In the third month of the seventeenth year in the reign of Chongzhen (1644), a rebellious peasant army led by Li Zicheng, captured the Ming capital of Beijing. Emperor Chongzhen was driven to the wall and hanged himself at Meishan Hill behind his palace. The Ming Dynasty was overthrown and collapsed.
One month later, people in Nanjing heard the news of Emperor Chongzhen’s suicide and the fall of the Ming court in Beijing. The court officials in Nanjing and the governors in the southern China were at a complete loss. Many of them were utterly heartbroken by the death of their emperor and the collapse of the Ming court. After a spell of mourning, a new problem arose in the city of Nanjing. The court officials began to quarrel over who should succeed to the throne.
Originally, Nanjing was the national capital of the Ming dynasty. As the power was transferred, Beijing was made the new capital. Though Nanjing was known as the old capital, the city had retained a court with six ministries, nine ministers and other authorities; identical to those in Beijing. Although the rebel army had captured Beijing, leading to the death of Emperor Chongzhen, The territory around Nanjing and beyond had yet to be invaded. It was therefore natural for Nanjing to become the capital of what remained of the great Ming Empire.
In such a state of crisis, it was considered imperative to crown a new emperor, if only as a temporary figure-head. The treacherous Ruan Dacheng saw this as an opportunity to take advantage of the political climate and usurp power. To fulfill his ambitions, Ruan visited Ma Shiying, the governor of Fengyang, and prompted him to encourage the support of the Prince Fu as regent of the nation. If the Prince Fu were proclaimed as regent, Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng would become the founding fathers with the ability to wield great power. However, much to their surprise, when Ma Shiying arrived in Nanjing and put forward their proposal to the court officials, General Shi Kefa expressed his strong opposition. What were the reasons behind Shi Kefa’s opposition to the Prince Fu? To answer this, we must begin with the story of Zhu Changxun, the former Prince.
Zhu Chang xun was the father of Zhu Yousong and his mother, Zheng, was Emperor Shenzong’s beloved concubine. Extravagant and corrupt, Zheng had always planned to make her son the future emperor. Owing to strong opposition from the Donglin Party, Zheng’s scheme had been foiled. After Zhu Changxu was confirmed as the Prince Fu, Emperor Shenzong gave him half the treasury. As prince, Zhu Changxun extorted money from the populace, dispossessed land and ravished women. The people of Luoyang hated him bitterly. As a result, when the rebel army led by Li Zicheng attacked Henan Province, the populace quickly responded by switching their allegiance. Li and his army took the city with one stroke and killed Zhu Changxun. Zhu’s son was so terrified that he fled to South China, leaving his father’s remains uncared for. He later inherited the investiture of Prince Fu and he, like his father, became a shameless and unscrupulous ruler.
The Princedom of Fu was situated in the Luoyang region of Henan Province and Hou Fangyu happened to be from that area. Hou was in charge of all the paperwork in Shi Kefa’s army and was well aware of the background of the prince. So Hou revealed the Prince’s crimes to Shi Kefa and persuaded him not to confer him as regent. Finally, Shi Kefa, who had been promoted to Minister of Defense only two months before, took Hou’s advice and wrote a letter to Ma Shiying expressing his strong aversion to the idea of conferring the prince. As an imperial minister with military power, Shi occupied a pivotal position. His opposition to the proposal made it extremely difficult for Prince Fu’s supporters to justify their effort of making their master the regent of the nation.
With no other options, Ma Shiying came to Ruan Dacheng for advice. Knowing that this matter would directly affect his fate, the treacherous and cunning Ruan hatched a plot to coerce Shi Kefa into supporting the Prince Fu. Ruan knew that the heads of the four towns in the northern areas of the Yangtze River held real military power. He therefore secretly colluded with those governors and prompted them to submit a joint letter, placing immense pressure on Shi Kefa. Meanwhile, he secretly visited the prince and made preparations for the accession. Ma Shiying acted as an accomplice in this task. Weak and powerless, Shi Kefa found it difficult to cope with the intricate situation by himself, and so he was forced to agree to the accession of the prince to supervise the state affairs. It was in this way that the corrupt regime of the Southern Ming Dynasty was born.
