Shunzhi Emperor facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
清 佚名 《清世祖顺治皇帝朝服像》
Shunzhi Emperor

Shunzhi Emperor (Chinese: 清世祖, 顺治皇帝; 1638 - 1661 ) was emperor of Qing Dynasty. His surname was Aisin Gioro. Shunzhi Emperor was the ninth son of Huang Taiji and he reigned over China from 1644 to 1661. During his short reign, he implemented plenty of policies. He appointed Han Chinese to be the imperial officials. Also, he put the Upper 3 banners (Plain Yellow, Striped Yellow, and Plain White) under the control of the emperor. Moreover, Shunzhi Emperor let eunuchs participate in government activities.

Life

Emperors of the Qing Dynasty
China Qing Dynasty Flag 1889.svg
Taizu Emperor  • Huang Taiji  • (Dorgon)  • Shunzhi Emperor  • Kangxi Emperor  • Yongzheng Emperor  • Qianlong Emperor  • Jiaqing Emperor  • Daoguang Emperor  • Xianfeng Emperor  • Tongzhi Emperor  • Guangxu Emperor  • Xuantong Emperor

Images for kids

  • Black-and-white print of a severe-looking man with long rising eyebrows and a mustache, wearing skin shoes, a round-edged fur cap, and clothing with several folds held together by a sash and surmounted by a fur collar. He is holding a bow in his right hand. Three Chinese characters that read "Nüzhen tu" ("image of a Jurchen") appear on the upper right corner.

    Depiction of a Jurchen man on a Ming woodblock print dated 1609. The original caption explained that the Jurchens lived near the Changbai Mountains and wore "deerskin shoes and fish-scale clothing."

  • Full-face painted portrait of a corpulent man with a thin mustachio wearing a red hat and a multilayered yellow robe with dragon decorations, and sitting on a throne mounted on a low podium.

    Hong Taiji, whose five-year-old son, Fulin, became the Shunzhi Emperor in 1643

  • Color photograph of a three-level stone structure with railings on each level, viewed from the outside, facing a staircase that leads to the top level.

    The circular mound of the Altar of Heaven, where the Shunzhi Emperor conducted sacrifices on 30 October 1644, ten days before being officially proclaimed Emperor of China. The ceremony marked the moment when the Qing dynasty seized the Mandate of Heaven.

  • A black-and-white picture of a stone-paved alley going from bottom right to top left leading to a three-roofed gate and bordered on the right by a line up of small roofed cubicles open on one side.

    Examination cells in Beijing. In order to enhance their legitimacy among the Chinese elite, the Qing reestablished the imperial civil service examinations almost as soon as they seized Beijing in 1644.

  • A black-and-white photograph from three-quarter back view of a man wearing a round cap and a long braided queue that reaches to the back of his right knee. His left foot is posed on the first step of a four-step wooden staircase. Bending forward to touch a cylindrical container from which smoke is rising, he is resting his left elbow on his folded left knee.

    A man in San Francisco's Chinatown around 1900. The Chinese habit of wearing a queue came from Dorgon's July 1645 edict ordering all men to shave their forehead and tie their hair into a queue similar to those of the Manchus.

  • Black-and-white print of a man with small eyes and a thin mustache wearing a robe, a fur hat, and a necklace made with round beads, sitting cross-legged on a three-level platform covered with a rug. Behind him and much smaller are eight men (four on each side) sitting in the same position wearing robes and round caps, as well as four standing men with similar garb (on the left).

    Johan Nieuhof's portrait of Shang Kexi, who recaptured Guangzhou from Ming loyalist forces in 1650. He was one of the Han Chinese generals the Qing relied on to conquer and administer southern China. Entrenched in the south, he eventually took part in the anti-Qing rebellion of the Three Feudatories in 1673.

  • A painted image of the head and chest of a black-haired man with droopy eyes wearing a white-edged two-tiered red cap and a bright yellow garment whose lapels are decorated with five-clawed yellow dragons against a blue background with clouds and vegetation.

    Portrait of the Shunzhi Emperor in adulthood

  • Painting of a bearded man dressed in dark robes (on the left), with two much smaller young men, one wearing his hair in a top-knot and carrying something rolled in red piece of cloth. The background is a winter scene.

    Court dress was a controversial topic during the Shunzhi era. High official Chen Mingxia was denounced in 1654 because he advocated returning to Ming-dynasty court dress, an example of which is shown in this 15th-century portrait of Jiang Shunfu.

  • A black-and-white print depicting three standing men wearing turbans, a long robe with a sash, and shoes with rising pointed tips, against an architectural background of buildings with roofs that point upwards. The man on the left, slightly in the background, is carrying a long folded umbrella on his left shoulder. The one in the center, who faces the viewer, is resting on a cane. The man on the right, seen in profile view, faces the center man.

    "Moghul embassy" (emissaries from a Mughal prince who ruled Turfan in Central Asia) as portrayed in 1656 by Dutch visitors to the Shunzhi Emperor's Beijing.

  • Color photograph of a white, bell-shaped building composed (from bottom to top) of a square base, three round disks of increasingly smaller diameter, a cut reverse cone, and a thinner tapering column with horizontal flutings crowned by the golden statue of a sitting figure. It appears to emerge from a forested area, against the background of a slightly cloudy blue sky.

    The bell-shaped White Dagoba, which can still be seen in Beihai Park in Beijing, was commissioned by the Shunzhi Emperor to honor Tibetan Buddhism.

  • Color print of a man with a long white beard wearing a double-edged round cap and dressed in a long robe, who is pointing a compass to a celestial globe that is sitting on a table on the left.

    Johann Adam Schall von Bell, a Jesuit missionary the Shunzhi Emperor affectionately called mafa ("grand'pa" in Manchu).

  • Grainy photograph of twelve slightly elongated round lumps clustered together.

    Electron micrograph of the smallpox virus, against which the Manchus had no immunity. The Shunzhi Emperor died of it, and his young successor, Xuanye, was chosen because he had already survived it.

  • Full-face painted portrait of a severe-looking sitting man wearing a black-and-red round cap adorned with a peacock feather and dressed in dark blue robes decorated with four-clawed golden dragons.

    An official court portrait of Oboi, who on 5 February 1661 was named as the main regent to the newly enthroned Kangxi Emperor, who was only seven years old.

  • A painting in which a yellowish river flows diagonally from the bottom left to the top right, with one road on each side. On the side of both roads are gray-roofed houses. Those on the other side of the river have counters that open directly on the river. There are dozens of people dressed mostly in blue on both roads and crossing a bridge in the foreground. Several barges with canopies are on the water.

    The Kangxi Emperor's three "southern tours" in the Jiangnan region—1684, 1689 (here depicted), and 1699—asserted the prestige and confidence of the newly solidified Qing dynasty a few years after it defeated the Three Feudatories.

  • Three-quarter-view painting of the head of a woman with black hair, small eyes, thin eyebrows, a chubby face, a double chin, and three partially visible yellow hoop earrings on her right ear. She is wearing a yellow garment with a blue-edged round collar, whose folds are fastened together by a small, round, pale-yellow button.

    Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, who was an influential political figure during the reigns of both her son, the Shunzhi Emperor, and her grandson, the Kangxi Emperor.

  • Full-face-view painting of a smiling young woman with thin eyebrows, thin eyes, and a thin mouth, wearing a two-tiered black-and-red cap adorned with five downward-looking golden birds with inlaid pearls and stones, and wearing a number of colorful necklaces on a multicolored robe with five-clawed yellow dragons and intricate cloud patterns. She is sitting on a cushion posed on a golden throne decorated with phenixes and inlaid with precious stones.

    Empress Xiaohuizhang, a Khorchin Mongol just like the Shunzhi Emperor's mother, became the emperor's second Empress Consort in 1654.

  • Full-face-view color painting of the head and shoulders of a young man wearing a two-tiered red cap with a white edge, a necklace made of red beads except for two larger blue beads each surrounded by two white beads, and wearing a yellow robe covered with dragon-and-clouds patterns in green, blue, and red.

    The Shunzhi Emperor's third son, Xuanye, after he had become the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1661–1722).


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