Jin Shenghuan (Chinese :金聲桓, ?–1 March 1649), courtesy name Huchen (Chinese :虎臣) was a soldier who served both the Ming and Qing dynasties. He was a native of Liaodong (modern-day Liaoyang).
Jin was a brigadier-general under the Ming general Huang Long (黃龍), and when Huang was defeated and killed at Lüshun in 1633 by the Manchus, Jin's wife and son were taken captive, but Jin manage to escape and join Zuo Liangyu in Henan. In 1645, he surrendered to Qing dynasty general Ajige at Jiujiang and was appointed general-in-chief of Jiangxi, and was charged with the responsibility of suppressing Ming loyalists. He successfully wiped out the Ming loyalists in Jiangxi without the help of Manchu troops and this was acknowledged with imperial honors. His family was released, his demand for wider discretionary power was regarded as excessive. He made an almost regal court of his military headquarters in Nanchang, where he had Taoist magicians which nursed his growing contempt for the Manchus.
In 1648, Jin rebelled, killed the governor, and declared allegiance to Zhu Youlang, who conferred upon him the title of Duke of Yuguo (豫國公). He also took in Jiang Yueguang (姜曰廣) as a subordinate. After failing to take Ganzhou, Manchu commander Tantai (譚泰) besieged the city. The siege stood for eleven months, but when the city was captured in 1649, Jin was wounded by an arrow and drowned himself in a pond. The Ming court conferred him the posthumous title Prince of Nanchang (南昌王) and the posthumous name Zhuangwu (壯武).
Dorgon, was a Manchu prince and regent of the early Qing dynasty. Born in the House of Aisin-Gioro as the 14th son of Nurhaci, Dorgon started his career in military campaigns against the Ming dynasty, Mongols and Koreans during the reign of his eighth brother, Hong Taiji, who succeeded their father.
The Shunzhi Emperor, born Fulin, was the second emperor of the Qing dynasty of China, and the first Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1644 to 1661. A committee of Manchu princes chose him to succeed his father, Hong Taiji (1592–1643), in September 1643, when he was five years old. The princes also appointed two co-regents: Dorgon (1612–1650), the 14th son of the Qing dynasty's founder Nurhaci (1559–1626), and Jirgalang (1599–1655), one of Nurhaci's nephews, both of whom were members of the Qing imperial clan.
Hong Taiji, also rendered as Huang Taiji and sometimes referred to as Abahai in Western literature, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizong of Qing, was the second khan of the Later Jin dynasty and the founding emperor of the Qing dynasty. He was responsible for consolidating the empire that his father Nurhaci had founded and laid the groundwork for the conquest of the Ming dynasty, although he died before this was accomplished. He was also responsible for changing the name of the Jurchen ethnicity to "Manchu" in 1635, and changing the name of his dynasty from "Great Jin" to "Great Qing" in 1636. The Qing dynasty lasted until 1912.
Wu Sangui, courtesy name Changbai (長白) or Changbo (長伯), was a notorious Ming Dynasty military officer who played a key role in the fall of the Ming dynasty and the founding of the Qing dynasty in China.
Dodo, formally known as Prince Yu, was a Manchu prince and military general of the early Qing dynasty.
The House of Aisin-Gioro was a Manchu clan that ruled the Later Jin dynasty (1616–1636), the Qing dynasty (1636–1912), and Manchukuo (1932–1945) in the history of China. Under the Ming dynasty, members of the Aisin Gioro clan served as chiefs of the Jianzhou Jurchens, one of the three major Jurchen tribes at this time. Qing bannermen passed through the gates of the Great Wall in 1644, conquered the short-lived Shun dynasty and the Southern Ming dynasty. The Qing dynasty later expanded into other adjacent regions, including Xinjiang, Tibet, Outer Mongolia, and Taiwan, gaining total control of China. The dynasty reached its zenith during the High Qing era and under the Qianlong Emperor, who reigned from 1735 to 1796. This reign was followed by a century of gradual decline.
The Yongli Emperor, personal name Zhu Youlang, was the fourth and last emperor of the Southern Ming, reigning in turbulent times when the former Ming dynasty was overthrown and the Manchu-led Qing dynasty progressively conquered the entire China proper. He led the remnants of the Ming loyalists with the assistance of peasant armies to resist the Qing forces in southwestern China, but he was then forced to exile to Toungoo Burma and eventually captured and executed by Wu Sangui in 1662. His era title "Yongli" means "perpetual calendar".
Shi Kefa, courtesy names Xianzhi and Daolin, was a government official and calligrapher who lived in the late Ming dynasty. He was born in Xiangfu and claimed ancestry from Daxing County, Shuntian Prefecture. He was mentored by Zuo Guangdou (左光斗). He served as the Minister of War in Nanjing during the early part of his career. He is best remembered for his defence of Yangzhou from the Qing dynasty and was killed when Yangzhou fell to Qing forces in April 1645. After his death, the Southern Ming granted him the posthumous name "Zhongjing". Nearly a century later, the Qianlong Emperor of Qing granted Shi Kefa another posthumous name, "Zhongzheng" His descendants collected his works and compiled them into a book titled Lord Shi Zhongzheng's Collections (史忠正公集).
The Hongguang Emperor, personal name Zhu Yousong, childhood nickname Fuba (福八), was the first emperor of the Chinese Southern Ming dynasty. He reigned briefly in southern China from 1644 to 1645. His era name, Hongguang, means "great light".
Daišan was an influential Manchu prince and statesman of the Qing dynasty.
The Southern Ming, also known as the Later Ming, officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China and a series of rump states of the Ming dynasty that came into existence following the Jiashen Incident of 1644. Shun forces led by Li Zicheng captured Beijing and the Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide. The Ming general Wu Sangui then opened the gates of the Shanhai Pass in the eastern section of the Great Wall to the Qing banners, in hope of using them to annihilate the Shun forces. Ming loyalists fled to Nanjing, where they enthroned Zhu Yousong as the Hongguang Emperor, marking the start of the Southern Ming. The Nanjing regime lasted until 1645, when Qing forces captured Nanjing, and by then Zhu had been executed. Later figures continued to hold court in various southern Chinese cities, although the Qing considered them to be pretenders.
Anti-Qing sentiment refers to a sentiment principally held in China against the rule of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty (1636–1912), which was criticized by opponents as being "barbaric". The Qing was accused of destroying traditional Han culture by forcing Han to wear their hair in a queue in the Manchu style. It was blamed for suppressing Chinese science, causing China to be transformed from the world's premiere power to a poor, backwards nation. The people of the Eight Banners lived off government pensions unlike the general Han civilian population.
Nurhaci, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizu of Qing, was a Jurchen chieftain who rose to prominence in the late 16th century in Manchuria. A member of the House of Aisin-Gioro, he reigned as the founding khan of the Later Jin dynasty of China from 1616 to 1626.
Bolo, formally known as Prince Duanzhong, was a Manchu prince of the Qing dynasty. He was born in the Aisin Gioro clan, the imperial clan of the Qing dynasty, as the third son of Abatai.
The transition from Ming to Qing, alternatively known as Ming–Qing transition or the Manchu invasion of China, from 1618 to 1683, saw the transition between two major dynasties in Chinese history. It was a decades-long conflict between the emerging Qing dynasty, the incumbent Ming dynasty, and several smaller factions. It ended with the consolidation of Qing rule, and the fall of the Ming and several other factions.
Geng Zhongming was a Chinese military general who lived through the transition from the Ming (1368–1644) to the Qing (1644–1912) dynasty, during which he served both sides. His grandson Geng Jingzhong was one of the Three Feudatories who rebelled against Qing rule in the 1670s.
Tantai Mieming or Dantai Mieming, also known by his courtesy name Ziyu, was a major disciple of Confucius. He was known for being very ugly, but was morally upright. He started his own school in the Yangtze River region, and became a major transmitter of Confucian thoughts. Confucius initially misjudged him because of his bad looks, but later expressed his regret.
The Later Jin, officially known as Jin or the Great Jin, was a royal dynasty of China in Manchuria and the precursor to the Qing dynasty. Established in 1616 by the Jianzhou Jurchen chieftain Nurhaci upon his reunification of the Jurchen tribes, its name was derived from the earlier Jin dynasty founded by the Wanyan clan which had ruled northern China in the 12th and 13th centuries.
He Tengjiao, courtesy name Yuncong, was a military officer of the late Ming dynasty who led rebellions against the Qing dynasty. He was from Liping, Guizhou.