Hong Taiji Founds the Qing Dynasty (1636): From Later Jin to Qing

Hong Taiji founded the Qing dynasty in 1636, when he renamed his north-eastern Later Jin state “Qing” and took the title of emperor at Mukden, today’s Shenyang. A year earlier he had renamed his Jurchen people “Manchu”. These steps turned a frontier khanate into an empire that claimed the right to rule China, and the dynasty he created would govern China from 1644 until 1912.

Background: Nurhaci and the Later Jin

The Jurchen were a people of Manchuria, the region north-east of the Great Wall, who lived by farming, hunting and trade with Ming China. In the late 16th century Nurhaci (1559–1626) united many Jurchen groups and organised them into the Eight Banners, military and social units that enrolled every household.

In 1616 Nurhaci proclaimed the Later Jin khanate, a name that recalled the Jurchen Jin dynasty of the 12th century. He defied the Ming openly in 1618 and crushed a large Ming army at the Battle of Sarhu in 1619. After conquering much of Liaodong, he moved his capital to Shenyang in 1625. A year later he was defeated at Ningyuan by the Ming commander Yuan Chonghuan, whose artillery stopped his advance, and he died in September 1626.

Hong Taiji takes power

Hong Taiji, born in 1592, was Nurhaci’s eighth son. The council of Jurchen princes chose him as khan in 1626, but at first he shared authority with three senior princes, his brother Daišan and his cousin Amin among them. Over the next decade he removed or sidelined these rivals and concentrated power in his own hands.

He also faced military limits. The Ming fortresses along the Liaodong coast, guarded by cannon, blocked the direct road to Beijing. Hong Taiji answered with raids through the Great Wall further west, the first of which reached the outskirts of Beijing in 1629. In 1630 the Ming court executed Yuan Chonghuan on charges of treason, a result that Qing accounts credited partly to rumours spread by Hong Taiji.

Building an empire

Hong Taiji’s most lasting work was administrative. In 1631 he created Six Boards on the Ming model, giving his state a Chinese-style government. He welcomed Han Chinese officials and soldiers who changed sides, and in 1633 the Ming officers Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming defected with ships and cannon. Separate Mongol banners were organised in 1635, and Han Chinese banners were expanded until they too numbered eight by 1642.

The Mongols were central to his plans. Ligdan Khan of the Chahar, the last major Mongol ruler who claimed descent from the Yuan emperors, died in 1634 after retreating westward before Hong Taiji’s armies. In 1635 his son Ejei Khongor surrendered and handed over a seal said to have belonged to the Yuan emperors. Hong Taiji presented this as a sign that Heaven’s mandate had passed to him.

Late in 1635 he decreed that his people should be called Manchu rather than Jurchen. The new name helped erase old tribal divisions and the memory of Jurchen subordination to the Ming.

The proclamation of 1636

In the fourth lunar month of 1636, which fell in May, Hong Taiji held a ceremony at Mukden in which Manchu, Mongol and Han Chinese leaders asked him to take a new title. He became emperor (huangdi), renamed the state Qing, and replaced the era name Tiancong with Chongde, meaning “exalted virtue”.

Qing means “clear” or “pure”. Hong Taiji did not explain the choice, and historians have suggested several reasons, including a wish to drop the name Jin, which was hated by many Chinese. A later and popular theory links the name to the Chinese theory of five phases, in which water could overcome the fire associated with the Ming, but this cannot be proved.

Korean envoys at the ceremony refused to bow to the new emperor. Within months Hong Taiji answered with the Qing invasion of Joseon, which forced Korea to break with the Ming.

From Mukden towards Beijing

Between 1640 and 1642 Qing forces besieged the Ming strongholds of Songshan and Jinzhou. In 1642 the Ming commander Hong Chengchou was captured and joined the Qing, as did the general Zu Dashou, and the Qing gained Ming generals who knew China’s defences well.

Hong Taiji did not live to see the conquest. He died suddenly at Mukden on 21 September 1643, aged 50, without naming an heir. After tense negotiations the princes chose his five-year-old son Fulin, the future Shunzhi Emperor, with Hong Taiji’s brother Dorgon and his cousin Jirgalang as regents. Less than a year later Dorgon led the Qing armies through the Great Wall after the Battle of Shanhai Pass and occupied Beijing.

Myths and facts

Older Western histories often call Hong Taiji “Abahai”. The name is not found in sources from his lifetime, and modern historians have abandoned it.

Another common assumption is that the Qing dynasty began in 1644. The dynasty was proclaimed in 1636; 1644 is the year it took Beijing and began to rule China proper. Nor did the Qing simply copy the Ming: Hong Taiji kept the Eight Banners and the Manchu language at the heart of the state while adding Chinese institutions, a dual system that lasted until the end of the dynasty.

Timeline

• 1616: Nurhaci proclaims the Later Jin khanate.
• 1626, autumn: Nurhaci dies in September; Hong Taiji is chosen as khan.
• 1629: Later Jin raiders reach the outskirts of Beijing.
• 1631: Hong Taiji creates the Six Boards.
• 1635: Ejei Khongor surrenders; the Jurchen are renamed Manchu.
• 1636, May: Hong Taiji proclaims the Qing dynasty and the Chongde era.
• 1636–1637: The Qing invade Joseon Korea.
• 1642: Songshan and Jinzhou fall; Hong Chengchou joins the Qing.
• 1643, 21 September: Hong Taiji dies at Mukden.
• 1644, June: Qing forces under Dorgon enter Beijing.

Why it matters

The proclamation of 1636 gave the Manchu state a name, an emperor and a claim to universal rule. By combining Manchu military power, Mongol alliances and Chinese bureaucracy, Hong Taiji created the framework of the last imperial dynasty of China, which went on to rule a larger territory than the Ming had ever held.