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Wellsprings
Chongzhen Emperor

Chongzhen Emperor

1611 CE1644 CE · Beijing

The Chongzhen Emperor (Zhu Youjian, 1611-1644) was the last emperor of China's Ming dynasty, reigning from 1627 to 1644. He inherited a state weakened by factional conflict, fiscal crisis, famine, and widespread peasant rebellions, and his efforts to reverse the decline, including the removal of the powerful eunuch Wei Zhongxian, proved unable to halt it. In 1644, as the rebel forces of Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he took his own life on a hill behind the palace, ending Ming rule over China, which soon passed to the Manchu-led Qing dynasty.

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Stop 1 of 1Seat Of Power

Beijing

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In Beijing at the same time

Wanli Emperor, Shunzhi Emperor

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The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Chongzhen Emperor’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works

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