Li Zicheng

Born Li Hongji in 1606 to an impoverished Shaanxi family, he joined the peasant rebellions tearing through late Ming China in 1630. Nicknamed "the Dashing King," he spent a decade lurching between near-annihilation and modest gains, but by the early 1640s his promise to redistribute land had made him the rebellion's dominant figure. In 1643 he took Xiangyang and declared himself king; a year later he proclaimed the Shun dynasty, named himself the Yongchang Emperor, and marched into an undefended Beijing in April 1644, ending the Ming. Within a month the Qing prince-regent Dorgon and turncoat Ming general Wu Sangui crushed him at Shanhai Pass. Li fled the capital, absorbed defeat after defeat from Qing pursuers, and died in Hubei the following year.