Person1606 – 1645

Li Zicheng

Also called: Chuang Wang, Dashun Emperor

Leader of the late Ming peasant rebellions, a former courier from Shaanxi who rallied followers with the promise of equal land and no grain tax, founded the Shun in 1644 and took Beijing, ending the Ming

Born to a poor family at Mizhi in Shaanxi, he worked as a courier in the postal service until he lost his job when the court cut the post stations in 1629. He joined the rebel army of Gao Yingxiang and on Gao’s death in 1636 took up his title, the “Dashing King”. Nearly wiped out in 1638, he rose again in famine-stricken Henan, gathering the starving. He held Beijing in 1644 but, beaten by Wu Sangui and the Qing, abandoned it after some forty days, and died in the mountains of Hubei in 1645 in circumstances that remain unclear.

Show on the map

Where they went

Open the full map

OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

1 related event

1
1644Li Zicheng’s Rebellion, the Fall of the Ming and the Qing Conquestleader
In 1644 Li Zicheng’s peasant army took Beijing and the Chongzhen Emperor killed himself, ending the Ming. Soon Wu Sangui opened the Shanhai Pass, and the Qing army came in, drove Li out and made Beijing its capital.

People who appear alongside

Chongzhen Emperor (Sizong of Ming)1611 – 1644
Last Ming emperor (r. 1627–1644), who took his own life on Prospect Hill behind the Forbidden City when Li Zicheng’s army entered Beijing in 1644
Wu Sangui1612 – 1678
Ming general who opened the Shanhai Pass to the Qing in 1644, became a feudatory prince in Yunnan and launched the Revolt of the Three Feudatories in 1673
Dorgon1612 – 1650
Son of Nurhaci and Qing prince regent who led the Qing army through the Shanhai Pass into Beijing in 1644 and installed the boy Shunzhi Emperor there

Themes this person appears in

Ming, Qing and Edo Japan1500 – 1800
The age when the Ming, shaken by northern raiders, southern pirates and the silver economy, fell to Li Zicheng’s rebels, and the Manchu Qing reached its greatest extent and prosperity under Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong — as Japan was unified out of the Warring States into the Edo shogunate’s bakuhan order and closed country, and Joseon, after two great wars, met its neighbours through embassies to Edo and the Northern Learning