Editing Li Zicheng (section)

==Biography==
Li Zicheng was born in 1606 as Li Hongji to an impoverished family of farmers in Li Jiqian village, [[Yan'an]] prefecture, northeast [[Shaanxi province]]. Li Zicheng had a brother who was 20 years his senior and raised Li Zicheng alongside his son and Zicheng's nephew, Li Guo. While Li Zicheng was literate, the source of his education is disputed. Over the course of his late adolescence and early adulthood, Li worked on a farm, in a wine shop, in a blacksmith's shop, and as a mailman for the state courier system.

According to folklore, in 1630, Li was put on public display in an iron collar and shackles for failing to repay loans to a usurious magistrate. The magistrate, a man by the name of Ai, struck a guard who tried to give Li shade and water. A group of sympathetic peasants freed Li from his shackles, spirited him to a nearby hill, and proclaimed him their leader. Although they were only armed with wooden sticks, Li and his band managed to ambush a group of government soldiers sent to arrest them, and obtained their first real weapons.<ref name=":0" />

By the late Ming dynasty era, the government had been weakened financially, and struggled to deal with the economic issues, environmental problems, and widespread disease (smallpox and possibly the plague) that afflicted peasant populations.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=The Troubled Empire : China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties|last=Brook|first=Timothy|publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-674-04602-3|location=US|pages=249–253}}</ref> In 1639, an epidemic that would later become known as the [[Great Plague in the late Ming dynasty|Chongzhen Great Plague]] hit the Yangzi region and spread across the north. Famine and drought compounded the social discontent caused by the epidemic. Environmental disaster, disease, and the failure of the Chongzhen government to protect its people led to major peasant uprisings across Northern China beginning in 1628, with the Shaanxi province as an epicenter of rebellion.<ref name=":1" /> Li Zicheng and [[Zhang Xianzhong]], also from Shaanxi province, were two of the major leaders in the peasant rebellions during the late Ming dynasty.

In 1633, Li joined a rebel army led by Gao Yingxiang (高迎祥), nicknamed "the Dashing King.” He inherited Gao's nickname and command of the rebel army after Gao's death.<ref name=":0" />

Within three years, Li succeeded in rallying more than 30,000 men to his cause. They attacked and killed prominent government officials such as [[Sun Chuanting]] in [[Henan]], [[Shanxi]], and [[Shaanxi]]. As Li won more battles and gained more support, his army grew larger. Historians attribute this growth in numbers to Li's reputation as a [[Robin Hood]]-style figure who showed compassion to the poor and only attacked Ming officials.<ref name=":0" />

Li advocated the slogans of "dividing land equally" and "abolishing the grain taxes payment system" which won great support from the peasants. The song, "Killing cattle and sheep, preparing tasty wine and opening the city gate to welcome the Dashing King" was widely spread at the time.{{Citation needed|date=March 2018}}

The [[1642 Kaifeng flood]], caused by breaches of the [[Yellow River]] dikes by both sides,<ref>Lorge, Peter Allan ''War, Politics and Society in Early Modern China, 900–1795'' Routledge;  (2005) {{ISBN|978-0-415-31691-0}}    [https://books.google.com/books?id=SE2Gw8rjuXQC&dq=1642+flood+++Ming+Kaifeng&pg=PA147 p.147]</ref> ended the siege of [[Kaifeng]] and killed over 300,000 of its 378,000 residents.<ref>[[Xu Xin (Judaic scholar)|Xu Xin]] ''The Jews of Kaifeng, China: history, culture, and religion'' Ktav Pub Inc (2003) {{ISBN|978-0-88125-791-5}} p. 47</ref> After the battles of Luoyang and Kaifeng, the Ming government was unable to stop Li's rebellion, as most of its military force was involved in the battle against the [[Manchu]]s in the north.

In 1643, Li captured [[Xiangyang]] and proclaimed himself "King of Xinshun" (新順王).

Titling himself "Prince of the New Discipline", he established a capital at Xi'an.<ref name=":Ma&Kang">{{Cite book |last=Ma |first=Xinru |title=Beyond Power Transitions: The Lessons of East Asian History and the Future of U.S.-China Relations |last2=Kang |first2=David C. |date=2024 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=978-0-231-55597-5 |series=Columbia Studies in International Order and Politics |location=New York}}</ref>{{Rp|page=118}}

[[File:Southern Ming.png|thumb|upright=1.4|The situation as of November 1644]]
In April 1644, Li and 300,000 troops marched on the Ming capital of Beijing.<ref name=":Ma&Kang" />{{Rp|page=118}} They captured Beijing (the gates of which were opened from inside) and the [[Chongzhen Emperor]] hanged himself.<ref name=":Ma&Kang" />{{Rp|pages=118-119}} Li proclaimed himself the emperor of the [[Shun dynasty]].<ref name=":Ma&Kang" />{{Rp|page=118}} Li, as all contenders for the throne were required, claimed to have the Mandate of Heaven bestowed upon him. Firstly, Li was [[Han Chinese]] and hailed from the Shaanxi province of China, which strengthened his legitimacy to the throne versus the foreign Manchus. Li also gained the support of scholar officials which was important in ruling over the people of China as a Confucian state. The name of the dynasty is translated to mean "Obedient to Heaven".<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Imperial China : 1350–1900|last=Porter|first=Jonathan|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2016|isbn=978-1442222939|location=US|pages=119–121}}</ref>

Li's army was eventually defeated on 27 May 1644 at the [[Battle of Shanhai Pass]] by the combined forces of the Manchurian Prince [[Dorgon]] and the Ming general [[Wu Sangui]] who had defected to his side. The Ming and Manchu forces captured Beijing on 6 June and [[Fulin]] ascended to the throne to establish the [[Shunzhi Emperor|Shunzhi]] reign with Dorgon as his regent.<ref name=":2" />

When Wu Sangui and Prince Dorgon took control of Beijing, Li fled to Xi'an<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=China's Last Empire : The Great Qing|last=Rowe|first=William T.|publisher=First Harvard University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-674-03612-3|location=US|pages=19}}</ref> in Shaanxi. It is not known how or if Li died during his flight, and there are multiple accounts of his death which vary and some of them have been exaggerated. However, across multiple sources, the year of his death is said to have been 1645. One account states that in the summer of 1645 Li went to raid a village in search of provisions with his remaining followers and was killed by soldiers guarding the village.<ref name=":3" />  Another theory is that Li Zicheng became a monk and died in 1674.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.lizicheng.com/ |title= 奉天玉和尚 |access-date=26 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120013552/https://www.lizicheng.com/ |archive-date=20 November 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Lin Qing, the leader of the [[Eight Trigrams uprising of 1813]] by the Tianli sect (天理教) of the [[White Lotus Societies|White Lotus]], proclaimed that he was the reincarnation of Li Zicheng.<ref name="Religious History in the Qing Dynasty">{{cite book |author1=Li Shi |title=Religious History in the Qing Dynasty |url=https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/religious-history-in-the-qing-dynasty |access-date=25 April 2024 |language=En |quote=saying that he was the reincarnation of Li Zicheng and}}</ref>