Zhu Youlang

Biography

Family Background and Early Life

Zhu Youlang was born on November 1, 1623, the ninth day of the tenth lunar month in the third year of Tianqi. He was the fourth son of Zhu Changying, Prince Duan of Gui, the seventh son of Emperor Shenzong of Ming. Emperor Shenzong had eight sons, including the eldest Zhu Changluo, later Emperor Guangzong, the third Zhu Changxun, Prince of Fu, and the seventh Zhu Changying, Prince of Gui, whose princely seat was at Hengzhou in Huguang, present-day Hengyang in Hunan. Zhu Youlang's biological mother was Empress Dowager Zhaosheng, Lady Ma. During the Chongzhen reign Zhu Youlang was enfeoffed as Prince of Yongming.

In 1627, the seventh year of Tianqi, Zhu Changying took up his fief at Hengzhou and constructed an extensive princely residence, described in the source as second only to the imperial palace in scale and the most splendid residence in Hunan. As the hereditary seat of the Gui princes, Hengzhou possessed one of the most complete princely military establishments in the Southern Ming and later became a major target of Zhang Xianzhong's rebel army. Zhu Youlang grew up in the Hengzhou princely residence under the protection of his father and elder brothers.

Flight during the Wars and Succession as Prince of Gui

In 1643, the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong led the Great Western army from Wuhan into Hunan, captured Yuezhou and Changsha, and advanced on Hengzhou. Prince Zhu Changying ordered Huguang investigating censor Liu Xizuo to gather the province's forces and defend the city. Great Western commanders Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, and Liu Wenxiu led the assault while Ming troops replied with cannon and arrows. Both Zhu Changying and his heir Zhu You'ai were seriously ill, so Zhu Youlang managed the princely household. When the position became untenable he organized the withdrawal. Liu Xizuo was killed by Zhang Xianzhong outside Yongzhou while covering the retreat.

During the flight Zhu Youlang was surrounded and captured by troops under Liu Wenxiu and taken toward Yongzhou. Ming commanders Yang Guowei and Jiao Lian, together with Imperial Guard officer Ma Jixiang, rescued him and escorted him overnight to Wuzhou in Guangxi. Seeing his youngest son safely returned, Zhu Changying reportedly became emotionally agitated and his illness worsened. He died at Wuzhou on the fourth day of the eleventh lunar month in 1645, the first year of Hongguang, and received the posthumous title Prince Gong of Gui. Zhu Youlang's elder brother Zhu You'ai, Prince of Anren, inherited the Gui title but soon died suddenly. Zhu Youlang then became the sole heir of the Gui princely line and succeeded as Prince of Gui in 1646, the second year of Longwu.

Proclamation at Zhaoqing and Southern Ming Infighting

In the eighth lunar month of 1646, the second year of Longwu, the Longwu Emperor Zhu Yujian was captured and killed by Qing forces at Tingzhou. Ding Kuichu, governor-general of Guangdong and Guangxi, Qu Shisi, governor of Guangxi, He Tengjiao, governor-general of Huguang, and others supported Zhu Youlang as regent. He assumed the regency at Zhaoqing in Guangdong on the fourteenth day of the tenth lunar month, or the tenth according to another account. At the same time, however, the Longwu Emperor's younger brother Zhu Yuyue, Prince of Tang, proclaimed himself emperor at Guangzhou and adopted the era name Shaowu. The two Southern Ming courts fought one another over legitimacy even as Qing forces advanced. Yongli troops attacked Guangzhou and were defeated by the Shaowu army. Qing forces then moved south, captured Guangzhou, and killed the Shaowu Emperor after a reign of only about forty days. Pressed by the Qing, Zhu Youlang withdrew into Guangxi and became the sole surviving Southern Ming ruler.

The Yongli regime began under extremely dangerous conditions. Based at Zhaoqing, it established a Grand Secretariat and Six Ministries, but internal factional conflict remained severe. Zeng Daowei, Gu Yuanjing, Wang Yinghua, and others entered the Grand Secretariat, while Liang Chaozhong was promoted three times in ten days, reflecting the disorder described in the source. In 1647, the first year of Yongli, Qing forces entered Guangdong and forced Zhu Youlang into repeated flight through Wuzhou, Guilin, Liuzhou, and other places.

Alliance with Former Rebel Armies against the Qing

With few alternatives remaining, the Southern Ming began cooperating with former peasant-rebel forces. Zhu Youlang first allied with remnants of Li Zicheng's Great Shun army. Hao Yaoqi, Liu Tichun, Li Guo, Gao Yigong, and others entered Hunan and joined Huguang governor-general He Tengjiao and Hubei governor Du Yinxi against the Qing. At the end of 1647 they defeated Qing forces at Quanzhou and moved into Hunan. The following year the former Shun troops and forces under He Tengjiao and Qu Shisi won a series of victories and nearly recovered all of Hunan. At the same time, former Qing-aligned commanders Jin Shenghuan in Jiangxi and Li Chengdong in Guangzhou returned to the Ming side. Southern Ming-controlled territory briefly expanded across Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Sichuan, creating the first high point of anti-Qing resistance.

Internal divisions, however, remained severe and different political factions attacked one another while former rebel forces faced exclusion. From the third to fourth years of Yongli, 1649–1650, He Tengjiao was captured and killed at Xiangtan and Qu Shisi at Guilin. Qing armies reoccupied Hunan and Guangxi and the strategic situation again deteriorated.

In 1652, the sixth year of Yongli, Zhu Youlang accepted the proposal of former Great Western commanders Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo to join forces and took up residence at Anlong in Guizhou. Li Dingguo launched a major counteroffensive with an army said to number eighty thousand, marched east into Guangxi, and captured Guilin. The Qing Prince of Dingnan, Kong Youde, was defeated and killed himself. Li later killed Qing Prince Jingjin Nikan in battle near Hengzhou, producing the celebrated saying that he had “twice defeated princely commanders and shaken the realm.” Liu Wenxiu also campaigned in Sichuan and recovered southern parts of the province. Anti-Qing forces on the southeast coast under Zhang Huangyan and others accepted Yongli titles, producing a second high point of resistance.

Conflict between Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo and Final Defeat

The rivalry between Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo destroyed the favorable situation. Jealous of Li's military reputation and influence, Sun plotted to kill him. Li withdrew toward Guangdong and attempted to coordinate with Zheng Chenggong in a joint attack on Guangzhou, but the operation failed and his strength was badly reduced. In 1656, the tenth year of Yongli, Li Dingguo escorted Zhu Youlang out of Sun Kewang's control at Anlong and brought him to Kunming in Yunnan. The following year Sun led an army against Li, causing open conflict within the former Great Western forces. Although Sun commanded a larger army, his arrogance had alienated his subordinates, many of whom defected in battle. Sun was decisively defeated and then surrendered to the Qing, revealing the military and political situation of the southwest to the Qing court.

In 1658, the twelfth year of Yongli, Qing forces invaded Yunnan from three directions, and Guizhou and Guangxi fell in succession. In 1659, the thirteenth year of Yongli, Qing forces captured Kunming. Under Li Dingguo's protection Zhu Youlang fled west and in the twelfth lunar month crossed into the Burmese Toungoo kingdom. King Pindale accepted the Yongli court but housed its members in rough thatched dwellings under harsh conditions. Li Dingguo repeatedly negotiated for the emperor's return, but these requests were rejected.

Curse-Water Massacre and Death

In 1661, the fifteenth year of Yongli, Wu Sangui led Qing forces to the Burmese frontier and demanded the surrender of Zhu Youlang. Burma was then undergoing a palace coup. Pindale's younger brother Pye killed him and seized the throne, leaving the Burmese court unwilling to confront Qing pressure. On the twelfth day of the eighth lunar month Pye launched what became known as the “Curse-Water Massacre.” Claiming that he intended to swear an oath with the Yongli court, he had Zhu Youlang's followers brought out one group at a time and killed. Forty-two people died, including senior officials and members of Grand Secretary Fu Gang's family. Zhu Youlang, realizing that escape was unlikely, wrote a letter condemning Wu Sangui for betraying the Ming and assisting the Qing and appealed to him to remember righteousness and spare his life, but Wu did not relent.

On the third day of the twelfth lunar month in 1661, Pye handed Zhu Youlang and twenty-five members of his household over to Wu Sangui. Wu took them back to Yunnan and imprisoned them at Kunming. Fearing that anti-Qing forces might rescue the emperor on the road to Beijing, and with Qing approval, Wu Sangui ordered Zhu Youlang, Crown Prince Zhu Cixuan, and twenty-five members of the household strangled with bowstrings at Bizipo in Kunming on June 1, 1662, the fifteenth day of the fourth lunar month in the sixteenth year of Yongli. Zhu Youlang was forty. His body was burned and the ashes were scattered in Green Lake. Kunming residents later called Bizipo “Bisipo,” “Slope Where the Emperor Was Forced to Die,” to commemorate the injustice. After the 1911 Revolution, Cai E and others erected a stone monument there marking the site where the Yongli Emperor died for the state.

Major Activities

Establishment of the Yongli Regime

In 1646, after the Longwu Emperor was captured and killed, Zhu Youlang was supported by Ding Kuichu, Qu Shisi, Lü Daqi, and others and proclaimed emperor at Zhaoqing in Guangdong under the era name Yongli. The Yongli regime became the longest-lasting and most influential Southern Ming court, lasting from 1646 to 1662 for sixteen years. Thereafter the Ming loyalist regime in Taiwan continued to use the Yongli era name until 1683, the thirty-seventh year of Yongli, making a total span of thirty-seven years. As the symbol of Southern Ming legitimacy, the Yongli Emperor became a spiritual rallying point for anti-Qing forces in many regions.

Alliance with Former Peasant-Rebel Forces

The principal historical contribution of the Yongli regime, as presented in the source, was its alliance between surviving Ming forces and former peasant-rebel armies. Zhu Youlang successively cooperated with former Great Shun commanders such as Hao Yaoqi, Li Guo, and Gao Yigong and former Great Western commanders Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, and Liu Wenxiu. Together they fought prolonged campaigns against the Qing in Hunan, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, and other regions. Li Dingguo's forcing Kong Youde to suicide at Guilin and killing Nikan in battle at Hengzhou were among the most celebrated Southern Ming victories and were remembered as “twice defeating princely commanders and shaking the realm.” The Yongli court also granted titles to anti-Qing forces along the southeast coast under Zheng Chenggong, Zhang Huangyan, and others, producing the high point of Southern Ming resistance.

Exile in Burma and Death

In 1659, after Qing armies invaded Yunnan from three directions, Zhu Youlang withdrew into Burma under Li Dingguo's protection. The Yongli court lived there as dependent refugees under very difficult conditions. In 1661 Burmese king Pye launched the Curse-Water Massacre and killed forty-two members of the Yongli entourage before handing Zhu Youlang over to Wu Sangui. In 1662 Zhu Youlang was strangled at Kunming and the Southern Ming regime ended. His death marked the end of organized resistance by the Ming imperial house on the mainland.

Seeking Foreign Assistance

In 1649, the third year of Yongli, members of the Southern Ming court who had converted to Catholicism appealed to the pope in Rome and to European powers for assistance against the Qing, but no substantial aid resulted. The Yongli court also repeatedly sought military support from Japan without success. These efforts reflected the regime's attempts to find external assistance in desperate circumstances and the complexity of East Asian international relations during the Ming-Qing transition.

The stages of his later years can be set out by year: in 1656 (tenth year of Yongli) Li Dingguo brought him away from Sun Kewang's control and back to Kunming; in 1657 (eleventh year) Sun Kewang marched against Li Dingguo, his troops turned against him in the field and he fled to submit to the Qing; in 1658 (twelfth year) the Qing attacked Yunnan by three routes and Guizhou and Guangxi were lost; in 1659 (thirteenth year) the Qing took Kunming and in the twelfth month he withdrew into the territory of the Toungoo dynasty in Burma; in 1661 (fifteenth year) the Burmese king Pye Min carried out the "cursed water" massacre, killing all forty-two of his attendants, and in the twelfth month handed him over to Wu Sangui; on 1 June 1662 (fifteenth day of the fourth month of the sixteenth year) he was strangled with a bowstring at Bizi Slope in Kunming together with his son Zhu Cixuan and twenty-five of his household, ending the Southern Ming. His wanderings through Yunnan and Guizhou, his withdrawal into Burma and his final surrender and death show that the Yongli court had no ground left once Yunnan was lost, while Sun Kewang's defection and Li Dingguo's lone resistance were the key elements of the situation in the south-west at that time.

The Yongli court held out in the south-west for more than ten years partly because it relied on the remnants of Zhang Xianzhong's army under Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo and partly because the Qing needed time to campaign there; once Sun Kewang submitted, the Qing knew the real situation in the south-west, and the fall of Kunming and the withdrawal into Burma became inevitable. The sources contain few decisions attributable to him, most events being driven by Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo and Wu Sangui, so the entry keeps to verifiable dates and events.

The movement of his seat can be grouped into stages: he took the throne at Zhaoqing in Guangdong, then moved through Guangxi and Guizhou as the Qing advanced, finally centring on Kunming in Yunnan and withdrawing into Burma after its fall, each change following the advance or retreat of the remnants of Zhang Xianzhong's army. The military history of the Yongli court falls into two phases, the administration under Sun Kewang and the campaigns after Li Dingguo brought the emperor away, its final collapse being directly bound up with Sun Kewang's defection and the Qing's three-pronged entry into Yunnan.

After his withdrawal into Burma his attendants were almost all killed in the massacre at the Cursed Water, and he was then handed by the Burmese to Wu Sangui and taken to Kunming to be killed, his son and household perishing with him; the end of the Yongli court also marks the close of the Ming imperial clan's attempts at restoration on the mainland.

In the history of the Southern Ming the Yongli court was the longest-lasting attempt by the Ming imperial clan on the mainland; its failure owed both to the quarrel between Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo within and to the Qing's concentration of forces in the south-west and to Wu Sangui's personal choice without. The material used here consists chiefly of early Qing official and private histories and modern studies, and since some details, such as the negotiations after the withdrawal into Burma, differ between accounts, only the years and verifiable events are listed.

Personal Relations

• Grandfather: Zhu Yijun, Emperor Shenzong of Ming
• Cousins: Zhu Youxiao, Emperor Xizong of Ming; Zhu Youjian, Chongzhen Emperor; Zhu Yousong, Hongguang Emperor
• Father: Zhu Changying, Prince Duan of Gui
• Biological mother: Empress Dowager Zhaosheng, Lady Ma
• Principal mothers: Empress Xiaoqinduan, Lady Lü; Empress Dowager Xiaozheng, Lady Wang
• Elder brothers: Zhu You'ai, Prince Gong of Gui and second Prince of Gui; Zhu Youzhan, Prince of Yongxing; the Princes of Xintian and Jianghua; Zhu Yourong, Prince of Jiashan
• Consorts: Empress Xiaogangkuang, Lady Wang; Consort Dou; Honored Lady Dai; Honored Lady Yang; Honored Lady Liu; and others
• Sons: Crown Prince Huaimin Zhu Cijue; Crown Prince Daomin Zhu Cihuo; Crown Prince Aimin Zhu Cixuan; Prince Yuan'ai Zhu Cihuo; Prince Fudao Zhu Ciwei; Prince Mianshang Zhu Ciyi; Prince Lichong Zhu Cizhuo
• Qu Shisi: governor of Guangxi, supporter of the Yongli accession, defender of Guilin, captured and killed after the city fell
• He Tengjiao: governor-general of Huguang who cooperated with former Great Shun forces and was captured and killed
• Ding Kuichu: governor-general of Guangdong and Guangxi and a principal sponsor of Zhu Youlang's accession
• Lü Daqi: senior official who supported the Yongli accession
• Chen Zizhuang: Guangdong official who supported the Yongli accession
• Ma Jixiang: Imperial Guard officer who helped rescue Zhu Youlang at Yongzhou; later accompanied him to Burma and died in the Curse-Water Massacre
• Li Dingguo: former Great Western commander and the Yongli regime's most important military pillar; escorted the emperor to Yunnan and, according to the source, died in grief after learning of the emperor's death
• Sun Kewang: former Great Western commander who became dominant and overbearing after joining the Yongli regime; after losing the struggle with Li Dingguo he surrendered to the Qing
• Liu Wenxiu: former Great Western commander who campaigned in Sichuan and later died of illness
• Zheng Chenggong: Prince of Yanping who accepted Yongli titles and at one time planned with Li Dingguo to join forces against Guangzhou
• Zhang Huangyan: prominent anti-Qing loyalist who accepted Yongli titles and continued resistance along the southeast coast
• Wu Sangui: former Ming general who defected to the Qing, led Qing forces into Yunnan and Burma, captured Zhu Youlang, and ordered his strangulation
• Pye: king of Burma who launched the Curse-Water Massacre and handed Zhu Youlang over to Wu Sangui
• Kong Youde: Qing Prince of Dingnan who was driven to suicide by Li Dingguo at Guilin
• Nikan: Qing Prince Jingjin who was killed by Li Dingguo at Hengzhou

Historical Assessment

Ming Period / Contemporary Accounts

• Before the fall of Guilin, Qu Shisi wrote a final letter to the Yongli Emperor saying that although repeatedly defeated he would continue fighting and could only repay the emperor with death, reflecting the loyalty and expectations of contemporary Ming loyalists.
• After learning that the Yongli Emperor had been captured, Li Dingguo reportedly became overwhelmed with grief, vomited blood, and died, telling his followers before death that they should rather die beyond the frontier than surrender. The account reflects the emperor's symbolic position among anti-Qing loyalists.
• After the Yongli Emperor's death, Zhang Huangyan continued resistance and wrote of having nowhere to go after the destruction of state and family, showing the symbolic role of the emperor as common sovereign for anti-Qing forces.

Early to Mid-Qing

• The History of Ming placed the Yongli Emperor in the biographies of princes and described him as fleeing through the southwest and dying in hardship, a depreciatory treatment reflecting Qing official claims to legitimacy.
• Early Qing writers such as Gu Yanwu and Huang Zongxi did not always discuss Yongli directly in formal works, but private writings often expressed sympathy for anti-Qing resistance associated with his regime.
• The Qianlong-era Yupi Tongjian Jilan treated the Southern Ming courts as illegitimate regimes and referred to the Yongli Emperor as a usurper, reflecting the mid-Qing official rejection of Southern Ming legitimacy.

Late Qing and Republican Period

• Around the 1911 Revolution, revolutionaries increasingly treated the Yongli Emperor as a symbol of anti-Qing and Ming-restoration resistance. Cai E erected a stone monument in Kunming marking the place where the Yongli Emperor died for the state and celebrating national integrity.
• Republican-era historian Meng Sen systematically reconstructed Southern Ming history in Lectures on Ming History, gave a positive assessment of the Yongli court's alliance with former rebel forces against the Qing, and argued that the Yongli situation was not entirely hopeless.
• In the Republican period historical investigations in Duyun County identified a tomb traditionally associated with the Gui prince as an Yongli burial site, and provincial governor Ren Kecheng and others erected memorial inscriptions, reflecting a renewed reassessment of the emperor's historical status.

Modern and Contemporary Assessments

• Gu Cheng's History of the Southern Ming gives Zhu Youlang a low personal evaluation and describes him as mediocre and weak, while strongly affirming the historical significance of the Yongli alliance with former peasant-rebel armies and viewing it as the Southern Ming's only realistic opportunity to reverse the war.
• Qian Haiyue's History of the Southern Ming treats the Yongli court as legitimate and records its history in detail, giving some recognition to Zhu Youlang's role in preserving Ming political legitimacy during the crisis.
• Many modern scholars consider the Yongli Emperor personally mediocre and lacking political decisiveness, but regard his symbolic legitimacy as irreplaceable in bringing together anti-Qing forces. His tragic death marked the final end of mainland resistance by the Ming imperial house.