Chongzhen Emperor
Emperor of the Ming Dynasty · China · On the map · Historical Figures · Lived 1611 to 1644 · aged 33
He inherited a dynasty already cracking and spent seventeen years trying to hold it together against peasant armies and Manchu raiders closing from two sides. When the rebels broke into Beijing in 1644, he hanged himself, and three centuries of Ming rule died with him.
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A typical day, 30 days to 13 November 2026
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Zhu Youjian became emperor in 1627 at sixteen, succeeding his older half-brother the Tianqi Emperor. His reign name meant "honorable and auspicious" - the irony would become plain. He faced peasant rebellions spreading across the interior and Manchu forces pressing the northern frontier, and he could not contain either. In April 1644, when Li Zicheng's rebel forces entered the capital, the Chongzhen Emperor took his own life rather than be captured. The Ming dynasty ended that day; the Manchu established the Qing in its place. A year later, a Southern Ming claimant gave him the temple name Sizong, though successors changed it twice more and the Qing briefly assigned yet another before revoking it altogether.
