A Dynasty on the Brink

In the seventh year of the Shunzhi reign (1650), as the Southern Ming Yongli Emperor’s court clung to its last territories in Guangxi and Guangdong, the Qing forces launched a devastating two-pronged attack that would seal the fate of the beleaguered Ming loyalists. The military situation had grown increasingly dire since the fall of Beijing in 1644, with Ming holdouts retreating ever southward under relentless Qing pressure.

The Yongli Emperor, Zhu Youlang, represented the last legitimate claimant to the Ming throne after a series of short-lived regimes established by his relatives had been systematically dismantled by the Manchu conquerors. By 1650, his authority extended nominally over parts of Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Guangdong provinces, though actual control was tenuous at best. The court had become a peripatetic entity, constantly moving to evade Qing forces while trying to maintain some semblance of imperial governance.

The Qing Hammer Falls

In the eleventh month of 1650, the Qing military machine delivered crushing blows to the Yongli regime’s last strongholds. On the fourth day, the armies of Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao captured Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong. The very next day, Kong Youde’s forces seized Guilin, the Guangxi capital. These twin defeats shattered the Yongli court’s territorial base in the two Guang provinces, sending shockwaves through the already demoralized Ming loyalists.

The rapid collapse exposed the fragility of Ming resistance. As recorded in contemporary accounts, “Among the Yongli court’s civil and military officials, apart from a few who died honorably, those who surrendered and betrayed their cause were numerous.” The few who retained their principles, like Fang Yizhi and Qian Bingdeng, either retreated to remote mountainous regions inhabited by ethnic minorities or took monastic vows, their actions painting a tragic picture of a regime in its death throes.

The Emperor’s Desperate Flight

The Yongli Emperor, stationed in Wuzhou, received news of both provincial capitals falling within a single day. Panic-stricken, he fled to Xunzhou on the tenth day of the eleventh month under the protection of Grand Secretaries Wen Anzhi and Yan Qiheng. This began a harrowing journey that would see the emperor transformed from a sovereign to a fugitive.

At Xunzhou, the garrison commander Chen Bangfu, recognizing the hopelessness of the Ming cause, plotted to capture the emperor and deliver him to the Qing as a trophy of surrender. Forewarned, Zhu Youlang fled in torrential rain to Nanning, abandoning imperial regalia and officials to Chen’s rebel forces. When Chen failed to capture the emperor, he murdered the loyalist general Jiao Lian before surrendering to Kong Youde.

The Faustian Bargain with Former Rebels

By the twelfth month, with no troops, no territory, and no options, the Yongli Emperor made the fateful decision to seek help from former rebel forces – the remnants of Zhang Xianzhong’s Daxi army led by Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo. This marked a profound shift in Ming loyalist strategy, as the imperial court now relied on former peasant rebels it had once fought against.

Chief Grand Secretary Wen Anzhi volunteered to supervise forces in Sichuan, while the court sent Liu as an envoy to confer upon Sun Kewang the title of Prince of Ji (冀王), hoping to secure military support. The title “Prince of Ji” represented a significant concession, as Ming protocol reserved single-character princely titles (一字王) for imperial clan members of the highest rank. However, Sun, who had been using the more prestigious title “Prince of Qin” (秦王) without proper authorization, rejected the offer despite advisor Yang Weizhi’s counsel that “a genuine princely title is better than a false one.”

The Court’s Final Collapse

By February 1651 (the fifth year of Yongli), with Qing forces advancing south from Liuzhou toward Nanning, the Yongli court faced imminent destruction. Sun Kewang dispatched generals He Jiuyi and Zhang Mingzhi with 5,000 elite troops to “protect” the emperor – a move that combined genuine military support with political strong-arming to legitimize his self-proclaimed Qin title.

The arrival of Sun’s forces in Nanning turned violent. They murdered Minister of War Yang Dinghe and drove Chief Grand Secretary Yan Qiheng to suicide after he opposed Sun’s princely claims. Contemporary accounts differ on whether Yan was murdered or committed suicide in protest, but his death marked the final collapse of independent imperial authority.

By the third month, the Yongli Emperor had no choice but to formally recognize Sun Kewang as Prince of Qin, accepting a fait accompli. Sun’s subsequent memorial of gratitude contained barely veiled ambition: “Since entering Yunnan, I have recorded years without era names, called myself commander rather than prince, precisely to reserve this great treasure for Your Majesty’s restoration.” The language suggested Sun saw himself as holding power in trust for the emperor – a transparent fiction.

The Hollow Court at Anlong

With Qing forces closing in, the Yongli Emperor and his dwindling entourage became entirely dependent on Sun Kewang’s protection. In early 1652, they were relocated to Anlong, a remote former military garrison in Guizhou province that Sun grandiosely renamed Anlong Prefecture to make it sound more impressive. The reality was far from majestic – the emperor lived in what was essentially a large guardhouse with minimal provisions.

Sun established a parallel administration in Guiyang, creating his own six ministries and effectively supplanting the imperial government while keeping the emperor as a figurehead. The annual allowance of 8,000 taels of silver and 600 shi of rice for the entire court proved woefully inadequate, forcing the emperor to live in near-poverty while Sun constructed lavish palaces for himself across the region.

Contemporary records paint a pathetic picture: “The Yongli Emperor’s household registry listed: one emperor, one empress, monthly allocation of silver and rice…” The emperor had become a prisoner in all but name, his movements and communications strictly controlled by Sun’s officials.

The Tragic Irony of Survival

The Yongli court’s complete dependence on former rebel forces represented both the depths of its collapse and its last hope for survival. The military prowess of Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo and other former peasant leaders offered the only credible resistance to Qing conquest. Yet this alliance was fraught with tension and mutual suspicion.

Sun Kewang’s actions revealed his true priorities – he wanted the legitimacy conferred by the Ming imperial mantle without any actual constraints on his power. His treatment of the emperor as a virtual prisoner alienated both Ming loyalists and his own commanders like Li Dingguo, who maintained greater respect for the imperial institution.

The Yongli Emperor’s flight to Anlong marked the final stage in the Southern Ming’s territorial collapse. From this point forward, the Ming resistance would be entirely dependent on former rebel forces, their fate tied to the complex interplay of loyalty, ambition and survival that characterized these final years of resistance against the Qing conquest.

Legacy of the 1651 Collapse

The events of 1651 represented more than just another military defeat – they marked the effective end of the Yongli court as an independent political entity. While the emperor would nominally remain on the throne until his capture and execution in 1662, real power had shifted decisively to military strongmen like Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo.

This transition carried profound historical ironies. The Ming dynasty, which had spent decades fighting peasant rebellions, now relied entirely on former rebels for its survival. The imperial institution, once the center of a vast bureaucratic empire, had been reduced to a political football in the power struggles of regional warlords.

Yet even in this diminished state, the Yongli court retained symbolic importance that extended far beyond its actual power. For anti-Qing forces across southern China and even overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, the continued existence of a Ming emperor provided a focal point for resistance and a powerful symbol of Han Chinese identity against Manchu rule.

The tragic story of the Yongli court’s final collapse in 1651 thus represents not just the end of a political regime, but the painful birth of new forms of resistance that would continue to shape Chinese history long after the Ming dynasty’s official demise.