How Formidable Was Dorgon, and Whose Credit Was the Qing Conquest

How Formidable Was Dorgon, and Whose Credit Was the Qing Conquest

On May 27, 1644, at a place called Yipianshi just outside Shanhaiguan, Dorgon led 80,000 crack Manchu Eight Banners alongside Wu Sangui's 40,000 Liaodong cavalry, and in a great sandstorm crushed Li Zicheng's 60,000-strong Shun army. The battle decided the fate of China for the next 276 years. The Manchu Eight Banners set foot on the Central Plains for the first time, opening nearly three centuries of Qing rule. The mastermind behind the victory was a 32-year-old Dorgon. He was not the emperor, but he was the actual top decision-maker of the Qing at the time, and his contribution to the Qing's entry into the pass is unparalleled. Sadly, he did not live to enjoy the credit. He died at 39, and after death was stripped of titles and disgraced by Emperor Shunzhi, only to be rehabilitated more than a century later by the Qianlong Emperor. Why did the greatest contributor to the Qing conquest meet such a tragic end?

Who Was Dorgon

Dorgon, of the Aisin Gioro clan, was the 14th son of Nurhaci, born in 1612 at Hetu Ala (today's Xinbin, Liaoning). His mother was Lady Abahai of the Ula Nara clan, Nurhaci's most favored consort.

In 1626, when Nurhaci died, Dorgon was only 14. Given his mother's position, he might reasonably have had a claim to the throne, but Hong Taiji joined with Daishan, Amin and Manggultai to force Lady Abahai to die alongside Nurhaci, costing Dorgon his mother. Dorgon nursed a grudge against Hong Taiji his entire life, but outwardly he showed nothing and bore it for two decades.

After Hong Taiji took the throne, Dorgon followed him on campaigns and displayed remarkable military talent. In 1628, the 16-year-old Dorgon went on his first campaign with Hong Taiji and earned the title "Mergen Daicing" (Wise Commander). In 1635, he conquered the Chahar tribe and obtained the imperial seal of the Yuan dynasty, a symbol of Qing legitimacy. In 1640, he took part in the Battle of Songjin, defeating 130,000 Ming troops and capturing Hong Chengchou, removing the last obstacle to the Qing's entry into the pass. By 1643, the 31-year-old Dorgon was the most powerful prince of the Qing.

The Pivotal Year of 1643

In August 1643, Hong Taiji died suddenly at 52, leaving no designated heir. Two men had the strongest claim: Hong Taiji's eldest son Hooge, 34, a decorated soldier but of average ability, and Dorgon, 31, gifted but only Hong Taiji's brother. The Eight Banners were controlled by different princes, and they had to choose between the two.

The argument grew so heated that the Hooge and Dorgon factions nearly came to blows inside Chongzheng Hall. At the critical moment, Dorgon made a decision no one expected. He stepped aside from the throne and proposed making six-year-old Fulin, Hong Taiji's ninth son, emperor, with himself and Prince Jirgalang as co-regents. Every faction accepted the compromise. Hooge missed the throne but avoided civil war, Dorgon held real power without becoming emperor, and Fulin became nominal sovereign. That six-year-old child was the future Shunzhi Emperor.

Dorgon's political acumen was formidable. He knew that seizing the throne outright would trigger civil war among the Eight Banners. As regent he gained real power while also winning a reputation for putting the state first. From that moment on, he was the de facto supreme ruler of the Qing, deciding every major issue.

The Decision to Enter the Pass

In April 1644, Dorgon received a letter from Wu Sangui. Li Zicheng had taken Beijing, and Wu, stuck at Shanhaiguan, was asking the Qing to help him fight Li Zicheng.

Upon receiving the letter, Dorgon immediately summoned the council of the Eight Banner princes and ministers and decided on a full-scale invasion. There was significant opposition. Many older princes pointed out that the Manchus had only 200,000 people; if they pushed deep into China proper, they could be encircled and destroyed by the Han, and they should keep nibbling away at Liaodong instead. Dorgon overrode them: "This is Heaven's gift. If we do not enter the pass now, the Ming throne falls to Li Zicheng, and our chance is gone forever."

In May, Dorgon personally led 80,000 elite Banner troops from Shenyang in a forced march to Shanhaiguan. At Yipianshi he directed the flank attack that broke Li Zicheng. After the victory he made a decisive call: rather than allow Wu Sangui to enter Beijing first, he led his army into the capital himself. That single decision made the Manchus the true masters of Beijing. On June 6, 1644, Dorgon led the Qing army into the city.

Critical Decisions After Entering the Pass

Once in Beijing, Dorgon made several pivotal decisions that determined whether the Qing could hold the Central Plains.

First, mourning rites for Emperor Chongzhen. Upon entering Beijing, Dorgon held a grand funeral for the dead emperor with full imperial rites, and ordered that loot taken by the Shun army be returned to its owners. This sharply improved the views of Beijing residents and former Ming officials toward the Qing, with many feeling the Qing "knew the rules" much better than Li Zicheng.

Second, retaining the Ming bureaucracy. Dorgon declared that all former Ming officials willing to pledge loyalty to the Qing would keep their posts and have their back salaries paid. This solved the Qing's most acute problem, the shortage of administrators, and former Ming officials flocked over, rapidly building a basis for Qing rule.

Third, the queue order. This was Dorgon's most controversial decision. He ordered all Han Chinese to shave the front of the head and grow a braid on pain of death, the infamous "queue order." It provoked fierce resistance, the 81-day defense of Jiangyin and the Three Massacres of Jiading among them, with hundreds of thousands killed in Qing reprisals. It was a serious misjudgment, but objectively it also suppressed Han ethnic consciousness and laid a foundation for the long durability of Qing rule.

Fourth, moving the capital to Beijing. In September 1644, Dorgon brought the six-year-old Shunzhi Emperor from Shengjing (Shenyang) to Beijing, holding an enthronement ceremony in October and formally proclaiming Beijing the Qing capital. This decision meant that the Manchus were no longer a nomadic people beyond the pass but rulers of the Central Plains.

The Strategy of Pacifying the Country

Making Beijing the capital was only the first step. The Southern Ming regimes and various anti-Qing forces still held the south. Over the next four years, Dorgon dismantled them one by one.

First, the remnants of the Shun army. Dorgon sent Ajige to chase Li Zicheng all the way to Hubei, where Li was killed by peasants on Jiugongshan. Second, Zhang Xianzhong's Daxi army. Dorgon sent Hooge into Sichuan, where Zhang was killed by Qing troops. Third, the Southern Ming Hongguang court. Dorgon sent Dodo south. Yangzhou fell, with Shi Kefa dying in defense, and Nanjing followed; the Hongguang Emperor was captured. Fourth, scattered anti-Qing forces, suppressed one after another.

By 1648, Dorgon had essentially cleaned up the main anti-Qing forces, with only Prince Gui Zhu Youlang (Yongli Emperor of the Southern Ming) in the southwest and Zheng Chenggong in the southeast remaining, neither of whom could now threaten Qing rule. The fact that the Qing could take over the Central Plains in just four years was due in large part to Dorgon's strategic command.

The Tragic End of Dorgon

Dorgon's own fate, however, was a tragedy.

In December 1648, he was elevated to "Imperial Father Regent," a title that hinted at "emperor emeritus." Memorials to the court stopped being addressed to the emperor and went only to Dorgon for decision. The Shunzhi Emperor (then 10) and Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang were deeply uneasy, while keeping up appearances of respect.

In December 1650, Dorgon fell from his horse while hunting outside Gubeikou in the northern frontier and died of his injuries at just 39. The Shunzhi Emperor immediately gave him an imperial funeral and the posthumous title of "Chengzong, the Righteous Emperor," the highest honor for any emperor.

Barely two months later, in February 1651, Suksaha, Gonggadai and others accused Dorgon of having plotted rebellion while alive. Shunzhi turned on him without delay, stripping him of all titles, confiscating his property, and ordering his tomb opened, his corpse beheaded and whipped, the infamous "corpse flogging case." The treatment matched that of the Ming eunuch Wei Zhongxian. After a lifetime of service to the Qing, Dorgon was dealt with this way by the nephew he had personally placed on the throne.

Rehabilitation More Than a Century Later

Dorgon's case was untouchable in the Qing for over a century. It was only when the Qianlong Emperor (a great-great-nephew of Dorgon) re-examined the history that things changed. In 1778, the 43rd year of Qianlong, the emperor issued an edict rehabilitating Dorgon, restoring his title of Prince Rui, rebuilding his tomb and placing his tablet in the Imperial Ancestral Temple. Qianlong himself wrote: "Prince Rui helped raise the dynastic founder to the throne and completed the work of unification; his merit is unsurpassed. In the year of my personal rule, I remember his service and pardon him, so that his descendants may keep his line forever." That was the official acknowledgment that the Qing owed its conquest first and foremost to Dorgon.

Dorgon's Place in Qing History

Looking back over the Qing, Dorgon is an unavoidable figure. Without him, the Qing army would not have entered the pass in 1644. Without him, the Qing could not have pacified the country in four years. Without him, the Qing might have ended up like the Jin dynasty, a regional minority regime.

Yet his fate also tells us that in an autocratic political system, any minister, no matter how great his services, will meet a grim end the moment he threatens imperial authority. Dorgon did not usurp the throne, but his status as "Imperial Father Regent" was enough to keep Shunzhi and the Empress Dowager awake at night. The moment he died, he was purged. This political logic has played out again and again in 2,000 years of Chinese history, from Huo Guang to Zhang Juzheng, from Dorgon to Heshen, almost always with the same ending.

Dorgon's story is both a hero's legend and a tragedy of power, perhaps the deepest and cruelest face of traditional Chinese politics.