Zhang Xianzhong
Zhang Xianzhong was a rebel leader of the late Ming Dynasty. He is known for his incredible cruelty, and contributions to the destabilizing or weakening of the Ming, which helped lead to the dynasty's fall.
By the 1630s, a number of powerful rebel groups had emerged in provincial China. Zhang rose to be leader of one of the more powerful groups, seizing control of Chengdu and portions of the surrounding Sichuan province, while Li Zicheng emerged as, perhaps, the most powerful and prominent rebel leader elsewhere in the country, claiming by the early 1640s most of Shaanxi, Henan, and Hubei provinces. For the next several years, Zhang and Li, along with a number of other rebel groups, clashed a number of times, as well as temporarily allying on several occasions. After Li seized Beijing in 1644 and was then driven out by the combined forces of Wu Sangui and the Manchu leader Dorgon, Zhang is said to have begun massacring the people of Sichuan, claiming they were going to be killed (by the Manchus) anyway, so he might as well be the one to do it.
Zhang was defeated and killed by the Manchus, but he left behind a Sichuan province so severely depopulated that the Qing Dynasty made explicit campaigns to promote migration and settlement into the province.
References
- Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China, Second Edition, W.W. Norton & Co. (1999), 22, 31.