SHUN-CHIH

born March 15, 1638, Manchuria [now in China] died Feb. 5, 1661, Peking, China Pinyin Shunzhi (reign name, or nien-hao), personal name Fu-lin, temple name (miao-hao) Shih-tsu, posthumous name (shih) Chang-ti first Manchu emperor of China. The ninth son of Abahai (15921643), the great ruler of the Manchu kingdom of Manchuria, he succeeded to the throne in 1643 at the age of six and ruled under the regency of Dorgon (161250), a paternal uncle. In 1644, Manchu troops under Dorgon's command captured Peking, the former capital of the Ming dynasty (13681644), and the young ruler was proclaimed emperor of the Ch'ing dynasty (16441911/12) with the reign title of Shun-chih. Dorgon continued to exercise absolute authority, however, until his death in 1650. By this time, the conquest of North China had been completed, and in 1659 Shun-chih's armies drove the last Ming remnants from South China, leaving Ming supporters occupying only the island of Formosa. Shun-chih was close to the German Jesuit missionary Adam Schall von Bell (Chinese name T'ang Jo-wang), whom he called mafa (grandfather). The emperor frequently sought Schall's counsel, and he gave him permission to build a Roman Catholic church in Peking, occasionally attending services himself. Although Schall remained an intimate adviser, after 1657 the emperor turned increasingly to Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism. A kindly man, the emperor Shun-chih was strongly influenced by eunuch officials and Buddhist priests. His major accomplishment was to increase the number of Chinese serving in the Manchu government. His death was clouded by rumours that the death of a favourite consort had caused him to retire to a Buddhist monastery.