Peasant rebellions were ravaging northern China and threatening the Ming capital of Beijing. In February 1644, rebel leader
Li Zicheng founded the
Shun dynasty in
Xi'an and proclaimed himself king. In March, his armies captured the important city of
Taiyuan in Shanxi. The capture of Taiyuan by Li Zicheng's forces gave his campaign additional momentum; garrisons began to surrender to him without a fight. Through February and March 1644, the Chongzhen Emperor and the court discussed proposals to move the court south to Nanjing. Officials Li Mingrui and Li Banghua proposed that the Chongzhen Emperor retreat south and set up an alternative
Southern Ming regime in
Nanjing while the crown prince be left behind in Beijing as
jianguo (監國; regent) to protect the northern capital and guard the imperial altars. This proposal was rejected by the emperor. In April 1644, the army of the rebel Li Zicheng were approaching the capital through
Juyong Pass. On 23 April, the Chongzhen Emperor held his last audience with his ministers. Li Zicheng offered Chongzhen the opportunity to surrender, but the emperor refused. The following day, the rebel army attacked the capital. The Chongzhen Emperor ordered the crown prince and his two brothers: Zhu Cijiong (朱慈炯) and Zhu Cizhao (朱慈炤) to hide in the home of relatives, and summoned the rest of his family. Rather than let them be captured by the rebels, the emperor started killing the female members of his family, concubines and consorts. Using his sword, he killed Consort Yuan and Princess Kunyi, and severed the arm of
Princess Changping. Empress Zhou committed suicide by hanging herself in her palace in the
Forbidden City. The emperor was said to have walked to Meishan, a small hill in present-day
Jingshan Park, where he
hanged himself on a tree. The easy
transition between the Ming and Qing dynasties has been ascribed to the Chongzhen Emperor's refusal to move southward when his capital had been under rebel threat. This allowed the Qing dynasty to capture an entire corps of qualified civil servants to administer the country, and also ensured that the Southern Ming pretenders would suffer from infighting due to their weak claims on the throne. A large émigré elite of northerners in the south would also have increased the probability of an aggressive policy of reconquest to regain their northern homelands. == Final fate ==