Li Zicheng

For other uses, see Li Zicheng (disambiguation).

Li Zicheng (22 September 1606 – 1645^[1]), born Li Hongji, also known as the Thunder King,^[2] was a Chinese peasant rebel leader who helped overthrow the Ming dynasty in April 1644 and ruled over northern China briefly as the Yongchang Emperor (Chinese: 永昌帝; pinyin: Yǒngchāng Dì) of the short-lived Shun dynasty before his death a year later.

In this Chinese name, the family name is Li.

Li Zicheng 李自成
Statue located on Panlong Mountain, Mizhi County
Emperor of the Shun dynasty
Reign	1644–1645
Enthronement	8 February 1644 Xi'an 3 June 1644 Hall of Martial Valor, Shuntian Prefecture
Successor	Li Zijing
Emperor of China (disputed)
Reign	1644–1645
Predecessor	Chongzhen Emperor (Ming dynasty)
Successor	Shunzhi Emperor (Qing dynasty)
Born	Li Hongji (李鴻基) 22 September 1606 Li Jiqian village (李繼遷寨), Yan'an prefecture, northeast Shaanxi, Ming dynasty
Died	1645 (aged 38–39) Border of Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi, Qing dynasty
Spouse	Gao Guiying
Names Li Zicheng (李自成) Era name and dates Yongchang (永昌): 1644–1645
House	Li
Dynasty	Shun

Li Zicheng
Chinese	李自成
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Lǐ Zìchéng Wade–Giles Li3 Tzŭ4-ch'eng2 IPA [lì tsɹ̩̂.ʈʂʰə̌ŋ]
Li Hongji
Traditional Chinese	李鴻基
Simplified Chinese	李鸿基
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Lǐ Hóngjī Wade–Giles Li Hung-chi
Thunder King
Traditional Chinese	闖王
Simplified Chinese	闯王
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Chuǎng Wáng Wade–Giles Ch'uang Wang

Early life

Li Zicheng was born in 1606 as Li Hongji to an impoverished family of farmers in Li Jiqian village, Yan'an prefecture, northeast Shaanxi province. Li Zicheng had a brother who was 20 years his senior and raised Li Zicheng alongside his son and Zicheng's nephew, Li Guo. While Li Zicheng was literate, the source of his education is disputed. Over the course of his late adolescence and early adulthood, Li worked on a farm, in a wine shop, in a blacksmith's shop, and as a mailman for the state courier system.^{[citation needed]}

Li joined the army at the age of 16 but later left and entered the postal service in 1626.^[3]

By the late Ming dynasty era, the government had been weakened financially, and struggled to deal with the economic issues, environmental problems, and widespread disease (smallpox and possibly the plague).^[4]

in February of 1629, Li Zicheng fled to Ganzhou (now Ganzhou District, Zhangye City, Gansu Province) with his nephew Li Guo to join the army. At that time, Yang Zhaoji was the general of Ganzhou and Wang Guo was the lieutenant general. Li Zicheng was soon promoted to the rank of general in the army by Wang Guo. In the same year, he killed Lieutenant General Wang Guo and the local county magistrate in Yuzhong (now Yuzhong County, Lanzhou City, Gansu Province) due to unpaid wages, and launched a mutiny.^[5]

In 1630, according to Zheng Lian, an early-Qing government student from Shangqiu, After Li Zicheng defaulted on his debt, Li befriended some unruly young men and clashed with the local magistrate. As complaints about Li's debt default reached the magistrate, Li was beaten and put on public display in an iron collar and shackles without food and water for failing to repay loans to Ai Zhao, a Juren. The magistrate, a man by the name of Ai, struck a guard who tried to give Li shade and water. A group of sympathetic peasants then assembled and saved Li by breaking Li out of town. Another account said that after taking part in the suppression of the rebel Gao Yingxiang, Li became a rebel due to charges of stealing rations.^[3]

Becoming a rebel

Further information: Late Ming peasant rebellions

Earlier in the year 1622, Xu Hongru, leader of the White Lotus Societies (Kenneth Swope said Xu Hongru was a Catholic convert.^[6]), conspired with Yu Hongzhi, a peasant rebel leader from Jingzhou (now Jingxian County, Hebei Province) and a rebel named Zhang Shipei from Caozhou (now Caoxian County, Shandong Province) to launch the uprising on the Mid-Autumn Festival. However, due to the leak of the plan, the uprising was launched in May.^[7] Xu Hongru revolted three months earlier out of fear of a preemptive action by the government. He declared himself Zhongxing Fuliedi (literally, lucky, devoted lord of the restoration).^[8] In November of the same year, Xu Hongru was betrayed by his subordinates, arrested in Zou County, and taken to the capital, where he was executed.^[9] When Li Zicheng rose up to rebel in Mizhi, the so-called dongling fumang group which joined him, refers to Xu Hongru's followers and their remnants. Gu Yingta testified that a direct line of succession from Xu Hongru to Li Zicheng's uprising is correct. When Li Zicheng marched into Henan. This suggests that the White Lotus Sect members organized by Xu Hongru constituted Li Zicheng's rebels.^[10]

At the time when Li Zicheng openly rebelled, the White Lotus Society which had long predicted that a figure with the surname "Li" would one day become the emperor. Li Zicheng tried to use faith to solidify his own legitimacy by consulting a soothsayer. However, when the soothsayer denied Li Zicheng as the prophecied "Emperor Li", and foretold his imminent demise, he had the soothsayer executed.^[11]

Li Zicheng and his cousin Li Guo then went to join larger group of outlaws. When the said group submitted to the Ming government, they left to join another group.^[12] One night on an unspecified date, Li and his supporters attacked the town, won the allegiance of thousands of famished residents, and led them to plunder the region. Within ten days they joined together with other brigands, giving the title of Dashing General to Li and forming a fully functioning outlaw group,^[13] and obtained their first real weapons.^[2] Furthermore, during his time as fugitive, Li Zicheng also murdered his own wife after she committed adultery.^[14]

In 1631, after the rebel main force was defeated by Ming troops, the Li brothers formed their own group, which they dubbed the "Eighth Brigade".^[15]

Two years later, Li Zicheng appeared among the forces under the leadership of Gao Yingxiang, nicknamed The Dashing Prince, in northern Henan. Some sources credit him with feats of taking Xiuwu County, in Huaiqing prefecture, and killing its magistrate. Li Zicheng's own group further swelled after he absorbed another rebels group with 20,000 followers which leader just died, raising his own forces to 30,000s. However, as his group grew in number, Li Zicheng became more suspicious of his own men's loyalty, such example was when he accuse one offer them, Gao Jie, for being involved in affair with his wife. This accident drove Gao and his followers to surrender to the Ming.^[16] Later, Li joined a rebel army led by Gao Yingxiang (高迎祥), nicknamed "the Dashing King.” He inherited Gao's nickname and command of the rebel army after Gao's death.^[2] In late 1633 Li Zicheng followed Gao Yingxiang to the south across the Yellow River, but in the next year he went back to Shaanxi until 1635.^[17]

In 1635, Li Zicheng arrived on Lin County together with fellow rebels Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong, Cao Cao, and others, where they defeated Deng Bi's army, which had led Sichuan troops and Shizhu Tusi troops to the northern Henan battlefield.^[18] In response to this, Ming general Cao Wenzhao led 3,000 men from Ningzhou and encountered the peasant army at Qiutou Town in Zhenning (present-day Zhengning County, Gansu Province). His brother, Cao Bianjao, led the assault, scaled the city walls and killed 500 enemies. Cao Wenzhao continued his advance pursuing the enemy for 30 miles, with Cao Wenzhao following behind with his infantry. As he led his famous Guan Ning cavalry pursuing the retreating rebels, suddenly, as they reached Qiutou town in Zhenning (present day Zhenning Buyei and Miao Autonomous County), tens of thousands of rebel cavalry led by Li Zicheng ambushed and surrounded them. Cao Wenzhao was killed in this battle.^[19]

In 1636, Ming's grand preceptor Hong Chengchou pushed away Li and his forces from Shaanxi to Henan. After the death of Gao Yingxiang, Li went on defensive, moved back and forth across the east and south Shaanxi mountainous borders fighting against Ming general Sun Chuanting soldiers.^[20]

In the early 1638, Ming general Hong Chengchou was able to surprise Li Zicheng in the Shaanxi-Sichuan border and dealt him a heavy defeat.^[21] Betting on the poor quality of his Sichuanese contingent, Chengchou put them in the center of his line. As expected, they withdrew under the rebel attack, and pulled Li's troops down the center, at which point Chengchou's crack Shaanxi troops in reserve attacked the now-exposed rebels and caused the collapse of Li's army.^[22] In the summer of 1638, Hong renewed the pressure on Li, and hotly pursued him. Guessing that he was trying to flee through Tong Pass, Hong contacted Sun Chuanting, who established a three-pronged ambush. Li's army was trapped and destroyed, and he escaped with just 17 followers, remaining mostly inactive and hiding in the mountains of Shaanxi for the rest of 1638.^[23]

In 1639, an epidemic that would later become known as the Chongzhen Great Plague hit the Yangzi region and spread across the north. Famine and drought compounded the social discontent caused by the epidemic. Environmental disaster, disease, and the failure of the Chongzhen government to protect its people led to major peasant uprisings across Northern China beginning in 1628, with Shaanxi province as an epicenter of rebellion.^[4] In 1639, Li suffered massive setbacks in eastern Shaanxi, followed by the death of his wife and concubines. fled into the hills between Shang and Luo counties with a handful of his closest supporters. Other rebels such as Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai already surrendered to the Ming government and encouraged Li Zicheng to join them, but he refused. Li Zicheng managed to survive and escaped the authorities as he was reportedly training martial arts and studying the history of Liu Bang while doing so. In the summer of 1639, Li Zicheng took advantage of Zhang Xianzhong's second rebellion as his distraction to escape from the difficult situation. However, as they faced another trouble, his closest subordinate and divination advisor Liu Zongmin suggest surrender. According to legend, Liu instead changed his mind after he witnessed a positive prognosis of Li's fortune. To prove his fortitude, Liu killed his own wife and concubines, and descended from Shaanxi with their remaining followers to the central plain of Henan.^[24]

Im 1640s, within three years, Li succeeded in rallying more than 30,000 men to his cause. They attacked and killed prominent government officials such as Sun Chuanting in Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi. As Li won more battles and gained more support, his army grew larger. Historians attribute this growth in numbers to Li's reputation as a Robin Hood-style figure who showed compassion to the poor and only attacked Ming officials.^[2]

Li advocated the slogans of "dividing land equally" and "abolishing the grain taxes payment system" which won great support from the peasants. The song, "Killing cattle and sheep, preparing tasty wine and opening the city gate to welcome the Dashing King" was widely spread at the time.^{[citation needed]}

In 1641, rebel forces led by Li Zicheng sacked the Shaolin Monastery due to the monks' support of the Ming dynasty and the possible threat they posed to the rebels. This effectively destroyed the temple's fighting force.^[25]

The 1642 Kaifeng flood, caused by breaches of the Yellow River dikes by both sides,^[26] ended the siege of Kaifeng and killed over 300,000 of its 378,000 residents.^[27] After the battles of Luoyang and Kaifeng, the Ming government was unable to stop Li's rebellion, as most of its military force was involved in the battle against the Manchus in the north.

Later, in 1643, Li Zicheng's victory against Sun Chuanting in central Henan reaffirm his decision to march west to Xi'an. According to most accepted theory, Li made his mind during a meeting in Xiangjing as he already ruled out the choice of march towards Nanjing or to Beijing. Modern historian Roger V. Des Forges assumed Li Zicheng may be considered Shaanxi as he was a native of the province and it also served as the political center of the Han and Tang dynasties, which Political regime model he aspired to emulate. However, as Gu Cheng suggested, it is likely that the decision to go to Xi'an was made after the surprisingly complete rout of Sun Chanting's forces in. Li then pursued Sun as he retreated to the west. According to Zheng Lian, Sun had first gone north to Mengjin, on the south bank of the Yellow River, where he was so distraught at the sight of his men being killed that he tried to throw himself in the river. His subordinates intervened and prevailed on him to continue resisting the rebels. Zheng Lian also reports an unlikely story that Sun went to Shouyang mountain in Yanshi county, east of Luoyang, to pay respects to the Shang loyalists Bo Yi and Shu Qi, who had starved themselves to death rather than live under the Zhou. On November 12, Li Zicheng's forces took Wenxiang, and 4 days later they assaulted beat Sun Chuanting forces at Tongguan, while Sun Chuanting himself was killed during th R ensuing battle. Gao Jie and Bai Guang'en then fled further. After assigned his subordinate to command Tongguan, Li Zicheng proceeded again to Xi'an. In the next four days, Li's forces manage to take the towns of Huayang, Huazhou, Weinan, and Lintong without any meaningful resistance.^[28]

Founding of the Shun Dynasty

See also: Jiashen Incident

A 20th-century illustration of the Li's army looting Beijing.

By 1643, Li captured Xiangyang and proclaimed himself "King of Xinshun" (新順王). On the Chinese New Year, which occurred on 8 February, Li Zicheng declared the Founding of the "Great Shun" dynasty in Xi'an and proclaimed himself King (wang 王).^[29]

Li and his army reached the suburbs of the capital on April 23. Instead of mounting a full-scale attack on the city walls, Li sent the recently surrendered eunuch Du Xun to see Emperor Zhu Youjian, hoping to secure his surrender, which was refused by the latter.^[30]

Titling himself "Prince of the New Discipline", he established a capital at Xi'an.^[31]: 118

In April 1644, Li and 300,000 troops marched on the Ming capital of Beijing.^[31]: 118 His route roughly followed the line of the Great Wall of China, in order to neutralize its heavily fortified garrisons.^[32] They captured Beijing (the gates of which were opened from inside) and the Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself.^{[31]: 118–119} Li proclaimed himself the emperor of the Shun dynasty.^[31]: 118

The situation as of November 1644

Li, as all contenders for the throne were required, claimed to have the Mandate of Heaven bestowed upon him. Firstly, Li was Han Chinese and hailed from the Shaanxi province of China, which strengthened his legitimacy to the throne versus the foreign Manchus. Li also gained the support of scholar officials which was important in ruling over the people of China as a Confucian state. The name of the dynasty is translated to mean "Obedient to Heaven".^[33]

Li's army was eventually defeated on 27 May 1644 at the Battle of Shanhai Pass by the combined forces of the Manchurian Prince Dorgon and the Ming general Wu Sangui who had defected to his side. The Ming and Manchu forces captured Beijing on 6 June and Fulin ascended to the throne to establish the Shunzhi reign with Dorgon as his regent.^[33]

Death

When Wu Sangui and Prince Dorgon took control of Beijing, Li fled to Xi'an.^[34] After the summer and fall of 1644, in October of that year, Dorgon sent several armies to extirpate Li Zicheng from his Shaanxi stronghold.^[35] Qing armies led by Ajige, Dodo, and Shi Tingzhu (石廷柱) won consecutive engagements against Shun forces in Shanxi and Shaanxi, forcing Li Zicheng to leave his Xi'an headquarters in February 1645.^[36]

It is not known how or if Li died in Shaanxi during his flight, and there are multiple accounts of his death, which vary, and some of them have been exaggerated. However, across multiple sources, the year of his death is said to have been 1645. One account states that in the summer of 1645, Li went to raid a village in search of provisions with his remaining followers and was killed by soldiers guarding the village.^[34] Another theory is that Li Zicheng became a monk and died in 1674.^[37]

Lin Qing, the leader of the Eight Trigrams uprising of 1813 by the Tianli sect (天理教) of the White Lotus, proclaimed that he was the reincarnation of Li Zicheng.^[38]

Historiography

Li Zicheng's rebel group's call for the "equalization of land" (jun tian) is thought to be a proto-socialist aspiration from the peasant class during the Ming dynasty, decries the land possession by the landlord and gentry classes. According to historian Roland Mousnier, Li Zicheng's rebel group, which was composed of salt smugglers, convoymen, and professional soldiers, was at first feared by ordinary peasants just like the Écorcheurs bandits, which were active during the Hundred Years' War in France.^[39]

Although the success of the Ming-Qing transition was attributed to the weakening of the Ming dynasty (exacerbated by Li Zicheng's rebellion), official historiography during the Qing dynasty regarded Li as an illegitimate usurper and outlaw. This view sought to discourage and demonize notions of rebellion against the Qing government by propagating that the Manchus put an end to Li's illegitimate rule and restored peace to the empire, thus receiving the Mandate of Heaven to rule China.^{[citation needed]}

Throughout his rise, there were several occasions on which the Ming could have extinguished him, but Jurchen breaches of the Great Wall – the Jurchens had raided across the Ming Great Wall several times since 1629, including in 1634,^[40] 1638,^[41] and 1642^[42] – distracted the Ming court's attention.^[43]

In the History of Ming compilation volume 309, Li Zicheng was described as having high cheekbones, deep-set eyes and a jackal-like voice.^[44]

Li Yan, a semi-mythical advisor of Li Zicheng who was thought to have died in 1644, has been suspected to be a metaphor for the rise and fall of Li Zicheng’s rebellion, as historians doubt his existence in real life. However, recently a 2004 discovery of a Li family genealogical manuscript in Henan resolved much of the puzzle. It confirmed Li Yan as a real person, albeit blended with myths—a government student from Henei (not Qi), who rebelled in 1641, joined Li Zicheng, and was killed in 1644. This document showed how rumors evolved into mythistory, validating core elements while debunking exaggerations.^[45] Supposedly, Li Yan was among the first of Li Zicheng's non-peasant supporters, the local gentry class. According to popular lore, Li Yan was responsible for persuading the rebellious elements from his hometown to join Li Zicheng. Furthermore, Li Yan became the mastermind to gather more people's sympathy for Li Zicheng's cause by introducing his ideas of rule by benevolence, such as forbidding indiscriminate killing, along with other slogans like tax abolition.^[46]

In popular culture

Monument of Li Zicheng on Mount Panlong, Mizhi County

Li appears as a bandit in Baifa Monü Zhuan, a wuxia novel by Liang Yusheng, where the heroine comments he is worthy of being a king. Li is featured as a character in some of the works of Hong Kong wuxia writer Jin Yong (Louis Cha). Li's rebellion against the Ming dynasty is featured in Sword Stained with Royal Blood, and his personality is analysed from the point of view of Yuan Chengzhi, the protagonist. In The Deer and the Cauldron, set in the Qing dynasty during the early reign of the Kangxi Emperor, Li is revealed to have survived and fathered a daughter, A'ke, with Chen Yuanyuan. Li is also briefly mentioned by name in Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain and The Young Flying Fox.^{[citation needed]}

Li is the main character of the historical epic novel Li Zicheng by Yao Xueyin.^[47]

Li also makes an appearance in the visual novel The Hungry Lamb: Traveling in the Late Ming Dynasty [zh].^[48]

There are many stories and folklore attributed to Li Zicheng. One such story claims that when Li Zicheng was young, he killed one of his classmates and was promptly disowned by his family and shunned by his community.^[4]