Chongzhen Emperor

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 Siz…