--- title: Chongzhen Emperor (r. 1627–1644), Ming Dynasty url: https://realrareantiques.com/ming-dynasty-emperors/chongzhen-emperor/ language: en description: "The Chongzhen Emperor (r. 1627–1644), last Ming ruler in Beijing: his accession, the fall of Wei Zhongxian, the collapse of 1644 and porcelain of the reign." alternates: zh-Hant: https://realrareantiques.com/zh-hant/ming-dynasty-emperors/chongzhen-emperor/ zh-Hans: https://realrareantiques.com/zh-hans/ming-dynasty-emperors/chongzhen-emperor/ --- *Portrait: public domain, via [wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:%E6%98%8E%E6%80%9D%E5%AE%97%E5%9D%90%E5%83%8F_%E8%BB%B8.jpg)* Ming Dynasty1627–1644 # Chongzhen Emperor 崇禎 **Reign facts and reign mark** **Reigned:** 1627–1644 (17 years) **Lived:** 1611–1644 **Personal name:** Zhu Youjian 朱由檢 **Temple name:** Sizong 思宗 **Era name:** Chongzhen 崇禎 1628–1644 禎年製大明崇 ***Reign mark**Made in the Chongzhen reign of the Great Ming. [How to read reign marks](https://realrareantiques.com/ming-reign-marks/)* [Ming Dynasty Emperors](https://realrareantiques.com/ming-dynasty-emperors/) Zhu Youjian (朱由檢, 1611–1644), known by his era name Chongzhen ("lofty and auspicious") and the temple name Sizong, reigned from 1627 to 1644. He was the last emperor of the [Ming dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/ming-dynasty/) to rule from Beijing. Chongzhen was hard-working, frugal and deeply conscientious, but he was also suspicious, impatient and quick to blame his ministers. He inherited a state already close to collapse, with an empty treasury, a factional court, a Manchu threat in the northeast and famine in the northwest, and none of his efforts could reverse it. When rebel armies took Beijing in 1644, he took his own life. ## Early Life Zhu Youjian was a son of the future [Taichang Emperor](https://realrareantiques.com/ming-dynasty-emperors/taichang-emperor/) by a low-ranking concubine, Lady Liu, and a younger half-brother of the Tianqi Emperor, whom he would succeed. When he was four, his mother offended his father and died as a result of the punishment he ordered. She was buried quietly, and the matter was kept out of sight. The boy was raised first by one of his father's consorts, Consort Kang, and then, when she took charge of his elder brother Zhu Youjiao, by another, Consort Zhuang. Of Taichang's sons, only Zhu Youjiao and Zhu Youjian lived to adulthood, and the younger prince grew up in quiet and rather lonely circumstances. After their father's death in 1620, Zhu Youjiao became the Tianqi Emperor. He made his brother Prince of Xin and posthumously honoured Lady Liu as Consort Xian. ## Accession The [Tianqi Emperor](https://realrareantiques.com/ming-dynasty-emperors/tianqi-emperor/) died in 1627 without a surviving son. His last heir, an infant crown prince, had died in 1626, reportedly from the shock of the great explosion at the Wanggongchang arsenal in Beijing. On his deathbed Tianqi named his sixteen-year-old brother as his successor. Zhu Youjian had no experience of government and no following at court, and he is said to have been reluctant to accept. Tianqi's widow, Empress Zhang, a determined opponent of the powerful eunuch Wei Zhongxian, urged him to take the throne, fearing that otherwise Wei would find a child to rule through. He agreed, and he became emperor in the autumn of 1627. ## The Reign Wei Zhongxian had dominated the government under Tianqi, and the new emperor moved carefully. According to later accounts, in his first days in the Forbidden City he ate only food brought from his own household and kept a sword by him at night. In public he treated Wei with courtesy while he assessed the loyalty of the officials around him. Within three months he struck. Wei's allies were removed, and Wei himself was banished to Fengyang; he took his own life on the way. The eunuch faction was purged from the government. Chongzhen then set about reform at the top of the civil and military establishment, but corruption, factional feuding and an empty treasury defeated him. He found it almost impossible to keep capable ministers: he changed his grand secretaries some fifty times in seventeen years, and many officials were dismissed, imprisoned or executed. His distrust fell hardest on his commanders. The most notable case was Yuan Chonghuan, who had held the northeastern frontier against the Manchus. After a Manchu army raided the region around Beijing in 1629, Yuan was accused of treason and executed in 1630, a loss the Ming defences never made good. ## A Dynasty in Crisis Chongzhen had inherited a state in deep trouble, and each problem worsened the others. Factional strife divided both the bureaucracy and the army, and generals were often more concerned with their rivals than with the rebels in the interior or the Manchus on the northeastern border. The treasury could not pay or supply the troops, and unpaid soldiers deserted or joined the rebels. Drought and famine struck the northwest in the late 1620s and 1630s. To pay for the war, the court raised new taxes and levies on a population already under great strain, and more and more people joined the rebel armies of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. ## The Fall of Beijing By 1644 the Ming could no longer hold either front. In April of that year Li Zicheng's army reached Beijing and entered the city. As the capital fell, Chongzhen hanged himself on Coal Hill (Jingshan), behind the Forbidden City. Weeks later the Ming general Wu Sangui allowed the Manchu armies through the Shanhai Pass. They drove Li Zicheng from Beijing, and the Qing dynasty made the city its capital. In the south, Ming loyalists at Nanjing enthroned Zhu Yousong, the [Prince of Fu](https://realrareantiques.com/ming-dynasty-emperors/prince-of-fu/), as the Hongguang Emperor, the first of the Southern Ming rulers. ## Porcelain of the Chongzhen Reign With the court impoverished, imperial orders to Jingdezhen had largely ceased, and porcelain with the six-character mark **大明崇禎年製** (Da Ming Chongzhen nian zhi) is rare. The potters turned instead to private buyers at home and abroad. The resulting wares, known to collectors as Transitional porcelain, are often of high quality: brilliant blue and white painted with figures and scenes from literature and drama, landscapes and flowers, made for the Chinese literati, the Dutch trade and the Japanese market. Our guide to [Transitional porcelain](https://realrareantiques.com/transitional-porcelain/) explains how to recognise them. *Museum exampleA blue and white brush pot showing King Wen meeting the scholar Jiang Taigong, dated by the museum to the Chongzhen period (1628–44), an example of Transitional figure painting.[The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 79.2.366. Public domain.](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/42340)* See [Ming Dynasty Porcelain](https://realrareantiques.com/product-category/antique-chinese-porcelain/ming-dynasty-porcelain/) in our collection, or ask us about a piece. [Ask about a piece](https://realrareantiques.com/contact-us/) ## From the Ming Dynasty - Ming Dynasty Porcelain [Blue and White Kendi with Galloping Horses, Jiajing Period, Ming Dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/chinese-antique-porcelain-kendi-jiajing-period-ming-dynasty/)Ming DynastyPrice on request - Ming Dynasty Porcelain [Blue and White Vase in the Yuan Style with a Shell Mark, Late Ming to Early Qing](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/late-ming-early-qing-imitate-yuan-blue-and-white-porcelain-vase-folk-kiln-with-shell-mark/)Late Ming to early QingPrice on request - Ming Dynasty Porcelain [Blue and White Bowl with a Fish and Lotus Scroll, Ming Dynasty, Jiajing Mark](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/antique-chinese-blue-and-white-ming-bowl-jiajing-mark-1521-1567-a-d/)Ming DynastyPrice on request - Ming Dynasty Porcelain [Blue and White Charger with Two Birds among Bamboo and Grapevine, Early Ming Dynasty](https://realrareantiques.com/shop/antique-chinese-blue-and-white-charger-plate-early-ming-dynasty/)Early MingPrice on request [View all Ming Dynasty Porcelain](https://realrareantiques.com/product-category/antique-chinese-porcelain/ming-dynasty-porcelain/)[Ask about a piece](https://realrareantiques.com/contact-us/) Be the first to see new pieces Join our collectors' list for new arrivals, rare finds and private offers.