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Jump to navigationJump to search→The Fall of the Ming
Meanwhile, the Ming had been fighting the Manchus in the north, suffering a notable early defeat in [[1619]], but otherwise managing to hold back the steppe nomads. Hearing of the fall of Beijing, however, hundreds of Ming Imperial princes across the country began to gather followers in order to fight to regain the capital and restore the dynasty, resulting in widespread conflict over the succession and leaving the Ming military scattered and occupied, unable to present a unified front against either the rebels or the Manchus. The commander of the Ming armies in the northeast, [[Wu Sangui]], commanded one of the largest and best-equipped forces in the empire, numbering perhaps as many as 100,000 and armed with some number of the best artillery (cannon) in all of East Asia. Wu was stuck in a quandary. Were he to leave his post and march to Beijing to defeat the rebels in hopes of restoring the Ming, the Great Wall would go undefended and the Manchu hordes would flow into China; if, on the other hand, he remained at his post and continued to impede the progress of the Manchus, there would be no Ming to defend (and besides, which of the hundreds of claimants would he support?). In the end, Wu enlisted the aid of the Manchus to help oust Li Zicheng. The Manchu armies, led by Ming forces to Beijing, did just that, defeating Li Zicheng, but afterwards, they kept Beijing for themselves, going on to conquer the remainder of China in the ensuing decades.<ref name=tignor500/>
Meanwhile, the Ming had been fighting the Manchus in the north, suffering a notable early defeat in [[1619]], but otherwise managing to hold back the steppe nomads. Hearing of the fall of Beijing, however, hundreds of Ming Imperial princes across the country began to gather followers in order to fight to regain the capital and restore the dynasty, resulting in widespread conflict over the succession and leaving the Ming military scattered and occupied, unable to present a unified front against either the rebels or the Manchus. The commander of the Ming armies in the northeast, [[Wu Sangui]], commanded one of the largest and best-equipped forces in the empire, numbering perhaps as many as 100,000 and armed with some number of the best artillery (cannon) in all of East Asia. Wu was stuck in a quandary. Were he to leave his post and march to Beijing to defeat the rebels in hopes of restoring the Ming, the Great Wall would go undefended and the Manchu hordes would flow into China; if, on the other hand, he remained at his post and continued to impede the progress of the Manchus, there would be no Ming to defend (and besides, which of the hundreds of claimants would he support?). In the end, Wu enlisted the aid of the Manchus to help oust Li Zicheng. The Manchu armies, led by Ming forces to Beijing, did just that, defeating Li Zicheng, but afterwards, they kept Beijing for themselves, going on to conquer the remainder of China in the ensuing decades.<ref name=tignor500/>
Ming loyalists initially fled to [[Fujian province]], attempting to set up an Imperial Court in exile there,<ref>Jansen, 26.</ref> and remained active in southern China and Taiwan into the 1680s, sending numerous requests for aid to Japan. The Japanese referred to those bringing these requests as ''Nihon kisshi'' (日本乞師). Some prominent shogunate officials supported the notion of sending support, and the matter was briefly discussed; the shogunate went so far as to send messages to the Korean court, via [[Tsushima han]], testing out Korean support for such pro-Ming actions. However, a number of prominent officials opposed sending any support. They pointed to the Ming's unfriendly and even hostile attitudes for nearly a century against Japanese ships coming to China, and to the fact that the loyalists requesting aid were not clear representatives of the Ming Imperial Court, but were essentially unknowns. In the end, no aid was offered or provided by the shogunate.<ref>Mizuno Norihito, “China in Tokugawa Foreign Relations: The Tokugawa Bakufu’s Perception of and Attitudes toward Ming-Qing China,” ''Sino-Japanese Studies'' 15 (2003), 138.; Jansen, 27.</ref>
Within China, many people committed suicide in the wake of the fall of Beijing, many took up arms (and many of these died fighting), and as was the case following the [[Yuan Dynasty|Mongol conquest]] centuries earlier, many scholar-officials simply resigned their posts and refused to serve under the new government.
Descendants of the Ming emperors gathered followers around them, and competed with one another to gather support to combat the Manchus and restore the dynasty. Soon, a few such princes emerged on top, putting up some resistance in [[Fuzhou]], [[Canton]], and southwest China, but all were swiftly crushed by the Manchus and their Chinese allies (including Wu Sangui).
Other groups of Ming loyalists, including a group led by [[Zheng Chenggong]], initially fled to [[Fujian province]], attempting to set up an Imperial Court in exile there,<ref>Jansen, 26.</ref> and remained active in southern China and Taiwan into the 1680s, sending numerous requests for aid to Japan. The Japanese referred to those bringing these requests as ''Nihon kisshi'' (日本乞師). Some prominent shogunate officials supported the notion of sending support, and the matter was briefly discussed; the shogunate went so far as to send messages to the Korean court, via [[Tsushima han]], testing out Korean support for such pro-Ming actions. However, a number of prominent officials opposed sending any support. They pointed to the Ming's unfriendly and even hostile attitudes for nearly a century against Japanese ships coming to China, and to the fact that the loyalists requesting aid were not clear representatives of the Ming Imperial Court, but were essentially unknowns. In the end, no aid was offered or provided by the shogunate.<ref>Mizuno Norihito, “China in Tokugawa Foreign Relations: The Tokugawa Bakufu’s Perception of and Attitudes toward Ming-Qing China,” ''Sino-Japanese Studies'' 15 (2003), 138.; Jansen, 27.</ref>
The Ming continued to live on in the popular imagination throughout the region. Japanese popular publications continued to associate the Ming with the true Chinese rulers, or the true Chinese culture, down into the 19th century, and the royal courts & aristocracies of Korea and Ryûkyû considered themselves, in certain respects, the successors to the Ming tradition - the inheritors of the true Chinese civilization, as China proper had fallen to the "barbarians" (the Manchus).
The Ming continued to live on in the popular imagination throughout the region. Japanese popular publications continued to associate the Ming with the true Chinese rulers, or the true Chinese culture, down into the 19th century, and the royal courts & aristocracies of Korea and Ryûkyû considered themselves, in certain respects, the successors to the Ming tradition - the inheritors of the true Chinese civilization, as China proper had fallen to the "barbarians" (the Manchus).
