Zhu Youlang

The Yongli Emperor (1623–1662; reigned 24 December 1646 – 1 June 1662), personal name Zhu Youlang, was the fourth and last <a href="/facts/Emperor_of_China/W56Qf2Rv">emperor</a> of the <a href="/facts/Southern_Ming/2U4hWVEE">Southern Ming dynasty</a>, reigning in turbulent times when the former <a href="/facts/Ming_dynasty/p3bSVwUH">Ming dynasty</a> was overthrown and the <a href="/facts/Manchu_people/orGs7jQx">Manchu</a>-led <a href="/facts/Qing_dynasty/5j6r4p5m">Qing dynasty</a> <a href="/facts/Transition_from_Ming_to_Qing/psvGjCl1">progressively conquered</a> the entire <a href="/facts/China_proper/XNRrkXEA">China proper</a>. He led the remnants of the Ming loyalists with the assistance of peasant armies to resist the Qing forces in southwestern China, but he was then forced to exile to <a href="/facts/Toungoo_dynasty/VcExTzC9">Toungoo Burma</a> and eventually captured and executed by <a href="/facts/Wu_Sangui/LvqQc9B6">Wu Sangui</a> in 1662. His <a href="/facts/Chinese_era_name/1mLY3GGr">era title</a> "Yongli" means "perpetual calendar".
Zhu Youlang was the son of Zhu Changying (朱常瀛), the seventh son of the <a href="/facts/Wanli_Emperor/932CKEHQ">Wanli Emperor</a>, and <a href="/facts/Empress_Dowager_Ma_(Southern_Ming)/4R8Pqp9A">Empress Dowager Ma</a>. He inherited the title Prince of Gui (桂王) from his brother and lived an obscure life as a minor member of the Ming imperial family until the <a href="/facts/Late_Ming_peasant_rebellions/yYHkWD3v">rebellions of peasant armies</a>, which resulted to the <a href="/facts/Jiashen_Incident/KFwnkxuT">fall of the imperial capital</a>, <a href="/facts/Beijing/Bg4puFBv">Beijing</a>, and the suicide of the last Ming emperor, <a href="/facts/Chongzhen_Emperor/16QdUKbs">Chongzhen</a>, after the peasant rebel leader <a href="/facts/Li_Zicheng/sIbT6h6W">Li Zicheng</a> captured Beijing in 1644. The true beneficiaries of the collapse of the Ming were the <a href="/facts/Qing_dynasty/5j6r4p5m">Qing dynasty</a>, ruled by the emerging nation <a href="/facts/Manchus/orGs7jQx">Manchus</a> from <a href="/facts/Manchuria/XTv2sK1o">Manchuria</a>. After mass defection from Ming remnants, including a former Ming general, <a href="/facts/Wu_Sangui/LvqQc9B6">Wu Sangui</a>, who allowed the Qing forces to pass the <a href="/facts/Ming_Great_Wall/13uIDEHh">Ming Great Wall</a> against Li Zicheng. The Qing forces defeated the peasant armies and rapidly expanded to northern China, the Lower <a href="/facts/Yangtze/f9A2h4rQ">Yangtze</a> valley, and <a href="/facts/Central_China/s53dHjGu">Central China</a>. The Ming loyalists continued to resist in southern China, with several former Ming royal members regrouping in the south in attempt to re-establish the Ming governance, but all failed before the rapid Manchu military advance. Youlang ascended the throne in <a href="/facts/Zhaoqing/eWIpQlCE">Zhaoqing</a> as the fourth <a href="/facts/Southern_Ming/2U4hWVEE">Southern Ming</a> emperor in November 1646. 
By 1661, pressed back into <a href="/facts/Yunnan_province/Q924cyfE">Yunnan province</a>, he fled to Burma. A Qing <a href="/facts/Han_Bannermen/Y52HJmec">Han Banner</a> army led by Wu Sangui pursued and captured him from the king of Burma, and he was executed in June 1662.

Zhu Youlang open-in-new

Zhu Youlang