Predecessor | Hong Taiji | ||||||||||||||||
Successor | Kangxi Emperor | ||||||||||||||||
Regents | Dorgon (1643–1650) Jirgalang (1643–1647) | ||||||||||||||||
Emperor of China | |||||||||||||||||
Reign | 1644–1661 | ||||||||||||||||
Predecessor | Chongzhen Emperor (Ming dynasty) | ||||||||||||||||
Successor | Kangxi Emperor | ||||||||||||||||
Born | (崇德三年 正月 三十日) Yongfu Palace, Mukden Palace, Mukden | 15 March 1638||||||||||||||||
Died | 5 February 1661 (順治十八年 正月 七日) Yangxin Hall, Forbidden City, Beijing | (aged 22)||||||||||||||||
Burial | Xiao Mausoleum, Eastern Qing tombs | ||||||||||||||||
Consorts | |||||||||||||||||
Issue |
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House | Aisin-Gioro | ||||||||||||||||
Dynasty | Qing | ||||||||||||||||
Father | Hong Taiji | ||||||||||||||||
Mother | Empress Xiaozhuangwen |
Shunzhi Emperor | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 順治帝 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 顺治帝 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Literal meaning | "Smoothly-Ruling Emperor" | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Shunzhi Emperor (15 March 1638 – 5 February 1661), also known by his temple name Emperor Shizu of Qing, personal name Fulin, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the first Qing emperor to rule over China proper. Upon the death of his father Hong Taiji, a committee of Manchu princes chose the 5-year-old Fulin as successor. The princes also appointed two co-regents: Dorgon, the 14th son of Nurhaci, and Jirgalang, one of Nurhaci's nephews, both of whom were members of the Qing imperial clan. In November 1644, the Shunzhi Emperor was enthroned as emperor of China in Beijing.
From 1643 to 1650, political power lay mostly in the hands of the prince regent Dorgon. Under his leadership, the Qing conquered most of the territory of the fallen Ming dynasty, chased Ming loyalist regimes deep into the southwestern provinces, and established the basis of Qing rule over China proper despite highly unpopular policies such as the "hair cutting command" of 1645, which forced all Qing male subjects to shave their forehead and braid their remaining hair into a queue resembling that of the Manchus. After Dorgon's death on the last day of 1650, the young Shunzhi Emperor started to rule personally. He tried, with mixed success, to fight corruption and to reduce the political influence of the Manchu nobility. In the 1650s, he faced a resurgence of Ming loyalist resistance, but by 1661 his armies had defeated the Qing's last enemies, Koxinga and the Prince of Gui, both of whom would succumb the following year.
The Shunzhi Emperor died at the age of 22 of smallpox, a highly contagious disease that was endemic in China, but against which the Manchus had no immunity. He was succeeded by his third son who assumed the throne as the Kangxi Emperor and went on to reign for sixty years. Because fewer documents have survived from the Shunzhi era than from later eras of the Qing dynasty, this era is a relatively little-known period of Qing history.
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