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 M…