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Person1559 – 1626

Nurhaci (Taizu of Qing)

Also called: Taizu of Qing, Tianming Khan

Jianzhou Jurchen chief who united the Jurchens and founded the Later Jin in 1616 (r. 1616–1626), created the Eight Banners and the Manchu script and defeated the Ming at Sarhu

He was born into the Aisin Gioro clan of the Jianzhou Jurchens. When his grandfather and father were killed in a Ming campaign in 1583, he is said to have taken up arms with thirteen suits of inherited armour. For years he paid tribute to the Ming and held its titles, borrowing their authority to absorb the other Jurchen tribes. After proclaiming himself khan in 1616 he turned against the Ming and took Liaodong. In 1626 he suffered his first great defeat, under Yuan Chonghuan’s cannon at Ningyuan, and died that year; the Qing later honoured him as its founder, Taizu.

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2 related events

  1. 1616Nurhaci Founds the Later Jinmonarch

    Nurhaci of the Jianzhou Jurchens united the Jurchens, created the Eight Banners and founded the Later Jin at Hetu Ala in 1616. His son Hong Taiji renamed the state Qing in 1636.

  2. 1
    1619Battle of Sarhucommander

    In 1619 Nurhaci’s Later Jin defeated, one after another around Sarhu, the Ming armies advancing along four routes and Gang Hong-rip’s Korean force. The battle reversed the balance between Ming and Later Jin.

People who appear alongside

  • Hong Taiji1592 – 1643

    Khan of the Later Jin and first emperor of Qing, who invaded Joseon twice

  • Gang Hong-rip1560 – 1627

    Commander of the Joseon army sent at Ming request against the Later Jin in 1619, who surrendered to the Jurchens after the defeat at Sarhu

  • Wanli Emperor (Shenzong of Ming)1563 – 1620

    Ming emperor (r. 1572–1620) who, after Zhang Juzheng’s death, long refused to hold court; the “three great campaigns” including the Korean war and the defeat at Sarhu drained the dynasty

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