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how you buy. It's

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April 24th, 1644 and

0:37

another remarkable event is

0:39

about to be uncovered

0:41

by Arya, Rebecca and

0:43

Ali. The

0:46

Retrospectors! By

0:48

the 1640s, it's fair to say

0:50

that things weren't going incredibly

0:52

well for the last Ming Emperor

0:54

of China. He was facing

0:56

multiple pandemics, an invasion, two internal

0:58

rebellions, persistent drought, widespread famine,

1:00

and an economic collapse. So when

1:02

he spontaneously decided to kill his

1:05

family and hang himself today

1:07

in history in 1644, it looks

1:09

overwhelmingly likely that it probably

1:11

wasn't all that spontaneous. Yeah,

1:13

indeed, because the enemy were on the

1:15

horizon for quite some time, and depending

1:17

on which source you read and which

1:19

historian attributes which event to which date, By

1:22

this point, he'd already gone on a

1:24

bit of a killing rampage. Yeah, it

1:26

made it all the more ironic

1:29

that his regnal name, the Chongzang Emperor,

1:31

optimistically means honourable and auspicious. But

1:33

actually, his 20 -year reign had been

1:35

pretty dicey from the start. Pretty

1:37

dicey. That's classic English

1:39

understatement. I mean, he didn't

1:41

seem like the most auspicious heir from the

1:43

start. He was born Zhu Yu -Zhan. He

1:45

was the fifth son of the emperor, born

1:47

to a low -ranking concubine who was executed when

1:49

he was four, which left him being passed

1:51

around at various other royal consorts. Three

1:54

of his brothers then died, which just

1:56

left him and his older half brother, Yuzhao.

1:58

Yuzhao took the throne. He had an

2:00

infant son who died in this

2:02

insane massive gunpowder explosion in Beijing

2:04

in 1626. It killed 20 ,000 people,

2:07

and it rocked the walls of

2:09

the Forbidden City. So

2:11

when Yuzhao himself died the following year,

2:13

it was left to 16 -year -old Zhu

2:15

to take the throne. And this explosion,

2:17

it was called the Wangong Chang explosion,

2:19

contributed to the widespread discontent. the Ming

2:21

dynasty which had been around for a

2:23

few hundred years at this point. And

2:25

so when Zhu became emperor he really

2:27

set about trying to rectify this feeling

2:29

and also steady the ship in general

2:31

because He's still a very

2:34

young man at this stage, in his

2:36

late teens, and there is a

2:38

very powerful, unique way who has been

2:40

hanging around the Royal Court and

2:42

really holding the levers of power through

2:44

this period of uncertainty between the

2:46

two brothers. And so when Zhu gets

2:48

onto the throne, he starts pretty

2:50

much just eliminating people around him. It's

2:53

almost as though in trying to

2:55

take out the threats around him. He

2:57

actually endangered his empire yet further

2:59

because he had stripped away any people

3:01

who were capable within the royal

3:03

court. Yeah, well, this eunuch Wei never

3:05

liked Zhu as heir. He'd wanted

3:07

a baby to come to the throne

3:09

so that he could run things

3:12

with a sort of puppet emperor. And

3:15

so Zhu apparently used to hold a

3:17

sword at night in bed and always stayed

3:19

with large numbers of people so that

3:21

he wouldn't be assassinated by this eunuch who

3:23

was also supposedly doing his bidding. Yeah,

3:25

and like all stagnant, long -lived regimes, it

3:27

was really hard to force change. He wanted

3:29

to address some of the issues. You

3:31

know, corruption was endemic, there wasn't very much

3:33

money in the Royal Coffers, and there

3:35

were just these legions of self -serving officials

3:38

and bureaucrats who were totally resistant to change.

3:40

He did try to change some of

3:42

that, but what he couldn't control were these

3:44

natural forces arrayed against him. The Little

3:46

Ice Age in the mid -17th century was

3:48

causing droughts and famine. There was also a

3:50

decade -long plague, and the impact wasn't only

3:52

literal, but also contributed to, you know,

3:54

saying before about the explosion. this belief that

3:56

the divine forces were against the emperor

3:58

and against the Ming dynasty. And

4:00

starting in 1641, multiple rebel armies had

4:02

risen up and seized strongholds within the

4:04

kingdom. And the number one of those

4:06

was led by a peasant general called

4:08

Li Xingcheng, who emerged as the most

4:10

successful. And it was him and his

4:13

army who were approaching Beijing to take

4:15

over the city on this day. Contemporary

4:17

scholarship tends to be a bit

4:19

more kind to Zhu because he really

4:21

wasn't especially terrible by the standards

4:24

of the later Ming, and yet he

4:26

was there to witness its downfall,

4:28

and in many ways he did his

4:30

best to save his dynasty, but

4:32

it was kind of his... paranoia

4:34

and his impatience that really

4:36

doomed the whole Ming. And it's

4:38

easy to look back on

4:40

these moments of inflection and go,

4:43

well, he was responsible for it.

4:45

But actually, there was so much

4:47

to undo. And that little ice

4:49

age that Rebecca mentioned was in

4:51

part responsible for driving some of

4:53

these tribal groups towards Beijing,

4:55

including the merchants who were later

4:58

renamed the Manchus. And later went

5:00

on to be the Qing dynasty

5:02

after the Ming is replaced. You

5:04

know, they were being driven south

5:06

by the fact that the world was

5:08

getting so cold, so there was

5:11

this combination of factors, some human, some

5:13

very much climatic and environmental, that

5:15

was conspiring against you. And if you're

5:17

thinking, like, why would any peasant

5:19

leader advance on the Forbidden City and

5:21

think they'd get away with deposing

5:23

a dynasty that's been there for hundreds

5:25

of years, it's because the

5:27

Chinese system of monarchy ruled according

5:29

to the mandate of heaven, which

5:31

superficially sounds a bit like the

5:34

European divine right of kings that

5:36

we know here. But it

5:38

isn't. It crucially isn't. So in Britain,

5:40

for example, Royals are

5:42

not supposed to be deposed ever. That's why

5:44

they all end up killing each other.

5:46

Because God has appointed them. The public

5:48

are led to believe God has appointed Henry

5:50

IV or Henry VIII, whoever it is,

5:52

and governs through them. And that's the divine

5:55

right of kings. But in

5:57

China, although it sounds similar, you

5:59

can lose the mandate under the

6:01

mandate of heaven. God decides

6:03

who's going to be king.

6:05

But then, if there's famine, or

6:07

an uprising, and there had

6:09

been both of those things in this period, any

6:11

rebel leader, regardless of their birth, they

6:13

didn't have to be the son of

6:15

a former king. could win

6:17

heaven's approval in their place.

6:19

The mandate changed hands. God changes

6:22

his mind. It's a really

6:24

crucial difference. So, you know, if you're advancing

6:26

on the Forbidden City, you're thinking, if I

6:28

can persuade the public that I'm doing this

6:30

in God's name because God is clearly signalling

6:32

to us, it's time for a change. You

6:34

can get away with this. Yeah. And in

6:36

the end, it was very real forces that

6:38

proved the city's undoing, namely that the militia

6:40

was supposed to be guarding Beijing hadn't been

6:42

paid in a year. You know, they were

6:44

ragged and hungry. They just weren't sufficient defense

6:46

forces. And also, Zhu was incredibly stubborn. You

6:48

know, he'd been advised to swell the ranks

6:50

of his military and he hadn't done it.

6:52

He had been advised to flee to Nanjing

6:54

with his family. He refused to do that

6:57

instead. He gathered them all

6:59

together, including his empress Zhao, the leader

7:01

of his many consorts and their

7:03

children. And he sent his sons out

7:05

of the city first disguised as

7:07

common folk. And Empress Zhao was at

7:09

least accorded the privilege of being

7:11

able to take her own life. And

7:13

this is where things started to

7:15

get a bit messier, which was this...

7:17

This is where his Elon Musk

7:19

talent management skills kick in. So far,

7:21

so dignified, you know. But then

7:23

what happened was their 16 -year -old daughter,

7:25

Changping, came across her mother's body

7:27

in the temple. And when her father,

7:29

Empress Yu, came across her weeping

7:31

over the corpse, he apparently shouted, Why

7:33

must you be born in this

7:35

family and struck her with his sword

7:37

cutting off her left arm and

7:39

then he fled? Yeah I mean he

7:41

knew at this stage that the

7:43

writing was on the wall and really

7:45

he was just trying to I

7:47

suppose spare them what disaster would inevitably

7:50

before them had they fallen into the hands

7:52

of the incoming armies. But I mean, the concubines?

7:54

I mean, I know it's not a great

7:56

life anyway, but is this next emperor going to

7:58

come along and say, oh, I don't want

8:00

your old concubines? I don't think so. They've got

8:02

a chance, haven't they? Look, no one likes

8:04

a new boss. Yeah. Well,

8:07

that's the thing. So there is

8:09

some suggestion that there was a

8:11

mass suicide incident that potentially involved

8:13

up to a couple of hundred

8:15

people from court. Which if it

8:17

happened would be the largest mass

8:19

suicide of all time. Important

8:21

detail. Yeah hugely important but it's

8:23

there is a bit of skepticism at

8:25

the same time it is believable

8:27

because I suppose you can understand why

8:30

the household at the very least

8:32

if not the extended court wouldn't want

8:34

to be sticking around and taking

8:36

the fate that was going to come

8:38

their way after the takeover. Yeah,

8:40

and I mean, one reason is very

8:42

obvious, you know, that they might not want

8:44

to fall into the hands of the

8:46

enemy. But there was one that was slightly

8:48

less obvious that I found interesting. One

8:50

suggestion as to why as many as 200

8:52

courtiers, most of them female, most of

8:54

them concubines, would decide to throw themselves into

8:56

the river, was that the Ming emperors

8:58

drew their concubines from all across the empire,

9:01

and particularly concentrating on peasant families, specifically

9:03

because they wanted to avoid the danger of

9:05

having these ambitious noble families with access

9:07

to, you know, the imperial household. So these

9:09

girls and women, you know, they had

9:11

left the Forbidden City, which really was the

9:13

only life they knew at this point.

9:15

They had no resources and no hope of

9:17

ever reaching their native villages, you know,

9:19

that could have been over a thousand miles

9:21

away. And he then swept through his

9:23

harem supposedly, putting to the sword all the

9:25

concubines who hadn't already taken the polite

9:27

hint that they should be committing suicide, including

9:29

one of his consorts, Consort Yuan, who

9:31

he stabbed three times, but she survived as

9:33

well. You know, his hit rate was

9:35

not great. Zhu after hacking at

9:37

his family did then leave the Forbidden

9:40

City by the back door as you

9:42

would and walking up this hill he

9:44

was then in a position to watch

9:46

the incoming armies and I suppose really

9:48

survey the what remained of his dominion

9:50

as his empire unraveled around him which

9:52

must have been a pretty sad side.

9:54

Yeah, I mean if you've been brought

9:56

up into that life then you failed

9:58

haven't you? I mean that's the thing

10:00

he's got to be thinking at the

10:02

end. It's pretty miserable. Yeah, and one

10:05

of the reasons that Zhu went on

10:07

to become know, kind of an iconic

10:09

figure in Chinese history, albeit in a

10:11

tragic way, was that the new Manchu

10:13

-led regime that would eventually take over

10:15

as the Qing dynasty, they really positioned

10:17

themselves as the inheritors to the Ming

10:19

rather than the vanquishes. They actually used

10:21

the emperor's suicide as a kind of

10:23

justification for their conquest because they then

10:25

said that they were there to avenge

10:27

the emperor, clever, you know, that they're

10:29

now positioning themselves as the rightful inheritors.

10:32

Because, you know, obviously at the end

10:34

of an empire, there's a lot of

10:36

leftover political apparatus still sitting around that

10:38

you want to subsume. Yeah, there's a

10:40

lot of eunuchs. Yeah, I mean, some

10:42

eunuchs you kill and some eunuchs you

10:44

take into your harem. It's a buyer's

10:46

market for eunuchs. Tomorrow.

10:50

And in spite of repeatedly retching, she

10:52

continued to smoke it with famed

10:54

light. Take this sort of

10:56

busted old butt. Ditch the ads and

10:59

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11:05

retrospectors So,

11:07

Retrospectors, what historical events are we ticking

11:09

off on this week's run of

11:12

Today in History? On Monday, the anniversary

11:14

of the day, Nintendo put a

11:16

games console in your pocket. On Tuesday,

11:18

the man who wrote a penny -farthing

11:20

around the world. On Wednesday, the

11:22

textbook marketing debacle of New Coke. On

11:24

Thursday, the explosive end of the

11:26

Ming Dynasty. And on Friday, why Fran's

11:28

list was the Elvis of the

11:30

1840s. We discuss this and more on

11:32

Today in History with the Retrospectors.

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